Saturday, November 10, 2012

Beef Festival and Hiking

The fall in Korea is beautiful but short.  Localities take advantage of the great weather by holding festivals .  On October 20th we went east to Gangwon-do.  They were holding the Hoenseong Beef Festival.



They was a lot to do and see.  Cassie and Sam thresh the rice:


And carry it around.


They had a booth with free snacks... chestnuts, boiled eggs and potatoes and sweet potatoes.


Around the corner was a bizarre spectacle:


Transformer cow and awesome thumbs up cow relaxing in the garden.



Then they gave me some shower shoes, gloves and a tail.  I caught this rainbow trout with my bare hands.  Badass.


Then they cleaned him up and we ate the fresh sushi.  There was a little soju to wash it down.


Fresh raw trout in a lettuce wrap with raw garlic, wasabi and spicy pepper sauce.


You know they had a mechanical bull.



I didn't last long.  On the plus side, Cassie found a new friend.


After the festival we were off to Supchaewon, or the Healing Forest Garden.  It was a little chilly, but great for a hike.





The hike was a quick one, about 45 minutes.  Then I scored a CocoGrape.



After a long day we headed to Phoenix Park,  resort where we spent the night.  They had a water park.  It was okay, but the spa (jimjilbang) was outstanding.  They had a steam room at 90 C (about 195 F).  I lasted abut 8 minutes.  We got some junk food for dinner.  It was an early night because there were important things to do in the morning.

Another, tougher, hike.



Our roommate Moonish made a wise decision giving up after 10 minutes.


The ladies were even smarter, taking the gondola to the top.

Awesome last activity... RVing.



Successful weekend.  RVing, hiking and beef highly recommended.

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