Day 45 & 46: Heading back to where I belong

Today, it seems so apt to be doing up this blog post: heading back to where I belong. This post is for my last 2 days of my 46 days in Korea. And while I'm typing out something that happens nearly 1.5 years back, on this very day of 29 March 2015, is the farewell of Singapore's founding father. As such, I'm especially feeling the emotions while I type out my feelings of heading back to my home, where I belong. Where I choose to belong, and wish to belong, and will belong.

Everything has a closure. So does my trip. 46 days in Korea, as I always say, is not a lot. But it is enough to get me intrigued about a whole new culture. That said, 46 days in Korea also allowed me to realise that, despite being deeply interested in another culture and country, Singapore is still where I belong. Despite loving this other place so so much, halfway through my 46 days, I already felt homesick. So badly homesick. Because I get this really foreign feeling in Korea once in a while. The feeling that you will never be able to assimilate into their culture. And suddenly I miss home. I miss everyone back home. I miss how I communicate with ease. And I miss how comforting it was to be back home.

Contradicting, I know. I am sure you can love being in different countries, love different cultures. But I am also sure that despite all the different cultures and countries you love, there is only one that makes you feel like that is home.

That said, so I begin my last story of my last days in Korea.

We had an early train at 7am to catch. So we had to get up early. The sun in Korea rises really early. This was probably 5.15am or so. I woke up to see an amazing sunrise. 

We cabbed to Yeosu Expo Station to take our train back to Seoul. That said, I don't know what to expect. It's definitely my first time on a train, like real train, and not a subway train.

We very much wish that it was a KTX train. But sadly, due to budget constraints, we got a Mugunghwa train (which was a third-class train I think). It was sad that my first train ride couldn't be that of a first-class one.

The sun was biding us goodbye at Yeosu. Truth be told, besides the amazing ganjang-gejang, I really don't have much fond memories about Yeosu. The people I met weren't exactly friendly, except the hotel manager. Also, the sights weren't memorable. There were barely any attractions to talk about (or maybe due to my lack of research). The city was kind of developing but not developed enough, which means not much entertainment or hip places but then again not really a cultural place. If you were time-tight, I would say: go for Busan for the sea views, go for Gyeongju for an out-of-the-city experience, go for Jeju for amazing nature sights. Yeosu definitely isn't on my list of recommendations. But then again, I know too little about this place to say much.

This is the Mugunghwa train. Mixed feelings really.

And this is the interior of my Mungunghwa train. It does look very old-school. Everything functions well. But just not what I expected it to be. Also, I didn't realise that there were various cabins with repeated seat numbers. Eg. Cabin 1 has seat 44, and cabin 2-7 too. I went into the first cabin, and found my seat and sat myself down, thinking that that was the only 44 in the whole train.

It was so embarrassing when a group of Korean guys came up and said that we were sitting on their seats. Then again, my Korean was so terrible to converse. Fortunately, one of them could speak basic English and it took us a few rounds to realise that we were on the wrong seat. And also after outrightly showing them our ticket and "proving" that we were on the right seats. How embarrassed was I. We had to move all our bags to the correct seats, and because the bags were stacked up already, and also because of how short I am, it was not easy to get them down. The guys were nice enough to help us get it down, and offered to bring the bags for us. I was too embarrassed to let them do so and insisted on taking it myself. But then again, at least I saw a positive side of people in Yeosu (then again they might not be from there) before leaving this place. At least something worth mentioning. I don't have male Korean friends at all, but the few that I've bumped into have all been pretty gentlemanly and helpful.

I got a coffee and took a seat at my new window seat. It was something that I wanted to do while being on a train. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there was no need for such trains in Singapore as we are too small. Cars could get us from one end of Singapore to the other in about 1.5hours.

By the way, I had to mention about my horrible horrible experience at the Mugunghwa train toilets. So much so that even though I took the KTX on my second trip to Korea, I really didn't dare to step into the toilet at all.

I didn't want to do any shopping so I got back to my guesthouse first to pack my bags. I had left my huge-ass luggage there while I brought a backpack for my 10 days road trip. I didn't exactly pack things properly before I left. But I was famished.

I got the guesthouse helpers to help us (me and my roomie) order 2 bowls of Jjajangmyeon. Bad choice. Should have just took one. Jjajangmyeon comes in such big bowls in Korea it's impossible to finish them. I had it thrice I think, not once did I finish them.

We cabbed down with our luggages to our hotel for one night in Incheon. As our plane ride the next day was at 9am or so, we figured out that it might be better to stay near the airport. The subway ride from Seoul to Incheon airport is easily an hour or more, so is the cab ride, so thankful for the wise choice we made.

But then again, we reached Incheon at about 6pm, which was too early/late depends on how you see it. Too early to be doing nothing and waiting for sleeping time and none of us want to waste our last day in Korea just wasting time away. Too late because we want to head back to Seoul to meet our friends for the last time but to and fro takes 2 hours. We rushed to Seoul and reached at about 7.30pm. Time was very precious because we need to take the 10plus or 11pm train back latest. We ate a quick dinner together and it was already 8.30pm. Lydia wanted to go to the supermarket to do some last minute shopping. I didn't want to. I had a sudden urge to go to Myeongdong (which was really my favourite place in Seoul) to buy things. Then again, leaving to go Myeongdong meant about half an hour to and fro and it means less time with HyoEun and Oktavia.

I promised to be back in an hour. But that means I only have half an hour for shopping. I literally grabbed and bought whatever that caught my eye because I know I won't have another chance in a long while to be back and not buying it now means not being able to buy it ever. It was indeed quite satisfying to be able to buy whatever that caught your eye hahah and I also spent about 100bucks in half an hour, leaving with 2 pairs of shoes, two tops and a cardigan and more cosmetics.

When I arrived and left Myeongdong, it was still bustling with crowd.

My last photo with HyoEun and Oktavia. The 10-days road trip was really a "road trip". Despite spamming sunblock, I still turned so dark. No wonder people thought I was Filipino. My eyebags were so terrible. But I was smiling really happily.

The hard thing about closure is leaving behind some parts of memories somewhere. The hardest part of an international friendship is not knowing when we can see each other again. I'm glad that despite all, my friendship with HyoEun remains. We don't kakaotalk as much as before because I've been so busy at work, but I'm glad that when I head back again, I know she will free time up for me. I know that if I ever head there again, I've a small place in that country which I can find this "homely" feeling. If she ever comes here, I will definitely free time up for her. While she has been in the U.S. for exchange, I'm glad for whatever small help or support that I can give her far far away here in Singapore.

As for Okta, even though we haven't been keeping in close contact, but I miss her and all our times spent in Korea. I believe there will be this day whereby we all reunite in Korea again.

Parting was sad. I can't remember Okta and HyoEun started tearing up first, but it made Lydia and I tear up too. Despite saying that we know we will all meet again, we don't know how long it will take for that to happen. We got big hugs from one another, and from those big hugs, I derive the comfort and courage to leave behind some part of me in Korea and to return to where my home is.

Back to the hotel when we started packing (or unpacking and repacking). This was the mess when 5 girls come together. And I don't think it was even all yet.

With that, I end my 46 days in Korea.

The second time I head back again last year, I know that this won't be the end. There will be many more adventures to come. While I will continue to update with my second trip (albeit only 8 days), let me now also go back to treasuring what I have back home, right here, with me.

Day 44: Boseong Green Tea Plantation

The last official day of the road trip with plans made. In fact, many plans. We wanted to head to the Boseong tea plantation and a few other places? Damyang county for bamboo plantation? The strawberry farm? The salt farm? I can't remember because obviously we were being overly ambitious when it comes down to planning. One thing we forgot is that Jeollanam-do is HUGE. Really huge. We didn't want to waste time finding out the route to Boseong tea plantation so all 4 of us wanted to share a cab. But to our horror, we got onto the cab for a very long 1.5 hours before reaching our destination. We also crossed over to another gun (otherwise known as county) and the cab fare came up to 79,000KRW.

By the time we head to Boseong green tea plantation, it was nearly 11am. We explored around the area and took some photos. Honestly, the view was pretty breathtaking but I didn't know why there was no one working at all. No green tea picking session for us too.

P.S. I always wanted to hide among the flowers. But since there is no flower around, green tea leaves are good too :)

There was a small cafe nearby and we stopped for a green tea bingsu and a green tea icecream shortly after. For 5,000KRW, it was one of the better bingsu I've eaten. We were also one of the only few visitors there, wondering why. Maybe we came on a bad day.

Unwilling to spend another 79,000KRW to cab back to Yeosu, we decided that we should probably take a bus to the nearby interchange and decide our course from then. Afterall, if we manage to get to a bus terminal, there should be inter-city / inter-county / inter-province bus to our next destination. Hence, I had to use my broken Korean to link it up into a full sentence. Amazed that the ahjumma managed to understand me. Even more amazed that I managed to understand her.

But to our horror, there is no way to identify the bus as the bus around the region do not operate with a bus number. Instead, they go by colours. #faint This feels so uneasy. There was also no bus stands / bus stops to indicate where to wait for the bus. The restaurant / cafe operators all had a timing whereby the bus would come by though. So the kind ahjumma told me to sit around for another 30 minutes or so because the next bus is only coming in about an hour. We left for the "bus stop" about 5 minutes away from the cafe.

The only few people I see walking in front were my travel mates. Everyone else pretty came by by car, it was also impossible to hail a taxi here so we had to take the bus no matter what. Unless of course, we asked the cafe ahjumma to help call a cab.

Look how empty and wide the road is. I could even sit in the middle for a photograph. Probably only one car will pass by every 5 minutes or so. This place is incredibly ulu (in Singapore terms) or obscure for city girls like us.

Another view of the very empty road. A bus came by after 1 hr of waiting but it was blue in colour and was on the opposite side. That's the first bus I've seen that has passed by so we were thinking if I understood the ahjumma wrongly. Going by her instructions, the bus should have came within half an hour of our waiting by the road. Finally, a green bus did come by in our direction after 1.5 hours of waiting (that's 2 hours of wait including the 0.5hr in the cafe) for a bus that may or may not come. Moreover, our destination is unclear. I only checked for the direction to the bus terminal but I don't even know which bus terminal we are heading to. We boarded the bus with suspicions.

We got off at an old-looking bus terminal after another 1hr 15mins of bus ride. The first thing I immediately did was to check out if there is any inter-city / inter-county / inter-province bus back to Yeosu. Thankfully there was one to Yeocheon bus terminal, which was nearby our hotel. Thankfully!!! If not we would be stuck in a foreign land with no internet.

Talking about the internet, the stupid EG Sim Card was supposed to last for 45 days. But the last 5 days had practically zero reception. The previous 5 days had reception so slow I couldn't even... And internet had to be non-existent when we needed it most.

Famished and tired, we decided to head for a late lunch at about 2pm. I miss all the banchans. Anything anywhere in Korea, you still get awesome food.

We got the 3.30pm bus tickets back to Yeosu. We were pretty glad we made a smart choice to head back to our hotel. Firstly because there were no buses to Damyang (I think). Secondly we figured it will take another 1-2 hours to head back to Yeosu (thinking that the cab ride already took 1.5 hours). We were right because we reached back to Yeosu at about 6pm.

We headed to the e-mart nearby to have dinner. And I was shopping in the sports section and realise Koreans really are so fashionable. Even their sports wear have interesting / fashionable designs.

And I also ate one of the most awful al-bab there at the foodcourt pffff.

Because we had an early train ride back to Seoul that day, we all wanted to sleep in early. (We had to get up at 5am and leave by 6am because we bought the 7.10am train ticket.) But we figured today was too unadventurous so to compensate for that, we decided to have some supper by the windows at the convenience store in our pyjamas downstairs. I think everyone who came by in were staring at us but heheh we don't really care. Perks of being a foreigner.