Day 1 in Korea

This is the Admiral Hotel where we are staying. It is not fancy, but quite comfortable, and close to the city for me to browse while Steve is offshore:




A picture of Koeje Island, the island we are staying on in Korea. It is on the southeast coast of Korea. We are actually in Okpo, the fourth red arrow “you are here” (in English!) down on the right:




Our first day in Okpo, Korea was great! Thankfully, Steve was here to show me around. We wandered around downtown for a bit and saw how the city lives. There were aquariums all over the harbor front that pipe water in from the harbor to keep the fish alive while waiting on it to be sold for food.





While looking at the odd fish in the aquariums, this lady came by collecting boxes:




We saw her repeatedly throughout the day. She did know how to say HALLOW very well :-)


There are many beautiful sights here. Some people may be disappointed in what they see, but learning about other people’s lifestyle is amazing. What I consider common is not so common, and what they consider common is unique to me. Looking over the harbor to the city front:




How would you like to play basket ball or soccer in your… suits? I am sure they are uniforms, but wow:





It was a beautiful day to wander around and get acquainted with the city.


These guys are re-blacktopping the street. The hard way:




We hiked to the top of a hill and saw this ? that overlooked the harbor:





I was able to take a not-so-great picture of us as we had no tripod, however; the wind was a bit stout. I doubt I would have felt comfy putting my camera on it with the flash. Where we supposed to wear shoes on this? I have no idea, but an apparently Korean woman went up with her shoes on, so I hope it was ok.

Anyway, here we are:

It was beautiful:

Coming down the hill a bit, we found a park. It is obvious here in Korea that exercising is encouraged as well.

There are many hiking paths here, but imagine this in Louisiana:

This was a park for young and old alike to exercise! It would be wonderful to have this for our availability – to use and enjoy as we get healthy. It is not always cool here in Korea – in fact, it gets quite warm here. In Singapore, it is always hot – so what is our excuse there in the states?

Going down the path back was a bit of a challenge. It is a very steep hill, but worth every step. The beauty looking off into the distance explains it all:

Finally, at the bottom of the hill, we got to the board walkway skirting the coast. Steve has walked it before, so he knew where we were going all along:

Off in the distance, people are searching for goodies. I can only assume clamming?

What do you think?

They weren’t the only ones fishing:

These fishermen were fun to watch!

They caught the “Momma Mia” fish!




Safety first (?) in Korea - not any more important here than in Singapore:

I shudder looking at this after I nearly got ran over – they missed me by a mere 4”!!

I am still amazed by the electrical systems in these places:

Apparently the magpie sitting under the transformer was too. I wonder if he was the one that tossed those hangers in between the transformers?


This guy has wires in his teeth – umm, yeah, I saw it with my own eyes.

The children were just getting out of school when we came down off of the hill. They loved stopping and testing their English skills with us. They said “hi!” and we would stop and say “hi!” back. They giggled and often tested the ground a bit more – very excited when we could understand them.

It was refreshing to giggle with them and see their delight that American’s could understand what their instructors had taught them to say. I look forward to this excitement more while we are here. Their little faces light up when we ‘understand’! Well, worth stopping and chatting with them, helping them sharpen their skills and it is very delightful to share a moment of understanding with them.

More pictures of the area:

Finally, back to the hotel for a bit of R & R: