No Camera

I have no new pics of the little guy because either the batteries for the camera are dead or I forget to take the camera with me. So I've uploaded some cute pics of him taken on our roadtrip.

Playgroup

Brandon and I go to a playgroup every Tuesday. It's nothing special just a nice social gathering of expat moms, we take it in turns to host the get together. It's fun for us to see the babies together and to swop advice and stories. The oldest baby is 8 months. In the photos below, Brandon is the youngest baby and the little girl, in the pink shoes, next to him is one week older than him.

Brandon and Hannah (one of his little 'girlfriends' - his other 'girlfriend', Josephine, is the little one in the denim dress)

After this get together a group of us thought we'd go to lunch. It was a rainy day and we got the babies geared up with raincovers over their strollers and off we went. It was really only a light drizzle at this point but because it had been raining continuously for a few hours there were lots of puddles. As we walked it started getting heavier and we made it to the restaurant just before the real downpour started. The people in the restaurant were horrified at the prospect of having to seat 5 women all with prams but they managed. As we ate the rain continued to bucket down and it showed no sign of letting up. Eventually I caught a ride back to the car (still parked at the house of the woman who hosted the group) with one woman's husband. Thank goodness he was able to give me a lift because there was no way Brandon and I would have made it to our car without nearly drowning. By the time I had successfully got Brandon into the car, I was absolutely soaked but Brandon was nice and dry and that's all that matters.

19 weeks

So far, Brandon is enjoying his food, he gets rice cereal, apple, carrot, potato and zucchini. At least, I think it's zucchini. The book we have recommends pumpkin and zucchini as some of the first foods so at the shop yesterday I bought what is called 'green pumpkin' but it looks and tastes a lot like zucchini...so not too sure what he's actually getting but he ate it with no fuss.

We recently purchased a 'Baby Bjorn' carrier. It's so much easier getting to the little corner shop now because I don't have to take the pram. Seoul is not stroller friendly and everything has stairs and not ramps so getting around has been challenging when I'm on my own. The only problem with the 'Baby Bjorn' is that Brandon keeps falling asleep while he's facing outwards (you're supposed to face them inwards to sleep because there's more head support). He loves being in it and I've often walked up to Itaewon with him in it so my back muscles are getting lots of exercise.

Here are some more photos...everyone thinks he looks just like Brad.

Brandon's first swim

On Saturday morning we headed to the Seoul Club. It was a hot day and we really wanted to get Brandon into the baby pool before it got too hot and too busy at the club. We had just purchased some swimming diapers (really hard to come by in Korea) and we were excited to get him in the water. The water in the baby pool was quite cold but he was a little champ - Brad and I both got into the pool and Brad lowered Brandon into the water slowly. We expected some protest but there was none. He seemed to enjoy the floating sensation. We didn't dip his head in the water (some people say you should cos babies instinctively know to hold their breath). Anyway we just swam him between the two of us and he even started kicking his legs. After that we got him out, dried him off and went to have some lunch - he slept so well through lunch.

Brandon's 'conversation'

(It's very quiet out here, I should tell a story...)

(Hey dad, are you listening???)

(Ooooh what's this...)

(What was I saying again???)

(Oh yes, now I remember...)

(I'll pause for the photo)

(actually pulling a funny face is more fun...)

(Oh no, now I've lost track of my story again...)

(Oh...and then...)

Korea Trip: Map

Here is a map of the route we took

Brandon

Gangchon: Gucok Waterfall

This was the picture taken by the guy at the waterfall. I just scanned it in.

Korean Road Trip Day 12: Jirisan National park back to Seoul

I woke up this morning and took Brandon for a walk. We walked down the road and to the river. I now found a few Pensions in the area, much easier at a very slow pace, and they were not well signposted.

The owner made us breakfast, egg, tomato mashed potato and some cooked spam. We also had some kim (seaweed) and bap (rice). It was sad to be leaving and the family had been so accommodating and friendly. In the morning Brandon was having a great time playing with the family, he has really been enjoying the attention since we have been travelling.

We left to some hugs all round and were given some directions to get back on the road to Seoul. It was around 300km to go, so we set out and put some miles under the wheels.

We arrived home at around one o’clock. It was really sad to be heading into Seoul from two weeks away. As we were driving towards Seoul, you could see the air becoming hazy with smog and the traffic backing up. Back to reality.

Well we didn’t get to make the full trip, mainly focused on the East Coast. We will have to do the West and South Coast and some of the interior sometime, the only question is when. The trip has been fantastic, and I would recommend anyone who is Korea to take the time and drive around the country, it will give you a very different view and perception. All along the way the people have been wonderful, always friendly, always providing us something extra. I would definitely recommend to try and stay at pensions or minbaks, at these there is always and experience you will have, at the motels and hotels, it is generally all the same.

The cost of places during the trip were :
Gangchon / Chuncheon KRW55 000
Inje KRW50 000
Hwajinpo KRW60 000
Sokcho / Seorak KRW110 000
Jeongdongjin KRW60 000
Samcheok KRW50 000
Hosan KRW60 000
Gyeongju Day 1 KRW40 000
Gyeongju Day 2 KRW90 000 (included snacks and breakfast) KRW60 000 just room
Busan KRW70 000
Jirisan KRW75 000 (included dinner, breakfast, tea)

It has struck us as strange how dead most of the places were, at restaurants we were generally the only people, same with the hotels. I do not know how the places survive. The coast line is fantastic, just a pitty that almost every part is fenced off with barbed wire, I guess that the necessity when bordering an “axis of evil” country.

Korean Road Trip Day 11: Busan to Jirisan National park

Our trip has had to be adjusted; we have two days left and are as far as feasibly possible (on the mainland of Korea) from Seoul. If we did everything we planned, it looks like we will need maybe another two weeks, oh well maybe next time …

So we had to make a few decisions, and we decided to start heading for home and try and do it in two days, which meant no more relaxed driving along coastal roads, but hitting the freeways and getting some kilometres under the tyres.

But before we did this, we walked around the Haeundae beach area and to the Yacht Mariner. There were some excellent views of Busan and the coast line, but we did not have too much time to relax and take it all in.

We then headed straight for Jirisan National Park, driving for nearly three hours in temperatures which hit 36c at times (according to my car temp gauge). The car was getting hot and Brandon was getting uncomfortable, so we were looking for a place to stay. We wanted to stay at a pension so that we could make ourselves a braai. This time we struggled to find a place, we saw signs saying XYZ Pension 3km, we would drive the 3km and then couldn’t find anything (same issue as the signage in Gyoengju). We carried on a bit and then turned around as we had seen a different pension sign earlier (back around 4km), we droved there, found the sign saying ZYX Pension 500m, we drove there and … nothing, we couldn’t find it. Eventually we turned down a small road and found a few pensions, one under construction, so not available, another which looked really nice, but it looked like it was a whole house. No one was around so I tried calling a number but we had some difficulty but finally understood that it was not available (at least to us), it was now really hot and we wanted to stop, Brandon was crying (he has a bit of a cough) and Carla had also caught a cold. We saw a house that looked nice, had a fantastic view, and had some signs around, but I could not read them as they were written in Korean italics and for me it made it a bit difficult. Anyway, I went and asked if they had a place to stay, a lady said yes and gave us a choice between two rooms, one down-stairs and another upstairs. We chose the upstairs (which maybe was the wrong decisions as the windows were tiny and it was quite hot up there). I do not think they usually have people staying there, and we were an exception, it turns out we had a “Homestay” that was unplanned, there was a family living there, a father, son and Grandmother. We spent the evening with them and had samgyupsal outside. A few hikers from the surrounding mountains joined us.
The house also seems to function as a small tea / coffee stop, so later in the evening the owner pulled out a low table and I, together with some of his neighbours sat around and had a small tea ceremony. The tea was excellent and we had it in small cups. There was a specific process to filtering and brewing the tea. It was a really nice experience. I sat outside for a while, enjoying the sounds of nature and looking at the stars.
The owner was telling me that this (Jirisan) is the “Mother” mountain of Korea, as it is big, but the hills are rolling and it is peaceful with many animals and rivers. Seorak Mountain is known as the “Father” Mountain, it is large and imposing, with big cliffs and rocky peaks. Very different types of mountains.