One Last Korean Road Trip

As much as I loved living in Hong Kong (and you know I really, really loved living in Hong Kong), it did have it's limitations. Hong Kong's compactness is part of it's charm - it is a ridiculously convenient place to live - but it also means road trips aren't really on the holiday agenda. One of the joys of moving to South Korea was the road trip possibilities it opened up. Looking back I think all of our most fun times, our hilarious-in-hindsight disaster stories, come from the roads of Korea.

(If you're an expat in Seoul and you're maybe a bit nervous about tackling a road trip I say - go for it! The road system in Korea is amazing. Most of it's shiny and new, with tunnels and highways and smooth tarmac, and the scenery is always intriguing and often breathtaking. And yes, sometimes the signage is a little haphazard, but if you've got an atlas and a GPS (or Google Maps on your phone) you'll be fine. Besides, getting lost is part of the fun right?)

Anyway...last week it was the youngest step-son's thirteenth birthday, and he was in Seoul. One of the sad things about living overseas is all the birthdays you miss, so we wanted to make this one a bit special. We went to Everland, and did the special safari thing again (I wrote about the first one we did here) - basically 15 minutes in a heavily grilled 4WD with a guide and a bucket of raw chicken to feed to the animals. There were no giraffes this time, but there were lions and bear cubs - not a bad trade really. And the animal areas seem to have been enlarged and upgraded a little, so you can focus more on how awesome the experience is and fret a little less about animal welfare. 

Driving around feeding man-eaters while the guide reminds you every few minutes not to poke your fingers through the grill is one of those crazy things that perfectly straddles the line between dangerous and okay. You'd never be allowed to do this in Australia. Equally, there's probably a bunch of countries where you wouldn't want to do it even if you were allowed, for fear of actual injury. But in South Korea? No worries! 

After feeding the lions and tigers and bears, we beat a hasty retreat to our own air conditioned vehicle (it is so hot in Seoul right now...) and headed over to Vivaldi Park for a night. Vivaldi Park is a ski resort, but like most ski resorts in Korea it has all kinds of extra things to attract visitors throughout the year. It's set amongst lush green hills and has one of the best water parks in the country.

We happened to be there right at peak summer holiday time, so we headed to the water park early. But apparently not early enough - by 9.30 in the morning there was already a three hour wait for most rides! Yikes. So, no rides for us but we did have a paddle in the crazy wave pool with a few hundred Koreans. Coming from the relatively empty Australia I'm always amazed and fascinated by the sheer mass of humanity we've so often stumbled upon in Asia. It was kind of the perfect final road trip really.

Holiday Slideshow : Mammoth to Death Valley

I'm back in Seoul and loving sorting out our US holiday photos - it was a seriously great trip, with lots and lots of good things packed in.  So, let the holiday slide show begin!

After our ice skating skiing in Mammoth we picked up our hire car (a giant leather-lined boat of a thing that the hire car guy called a 'pimp-mobile'!) and had a most amazing drive through to Death Valley (during which we were listening to our US road trip playlist, of course!).  

For most of the drive we had the misty Sierra Nevada on one side, and the arid White/Inyo Mountains on the other, with unbelievably vast lengths of straight road stretching out in front of us.  It was some of the most spectacular, wondrous scenery that I've ever had the pleasure of seeing - other worldly and oh so majestic.

US road trip playlist : Suggestions wanted!

[Nostalgic by f2images]

Our 2012 travel is about to begin, and it's beginning with a bang!  On Sunday we are flying out to San Francisco (and somehow landing before we take off, which never ceases to amuse me), meeting up with the step-sons and then embarking on a bit of a US adventure!  There'll be skiing in Mammoth, followed by a drive through Death Valley.  Then it's on to the bright lights of Vegas, an aerial view of the Grand Canyon, and finishing off with a few days in the lovely San Francisco.  

I can not possibly explain how excited I am about this trip!  Not only are we re-visitng two of my favourite cities, but I'm also going to see some iconic parts of the US that I've never seen before.  And more than that it's the boys first trip to the US - it's going to be so much fun to show them around!

They don't watch a lot of American TV (although the oldest' new favourite thing to watch is The Daily Show, that boy has damn fine taste!) but they have soaked up their fair share of American cultural references (see the celebration of junk food in Over the Hedge, the New Yorkers in Madagascar, and pretty much everything in the Toy Story trilogy).  So, as well as all the big fun stuff we have planned, I'm ridiculously excited about all the little fun things - like visiting a supermarket to gawk at the cereal aisle. Oh, and the food!  Tex mex, steak houses, buffalo wings and sliders served bar-side, a tower of hotcakes for breakfast and Reese's peanut butter cups!  Oh my!

We have a car for a few days, where we'll be driving from Mammoth to Las Vegas, and I'm putting together a road trip playlist.  I want all American artists, and I'm going for a kind of folksy country dreamy driving feel.  Here's what I've got so far:

Then there'll be some Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkle, maybe some Bruce Springsteen?  I'd really like to have Beth Orton on there, but she's Bristish...

So, over to you - if you've got any suggestions sing them out please!

J'taime France (really, I do!)

I may not adore Paris, but I definitely love France.  I haven't explored much of it, but from what a can gather it is a beautiful and tasty country.  On our recent visit the husband and I hired a car and spent two lovely Autumn days in Champagne.  After green tea and coffee, champagne would be next on my list of 'drinks that make life better' so I was pretty excited to be visiting the home of bubbles.

First up, we went to the Medieval town of Provins.  Being only an hour or so outside of Paris, Champagne is unsurprisingly popular with weekenders.  And unfortunately I managed to completely stuff up our original hotel booking (don't ask...).  At one point it looked like we were going to be sleeping in the car, but the Ibis came to our rescue.  It was basic, a bit out of town but is was also clean, super cheap and, importantly, not booked out.  Provins proved to be quite a charming little town, complete with a lovely town square and views from the ramparts across the rolling countryside (the food, on the other hand, was surprisingly dire).

Next we spent a night in Epernay, which is where all the big champagne houses are based.  Most of them do tours of their caves where they store thousands and thousands of bottles of bubbly, complete with a tasting.  It was like a sort of homecoming for me...

Oh, and a few things I left off my last post:

- Your ability to easily understand a menu written in Italian does not translate to an ability to understand a French menu.  Take the time to read each dish carefully before you order.  Otherwise you may ask for what you think is mushroom risotto and be presented instead with a plate of baby cow glands ('ris de veau').  Which is fine, I guess, if you like baby cow glands.

- Almost everyone who is not French will tell you the French are rude and arrogant, but I don't think this is true at all.  From my experience, they are confident and they are direct, but they are also friendly, helpful and welcoming. Some cliches are just that, I think.

Road Trip: Taedunsan

Another stop on our road trip - 대둔산 (Taedunsan, or Daedunsan, depending on which romanization you prefer - and believe me there's no standard, so feel free to switch on a whim!).  Taedunsan is famous for it's two iron bridges, one which is strung between two peaks, and another that's more like a very steep, slippery ladder.  

Apparently it used to be quite a trek to get to these bridges, but now there's a cable car which takes you up the hill so you can do the whole walk in about 30 minutes or so.  But don't be fooled in to thinking this is a leisurely stroll - the Bridge of Doom, Ladder of Potential Heart Attacks and the Goat Track of Peril (as we renamed them) are still delightfully challenging.  And if you are a bit scared of heights like me, the ladder type bridge is especially delightfully challenging (and by 'delightfully' I mean one step short of a complete panic attack).

Every single day before and after our visit to Taedunsan was blue sky, sunshine and a pleasant 20 degrees.  But on the day of our walk it was cold, wet and grey.  I mean, it actually literally properly snowed. We were completely unprepared for this sudden flash back to winter, and arrived sans any warm clothing what so ever in the manner of the worst/best hiking survival stories.  Thank goodness this was hiking Korean style (it's the best way to do it!), which meant there were restaurants and beer joints and shops selling scarves and warm socks everywhere.  One happy ajumma and four ridiculous looking beanies later, we were properly kitted out and on our way.

Despite the fog and cold it is a truly beautiful part of the world, and the walk is on the right side of difficult (enough so you feel like you've accomplished something, but not so much that it becomes a boring trudge).  Lovely.

ps. If you want more Daedunsan action, head on over to my Flickr (you may also find a picture of The Big Garlic here, if you have a good look around!).

Road Trip: Busan Fish Market

On our recent-ish road trip down south we stopped at one of the big fish markets in Busan (it's a seafoody kind of town so there's a few of them).  I could have happily spent hours there with my trusty Canon, snapping away, but I was traveling with Mr Attention Span Of A Gnat, Mr Impatient, and Mr Why On Earth Are You Taking A Photo Of That so it was not to be.  Which may have been for the best as some of the stall holders were not overjoyed with my photographic interest, so moving on quickly proved fortuitous. 

Anyway.  Look at the colours!  Notice how all the fishmongers are women?  And they wear the most amazing outfits - bright pink rubber gloves, aprons in vibrant green and orange and red, layers and layers of clothing in floral patterns and blocked hues.  And then there's the giant crabs and long fish, and those strange things that look a bit like dragon fruit but clearly aren't.  Plus sting rays!  Yes, sting rays!  Have you ever seen a skinned sting ray before?  Plus those rainbow umbrellas, and the pink and blue plastic trays everything sits in (I am most definitely getting me some of those).  Wonderful stuff.

There'll be some more fish market magic somewhere on my Flickr, if you are so inclined.

Road Trip: Soundtrack

[image by CubaGallery]

Last weekend we did a bit of a school holiday road trip: caught the train to Busan for breakfast with a tiger and a walk through the fish market; drove to Goseong and Namhae for some dinosaur footprint action, and then headed to Muju and Daedunsan for some spectacular mountain scenery (more about all of that coming your way very soon...).  It was a good road trip, and critical to any good road trip is a good soundtrack - partly because music lessens the monotony of long drives, and partly because I love the way songs become so entwined with memories.

Our car is evenly split between those who prefer audio books and those who prefer something they can sing along to (in one case, sing along perfectly well; in the other (ie. me) sing along sounding like a tone deaf drowning rat.).  And unfortunately those who prefer audio books are the, um, let's say 'more assertive' of the car occupants (plus, one was the driver and the driver always gets the veto vote, don't they?).  So our road trip sound track largely consisted of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island and David Attenborough's Zoo Quest for a Dragon.  

As much as I adore the dry wit of Bill Bryson I must admit I am a little over hearing his voice, after awhile it all just seems a bit too clever and jolly...but David Attenborough...well, I could listen to his gently reassuring, knowledgeably dulcet tones for ever and a day.  If you're looking for some family friendly car listening I'd definitely recommend this one (especially if you've got kids who are mildly obsessed with natural history like my two step-sons are) - an interesting behind the scenes account of an expedition, peppered with amusing tales and intriguing facts.

And when we weren't listening to audiobooks?  Well, two songs did get a look in.  The husband's choice was Andrea Boccelli's Con te Partiro - not something I'd normally listen to, but it is a beautiful song and brings back happy memories of road trips in Italy, and made the beautiful spring countryside we were driving through (rolling hills, blossoms, new growth, rivers - you get the idea) seem even more beautiful.  

My choice was Adele's Rolling in the Deep which my sister introduced me to when she was here (I am so far out of the new music loop, I live in a veritable fresh tunes wasteland) and which I am currently a teeny bit obsessed with.  If I don't listen to it at least once a day I have a minor breakdown.  I know this obsession will eventually pass, but I like the thought that in the distant future if I do hear this track again I'll remember pink blossoms and Korea.  Anyway, despite an initial degree of wariness from the somewhat risk averse back seat, by day four the whole car was humming along.  Hurrah!

Road trip!

Next week we are going on our first Korean road trip!  I am so very excited!  I adore a road trip, the flexibility and freedom that it gives you (plus you don't have to worry about lost passports and over-weight luggage).  

Some of my all-time favourite travel memories are from road trips.  Spying emus running beside the car near the Grampians in Victoria; seeing the wild sea as we sheltered from a storm during a camping trek up the Australian coast; laughing hysterically as we rounded the roundabout one more time, trying in vain to make sense of the crazy Italian road signage.  Oh yes, and then there was the time I realised the reason we kept getting lost was because I was looking at a map for an entirely different part of the country.

We'll be traveling during the new year holiday, when traditionally everyone heads back to their home town, so that'll add a whole other layer to our trip.  I'd like to say I'll be posting as we drive, but the anti-wasting-time-on-line husband may curtail that.  Never mind, I've got a ton of fun stuff planned for the blog while I'm away!