DJ Fest

Sexy Laura

Headed up to Seoul to go to DJ Fest.  It was just outside of a small town way out to the east of Seoul in 양평(Yangpyeong, not to be confused with Pyeongyang) which took about an hour and a half to get to from central Seoul.  Seoul subway is ridiculously huge and still quickly expanding. Line 1, by far the longest and split into two long, busy branches south of Guro, is about 200km long.  It really puts the 10km Edinburgh Tram line into perspective.

  There'd been a problem booking weekend camping, despite my worrying we were able to buy tickets at the gate.  The site said it'd sold out but honestly it was the smallest, quietest camp site I've been to at a festival.  Not going to get to go to Wickerman for the fist time in about 5 years this year so this was my 2012 music festival.

Flash Mob!

Saturday was pretty quiet, saw the first band on at one of the smaller stages - Soul Train - who were a really good Korean jazz show.  Saw a few other bands, got some beer.  We were playing Frisbee when a bunch of people started a flash mob nearby!  Tried the silent disco for a while.  Where it was you couldn't take any drinks in (presumably as it was all astro-turfed) so we didn't spend much time there that weekend.  Got a korean to give us pen tattoos whilst we were there.  Laura had 음악 좋아해 (I love music), Mark had 코젱이 (literally "nose-person" which is slang for foreigners).  I wanted 왕자지 있어 but went for 외국이 which means foreigner.  Everyday I hear little kids (and adults) stopping in the street, pointing and saying "wow! a foreigner!" so it seemed appropriate.  Had to scrub it off at 찜질방 the next day.


Saw a few more bands, headed back to the tent nice and drunk about 2 or 3.  Hardly slept due to the loud music which continued until about 7am.  Sunday or lunch decided to head into town. On the way we stopped off on the other side of the river at a park for some sun, a book and the playground/outdoor gym.  Whilst we were eating pizza the weather suddenly turned.  One minute it looked fine, the next kinda dark, then the wind suddenly built up and rain started pouring down.  You could see the sand swirling wildly before the storm really started - pulling down part of the roof of the building next to the pizza place.  With no way of checking/securing our tent and no umbrella we decided on hitting 찜질밤 until it died down.

Tentageddon

When we got back to our tent, it had obviously been upside down at some point.  The pegs had been ripped out or torn off the tents.  Tentageddon!  The main stage was even blown over.  The damaged Jelloshot stall decided to give out all of their sweet alcoholic goodness in syringes for free that night.  Our tent was kinda miserable, damp where it wasn't wet, but by the time we passed out about 4 it was dry enough.  No main stage meant that the acts were moved around onto other stages.  Sets were meant to be reduced, but the schedule just went out the window and bands played wherever they could.  

Main Stage Ruins

DJs from Mars were a particular favourite, throwing in a few KPOP mixes too.  A couple dozen 외국s stormed the stage, climbing up at the front and dancing along for about 15 min until the Koreans got extra security and started pushing them off.  They were kicked off as it wasn't safe, but neither was being pushed off.  A few people I knew complained about being forcibly removed, but to be honest they knew they shouldn't be up there and hadn't listened when they were asked to get off.


There were Koreans passed out everywhere.  I guess that's why the camping was so quiet - they just planned blacking out for a couple hours then sleeping on the early subway back.  At one point it got quite annoying as half of one of the big tents was "off-limits" as it was covered in so many peoples picnic sheets. Obviously I decided that they should sleep somewhere else and just walked over them instead of standing outside in the rain!  We packed up our stuff, hit the 찜질방 again and it was time to make the long journey back.


In short, music and camping was amazing, shame about the main stage but our weight in free Jelloshots definitely made up for it.  Having your festival site near a town was the best idea since the contactless TMoney cards they used for all purchases on the festival ground.  No cash, just BEEP and you're done!

Tea Festival and Ulsan Old Downtown Band

Grabbed some delicious food in Daegu Friday night with the Gaksan locals.  Saturday at the Daegu Exco was the Tea Festival.  Wanted to head across to the actual tea fields, but they were on the other side of the country.  Really didn't fancy another Mokpo trip.  There were meant to be a few people going, but due to hangovers it ended up just me and the bf.

There were stalls with traditional clothes, 찜질방 pajamas, plants (sadly no tea plants, Mark really wants one), a small museum, different cups and pots, coffee, lots and lots of tea, a main stage and a few places where you could watch the traditional korean tea ceremony.  The main stage had foreigners wandering around in 한복, a big band (including 3 generations of a family) playing mouth organs.  The primary school brothers came back on by themselves to play a KPOP cover.  Strange, very Korean and enjoyable.

Afterwards we headed to Ulsan.  There were bands playing in a park in Old Downtown.  Apart from the bands there was also a group of asian (mostly girls, but a couple gayboys as well) high school age kids from Korea and the Phillipines who did sexy line dances.  Straight mans wet dream.  Foreigners got free beer, which ran out pretty quickly, but that didn't really stop us.  Dinner and drinks, fairly quiet night as we were saying goodbye to a friend.

Remind you of the movie you've got hidden in your sock drawer?

Weird Museums

After the botanics we hit up the nearby museums including the Museum of Sound and Ripleys (well the gift shop).  The museum of sound was fairly inexpensive and had a load of instruments for you to play with along with creepy masks.  There was even a room that looked almost like a brothel..

Jeju Botanical Gardens

It was our last day in the Jeju so we headed out in search of some nature.  The weather was great again so took the bus a little out to the botanical gardens.  It was close by a big Ripley's Believe It or Not building as well as a few smaller museums so we spent the whole day there.  


The botanics claimed to be the biggest in Asia (but I'm sure the one in Singapore was much larger).  The actual greenhouse building was definitely a sight - and had a big tower in the middle that you could go up to the top in and look out around the island.  Last but not least - probably my favourite bit - DINOSAURS!

Submarine!

We booked to go on a real submarine!  Walked out to the port of Seogwipo, got on a boat to next to a little island before boarding the submarine.  This involved walking down a ladder into a long thin area with the driver at the front and loads of windows along the side.

We went down to a depth of about 40 meters.  We saw some corals, and thanks to a diver with bait, lots of fish.  Near the end we passed by an old ship wreck as well.

Jeju-Do!

My parents went the long way round to Jeju - Subway to Sasang, bus to Gwangju, bus to Mokpo, taxi to the Ferry Port, Ferry and finally a taxi to the hotel!  I decided to use Daegu Airport - it's smaller but Jeju City is only an hour away.

The Jeju "Airport Limosine" bus to get to Seogwipo was a complete joke.  Took way longer than it needed to as it stopped at every single hotel en route.  Spent ages staring at huge tacky fake North African buildings.  


  
The weather was awesome - stayed at the Seogwipo Hiking Inn.  It wasn't glamorous but there was a bath (next care package I'm asking for bubble bath!) and an awesome roof terrace.  We could see some lights directly south of us one night from the roof terrace - Simon thinks it may have been Japan but it looks too far on the map.  I don't think theres oilrigs or anything out there so no idea.


Spent Tuesday taking in the town and the two "famous" waterfalls.  One claims to be the onliest waterfall in Asia to fall directly into (read:20 meters away from) the sea.  There was also a lovely big garden next to a museum.  We booked our submarine tour and then walked across this huge bridge to a little island.  There's a walkway going around the edge of it with lights.  It was great during the day and I imagine nice and romantic at night.


Good food was almost impossible to come by in Seogwipo - spent ages every night trying to hunt places down.  If travelling around I'd recommend Jeju City instead - better transport links and because it's a much bigger city more accommodation/food etc.

Noraebang and Busan

During the week my parents explored Daegu and visited Gyeongju with Julian and Sophie.  Friday was coupon party day, Simon and I wore our kilts to the school.  Students and teachers went mad for it.  Wish I'd got a photo of one of my youngest kids running off with my jacket on - long sleeves and tails dragging on the ground.

Friday night we went to galbi with everyone and then onto noraebang!  Loads of cute photos and a couple scary videos.  Damn people with cameras!  Here are a few choice videos: one, two three and four.

Saturday our hangovers were not kind!  The parents didn't manage to get to Busan until late that night so the bf and I played beach volleyball in Haeundae.  Found an amazing lamb place near the haeundae subway station.  It was the first time I've had lamb in Korea (you don't see them anywhere) and it was DELICIOUS.

Sunday we headed to Gwangangri beach and Jagalchi market.  My family always had "The Tasty Club" when I was growing up - if you didn't try something you weren't a member.  I don't know how not being a member would negatively affect our lives, it wasn't really well explained.  Anyway, used it to bully the parents into trying live octopus and eels!