Crabs and Caves

This past weekend, I headed to the not-so-famous town of Hupo for the International Crab Festival. When I asked my fellow Korean co-workers if they'd ever been, they looked at me like "what festival?" Ha! Away I went anyway.

Hupo is a teensy town about 4hours northeast of Busan. It is along the Sea of Japan (or East Sea... Koreans refuse to recognize the sea as belonging to Japan. They are even petitioning for international books to be re-written to say East Sea and not sea of Japan... I'm not kidding). Anywho, a few friends and I hopped on a bus and four hours later, we were dropped off in Hupo at 2:30am. The place was deserted. Not a single light on for as far as I could see. Half the group went to stay with a friend who lived in Hupo and the other half (me included) went to stay at a "Love" motel.

Love motel? To make a long story short, Koreans live with their parents until they get married. So, if a couple would like to have a little privacy, they rent a "love" motel. Not surprisingly, love motels are extremely cheap. Thus, they are also a haven for budget conscious travelers such as myself.

Moving on... Saturday morning, we headed to the Crab Festival a few miles down the road. I was with three other friends (two from Pittsburgh, Tony and Teresa; and one from Arkansas, Will). As we were walking down the road, not really sure if we were walking in the right direction or not, a cop drove by, pulled a Uy, and drove up next to us. Now, in America, I'd be prepared to defend myself for unknowingly doing something illegal. But the cop just asked, "where you go?" We said Crab Fest and pointed down the road. He laughed and pointed the opposite way! He motioned for us to get into the car. Yep, we got a police escort to the crab fest!

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So, once we got to the crab fest, we perused the food stalls for some breakfast. I had a fried donut (bagels, cereal, scrambled eggs with hash browns isn't really an option. Oh, I'd kill for a eggs benedict right now!). I can't say there was a whole lot going on other than a lot of crabs, Korean food, a parade, some traditional dance entertainment, etc. The highlight of the crab fest would actually be us! We were the only westerners there for the first few hours. We were like celebrities. News reporters interviewed Teresa, and filmed us eating crab and fish. I was stopped several times and asked to wave at the camera. The treatment was phenomenal.

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We stopped at a large above ground pool to check out what was going on. Not more than two minutes later, Teresa was being pulled into a line of people to participate in God knows what? Obviously, we couldn't understand the announcer but the reaction of the crowd gave her no choice but to go along with whatever activity was to come.

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Turns out, she was going to get into the pool along with several other Koreans and try to catch fish with her bare hands! But after a closer look, the pool was filled with not only fish but also eels! I would have died!!!! The announcer blew a whistle signalling the beginning of the race. I swear it wouldn't take the Korean men more than a few seconds and they would have their arm above their head with a huge fish in hand signalling they were done! Needless-to-say, Teresa had a bit of trouble so at the end, the announcer handed her a fishing net! Haha!

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After she fished out two fish, the Koreans quickly whisked us off to another tent where the fish was quickly killed, gutted, and cut up into sashimi. It was delicious but I had to get the mental thought of the fact that this fish was alive no more than a few minutes ago. The second fished was grilled up and I'm not going to lie, it was amazing!!!! I think they just threw a little salt on it but it was soooooo tasty!

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The day continued and we were able to continue our free eating spree with some free whole crabs and some free traditional Korean wine. We toured a Korean Navy ship, the guys played a few carnival games, and we witnessed the guinness book of world records longest gimbop made (100 yds). Gimbop is pretty much a sushi role but in Korean it is similar in popularity as our PB&J. In the evening we finally sat down for some dinner and were greeted with more hospitable treatment. A neighboring table brought over a round of Hite (Korean beer) and two bottles of Soju (Korean vodka-ish drink). It was totally out of nowhere and for no reason. And it continues. The next group of Koreans that sat at the very same table, did the same thing!!!! It was ridiculous! Koreans definitely have the reputation of being rude and inhospitable and if you don't understand their cultural social structure, yes, it would appear that way. But in fact, once you initiate contact with a Korean, they consider you now a friend and Koreans do anything for friends and family. Apparently, just the fact that we would travel so far to participate in their celebration made us part of the family!

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Day 2, we headed to the city of Uljin. As we were walking to the bus station, guess who pulled up next to us! The cop!!!!! Only this time, he was just driving his car. I didn't recognize him at first but Tony was like, "hey its the cop!" We hopped in his car and he dropped us off at the bus station just a few minutes down the road. He is probably the nicest cop, I've ever met.

So, Free stuff tally:

• two rides into town
• four whole crabs
• 2 fish
• few cups of wine
• 9 beers
• 2 bottles of soju

Back to the story:

The most famous attraction in Uljin is the Seongnyu-gul cave. Apparently, there are more famous caves in Korea but this particular one is famous because it was the hiding place of an important Buddha statue during the Imjin Waeran. According to Koreans, during the war, towns people took refuse in this cave but it closed up and they died. Freaky! In we went....

Many of the passageways are very very narrow and ceilings dip down pretty low so you have to waddle through. It's definitely not an attraction for the causterphobic!

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But the caves are pretty spectacular. The stalagmites are made out limestone and based on the shapes, several had little signs on them with names. My favorite was Bacon Strips! (picture to the left).

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Well, that was it for the trip. We caught a bus back to Busan around 4pm but there was a lot of traffic so we didn't roll in till about 8:30pm.

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I've been here just over a month and this has been my first trip out of Busan for the weekend. It was really nice pulling up to my apt Sunday night and getting a little feeling of coming home. Mostly, I'm having good days and moments that I know I'm right where I should be but of course, the homesickness hits me every now and again. In fact, I still wake up most mornings not remembering I'm in Korea! But I had that same displacement feeling when I moved to Minneapolis and IU. I know it will pass!

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This coming weekend, I'm planning on hitting the beach for a surfing lesson on Sat and then some outdoor yoga on Sunday. The weather has turned nice and it looks like its here to stay. The cherry blossom trees are starting to drop their flowers which means summer is just around the corner... :)

Em