June 28th 2009 - Bomun craziness
Our Korea Diary - June 28th 2009
Looking for the luge ....
Tuesday we finally got our film club started. Mari and Gokhan were the hosts of this epoch event and I must say that the did a very good job. The food was excellent ... of the well-known TurkFinn cuisine (not TexMex)!!! The movie they chose was another excellent selection. We watched "Departures" - a Japanese Oscar winner from last year, we were told. Next time will be at our place, but with only half of the participants as Jamie, Colin, Teresa and Wayne are all running away to Scotland.
Jamie and Colin didn't escape our cooking though. We had them over for dinner on Thursday. For Pastel de Choclo followed by Jamie's peacan pie. Unfortunately I was running a bit late at work and didn't arrive before 8 o'clock.
Friday Paula and I met up with Carlos and Vincenzo at Cafe Lime for a happy hour drink. After which we dragged Carlos back with us to finish off the Pastel de Choclo and peacan pie left over from the day before! He didn't mind ...
Saturday Paula and I went to Nammok - a subburb not too far away. Well, first we went for a smoothie at Cafe H on Ilsan Beach and then to Nammok. It's funny how our part of town can be misty all day - a bit like Niebla by Valdivia, and just a few hundred metres away the sun will be shining. We had been wondering why it was so unusually cold this year, but maybe it is only because we now are inside the mist-zone ?! We like it because it's about 10 degrees cooler here than at Ilsan Beach just 5 minutes away.
In Nammok we went for a little walk in the valley and then to the market. It's not a place we normally come (if not on mountain bike) - it was nice to see something different. At night we went for Chinese. We chose the restaurant opposite Cafe Lime. The restaurant was full, so we figured it couldn't be too bad. It wasn't, but it wasn't too good either! After dinner we dropped by Carlos' apartment for a chat before I went for my first night mtb ride here in Ulsan .. or anywhere. It was good. No people on the trails and coolish (23-25 degrees). But it was also a little difficult because it was hard to know which gear I was in and into which I should change. But fun ...
Sunday morning we drove down to Mari and Gokhan's place. We had plans to spend the Sunday together, but no real plans. So we started off with a dip in the pool.
Early morning swim at the old compound
No matter the time of day, Gokhan is always just a child !!! haha ...
Then we set off to Mauna Ocean Resort, where we wanted to try the luge. Unfortunately we (I) missed the turn and so we continued on to GyeongJu instead. Gokhan had gotten me into my sweets-mood, talking about the best and biggest waffles he had ever seen. So he had to take us there, of course. They knew where it was .. sort of. When we finally (!) found it - it was closed! So we settled for an ice cream and continued to Yangdong Folk village.
At Yangdong Folk village
He must get some really weird photos out of his effort!
Before we melted in the heat.
We had definitely overheated at this point!
After a walk around the village (in 33 degrees), we turned the car around and headed for Bomun lake. After lunch someone got the crazy idea of placing me on an electric atv. As could be expected, it went horribly wrong! First I got a flat tire and then, after changing to another atv, I was told off for wreckless driving! How is that possible on a vehicle with a top speed of 10km/h downhill and with the wind in the back !?!? I guess I should have been using all four wheels .... I was just trying to save the rubber on two of the tires !!
Gokhan and Mari
We got to know today that Gokhan likes food. Any food, we suspect, but mostly Korean food!
Paula showing off - one-handed!!
The girls had to take over after the boys were caught red-handed!
We also learned that Gokhan possesses large amounts of curiosity! Here checking out the Water World.
Back home and straight on to a mtb ride with Ingo. As is almost customrary, we found a couple of new trails on our favorite mountain. For some reason the municipality is working really hard to make our riding experiences in Ulsan even better!