Another beautiful day in Mongyeoung. I woke up to a view of a little temple on a hill across the river from our hotel. I started my day by exploring the area a little bit. The view from the hill was spectacular.
There are only 20,000 people in this town. It was once a coal mining town which gives it a bit of a ghost town feel now. We walk everywhere and hardly see any cars. Everything is quaint. We visited the Coal Mine Museum in the morning, where we were once again stopped by lots of teens who wanted their picture with us. We are actually getting used to this and may be quite surprised when we get home and don't stop traffic just by smiling and waving hello.
Lunch was spicy fish soup -- delicious, although I wasn't quite sure how to manage the fish head. They were teasing me for not eating much. One of the ladies said, "Me, diet no. Big size." She was.
After lunch we went on the rail bikes. Very cheesey, but lots of fun. Two people peddle and one
sits in the middle of these reclined bikes that go along the tracks. We tried next to go to the Ceramics Museum, but it was closed. Our hosts made a phone call and we were off to see the real thing. We went to the home of Seol Young Jin, a famous potter -- his work is at the Louvre! Luis Vatton will be visiting MongYeoung to meet him and see his home. He was a very distinguished looking gentleman, wearing Korean white lounge wear. His home was small and elegant, next to a babbling brook. He told stories about the tea bowls that he had made and how the Eastern culture is starting to make an impression in the world. It was truly an honour to be served tea by him.
Another great walk in a beautiful park, MongYeong Saejae. This is the 200km pass to Seoul, full of history of the Korean's protecting it from the Japanese. This group allow us lots of time to stroll and enjoy the scenery. Then off to the hot springs. This bathhouse had a pool with 6 different massage pools -- the dream bed, bench massage, floating massage, etc. It also had a wet jade sauna -- a room with floor to ceiling hot jade stones. We are very spoiled. Peter, our translator, told us that the Koreans have a very hard time when they go to America for any length of time because they have to go to the bath house at least once a month to relax their bodies and we don't have anything like that. I believe the Kingfisher has a hydro massage type deal, but it certainly is a lot more than $6. Mina and Janis enjoyed a personal scrub yesterday which was $13 for 30 minutes.
For dinner we had sashimi, one of my favourites. I was making my little lettuce wrap with sashimi, garlic and a pepper when my friend put a piece of octopus on my leaf. I wrapped it up and ate it, yummy. Shortly after, Brett nudged me as a new plate was being delivered to the table... it was moving!!! Mina turned away, but Brett and I were drawn in as one is to a car wreck. As Peter picked up a squirming tentacle dipped it in chili sauce and brought it to his mouth, still wiggling, Brett and I gasped in unison and turned away. It was then that I realized that I had just eaten one of those. The meal was over for us. We delicately covered the plate with lettuce so that we didn't have to look at anything that was moving or looking back at us. "There you go little fellow," Brett cooed. Brett was a little squeamish after that and was about to have a familiar looking cone, when he said, "Wait a second... what are those larvae looking white things in the bottom?" Even rice was looking suspicious.
We came back to my room for some California oranges and starburst candy. Mongyeoung is still our favourite town, even with this setback.
There are only 20,000 people in this town. It was once a coal mining town which gives it a bit of a ghost town feel now. We walk everywhere and hardly see any cars. Everything is quaint. We visited the Coal Mine Museum in the morning, where we were once again stopped by lots of teens who wanted their picture with us. We are actually getting used to this and may be quite surprised when we get home and don't stop traffic just by smiling and waving hello.
Lunch was spicy fish soup -- delicious, although I wasn't quite sure how to manage the fish head. They were teasing me for not eating much. One of the ladies said, "Me, diet no. Big size." She was.
After lunch we went on the rail bikes. Very cheesey, but lots of fun. Two people peddle and one
sits in the middle of these reclined bikes that go along the tracks. We tried next to go to the Ceramics Museum, but it was closed. Our hosts made a phone call and we were off to see the real thing. We went to the home of Seol Young Jin, a famous potter -- his work is at the Louvre! Luis Vatton will be visiting MongYeoung to meet him and see his home. He was a very distinguished looking gentleman, wearing Korean white lounge wear. His home was small and elegant, next to a babbling brook. He told stories about the tea bowls that he had made and how the Eastern culture is starting to make an impression in the world. It was truly an honour to be served tea by him.Another great walk in a beautiful park, MongYeong Saejae. This is the 200km pass to Seoul, full of history of the Korean's protecting it from the Japanese. This group allow us lots of time to stroll and enjoy the scenery. Then off to the hot springs. This bathhouse had a pool with 6 different massage pools -- the dream bed, bench massage, floating massage, etc. It also had a wet jade sauna -- a room with floor to ceiling hot jade stones. We are very spoiled. Peter, our translator, told us that the Koreans have a very hard time when they go to America for any length of time because they have to go to the bath house at least once a month to relax their bodies and we don't have anything like that. I believe the Kingfisher has a hydro massage type deal, but it certainly is a lot more than $6. Mina and Janis enjoyed a personal scrub yesterday which was $13 for 30 minutes.
For dinner we had sashimi, one of my favourites. I was making my little lettuce wrap with sashimi, garlic and a pepper when my friend put a piece of octopus on my leaf. I wrapped it up and ate it, yummy. Shortly after, Brett nudged me as a new plate was being delivered to the table... it was moving!!! Mina turned away, but Brett and I were drawn in as one is to a car wreck. As Peter picked up a squirming tentacle dipped it in chili sauce and brought it to his mouth, still wiggling, Brett and I gasped in unison and turned away. It was then that I realized that I had just eaten one of those. The meal was over for us. We delicately covered the plate with lettuce so that we didn't have to look at anything that was moving or looking back at us. "There you go little fellow," Brett cooed. Brett was a little squeamish after that and was about to have a familiar looking cone, when he said, "Wait a second... what are those larvae looking white things in the bottom?" Even rice was looking suspicious.We came back to my room for some California oranges and starburst candy. Mongyeoung is still our favourite town, even with this setback.
2 comments:
sounds squirmy, Squirmy (hahaha- inside joke)
GAAAAAA!!!
Yuck, moving tentacles? I sure wouldn't want to eat one of those, and I FOR SURE wouldn't want to find out after the fact that I'd done it.
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