The bus ride took about 5 hours total including the time it took to slurp up a bowl of udon noodles at a rest stop. Rest stops in Korea are pretty sweet. There aint too many of 'em, but the few they do have make any rest area off of I-5 seem like "Hamsterdam" from The Wire. Each one is like a cross between a mall food court, a small carnival, an outlet mall and a museum gift shop.
I first learned about Chicken Coke at a Korean rest stop (ice cold Coke on the bottom and hot juicy chicken nuggets on top separated by a plastic divider that leaves room for a straw to reach the soda) and I have heard there are others where you can take swings in the batting cage and also pet rabbits in a petting zoo. Anyway, I usually go with a bowl of noodles on these bus trips. It seems to ward off motion sickness.
Upon arrival, we were immediately met by three photographers. This is not uncommon. It is an understood phenomena: festival pamphlets are forever festooned with photos of friendly foreign faces. At least once or twice a week we find booklets hanging on the door to our apartment with ads from all of the local restaurants around town. They each feature images of happy white people.
Our first photo shoot took place inside a showroom featuring two large pools filled with water and crabs in the middle surrounded by two dozen or so smaller aquariums showcasing individual species of crab. There were king crabs, dungeness, a big 'ole lobster etc. This festival celebrates Uljin's native snow crabs. We were ordered to line up, grab a crab, and cheesily ham it up for the cameras.
Next we moved on to the main festival area. We immediately spied a giant, gold pained statue of half a snow crab emerging (sinking?) from the ground- pincers extended skyward. Moments later, we stumbled into a couple of mascots- people in big head costumes with police uniforms on. Both of these sights are absurdly Korean. We do not hesitate to snap pictures with each.
Weaving through the pantheon of food vendors, we slowed at the sight of something familiar. We purchased two waffle pies- a waffle folded in half with marshmallow creme in the middle. I could have eaten eight.
Next we (I) tried something less familiar- roasted silkworm pupa- which is actually pretty common here and can be found in cans like tuna. It tasted meaty and salty, but the texture wasn't too fun- kinda like chewing a piece of UPS packaging. Notice I said "it" tasted meaty and not "they." I only had one.
Since we didn't want to buy anything that we would have to take with us and because I am fat, we decided to eat an actual meal at one of the many sit down food tents. We knew that we were going to have our fill of crab later, so we shared some beef soup and rice. We also each had a beer. I am always trying to get Sami to drink soju- the spirit of choice here that tastes like a sweet, weak vodka (about 20% alcohol), but she wasn't having it. Later, an adjuma (term for an older Korean woman, often a derogatory term but this lady was sweet) came over to ask us a few enthusiastic questions. I thought that she was asking if we enjoyed the food, which we no doubt greatly did, so I kept replying yes (ne in Korean). Well, I guess she was asking if we wanted more, so she brought us another bowl. Sami always gives me a hard time for just saying yes and smiling as a response. Lesson learned.
Next we moved on to the main event- constructing the world's largest kimbahp. Kimbahp is Korean sushi, but instead of raw fish, the seaweed covered rice is rolled around pickled radish, cucumber, ham, egg and, in this case, snow crab. I am not exactly sure how long this kimbahp was, but we were stationed somewhere near the middle and could not see either end. Step by step we quickly but carefully added each ingredient. When it came time to roll, our section would not cooperate. We blame the supervisor for not overlapping the seaweed paper enough. Sorry Guiness Book of Records enthusiasts. Maybe next year.
After swallowing a few hunks of the worlds longest broken kimbahp, we boarded a crabbing boat for a ride on the bumpy Sea of Japan (or as it is known by Koreans who despise all things Japanese, the East Sea).
During the ride, Sami stayed on the bottom deck to avoid seasickness and I went up top to the bow to embrace it. I ended up talking to a dude who went to Portland State (coincidence), taught at Rosa Parks Elementary School (bigger coincidence) and who used to take his students on field trips to Overlook Park (biggest coincidence of them all). My mom grew up basically on top of the park in North Portland and my grandmother still resides there. I guess after running into a Mormom missionary from my hometown of Ontario, OR at the post office near our apartment in Korea last month, nothing should surprise me.
When we touched back on solid ground my motion sickness was so bad that no amount of rest stop noodles could cure me.
Coming in Part 3: More eating, more eating, a spa and a hike.
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