Caring people turn the world – especially Koreans

Today in Jungjumin:

To round things off, at Bada Coffee I had a great conversation with a young couple from Seoul – they even offered me a ride back to Seoul. But I’m staying in Gangneung two more nights.

Then – a raw experience!

Downstairs from Bada Coffee is an array of very special restaurants – all serve the fish you pick from their tanks – raw! I was served an amazing array.

The barista at Bada Coffee had recommended one of the many restaurants in the building, and she was right on (stalls #2 and 3). I also asked her if it was appropriate to negotiate the price for the fish and meal. Yes – and they offered 50,000 WON instead of the original 60,000. That still amounted to about CAD 65, but it was worth it. My waitress was the daughter of the owner, and her fingernails were all the way down – not because she bit them, but because of all the hard work around seafood. She brought extra dishes for me, showed me how to combine them and wrap them in salad of seaweed like Koreans do, took sea snails out of the shell for me, picked seaweed apart for me so it was easier to wrap seafood in a single leaf, and she gave me a complementary Coke! See for yourself:

Finally: Up the hill to Health Gate!

Then I walked up the hill though cozy little walkways, along the typical small houses. I arrived at this outlook with a breathtaking view. There also where two statues, and a Health Gate – the gaps vary in width and a healthy person will fit through them. I won’t tell you if I fit through one! I took some shots (see below) and went back to the restaurant to jokingly tell them that I didn’t fit through any of them because their meal was so rich. It took a long time until I conveyed the joke to them…..or maybe others don’t share my kind of humour.

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At the bus stop, three ladies did their best to make sure I would get out at the right station on my way back to Gangneung. One of them counted all the stations to my destination and told me I had to count 36 stops to get out at the right one. My GPS did the trick too 🙂

So many people cared for me today!

PS: I received an emergency alarm on my cell phone – with a tone I’ve never heard before. I was concerned it could be a Tsunami alert (you see the warning signs everywhere). It turned out to be a warning of forest fire hazard due to extremely dry conditions. Californians and Yukoners know the feeling!