Another early (?) start with a 9:00 pickup after checking out of the hotel and a 30min drive to Yandong Village which has been around in the same families for over 500 years with the descendants of the original founders still living there. The village is in a little valley and there are two types of houses. Those roofed with tiles which are high status anf those roofed with rice straw which are not. We make our way to the Songs house which as the highest ranking family and is the highest house in the valley. In fact while we are there Mr Song who is the current owner came out of the house to tidy up.
This Juniper tree is over 500 years old and was planted at the time the village was started.
The only house that is allowed to be higher than Mr Songs is his ancestors house
Despite the fact that it is still early in the morning the heat is really oppressive and there is very little shade in the village so we decide that the prudent thing to do is to call it quits rather than try to walk up hill and down dale in the full sun.
On the way down we see one of the houses has a neat stack of firewood under the eaves. As people live in these houses all year round and rely on the traditional forms of heating i.e. wood fires, and that it snows a great deal here in winter it’s no wonder that laying in a load of firewood is a really good idea.
Given that this is a real village with real people living in it, it really is a remarkable place. Slowly melting we head back to the car and a 1 1/2 hour drive to Busan. Originally we were supposed to go for a 3 hour hike in the mountains but that would have simply been suicide so we’ve organised with our guide Nami to visit the UN memorial gardens in Busan.
Now think back to 1950 and Mash (the film and the TV series). North Korea has invaded South Korea and has pushed south almost to Busan. The United Nations call upon members to supply troops to fight the invasion and about 1.5m from 22 countries head to Korea, a place they probably had never heard of before to fight for a people whose culture and history they knew nothing about. Over 40,000 of them paid with their lives including 1,177 from the UK. All of the dead, known and unknown, are remembered here by an ever grateful Korean people. If this bears an uncommon similarity to today you have to ask the question will we never learn.
The settings are simple and somber
Its really good to remember that lot of people have, in one conflict or another, have died to ensure that we have the ability to live as free a life as we do.
Time then to head to another Korean restaurant for lunch. This time it’s pork bone soup with blood pudding and of course all the trimmings and I have to say its another really nice meal.
After a leisurely meal we go to our hotel, have a shower, sort out our dirty washing to get washed tomorrow and then head to the bar for a quick beer and a snack. I had calamari but it was like no calamari I’ve ever had as it was enormous and really tasty but then Busan is renown for its sea food. Chris has a fish cake so you tell me how this is a fish cake.
The view out of the window is amazing looking out over the Gwangan Bridge.
We get chatting to a group of three Koreans (two ladies and a gent) at the next table. It was an animated conversation as they were well through their second bottle of Tequila but was fun while it lasted. Blog time and Bed. Catch you tomorrow.
XX🌳🧚🌳XX