Tongyeong

At the beginning of this month I had a few days off work, aka, "summer break". 3 days plus the 2 day weekend- yes, they call this summer break. Considering vacation time comes few and far between the opportunity to travel must be taken. We decide to stay within the country limits and explore the Southeast coast where we hear the beaches are cleaner and clearer than the Northwest coast, where we reside. Our first plan was to go to Busan, the city by the sea full of tourists and Korean vacationers, but under the suggestion of our co-worker we go to Tongyeong instead. About an hour from Busan, still on the Southeast coast but less... touristy, and more 'beautiful'. Tongyeong is a peninsula, which is funny because Korea is a peninsula, so Tongyeong is a peninsula off of a peninsula- say that three times fast. It consists of 41 inhabited and 110 uninhabited islands  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongyeong. We figure out that if we take a bus to Seoul (even though this is about an hour out of the way) there is a bus that goes straight to Tongyeong. This is our best option so we head up early Sat morning in hopes to catch the 9am  to Tongyeong. We make it in time but due to minor differences in pronunciation of cities in Korea we end up with the wrong bus ticket. Thank God we realize this before boarding the wrong bus. This glitch costs us a sold out 9am. We have a few hours to kill and while walking around the station with our heavy bags I make a promise with myself that I will never over pack again. 

During our 4 hour bus ride we meet two men sitting across the aisle- one was the other one's school teacher and they haven't seen each other since until this bus ride.  One of the men speaks English very well, he tells us he is living in Hong Kong, Tongyeong is his hometown and he visits every few months because his parents are getting old. He is in awe of that fact that two foreigners are on their way to visit his town. He wants to know how we know about the small place and where we are going to stay and how we are going to manage since, it seems, nobody speaks a word of English where we are going. We tell him that we have not booked a hotel and we are going to find a place when we arrive. He is overly concerned about this. I want to tell him how I read about the love motels-a-plenty and we don't mind staying in one of those for a few nights... but I'm not sure about what he would think so I just tell him it will be okay. He begs to differ. When we arrive and get off the bus he ushers us over to his parents standing by a car who have come to pick him up and introduce us. Next thing we know he is throwing our luggage into the trunk, mom disappears and we are in the car with him and dad. I am trying not to panic, this is not New York. About 20 mins later we pull up to mom and dad's house, I guess. He tells us to stay  in the car and he will be right back. Should we run? He comes running back with an armful of bedding. Bedding? I am thinking he is going to help us book a room at a hotel, why does this man have bedding? Is that not included?

10 mins later we are driving through a cute little harbor town and then we arrive at what looks like an apartment building. Mr. James Kim, as we find out his name during the car ride, grabs our bags, the bedding and leads us into an empty apartment. He turns on the AC, water, lights, shows us how to work the washing machine and stove top and says "rest now, I will be back at 9". He leaves two keys to the apartment, he says he will bring pots for cooking and utensils and some food. He makes sure we will be okay, he keeps saying he worries about us, we try to give him some money but he refuses and then he finally leaves. WTF. We stare at each other, no words. Is this man for real? Is he a kind saint or are our bodies going to end up in pieces in the Pacific? Should we leave now? Or would that be extremely rude. We are not in New York. Maybe this is how they do it. 

We shower and head out, eager to explore a bit on our own. By the time we make it into town and start to look for a place to eat Mr. Kim somehow finds us in his car and pulls up along side of us and tells us to get in. He is happy we haven't eaten because he wants to take us for "Hwe", Korean Sashimi. But before we go eat he hurriedly takes us to a few spots as any good tour guide would do. A nice view, perfect photo op, a quick hike up some steep stairs, a quick drink of mountainside mineral water, a statue of some famous Korean man from Tongyeong, a pagoda, another nice view and photo op and then we are back in the car before we know it and driving across a bridge to one of the small connecting islands. Again my mind wanders as I look at the black ocean in the night: am I making it out of Tongyeong alive? Is this a horror movie? Have I watched too many horror movies. If I make it back alive I have to blog about this. My mother would kill me if she knew what was happening right now. Who is this man. Where are we going now!?!

We finally make it to the restaurant that his friend owns, and we sit down to eat a feast for 20 : an entire giant fish plus the 40+ side dishes it came with. Including, but not limited to, still alive and moving sea slugs, Koreans LOVE their food alive. The hwe was delicious but the dinner didn't include nearly enough alcohol to ignore the weirdness.

Upon dropping us back off at our 'hotel' Mr. Kim says he will pick us up at 9am the next morning. We will be taking a ferry to one of the islands off Tongyeong where he will go fishing with his brother while Lynn and I relax on the beach. Okayyy. But we already booked tickets to the cable car at 9am (during our short excursion out alone). He seems disappointed but he says he will pick us up at the cable car place at 10. The cable car takes ten minutes to bring you almost to the top of a beautiful mountain where once you de-board you can hike to the top, stop off at a temple, eat lunch, visit a flower garden etc. But once WE arrived and almost made it to the top at approx. 9:40am my phone starts ringing like crazy, Mr. Kim is waitingggg. We speed hike to the top on the hottest August day yet, dripping sweat and rushing, jump back on the cable car and ride down to find Mr. Kim IN the terminal waiting to rush us down to the parking lot where a taxi and two pepsis are waiting. woah. 

We take the taxi to the ferry terminal because there is no parking and run into the terminal to meet his brother with the fishing gear. He gives us our ferry tickets and ice cream. Again refusing to accept any money. We board the ferry and halfway through he pulls out lunch, for Lynn and I. Is this man for real? I still cannot understand why he is being so nice to us. And what we can possibly do to repay him although he seems genuinely uninterested in any kind of repayment. The Island is GORGEOUS. Two islands actually, connected by one strip of beachy

 land. Finally, beach and paradise and beers and tubes and freedom. Couldn't ask for better weather, mountains surround the island and the beach. Beautiful. We drop our stuff and run to the water like children. After splashing around a bit we get out, drink a beer and rent some tubes. While lounging in the tubes we think how great it would be to have the beer with us. Aha. We get out, grab another and help each other into our tubes, tipsy and sneaky. We're good. Nobody noticed. 15 mins later over the loudspeaker "tuber with alcohols, tuber with alcohols" all eyes turn and stare at the white girls struggling to quickly paddle and wiggle our way back to shore with beer bottle in hand. Priceless.

As 3:30 rolls around we decide to grab a quick snack before heading back to the last ferry out at 4. We leave our stuff on the beach. After sitting calmly and enjoying our spicy hot ramen noodles in August on the beach, because that is what people eat on the beach, hot soup... no deli sandwiches here, we arrive back at our stuff to find 12 missed calls from a frantic Mr. Kim running at us. we have a good 15 mins before the ferry leaves but this warrants panic in Mr. Kim who couldn't find us when he returned from his fishing trip. We RACE to the docked ferry like it is the only way back to Earth and we are on a deserted planet. Obviously, we make it with time to spare. Mr. Kim tells us how he made an announcement for "Jade and Lynn" over the loudspeaker at the small police station on the island. He was very, very worried. We apologize for scaring him but assure him everything is just fine. So we were addressed over the loudspeaker two times in a total of 4 1/2 hours on an island with about 100 people on it. Stupid American girls. 

On the way back Mr. Kim insists we get a watermelon, an entire one, for us to snack on. They love their watermelons here and you can find them being sold out the back of almost any given truck. 

The next day, the last day of our mini vacation, we decide to take a bus over to Busan and check out the city and the beaches over there. Mr. Kim picks us up at the apartment in the morning and drives us back to the bus terminal. He won't take a penny, or 'won', from us and we don't know what to possibly get the man, who is also just visiting, to say 'thank you'. We have his business card with his address in China and decide we will send him something once we figure out what's appropriate. The entire time we spend with him he keeps telling us how we are the best people he has ever met, we are good people, we have kind faces... I still don't know how we can be the best people if all we ever did was cause the poor man worry. He is the best, most kind and giving stranger I have ever met. I am not in New York. But if I learned one thing, its that I watch too many scary movies, there are definitely bad people in the world, but keep the benefit of the doubt that most of them are probably good.