Dr. Fish

The other week some friends and I went to do the Dr. Fish.  What an experience, I tell you!

When we went on a Saturday afternoon the coffee shop was populated but not too busy.  We had to wait about 30 minutes before we could do the Dr. Fish because there was a line.  Later, we learned that you can call in advance and make a reservation.  

In order to do the fish thing you have to order a drink (which they overcharge by at least an extra dollar or won from the already expensive Starbucks-standard price).  The reason it's so expensive is because you get "complimentary" all-you-can-eat bread with butter and jam as well as an extra cup of coffee (12oz) to go.  The price of the Dr. Fish is just w2,000 for 15 minutes.  Trust me, you don't need more than 15 minutes. 

When it was our turn I was excited and I thought I'd be fine.  Um, no.  I think I must have said the words "oh my god oh my god oh m god" over and over for 12 of those 15 minutes.  

Why you ask?  Well for one thing the fish look like this: 

 

Look at the mouth on those things!  

Om nom they want to eat your skin and they are ravenous! 

Mali was a pro and she kept her feet in the whole time no problem.  I couldn't hack it though.  

We decided to take an ironic picture of me in a cool calm and collected pose because I was anything but. 

EDIT: The fish feel like little vibrations.  It doesn't hurt but rather it's a slight tickle.  I felt like there must have been close to 50 of them on me but Mali & Nicole assured me that number was actually closer to 5.

All in all, it was a worth it and I'm really glad that I did it.  It's another thing to check of the SoKo-To-Do list that I made a little while back.  

Things still on there that I need to do: 

Everland, Chungmuro Pet street, Jeju Island, temple stay, DMZ, and bungee jumping.  I do hope I get to do it all in the short time that I have left (about 70 days now!) 

Directions to Dr. Fish:

Walk out Exit 6 from Gangnam and go straight a few blocks.  It’s across from the GCV and next to the Krispy Kreme donuts shop.  The name of the café is actually not Dr. Fish.  It’s something along the lines of “read books and relax café” or something weird like that.  It’s on the 2^nd floor of the building.  

World Cup begins

Yesterday was South Korea's first game in the 2010 World Cup.  At 8:30pm S. Korea played against Greece.  I had considered going to Gwanghawmun for the festivities but decided against it.  More and more I realize that I am not a city person and that I don't like crowds.  The thought of rallying for Korea with millions and millions of fans made me nauseous rather than excited like everyone else.  Thus, I opted to go to Suwon's World Cup Stadium instead where I was sure to avoid the craziness of Seoul.  As it turns out, the stadium was less crowded that I had anticipated and I was a little disappointed, but oh well.  We still had a really fun time and the best part -- South Korea won !!

I geared up for the game with my Korea t-shirt, Korea socks, and Korea temporary tattoos. 

 

Weekend in Busan

Last weekend (June 5-6) Jennifer, Matt, and I went to Busan.  Busan is the second largest city in Korea with a population of 3.6 million.  It's the largest port city in Korea and the 5th largest port in the world.  It takes about 3.5 hours by KTX (fast/bullet) train from Seoul to Busan.  Having been up all night long clubbing in Seoul, we took a 7:15am train out from Seoul station and arrived at Busan station at about 10:30am or so.  From there we took the subway for about 45 minutes to the beach, Haeundae.  

It was awesome!  The weather was hot and sunny and we had a wonderful time sleeping (we did a lot of that!), reading, and chatting on the beach.  

On a side note: Jenn and I did an unofficial survey and found that the percentage of foreigners is about 30-40% at the beach.  Although it's not incredibly shocking since Koreans are notorious to hating the sun and getting suntans, we were still surprised.  On any given day, I find that the percentage of foreigners is closer to 5%.  

The beach was very busy! 

 

Some families cracked me up with their beach set-ups.  The family above was huddled under two umbrellas.  I didn't see or hear them talking to each other at all; rather they sat in silence observing the chaos around them. Oh, and me too even though I tried to discretely take their photo.  hah. 

This family [at right] had a picnic table with them and the two ladies are drinking Max beer from a can.  Notice also that the person to the left of the picnic table is hiding under a black umbrella in a hoodie.  Did I mention how hot it was?? 

The weekend we went was coincidentally also the Haeundae Sand Festival.  There were some really amazing ones out there.  I liked this one. 

A now, a word about sandwiches.  An ode, if you will.  I love sandwiches.  Love them.  I could eat them every day.  But sadly, not here in Korea.  I don't like their sandwiches.  They are usually ham (my least favorite deli meat), with a slice of processed orange cheese, and some mayonnaise concoction that I have yet to figure out what exactly it is.  The sandwiches here are thin and gross.  I thought I might never find a good sandwich (and no, I don't count the Quiznos and Subway chains as the sandwich I desire.  Yes, they do have those here) but then we found Breeze Burn's and oh. my. god.  

There was no wait to sit down (since we opted to sit indoors instead of on the patio) but the wait for food was ridiculous.  I think it took about an hour for our 2 sandwiches.  I don't remember how much the price was, but my guess is somewhere around w9,000.  Was it worth the wait?  YES.  Best sandwich I have had in a year.  I got the chicken club which came with a chicken breast, egg, tomato, bacon, and lettuce.  Yumtastic. 

Seonyudo Island

Last weekend I went on a trip with Adventure Korea to Seonyudo Island.  When the weather report suggested that it might rain on both Saturday and Sunday, I started to fear for my beach island getaway.  But (real shocker here) the weather reports were wrong and we had absolutely perfect weather the whole time.  It was warm and beautiful and everyone was in such a good mood because we were all expecting the worst.  

From Seoul (Express Bus Terminal) it took us about 3.5 hours to get to Gunsan (pronounced goon-san 군산시) and then from there we took a 50-minute ferry ride to the islands.  Upon getting off the ferry we rented bikes (paid for by the trip fees) and walked to our pension.      

  

The area itself is small, and we were easily able to bike around the four connecting islands that Saturday afternoon.  It was so much more beautiful than I had anticipated.  I also read that it can get pretty busy with tourists in the summer, but perhaps since it is still spring the island was mostly empty, save for our group of 40 and the 200 inhabitants of the islands.  

On Saturday we also took a hike up a little hill and had a beautiful view of the Yellow Sea (or if you ask a Korean, the West Sea).  

We also got to see some rather unsightly squid drying.  It was disgusting and black flies were occasionally swarming the squid.  Thankfully it didn't smell quite as bas as the finished product does in the stores.  It's a tough call as to whether the smell of kimchi/soju man sweat, beondegi (silkworm larvae), or dried squid smell the most putrid.   

That evening I became Moses, parted the seas and allowed us to have a glorious sunset.  

The next day I woke up early and saw the sunrise.  Sunrise pictures look a lot like sunset pictures but the emotions attached to them are totally different.   Plus, you have to stand in different spots to see them.   

Later that day we went hiking and then .. get this.. we went shellfish catching.  These shellfish were unlike any I have ever seen before.  I don't even know what they were called.  

Here is how you catch the fish:

1.  Wait until low tide and then take a shovel and scoop back an extra layer of sand. 

2.  Take a handful of salt and slowly pour it into the holes where the shellfish are hiding. 

3.  Wait for the shellfish to pop out of the sand and snatch 'em up.  BBQ them for about 10 minutes and then eat.  (Eating not recommended as they aren't all that tasty).  

Seonyudo Island makes me feel like this!