Korea Pt.4 - Daegwang-Ri (part1)

So i`ve had a crazy busy last couple of weeks. after snowboarding in Shiga, my friend Scooter (aka DJ Bolivia) came from Canada to DJ at Oasis Lounge (which i set up for him here in Osaka). Snedker (Kevin) and Danielle also came down from Tokyo and a bunhc of us hung out for a few days and then all went up to Tokyo for another few days. and then i came back and worked and planned and schemed (some of which is secret so i cannot divulge here as yet until perhaps later in Spring!). today is in fact my only day off this week (i know that i had five days off when Scooter et al. were here buut that was exhausting!) so i am going to try and play a little blog ketsup. i mean, "catch up," i`m just really hungry.

AND SO: i give you, for your viewing interest and long over-due, pictures from Daegwang-Ri, a small town North of Seoul in Korea, and close to the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) between the two Koreas. it is also, more inportantly, Ellen`s home town and where her incredibly nice family lives and works. her mom runs a restaurant close to the train station (actually, truth be told, Daegwang-Ri is prettty small, so just about everything in town is "close to the train station"), and her father is a police officer (and a pretty high rank from what i gather). her brother was also there, but i won`t even try to spell his name because i am sure i will get it completely wrong. Ulala and i stayed in their house/apartment, above the restaurant, and were treated to a lovely couple of days and a LOT of great Korean food. most of these pictures are from December 31st and January 1st.

This was the train line we took out into the sticks North of Seoul. it felt like a bit of an Odyssey since we were tired from sightseeing and to connect to this train line we had to go all the way to the end of the longest line (a little NOFX reference there for those who know). it was also late and we missed our first connection so we had to wait about an hour until the next one. so in reality i guess it isn`t all THAT far out of Seoul.


This was the sulfur hot spring that Ellen`s mom and brother took us to. It was great! the men and women had separate areas for the baths. We tried the hot bath and then the steam room and then the cold bath (FREEZING!) and then the hot bath again. Then we dried off and met up the girls and tried some of the dry saunas (like the "Ochre Chamber" and the "Salt Chamber" among others) and ate some fruit and watched the New Years countdown on the big TV in the lounge area. All in all a pretty good and refreshing welcome in the new year!


On January 1st Ellen`s dad took us around the region to show us some historical sites (most of which pretained to the Korean War. i was amazed at how fresh the wounds still are since it is a war that i know little about. Most of the places we visited (like the observatories that look into North Korea) prohibited photography, so there are only a few pictures to show. This one is of a bell that sits atop a hill that is close to the DMZ. Near the bell is a plaque extolling the virtues of the many brave men who died trying to capture and re-capture a particular hill.


This was a temple that we visited on "Dad`s Tour". It was closed for New Years but we still had a chance to walk around the grounds. Next to the temple was a beautiful frozen river and valley.


From Left: Ulala, Ellen`s brother, me, Ellen`s dad and mom, Ellen, and Hubert, Ellen`s boyfriend. This spread is a good example of the fabulous food we were treated to at almost every meal.


and THIS, beleive it or not, was breakfast!! spicy meat soup and... some other stuff. it was actually quite good! I`m used to having hot sauce ono my eggs in the morning so spicy breakfast was nothing new to me. I think Ellen`s mom especially liked my appetite for spicy food. =)