I wish I could take credit for this post but Ruthie gave such a good description of life up on Scary Mountain that I decided to just use hers, it is better than I could do anyway.
Hi, All!
It has, yet again, been quite awhile since I have updated everyone on my travels. After the weekend I just had it is a good idea to let you all that I am happy, healthy, and still enjoying myself. Two amazing things happened to me this weekend, the second of which changed my life and made me part of a very "elite" club that I am not sure I am proud to be a member of... read on, if you think you can handle it!
On Saturday, Ara and I decided to take a drive up north to an area called the Punchbowl. This is an area famous for a huge battle that was fought during the Korean War. It is named the "punchbowl" because it is surrounded on all sides by mountains, and does indeed resemble a bowl. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped frequently to take pictures and sample homemade mandu (wontons) at a road side stand. Around 2pm we decided to try and find a quaint place to enjoy some traditional Korean food. We needed to head south towards Inje, which is one town away from Sokcho to the north. Ara gave me the choice of taking the high road through the mountains or continuing back the same way we came. I thought the mountains might provide us with some beautiful photo ops of the Punchbowl, so I chose the high road. I guess I am taking all responsibility by saying that...haha
Everything was going great, and we were having a blast singing along with his iPod- until we were more than half way up the mountain. It had been lightly snowing the whole time were in the Punchbowl, but we didn't think anything about it because we are both from places that get a lot of snow. The snow was not laying on the ground and I didn't figure the fact of snow into my decision to go into the mountains (in my defense). Anyway- here we were, half way up a mountain and all of a sudden it starts snowing really, really, really hard. Ara eased up on the engine and we started getting nervous when we came upon a parked car that took off in front of us and couldn't stop from fish tailing. The car pulled off shortly and we continued on at a very slow pace. Things went from bad to worse when the white out conditions started as we reached the peak. I convinced Ara that I should drive because I have more experience driving on hills in snow, although my track record for driving in the snow is not that great, he consented and along we went- for another 200ft. As we rounded a bend we were approached by a police man who told us in broken English that we could wait for an hour to go down or we could turn around and go back. As we were trying to communicate with him, Ara looked in the rear view mirror to see an Army truck doing donuts behind us in an attempt to stop.
The Koreans decided to sit and wait for an hour and we decided to not let things get worse- we wanted out while the getting was not too awful. On the way back down we flagged down the few cars that were trying to do the same thing we had been and told them the road was closed in our very limited Korean. They all seemed surprised, although we couldn't decide if their surprise was from the fact that foreigners were actually speaking Korean to them or if the road was closed even though they couldn't even see it...
We dubbed the mountain "Scary Mountain," and changed the words to old songs on the way back down professing our undying respect for this snow covered death trap. This lifted our spirits and calmed our shaky nerves. On the right side of the road was a drop off that we could not see the bottom of, and the switch backs were unrelenting, as they had been on our sojourn up.
Forty-five minutes later we finally reached the bottom of the Punchbowl safely, and were surprised to see that it had not started snowing any harder than it had been when we started up. This time Ara made the decision to take the generally flat road back to Inje.
The next item for business was finding some place to eat. I had noticed a small little mom-n-pop on the way and when I saw it again, I suggested that we stop here for dinner. Once again, I am assuming responsibility for this decision and the "elite" club to which we are now members...
We walked into the restaurant confidently, and did our best to read the sign in Hangul. By the looks of the tables we were in a traditional Korean-style BBQ place were the meat is cooked in the center of the table in front of you. I might add that the sign indicated that this was a "Best Restaurant Eatery." We had never been let down by these signs before so we decided to stay and give it a try. Neither Ara nor I recognized any of the names of the dishes, but this is not unusual. We were greeted warmly by the owners and tried our best to tell them what we wanted. We ended up getting "tang" or stew-like soup.
Once the meal arrived we were so hungry that we both dug right in, and were soon singing the praises of this delicious stew. We both commented a couple of times about how lucky we were to have stopped at the first place we saw and get such a great meal on a chance... after our hunger had been satisfied a little we both started to wonder out loud what kind of meat it was. Upon first glance it looked like beef, but it was way too stringy and soft to be beef. Ara thought it might be pork, but there was skin still attached to some of the pieces and it was way too oily to be pork. I kinda got sick at the idea that we might be eating pork in which the skin had been left on. That is so dirty!
We ruled out other meat options and both stopped and looked at each other with horror in our eyes- we both realized at the same time that we were eating- AND ENJOYING!!! dog meat. To be sure, Ara called a friend of his who is fluent in Korean and has tasted dog before, and asked him to describe what a tasty bowl of dog soup would look like. He described exactly what we were enjoying and raving about. To be sure, Ara took a picture of the sign on his cell phone and sent it to his friend. The text message that came back read, "You monsters-you just ate dog- welcome to the club you horrible people!"
Under any other circumstances I don't think I would have ever tried dog, but now that I know what I am missing... I find myself eyeing up every little dog who crosses my path, thinking, I wonder... JUST KIDDING!!!!! To be honest I feel guilty for enjoying it as much as I did.
Well that was my adventure. I hope that you can find it in your hearts to keep me as a friend, even though I am a dog eater.
Hope all is well in the West. Have a wonderful holiday season!
Pictures
1. You have to both weigh limits on your signs here in the ROK both tank and truck. You never know when the Norks are going to attack.
2. Korea in the depths of winter.
3. Up on Scary Mountain.
4. What can happen if you go off the wrong side of Scary Mountain.
5. Ruthie, trying to figure out directions.
Fall here in Korea means Kimchi making time, and for our trusty band of foreigners that meant getting together the ingredients and heading over to Paul and Aubry's house so that we could make this staple of Korean Cuisine.
