Sorae Market: The Video

As fall entrenches itself here, I haven't been much in the mood to explore any new areas. I've been out several times on the bike, but the early sun sets, chilly winds, and a back tire that keeps wanting to go flat on me have kept me close to home. I made another trip down to Sorae last weekend and pulled out the video function on my camera. It definitely won't be the most exciting 9 minutes of your life, but I figured it would be a good glimpse at one of my favorite locales here in Korea.

Videos

I've added video of the bull fight to the post below. I've also added a video to this post from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Sometime soon (when I figure out how to edit them down), I'll be adding a few more videos in the future. You can just click on the video label below (or right here) to find all posts with videos.

The Bulls and the Blood

Late in the week, I found out that some people I knew were headed down to Cheongdo to see a Korean bull fighting tournament. Quickly surmising that I haven't been on an out-of-province trip in a long time, I decided to make the trek down. After an early morning subway ride into Seoul and a 4.5 hour train ride to Cheongdo, we made our way via taxi to the bull fighting arena.

The bull fights in Korea are not the same as the bull fights in Spain or Mexico. Rather there are two bulls actually fighting each other. Well, not really fighting. More like wrestling. Actually, more like pushing. According to what I've heard, the bull fights in Korea date back over 1000 years. At that time, bulls would naturally fight each other for the right to chew on the best grass. When one farmer began bragging about how pushy his bull was, another farmer soon challenged his claims. And thus bull fighting in Korea began. The pre-fight action consists of each bull handler leading his fighter into the arena and trying to get him to engage in a match. Once the bulls engage, the battle begins and there is a head-to-head pushing match. Every once in a while, one bull will make a move to overpower the other bull. It seems that when one bull is finally able to get the other bull to run away, he wins the match. There also seems to be some scoring system involved, but I never figured it out.




Here, you can see the owners / handlers guiding their bulls in battle. The handlers would make hoots and haws at the bulls, and give them the occasional crack of the whip.













But the best part was not really the bulls. In addition to the bull fights, they had a full county fair going on, Korean style. Food stands surrounded the arena, with pigs on spits, corn on the cob, and whale meat soup. Like I said, it was Korean style. Vendors were also selling jewelry, face paintings, persimmon wine, and a whole host of other goods. They had some side show entertainment as well, including acrobatic performers, and an all-transvestite band. Kids, much to their chagrin, were also getting their pictures taken atop bulls. On Sunday afternoon, the entertainment was to include bull riding by American service members in Korea. Unfortunately, it was just a one day affair for us. After the festivities were over for the day, we headed to Daegu, where we spent the night revisiting some of my old joints. We even made it to the bus HOF, a bar built into a bus, that I had always wanted to visit when I lived there. All in all, it was a long, but enjoyable weekend adventure. I'm hoping the weather is nice enough next weekend, so that I can bike to Suwon. They have an old castle there, and lots of cherry trees which are supposed to be blossoming soon.

Mendoza Flyin'

Well, last we left off I was on my way to Mendoza, heart of the Argentinian wine industry. My first activity there was what they call parapenting. In English, paragliding or parasailing. Basically, we drove up to the top of a mountain and jumped off (with a parachute). The ride up was actually the scariest part, as our little 4x4 wound its way up a narrow dirt road to the top. Some of the hairpin turns could not be made without backing up, leaving the rear of the vehicle perched on the edge of a death defying dropoff. At the top, there was a large gathering of school children - and I have no idea how they got there. There were people trekking up and down the mountain, but I cannot imagine getting all those little kids to hike that far. And the road would be impossible to negotiate with a bus. Nevertheless, there they were to watch us fly. After some brief instructions (run that way) I was strapped into to a chair, which was then attached to my operator´s seat (it was a tandem flight, of course). Next thing I know, whoosh, we were flying down the valley, back up, and overhead the takeoff site. It was a pretty amazing experience. You just float there and fly over the landscape below. You can feel the wind rushing past you and the occasional pull when making turns. But otherwise it is just like sitting in a chair hundreds of feet up in the air. After 15-20 minutes, we started heading towards the landing site. Coming down, he did a few acrobatics - I am sure it was nothing spectacular, but you could defiinitely feel the g-forces as he spun back and forth.

Next, I headed to Los Penitentes. This is a ski area a few hours west of Mendoza, just before the Chiliean border. I spent three days there skiing (which was probably one day too many - the boots ended up hobbling me for a couple days, and I´m still shedding my ski sun burn). It´s near the end of the season, so the snow wasn´t great. But they had three decent runs which they kept groomed. I also ran into some people I had met before - a South African couple that I first met in Salta, and saw again at the hostel in Mendoza, and a couple of guys from Australia. So I was able to hang out with some English speakers for one night - otherwise everyone at my hostel was Argentian and spoke mainly Spanish.

Back to Mendoza I went - and this may have been the best part of the trip. The road hugs a narrow shelf between the mountains and a canyon carved out by the river. The Andes are spectacular (I iterate, or possibly reiterate). The Argentina side is quite dry, so there´s rarely any vegetation. Thus the mountains are striped bare, with their inner being exposed to the world. All the different minerals and layers of silt offer an insiders view of the earth. It almost seems that every mountain is a completely different entity then the one next to, there´s that much variety in their appearances.

Arriving in Mendoza, I returned to my hostel and spent a couple days recooperating. Currently, I am in La Cumbre, which is near Cordoba, in northish-central Argentina. The Sierras loom just outside of town, and there are a variety of outdoor pursuits to explore (wait for the next update to see what I did). After a couple days here, it´s back to Cordoba (I just passed through the bus station this morning). And a definite must see - Oktoberfest in Villa General Belgrano.

HCMC (the pictures)

No, this is not Sturgis.



The Cau Dai Temple - Buddhism+Catholicism+Confuscism+Something else



Cau Dai worshippers



Hidden Cu Chi Tunnel Entrance