This past weekend was another travelling one and this time I travelled to Gwangju, a city in the southern province of Jellonam. I had never been to Jeollonam before, and I wasn't sure when I would be coming again since there isn't a hub of activity there like Seoul or Busan, so I wanted to try and stay awake for the two hour and forty minute journey. I settled myself into my seat on the bus, made myself comfortable, stuck my earphones in and started looking around me as the bus left the terminal. But I quickly discovered that staying awake on a busride is a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. The music playing in my ears relaxed me too much and I found myself dozing. I tried to read instead, but the rhythm of the moving bus started rocking me to sleep. Eventually I gave in and snoozed my way through to Gwangju, not noticing too much on the way. It wasn't a sleep so much as it was me being zoned out and just not taking note of the things that were passing me by. And so I arrived in Gwangju feeling slightly rested, though not nearly rested enough, and ready to explore.
On arrival I met up with my friend, Zach, and after a quick late lunch of KFC, we made our way by taxi to the centre of town to find ourselves a room in the Windmill Motel. For 40,000 won (shared between two of us) we were given a room with a queen sized bed, a big screen TV, a computer and blissfully a bath! We chilled in the room for a bit, air conditioner blaring, watching some TV and chatting, and after awhile I decided that a relaxing bath was in order before we headed out into the city. By six o'clock we were ready to do some exploring (or I was, since Zach had been there before). And so we made our way to downtown Gwangju, a short walk from our hotel, which turned out to be a lot like downtown Cheongju - a lot of the same shops and stalls - but bigger. Both of us were still full from our late lunch, so instead of heading out to find food we walked along Gwangju's art street, filled with shops selling handmade jewellery, furniture, fans, artworks and such things before heading to the Ethnic Bar, a popular hangout downtown where people could smoke hubbly and where the thus far elusive fruit soju could be found.
As Amy pointed out when I told her the name of the place, anywhere else in the world calling a bar "The Ethnic Bar" would probably be seen as inappropriate. Not so much Korea. We made our way down a candle-lit and flower-lined staircase and into the basement of the building. In the middle of the room was a pool of water filled with a number of small fountains and surrounded by cushions, low tables and more candles. A low hanging chandelier hung from the ceiling over the middle of the pool. On the sides of the room were coves filled with more cushions and low tables, closed off by sheer curtains of various colours and at the back of the room were little staircases that led to more tables and cushions at different levels and more sheer curtains. It looked like something out of the Arabian nights. Zach and I found a table at the back of the room and ordered a jug of pineapple fruit soju. It was my first time trying the drink, and I immediately fell in love with it. Delicious but dangerous, fruit soju is a mixture of pure fruit, ice and soju blended together to make a wonderful concoction that tastes nothing like alcohol (thus why it is so dangerous). It is also dirt cheap, a jug that can easily be shared between two costing only 8,000 won or around R45. After polishing off one jug, the two of us decided that we were hungry and made our way back out into the city in search of The First Nepal, an Indian restaurant that came highly recommended from Zach. We arrived at the restaurant, not getting too lost in the process, and I took one look at the menu only to realise that I had seen it before. It turns out that the owner of First Nepal has one other Indian restaurant in South Korea, and I am certain that it is called Hungry Eyes in Cheongju. Their menus are identical from the story in the front to the spelling errors scattered throughout. It was also equally delicious. After a dinner of Chicken Saag, basmati rice (a luxury compared to the rice that I am forced to eat everyday at school - and when I say forced I mean that my Principal looked at the amount that I had taken and shouted at me telling me that I had to take more), vegetable raiita and garlic naan, we headed back to the Ethnic Bar where we met up with more people and spent the night relaxing with more fruit soju (strawberry and apple this time).
I woke up fairly early the next morning after a terrible sleep thanks to the ridiculously uncomfortable bed. Koreans don't believe in soft mattresses and all of them, including the one in my apartment, are hard as rocks. I have just gotten used to mine. In any case, waking up early meant that I could relax a bit more in the room, watching some Star-craft TV, before heading back out into the busy (for a Sunday morning anyway) city. For those who do not know what Star-craft is, it is a computer game that most teenage boys are obsessed with. But Koreans go completely overboard. They have contests with spectators watching the action on a projected screen behind the players. And these contests are televised. There is a whole channel dedicated to it. Though I do not find it entertaining to watch, it was the first time I had heard about the channel and was utterly fascinated by the enthusiasm with which it was broadcast. In any case, I watched the channel for a short while before heading back into the real world for a good English breakfast at a restaurant downtown, followed by a cup of tea at a place known as the "Pet Cafe".
I had heard of the Pet Cafe before, but hadn't known quite what to expect. We arrived at the cafe, and I was warned that I would have to run into the room very quickly as the door shouldn't be kept open too long. I walked in and was pounced on by multitudes of multi-coloured dogs! When I say multi-coloured, I mean multi-coloured. Purple ears, orange paws, blue spots on their backs in the shape of paws. Though this might sound a bit cruel, and it certainly did to me, I was assured that none of the dyes are toxic in the slightest, and all of the dogs seemed in tip-top shape. There were Poodles and Chau-Chau's; Spaniels and Scotties. Any and every kind of dog you could imagine. There were also cats and kittens, both Persian and Siamese, all rescued and all seemingly happy to call this cafe their home. Unfortunately we couldn't play with the puppies and kittens since they were being kept separate from the other animals to prevent diseases. To visit the cafe you had to buy something, and the R35 that they charged for a cup of tea went towards looking after the animals that were kept there. And so we spent an hour being adorned by cats and dogs while sipping on cups of iced-tea. Here are some pictures.
After we were finished at the Pet Cafe, we returned to the art street only to find that everything was closed. We walked around for a short while before I decided it was time to head back to the bus terminal. We hung around the book shop there while waiting for my bus to arrive, and I couldn't resist buying another book for myself even though I have so much to read at the moment. Finally my bus arrived and after a quick goodbye, I boarded it for another two hour and forty minute ride back to Cheongju.
Thus ended my Gwangju adventure. I am determined to go back soon and see more of what the city has to hold, so perhaps you will be hearing about another Gwangju adventure sometime soon. However, the next adventure you can expect to hear about will be the return to Busan in two weeks time. In the meantime, you will just have to live with reading the blogs about my uber-exciting everyday life in Cheongju!
On arrival I met up with my friend, Zach, and after a quick late lunch of KFC, we made our way by taxi to the centre of town to find ourselves a room in the Windmill Motel. For 40,000 won (shared between two of us) we were given a room with a queen sized bed, a big screen TV, a computer and blissfully a bath! We chilled in the room for a bit, air conditioner blaring, watching some TV and chatting, and after awhile I decided that a relaxing bath was in order before we headed out into the city. By six o'clock we were ready to do some exploring (or I was, since Zach had been there before). And so we made our way to downtown Gwangju, a short walk from our hotel, which turned out to be a lot like downtown Cheongju - a lot of the same shops and stalls - but bigger. Both of us were still full from our late lunch, so instead of heading out to find food we walked along Gwangju's art street, filled with shops selling handmade jewellery, furniture, fans, artworks and such things before heading to the Ethnic Bar, a popular hangout downtown where people could smoke hubbly and where the thus far elusive fruit soju could be found.
As Amy pointed out when I told her the name of the place, anywhere else in the world calling a bar "The Ethnic Bar" would probably be seen as inappropriate. Not so much Korea. We made our way down a candle-lit and flower-lined staircase and into the basement of the building. In the middle of the room was a pool of water filled with a number of small fountains and surrounded by cushions, low tables and more candles. A low hanging chandelier hung from the ceiling over the middle of the pool. On the sides of the room were coves filled with more cushions and low tables, closed off by sheer curtains of various colours and at the back of the room were little staircases that led to more tables and cushions at different levels and more sheer curtains. It looked like something out of the Arabian nights. Zach and I found a table at the back of the room and ordered a jug of pineapple fruit soju. It was my first time trying the drink, and I immediately fell in love with it. Delicious but dangerous, fruit soju is a mixture of pure fruit, ice and soju blended together to make a wonderful concoction that tastes nothing like alcohol (thus why it is so dangerous). It is also dirt cheap, a jug that can easily be shared between two costing only 8,000 won or around R45. After polishing off one jug, the two of us decided that we were hungry and made our way back out into the city in search of The First Nepal, an Indian restaurant that came highly recommended from Zach. We arrived at the restaurant, not getting too lost in the process, and I took one look at the menu only to realise that I had seen it before. It turns out that the owner of First Nepal has one other Indian restaurant in South Korea, and I am certain that it is called Hungry Eyes in Cheongju. Their menus are identical from the story in the front to the spelling errors scattered throughout. It was also equally delicious. After a dinner of Chicken Saag, basmati rice (a luxury compared to the rice that I am forced to eat everyday at school - and when I say forced I mean that my Principal looked at the amount that I had taken and shouted at me telling me that I had to take more), vegetable raiita and garlic naan, we headed back to the Ethnic Bar where we met up with more people and spent the night relaxing with more fruit soju (strawberry and apple this time).
I woke up fairly early the next morning after a terrible sleep thanks to the ridiculously uncomfortable bed. Koreans don't believe in soft mattresses and all of them, including the one in my apartment, are hard as rocks. I have just gotten used to mine. In any case, waking up early meant that I could relax a bit more in the room, watching some Star-craft TV, before heading back out into the busy (for a Sunday morning anyway) city. For those who do not know what Star-craft is, it is a computer game that most teenage boys are obsessed with. But Koreans go completely overboard. They have contests with spectators watching the action on a projected screen behind the players. And these contests are televised. There is a whole channel dedicated to it. Though I do not find it entertaining to watch, it was the first time I had heard about the channel and was utterly fascinated by the enthusiasm with which it was broadcast. In any case, I watched the channel for a short while before heading back into the real world for a good English breakfast at a restaurant downtown, followed by a cup of tea at a place known as the "Pet Cafe".
I had heard of the Pet Cafe before, but hadn't known quite what to expect. We arrived at the cafe, and I was warned that I would have to run into the room very quickly as the door shouldn't be kept open too long. I walked in and was pounced on by multitudes of multi-coloured dogs! When I say multi-coloured, I mean multi-coloured. Purple ears, orange paws, blue spots on their backs in the shape of paws. Though this might sound a bit cruel, and it certainly did to me, I was assured that none of the dyes are toxic in the slightest, and all of the dogs seemed in tip-top shape. There were Poodles and Chau-Chau's; Spaniels and Scotties. Any and every kind of dog you could imagine. There were also cats and kittens, both Persian and Siamese, all rescued and all seemingly happy to call this cafe their home. Unfortunately we couldn't play with the puppies and kittens since they were being kept separate from the other animals to prevent diseases. To visit the cafe you had to buy something, and the R35 that they charged for a cup of tea went towards looking after the animals that were kept there. And so we spent an hour being adorned by cats and dogs while sipping on cups of iced-tea. Here are some pictures.
After we were finished at the Pet Cafe, we returned to the art street only to find that everything was closed. We walked around for a short while before I decided it was time to head back to the bus terminal. We hung around the book shop there while waiting for my bus to arrive, and I couldn't resist buying another book for myself even though I have so much to read at the moment. Finally my bus arrived and after a quick goodbye, I boarded it for another two hour and forty minute ride back to Cheongju.
Thus ended my Gwangju adventure. I am determined to go back soon and see more of what the city has to hold, so perhaps you will be hearing about another Gwangju adventure sometime soon. However, the next adventure you can expect to hear about will be the return to Busan in two weeks time. In the meantime, you will just have to live with reading the blogs about my uber-exciting everyday life in Cheongju!
Post a Comment