Hello World!

So, yeah, it’s been a super long time since I last posted. Life got kinda crazy: we had to deal with finding a new apartment, moving into said apartment, going on a few vacations, server problems, and tons of other little everyday things that make time pass way too quickly. Next thing I knew, here we sit at the end of freaking August!

So, to get back into the swing of things, let’s start out nice and easy.

Cody and I recently went on this really cool Tour offered by Explore Rural Korea, which is partially run by the Korean government’s agricultural department. You can check out their official website here. The best place to get up to date information is their Facebook page, where you can also see pictures of their recent tours. They offer a couple of different tours that let foreigners come see various parts of rural Korea. The tour we went took us to Namhae Island, so that we could see a small fishing village and a temple.

After a 3 hour bus ride (during which I was extremely car sick. I just cannot seem to do motor vehicles any more) we arrived at Namhae Island. And let me tell you, it is so beautiful! All the roofs had beautiful flower murals painted on them. The streets twisted and turned all down the side of the mountain. It is easily the most beautiful town I’ve seen in Korea.

The tour provided us with lunch, bulgogi duck and cold seaweed soup. The meat was so amazingly delicious!
After lunch, we all got ready to head out for the water portion of the tour. We went on a half hour hike to get to the beach were we would be doing the activities. And holy crap, was it intense. Fun, beautiful, but intense. We had to walk down crazy steep dirt stairs, and in several places the stairs were half washed out, so we had to be really careful. There was even a spot with old razor wire on either side of the path! (The both cool and dangerous part about the Korean War artifacts that dot the countryside.)

For the water portion of the day there were three parts, fishing, rafting, and boating. The fishing was really fun to watch: they gave us cups and a piece of sea snail to bait the little gobi fish. Cody did all the work, but I had the ever important job of holding the cup to put the fish in! After the fishing they took us out on a traditional style bamboo raft and then a paddle boat. We got to go swimming and enjoy the beautiful day down on the rocky shore. Then we hiked back up the mountain to get ready for the rest of the tour. It was rather nice to hike back up the mountain in our wet clothes, because it was hot as hell that day and the wet clothes were a life saver.

There was also a temple portion of the tour, but Cody and I decided to pass on that and stay on the bus. This past Spring I had hurt my knee and we figured one mountain hike was enough for one day. I wish we could have finished the tour, but injuries are never worth it.

The company also offers other tours around the country. Check out the website or Facebook page to see all your options, since they seem to update their schedule pretty often. Cody and I are hoping to go on the bamboo forest tour later this Fall (once it’s a hell of a lot cooler).

I highly recommenced you check out this company’s tours, whether you live in Korea or are just here for a visit. It’s a great way to see a part of the country that you probably wouldn’t get to when you live in a big city.

Have you gone on any unique tours in your area? Would you want to check out a rural Korea tour? Let me know in the comments below!