Saturday morning we took off with the church youth group for a one night camping trip. I had some reservations about the idea. There was a 90% chance of rain on Saturday and we had no camping equipment. A church family had spare camping gear and the church had some extra supplies and rented extra tents. Our kids wouldn't take "no" for an answer, so their overindulgent parents said "yes". In a light rain, we loaded up the cars and set out with more than a little reluctance on my part. I suspect rescheduling would have been difficult with the closely approaching winter. It is starting to get cold in Korea.
The camping destination was about an hour away near a spot on the coast that locals call "The Hand". The actual name of the area is Homigot, meaning "Village on the Tiger's Tail". We stopped first at The Hand which is part of a Millennial Park. The Hand is comprised of two sculptures of giant hands seemingly reaching towards each other. One is positioned in the ocean and the other is on land. I'm not sure of the symbolism of the hands, but suspect is has something to do with that yin and yang idea that we see reflected in the Korean flag. The rain was now falling steadily as we ate our lunches, posed at The Hands for pictures and visited a very nice lighthouse museum located next to a lovely still functioning lighthouse. Although the lighthouse museum was full of interesting displays of huge lanterns and other accoutrements of historical lighthouses, my favorite part was a small darkened auditorium. Across the floor there were projected images of fish swimming around. It didn't take long before Robert started to chase the images across the floor. It turned out there was some sort of sensor that made the fish swim away from him. When he was successful in catching one, it disappeared. If he stopped chasing them, the fish would swim again towards the center of the floor. Soon Robert was splayed out on the floor leaping and swatting at fish to the entertainment of our group and the Koreans touring the museum. Men were shouting out and encouraging him on. Other kids from our group wandered in (including Mary) and were soon busy chasing the fish. I don't know how they engineered the motion detector to coordinate the response by the fish to Robert's efforts to catch them, but it was really fun to watch. When Robert noticed the attention he was drawing, he got shy and stopped for awhile, but the lure was too great and he ended up chasing fish again.
It was now time to find our camping spaces. We loaded up in the cars again and set out to find the camp grounds. The rain had lightened up and I was hopeful it would clear up. We found the camp grounds and were surprised to see that the camp sites we had rented had a surface comprised of crushed granite and rocks! I'm talking small pieces about 1-2 inches in size with jagged edges - not exactly the sort of surface one wants to sleep on. It looked more like a parking lot with a small tree next to each space that was neatly laid out with ropes and poles. We checked with the managers of the site and learned there were no cancellations the day of the reservation. So, we started unloading our gear. The sky still looked ominous as we unloaded our gear and started setting up the tents. Then the winds started. I would describe them as gale force winds, but that is probably an exaggeration. It is accurate to say that things were blowing over as we tried to set up camp. We rigged up some tarps over the site from the ropes that were strung overhead to delineate each camping space. We figured we would need them as a shelter for cooking and eating dinner. We were not a group of experienced campers and tying knots was not our strength either. And of course the rain was starting to come down again. Thankfully the camp manager showed up and provided enormous help in pulling things together. A couple of men from the other camps chipped in helping to drive stakes and secure the rain and wind covers for the tents. Soon the camp was relatively ship shape and it was dinnertime.
The best part of dinner was that it would consist of meat. Meat for dinner in Korea usually means pork belly. It looks like bacon, but has none of the curing of the American product. It tastes like thin and fatty pork chops. I think its delicious and Koreans see it as an affordable delicacy in an economy where beef is very expensive. One of the church families made a stop at Costco and brought along a supply of chicken and beef. So, we ended up having pork belly, beef and chicken. This was going to be a feast! We set up a camp grill and I grilled beef and chicken in a now steady rain with the wind still blowing while the youth leaders grilled the pork belly. The ever helpful camp manager showed up again with an electric lantern to give us light. In Korea they like to put aluminum foil down over the cooking grill. I think it has something to do with a belief that the blackening from an open grill is not healthy. They are probably right, but grill marks and smoke from a BBQ adds to the flavor. The pork belly was over aluminum foil and the beef/chicken were cooked by me in the American fashion. By now the rain was being blown sideways by the wind in a successful effort to elude our tarp over the dinner area. I was getting pretty wet, but happy sampling the fruits of our efforts over the cooking stoves.
After a delicious dinner we gathered around the campfire for hot chocolate, smores and a couple of praise hymns. It was time to turn in and experience sleeping on our rock surface. One of the families had a spare air mattress that protected the old man from the ground surface. Susan and the kids reported that the rock surface managed to elude all their efforts to sufficiently insulate them from the sharper rocks. The kids managed to sleep pretty well, but Susan had a harder time. On the air mattress I shamelessly slept like a rock blissfully unaware of their greater difficulties.
The next morning the sky was blue with no sign of clouds. The wind, however continue to blow and seemed, if anything, a little stronger. We pulled down the overhead tarp concerned that the winds might break it apart. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs (I cracked the eggs which explains the small pieces of shell that found their way into the eggs - on the Food Network they call that the "crunch" factor), fruit and juice. The kids enjoyed a game of Capture the Flag with the youth leaders. Check out time at the camp ground was 1:00 p.m., so we had a devotional time together in which we read Nehemiah Chapter 8 and observed some similarities between the Feast of Booths and our camping experience. We then broke down the camp and loaded up the cars. I was ready to head home, but the kids were still energized despite all the running around during Capture the Flag. So, we instead headed down to the shore line for some fishing and kite flying. After an hour or two of fun (no fish caught), it was time to finally head home. The camping trip was a success and the experience will be more fondly remembered because of overcoming the adverse conditions.
General observations about camping in Korea: Like the US, campers are helpful and friendly. I doubt any other campsites in the US or Korea would have a more helpful manager than the one who came to our aid. Restrooms are very modern and clean and included hot showers and an area with several sinks to clean your cooking utensils. Our campsite, despite the less than desirable rock surface, was about 100 yards from the ocean. Our rented tents were rather flimsy, especially for the windy and rainy conditions. The Korean campers had much sturdier tents, some of which were pretty elaborate and almost looked like small cabins. One was probably 15 feet high. I have no idea how they managed to put it up. Unlike the US, there is no reason to be concerned about possible theft. Most US campers are equally considerate, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to universally true. I don't think the use of rock for a camping surface is usual in Korea. It's one positive feature is that it promotes good drainage and the likelihood of your campsite flooding is pretty remote. In the spring I'm hoping we get to give it another try, especially if the old man can secure an air mattress again.
Last night the kids said a sad goodbye to Susan's sister Mary after a wonderful visit over the past month. She has been so much fun to explore Korea with and incredibly helpful around the house. We will truly miss her, but are encouraged by her desire to return in the spring for another visit (she says to see Korea in the spring, but we know it is really to see us.)
Ken Chinn
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