Thursday 13 August 2009

Lesson 2 for day 4: find the tourist desk on the first day no matter what. Actually, that should be lesson 3; lesson 2 is don't leave the airport until you've gone to the information desk. Lesson 1 recap: ask for directions. I'll be honest, today I feel a bit depressed about this vacation. This whole time I've been nonchalant so that I won't get high strung when my expectations let me down. Although I didn't expect or even hope for (maybe a little bit of hope), what I wanted was something different than home and different from the rest of Korea. I mean, we're going to an island. I wanted to dive off a cliff or swim in a waterfall. There could at least be some kind of Korean version of a tiki bar. But no, our first day we got here between 8 and 9 at night. The whole booking of the trip was kind of a fiasco anyway. We were both looking up hotels and what not and sending shit to each other and it was all very unsystematic. Other than all of that crap, which really isn't that big of a deal, though I know I'm bitching about it, it doesn't matter anyway because today is the first and only day without rain. On top of that, we can't wake up before noon. Tuesday we woke up and thought to find tourist info but found the beach instead. Driving again was nice, especially driving a nice, clean car. The mountains would have been nice in daytime, though they might have been rainy and foggy then too.

Wednesday we went to the Micheon cave. We were pretty good at not getting lost in the car (until we tried to return it). We found our way to the cave pretty directly, stopping for a very short bit in some folk village. It didn't seem like much was going on there and I didn't want to get involved. Plus, we were to turn the car in sometime around 5, though I'm a disciple of the Korean way, so I wasn't really sweating the time issue. The cave was right by there. We were starving. Jessica bought crackers at a little shop, but I was holding out for the real thing. Then we rounded the corner and there was a restaurant. She ordered bibimbak and I had bulgolgi and it was all good. There was a winding path through the garden, I think because the actual cave was small. Both were very scenic. The entrance to the cave was the best part. It was misty and you could feel a cold draft. This was my first time in a cave. It seemed like it would have been a cool place to hang out, like the cave bar I saw on tv. We got to the end quickly and my stomach started hurting and I had to run out. We sat for a while in an area near the bathroom that was covered from the rain and watched birds swoop and fly around the lawn. I was thinking of how it would be nice to have a lawn like that when I retired, and we talked about that a bit. It's one of our favorite topics. Retiring and living with all of our friends in the mountains. I was thinking it would be nice to have a small cabin, maybe even something that was just one big room, but with a big, covered, Japanese-style porch and a large, cultivated lawn, but instead of shrubs, just wild flowers. I've seen a lot of pretty ones while I was here. We got up and went back to the opening of the cave and I took a picture of Jessica, but we didnt' go back inside. On our way out we checked out rest of the place. There was pottery making that was probably expensive and some statues and sculptures and random things like that. Then they had some dogs in cages for some reason. There's a lot of that around here and it's pretty sad. On Tuesday, when we were at Jungmun Beach we watched a dolphin, sea lion, monkey show, kind of stumbled upon the whole thing by accident really. We only stayed for the monkeys, though. In that building there was a little, dead dolphin being preserved in an aquarium. Creepy and sad. And the sea lions and penguins were kept in little caged areas with only little pools of water to keep them.

After the caves we ran by the hotel and changed even though we were already an hour late. On the way I stopped to get gas, but I guess it was diesel only and the guy seemed pretty high strung about the whole ordeal (it isn't self-serve here), but he pointed me in the direction of a gas station. 20 000w. I don't know why I thought it would be cheaper. On our way I came up with a scenario. I think it's possible. At a hotel bar we meet a young, aristocrat that's visiting the island using her father's money. She's bored because it's rainy and it's Wednesday and there's nothing to do, so she sends us some drinks at the bar and we go over to thank her and then we all go up to the penthouse where the view is amazing. Jessica says, 'And she's hot, too," but I'm trying to be realistic here. So, okay, fine. She's a little attractive, but mostly just well kept. And if she wants sex from Jessica of course she'll have to put out.

So, now's the part where we got lost since neither Jessica nor I paid attention to exactly where the cab driver had taken us to rent the car. Plus it was nighttime compared to when we picked it up during the day. We drove around the area looking, using a little bit of memory, a little bit of logic, and then a bit of ole lesson 1, ask for directions. After a couple of calls, and me starting to get frustrated, we found the place and dropped off the car between 7 and 730. Jessica and I had decided at the cave that, although there is almost never an actual time limit for things, we were willing to just give the extra money and not concern ourselves with the rush of being on time. In addition, it's always 'this is how much it costs; give us the money; okay, bye.' So, basically, they didn't charge us extra.

I believe after that we walked to the Lotte Hotel. We knew if nothing else they had a casino there. What I really wanted was a nice place with a view where we could sit and eat or drink and look at the ocean. Plus, I had to pee. The only thing that seemed promising when we got into Lotte was the "Windsor," which advertised a bar, karaoke, and a scary theme. Not sure where it was, but spotting the bathroom, we ignored a lady calling out, maybe to us, maybe something wrong we were doing, and dipped into the bathroom. Next, we caught an elevator that only went to one other floor and went out to try and find this fiery, watery, outside eatery/bar looking place we saw from inside (we could feel the heat from the shooting flames as we looked out from the window above). There was a windmill lounge that looked like a coffee shop and some Holland souvenir shop. Going back up the hill from whence we came, I was afraid to cut through the pool area (though I would've loved to just hang out there). I just didn't know how strict the hotels were around here and I didn't want to get called out. We already stick out everywhere we go. In Florida you can't even cut through the hotel property in order to get to the beach, although now I feel like, what are they going to do? Call the police? We'd be gone by then.

Anyway, I digress. The Windsor was pretty hoaky, but it was something. There were the hostesses. Nothing special about them. They looked like hostesses at a hotel. The decorations were fun but not spooky. I think the hostesses should've been dressed spooky. There was the usual guy on keyboard and girl lounge singers singing the usual American songs, including L.O.V.E., which I just taught to my summer school students. Jessica and I ordered Pernod's in honor of TSAR. We ate delicious roasted peanuts, played pool and took pictures of us wearing scary masks. We left to check out the casino, thinking that there would be free drnks with our gambling. We showed them our passports, told them our hotel name, walked inside and quickly surmised that the drinks weren't free. If they were free everyone would have one. We turned around and went back out. Grabbed some soju and powerade on the way and then took a taxi to the Hyatt because we didn't feel like wandering around forever in the drizzle my nizzle. We thought maybe the Hyatt would be the place. It's right on the edge of a cliff over the ocean, etc. The hotel bar was practically in the lobby. They've got some kind of little pond or something inside, but there's no view and it's more of the romantic persuasion than the fun sorts. As we went up the glass elevator I waved down at a man that seemed to be watching us casually from the restaurant. He waved back. There was a lounge on the 10th and 11th floors, both closed. The rest were just rooms, all arranged in a half circle around the entrance, the lobby and the restaurant. I said we could go find someone in a room with a view. Like a, 'Hi. What room are you staying in?' Then Jessica looks at me, her hair still damp from the rain and her eyes red, "Ya gotta view?" I must've been a ltitle tight because I couldn't stop laughing long enough to even tell her why I thought it was funny.

So we headed out and around the hotel towards the ocean and found a couple of little benches and sat there for a while. Then two boys came up and it was where you from? how old are you? do you have a boyfriend? We'll call it the circle of life for now. We asked them where was somewhere to go but there was nowhere. One of the boys handed me his phone and it was a Korean girl that spoke English. She said, "He wanted me to tell you no pubs are open. You can go to a convenience store and get beer," which we'd already figured out from them, but I guess he wasn't aware. I asked Jessica if she wanted to hang out with them and she said sure, so we all walked to the convenience store that we had just come from and sat out on the patio and drank. It was fun for a little while, but then I got bored - not to mention the boy had annoyed me with his unwanted opinions. Not really anything worth mentioning, and not really insulting me or anything. It's just the way Korean guys are about American girls. It's ridiculous and unrealistic and based on inexperience and television. So I started writing in here instead of participating in the conversation (real conversation I definitely long for, and that isn't a hint that anything's lacking between me and J). So they helped us get a cab and took pictures with Jessica and we went back to the hotel and passed out.