Hiking with hilarious old men

20.08.2012

Today my mission was to see this black pebble beach. If you take the number 411 bus out to the beach, you're supposed to be able to find it pretty easily.

I walked Dave to school and easily found the station I was supposed to pick that bus up at.

I didn't even get on it before I found six new friends. A crazy old man started talking to me in English. He said he was going hiking with some of his old army buddies, so I asked if I could come along. I only had about half a litre of water with me, hadn't eaten breakfast and definitely did not have any lunch. Oh yah and I also did not have a hat. What I did have though, was a giant towel that I had to lug around the whole time.

"How long are you hiking for?"

"About four hours"

"OK, let's do it!"

So I followed them up this windy road into the mountains and we hiked VERY SLOWLY around all day. They would go for about 20 minutes, stop and break out the rice wine. Then do it all over again. That first sip of wine and cracker though, was the best thing I have tasted in a long time. I was starving.

My English-speaking friend's name was Jun Kwang Juo and he told me he was 70 years old. He took pity on me and gave me a random red hat he had is his bag, you know, just in case I guess? It was quite stylish.

The end destination was a temple at the top of the mountain. Where they stopped for lunch and gave me so much food I was stuffed. They had some sort of meeting to discuss what sounded like important issues. My English-speaking friend told me it was a meeting to discuss their hiking club. But it sounded a lot more serious than that.

After lunch we went back down the other side of the mountain to the beach, continuously stopping and having more and more rice wine. They took me to a cafe and paid for me to try one of those ice dishes with the red bean and coconut milk. I forget what it's called now. I didn't notice anyone pay for anything, so I'm not quite sure who these old men really were and what kind of strings they were pulling at the cafe.

After that, I was tired and I think they were too. One of the old men was drinking a lot and kept getting louder and louder. I think he said something rude to one of the others and they got into a fist fight! Right before they had to get on the bus! Even on the bus they were still shouting at each other! 70 year old men, I don't know what they had to fight about, but there it was....

It was quite the ordeal finding my way back to Dave's house, but I did it. Now, it's my turn to get dinner.

So I found a random takeout place and ordered the most expensive thing. It was $11 and it turned out to be deep fried pork. That was our dinner.

Dave had landed an interview that evening, so we quickly ate and headed out for that. It's in a really cool part of town, near the beach and a pretty sizable night market. He left me at a karaoke place and then I waited for him to have his interview. I told him not to say that he "wants to experience more Korean culture" as a reason for leaving his old job. Just say that you "want more of a challenge". So he did that and was back in about 10 minutes. I didn't actually stay at the karaoke place because the lady wanted $20 an hour! Crazy.

He got the job and he gets to stay in Ulsan! Good for him! He has to get out of his apartment by Friday, but he doesn't move into his new apartment until NEXT Saturday, so I might have a house guest next week.

To celebrate we took some soju to the beach. Hurray.

Dave's house, not for long