Serendipity

Fate continues to intervene in our travels.  Leaving Tongyeong, packed to the gills with seafaring tourists, we make the sensible decision to head inland to Jinju, a small city of some historical interest some 30km north, and, we reasoned, unlikely to be plagued by holiday makers.  

We arrive in a flood torrent of traffic to find a town nearly bereft of hotels and the few we discover are all full thanks to a festival on the river.  The approaches to the water throng with people coming and going from the stalls along the river bank.  And as the traffic crawls along, we catch tantalising glimpses of fantastic illuminated floats on the river, too brief to make out the shapes, leaving us wishing we’d known and planned better.

So off we head another 30km north to Sancheong, a dusty country town with little to boast about that we could see by night, and some time after after midnight we find a grim room in another love motel, with a convenient karaoke club attached, but we are so tired that it does not matter and we quickly fall into a deep sleep.

We wake late but rested and flee our room which bears all the signs of 20 years of neglect and contractual encounters, to find relief in a cafe with a cappuccino, between the tractor dealers, hardware shops and a hair salon from several eras before.

A new day brought a sparkling blue sky, cool autumn air and views of green mountains we had missed in the dark of the night before.  The sight of the peaks and a rocky river running through Sancheong is a real lift and we change plan and head to Namwon and the Jirisan National Park.  Thank you Jinju!

Cars

Chairman, President, Dynasty, Prestige, Premium, Grandeur.  There’s nothing like a pompously named car to reaffirm one’s precious hard won pomposity and to indicate to the people on the street when they should defer to righteous self-importance.  Probably only available in black, occasionally in silver by special request, this growing strand of terribly serious, inflated care names seems unique to Korea.  A few classical exceptions, like Equus, Tosca, Genesis, add some exotic flavour to this large bubble of hot pride.  Not of course that I have much to crow about, coming from a country that gave rise to the Marina, Focus, Imp and Reliant.

Goseong

I am enjoying a huge bowl of tasty and healthy mushroom rice porridge in a small room, in the shadow of a young gingko tree with my wife, her brother and his young family. I may be the only foreigner in this unlovely little country town, though nobody bats an eyelid and I am treated with normal courtesies.  There was no room in any love motel for miles around last night - it’s a long holiday weekend and clearly lovers are busy, which is what brought us to this country outpost, famous for dinosaur traces and little else.