Saturday, November 7, 2009

Korea trip - Part 3

After lunch, it was a short drive to the rice factory. This little place can process 500 acres-worth of rice in a day! The woman who runs it (with her husband who was ill) gave us the tour. The place was very noisy because they are working full tilt during this harvest season. The result is 5x cleaned translucent white small-grain rice, all bagged up and ready to be cooked . The rice bran is bagged too - smells and tastes sweet.We left the bus parked there and walked on down the road. Oh, that bit of exercise felt good! Passed a woodworking factory where a couple men were hand-notching huge poles that would be used to create a traditional Korean house, like this one on display:It was lovely and cool inside, with wonderful open beam construction. This house is kept cool, or warm depending on the season, by it's thick red clay walls, as well as the low ventilation windows (seen below the 'regular height' windows in the photo above). Very elegant and graceful, and though it looks like a simple structure, upon closer inspection one sees the superb detailing: every notch fits perfectly, all the shutters are hand-carved into lattice work. It felt very calm and relaxing... much cooler than the outside sunshiny day... A little park across the road was full of exercise equipment and benches under the trees.But we must be off to the next stop: the Model Livestock Farm with pigs, cows, and chickens all housed inside big open buildings - and NO SMELL!! I know it's hard to believe, but with deep bedding (3-4 feet) and the IMOs added to both feed and bedding, their waste is decomposed so quickly that the stinky bacteria don't develop. The farm family had prepared another lunch for us: a spicy chicken and potato dish which we ate in a lovely little covered platform right over a little stream. We did our best, but had just eaten recently... and it was spicy! I did like the potatoes though.

One more stop for the day: the Gokseong Train Village, a cute little tourist spot. The rose gardens were extensive with over 300 varieties of roses from all over Europe. We got to meet the man who designed this garden, as well as the most recent graduates of Mr Cho's training program waiting for us in the garden. Mr Cho was moved to tears at this surprise. He's getting old and had been ridiculed for 40 years in his own country, until just recently when younger, more progressive leaders (like the 2 mayors we met and even the President of Korea!) have taken in his message of Natural Farming and developed these model farms and co-ops throughout the southern Counties of South Korea.
And then... past more flowers and spirit poles... and on to the trains! Cycle-cars for everyone! Mike & I shared a car with Mrs Park and Donald Ikeda, one of our own Councilmen. We all had great fun, lots of laughs, and more good exercise. Here's the view from our car:And then... we met the Mayor of Gokseong County, Mr Jo Hyeong-Lae. This was a very official meeting, with Mr Ikeda presenting a formal invitation from our own Mayor to be sister-counties with Gokseong. I was chosen to hand him our gift bag from the group, I think because he was looking directly at me the entire time he gave his welcoming speech!After the ceremonies were over, and all the hand-shaking was done, we wandered around the trains and to the old movie set that's there.

Dinner downtown at the Hundred Flowers Restaurant, reputed to be one of the best in Korea! We had so much food today - and here was some more, all of it delicious. Crabs, all kinds of little shellfish to suck on, raw Korean beef, slices of sweet potato, zucchini, and so much more. Mike & Donald had a jolly time drinking shoji, a local rice alcohol. We all slept well that night!

Awoke to an overcast, cloudy day. Quite a bit cooler, but feels very nice. Breakfast at the Jeon Highway Stop, special-ordered to be "not too spicy". Mrs Cho, sitting across from me, showed me the proper way to eat my rice & vegies with a fried egg on top: with a spoon, and all mixed up, in case you wondered. The chopsticks are for the soup (!), to pick out the solid bits before you slurp down the broth. O-kay. Mike found the road map we'd been looking for and got the bus driver to mark out our route. Ms Cho circled the towns we've been visiting, too. Perfect!

Back on the bus, Mrs Park handed out little trick-or-treat bags to commemorate Halloween - how cute! It was a pretty festive mood as we headed into the mountains. It looks a lot like North Idaho, surprisingly! Our first farm was a chicken egg farm. I didn't care for the way these chickens were all crowded together. Good baby chick set-up though. Beautiful views!
Lunch at the "Good" Restaurant - don't know what it's actually called but this sign assured us that we were on the right track:Lunch was as tasty as ever, and the presentation was great. We even got to sit on chairs this time!Across the street was a landmark historic fort and it's attending village, dating from the 1360's. This is the best-preserved fortress in Korea from the time when Japan invaded way back when... This is where the dynasty turned them back, so it is considered a very important place. We got to look in for just a bit. Today it's filled with vendors and so fascinating! Tried some malt taffy-like candy - it was good; and some crunchy roasted beetles, supposed to be a real treat - they were interesting but I'd just go with the taffy next time, thanks.
To be continued...

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