Darangee Village --> May 14/15

This past weekend I was supposed to go on a "Fishing and Camping" trip, but just before I went to take the bus to Seoul, the organizer called me and cancelled the trip because of some unexpected thing or other.

Naturally, I was kind of pissed and a bit stressed because now I was left with a weekend without anything to do and anywhere to go.

So, I quickly went online, looked through the many travel groups I know and TADAAA! I found a nice trip that still had some spots available.

I paid for the trip, confirmed my payment and reservation, packed my bags and..... took a nap :).

I went to Seoul pretty late, which was nice. I got to spend some time with Abby before leaving for the weekend. I also got to do some laundry and dishes. Got my place in order before going away for 2 days. It's nice to come home to a clean apartment :).

Here are the pictures of my wonderful adventure.

 When I got to Express Bus Terminal it was past 11pm and everything was closed. Since I hadn't eaten any dinner I was starving. The only open food place was McDonalds, and well... I hadn't eaten there in a couple of years. So I decided to splurge :).

 I got the usual Big Mac with fries and a Coke, no ice. :)

 Then I went on the search for the sauna where I was going to spend the night. On the way, I found this beautiful tree. I used to have one on my balcony but it died... :(

 And here's the sauna. It was pretty small, but I slept alright.

In the morning, I caught the Adventure Korea bus for the trip. This was our tour guide. 

 We went on this island called Namhae. It was waaaay down south at the tip of the peninsula.

 We went to a little village on the coast.

 Called Daraengi village.

 It was incredibly beautiful there. And the weather was perfect!

 There were about 45 of us. All foreigners from different countries and different cities within Korea.

 I slept in this house with 7 other tourists. It was very nice.

 The whole village was incredibly well kept. It was clean, no garbage anywhere, and it was beautifully decorated and painted.

 After check-in, we went down to this rock beach.

 Guess who that is? 

 There was a large group of students there.

 They had this raft take people out on the water for 10 minutes or so.

 Some brave people dared to swim in the COLD water.

 Then we started fishing. That orange thing in my hand is a piece of sea urchin used as bait. Between the rocks are a lot of small fish. 

 When they bite, you have to be quick and put them in your little container.

Jessica (a new friend) displays her catch.

 Yay! So exciting :).

 He was the only person on this trip who was not a teacher. He was a doctor doing some research on how your mind understands and processes fear. Very very cool stuff.

 Then we moved on to this muddy field that was full of little eel like fish. 

 See?? They were so cool. 

 And very wiggly.

 Next we practiced some ox plowing. You might ask why. Well, does there have to be a reason? It's on the trip itinerary, so it's gotta be fun.

 And it definitely was fun. See me laughing and smiling??

 I had to run to keep up with that speedy ox.

 The farmer is very happy. He's got all these foreigners doing this work for him :).

 I wasn't prepared to be trampling around in a field. I didn't bring appropriate shoes. 

It was alright. At least I looked stylish plowing that field :).

 And then dinner back at the house. This was a typical Korean meal.

And then we were supposed to make these lanterns, but they were already made. We had to write our wish on it and hopefully it'll come true after we let it fly away.

Lantern in action.

I hope it works!

Followed by a sea snail BBQ. Not the most delicious thing I've eaten.

But potatoes will always be delicious.

New friends.

Breakfast the next day. Korean breakfast, lunch and dinner are pretty much the same thing.

Now in another village, getting ready to go catch fish with our hands.
Jessica accidentally got caught in the net bag. Hm...

Off we go. It's low tide, the water is going out, and there's a big net in the distance.

Lots of foreigners and Koreans are looking for fish to catch.

By the net is the best spot.

This guy was good. I was pretty good too.

Can you see the fish? It was pretty difficult to see. It's on the left between them 2 green blobs.

No fish yet... :(
But we were still happy to be splashing around in the water.

In the end we did catch some fish.

This bag I caught all by myself. There are a bunch of large fish in here, and a bunch of smaller fish. All delicious though.

Heading back to dry land. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to keep looking, but all the fish were gone.

Here we are, with our trophies.

It was a random little stand next to the beach.

Some of the people made candles. I didn't. I really didn't need another useless nick-nack to clutter up my already cluttered and tiny apartment.

Now we're going back to go eat the fish we caught. I was starving. I didn't eat a lot of rice for breakfast.

The restaurant would gut and clean the fish.

We sat outside enjoying the beautiful day. It was so sunny and warm. Just fantastic.

Christy was enjoying her beer.

And I was enjoying my beer.

Then came some of the food.

The fish was ready to be cooked.

MMM!!! Grilled fish.

And we had sashimi too :).

And now going back to Seoul, and then to Sokcho, and then to Geojin (home). We left at 1:30pm, and I got home at 11:30pm. It was a loooong trip back. But totally worth it :).