Saturday and Sunday

We started out on Saturday by catching a bus, then the metro at 5:30 in the morning. We headed out to Muan which is on the southwest coast of the country about 5 hours south, for the White Lotus Festival.

We made rice rolls with lotus leaves, called sambop, which was actually pretty gross.

Then we took a boat ride out on this large pond that was completely covered with lotus plants. 

We had dinner at the festival, which consisted of a normal Korean fare, but almost everything was wrapped or made with lotus leaves. I don't think they taste that good - pretty much like picking a leaf from any flower and eating it.  Then we left for the beach house, which was nice except for the lack of beds, but that's more than normal here.

There was a pool out back, and it was a steep climb down to the Doripo Beach

It was pretty misty, so it was hard to see far, but there was a little island, and more coastline around us. We had a campfire out on the beach, and pretty much just sat around the pool and beach and hung out and talked with the other 50 people on the trip until late. I had to teach James how to make a s'more. He'd never even heard of them before!!

The next morning we were supposed to be supplied breakfast - it was make it yourself pb&j. I watched a bunch of people play cricket and watched the tide go out - I've never seen a tide like that before. Some people tried to walk out to the island, but couldn't because the mud was so sticky and deep it was almost impossible to walk - with or without shoes.

We left around noon to go clam digging, which I turned out to be pretty good at. It was overcast, but still ridiculously hot outside. The poles that you see in the water are part of a seaweed farm. 

You pretty much take an odd shaped trowel and dig in the mud for clam shells that are still closed. 

I got about 30 or 40 before we stopped. We were supposed to catch octopus too, but apparently it was too hard to do. Someone else was able to catch quite a few by digging holes about a foot deep in the mud:

And about half an hour later - I ate a whole baby octopus, live.

I also had quite a few tentacles, which I thought tasted better. The video shows them cutting the tentacles and people taking them to eat - don't watch it if you're squeemish.

And this one I just held in my teeth - it was too big to eat. Too big to eat whole anyways. 

Afterwards we were supposed to go net fishing. It really ended up the fisherman pulled the nets out and pulled them in over the mud, and we picked the fish up out of the mud and put them in a box.

Rather disapointing after eating octopus, but it was a very interesting looking islet. They cut up the fish we caught in the boat and we ate it raw on the way back to the bus.

The rest of the people then got on the bus to go back to Seoul. James had been talking to one of the people that was running the tour, and managed to get us a ride into Mokpo with the photographers who had come with Adventure Korea. (They haven't posted pictures yet, otherwise I'd have better ones of me eating the octopus. They took quite a few of that.) We got there at the tail end of a festival. We didn't see it, but this may have been the vestiges from it, though it looked a bit permanent and expensive to be for a festival.

We found a place to stay in Mokpo, and then took a cab to the beach. We watched people setting off fireworks (they sell them on the streets here like any other vendor), and watched an impromptu wrestling match between a couple guys.

It's apparently an ancient form of wresting, but I don't remember the name of it. So James and I sat out by the beach for a few hours and talked and then went to sleep. 

And that was just the first two days. I'll try and post Monday's events tomorrow.