bugok hawaii--hot spring resort weekend

YEE HAW!! We REALLY needed a vacation. We decided to stay home the month of Feb to save money not travel in crappy weather. That month turned into almost 2 due to sickness and laziness. That all changed this weekend when we went to BUGOK HAWAII.

Friday night we took a train to Miryang and stayed the night in a jim jil pang (bath house). We didn't sleep well--as was expected--but having the mp3 player totally helped me drown out everyone. The old couple next to us, the man with intermintent snoring, the kids screaming in the main room. The old couple next to us was the most annoying. She was baby talking him and he'd be all quiet and then roar (probably not roar but it felt like it) in his low gravelly voice. I'd JUST get to sleep and he'd go on for a bit--it happened a few times before I was able to move on into dreamland. I woke up at 830 and couldn't go back to sleep. Eventually Beard woke up and we moved on.

We hopped in a taxi and went to the bus station. We bought tickets in the nick of time (one minute before departure) and we were on our way. The bus ride was pretty. Through a small town or two and the countryside.

Once in Bugok we left the station, crossed the street and asked at the first hotel, how much (ol ma ee ay oh). 30,000, checked out the room--SUPER NICE. Dark panelling on the walls, sitting area, big bed, big tv, mood lighting, fridge, and water machine. what more did we need?! And he let us check in at 10:30 am. We dropped off our stuff and headed for food.

We walked down the main drag looking for restaurants in which we could both be satisfied. We saw one that from the sign offered squid/octopus, potato and vegetable soup. Looked good. We pointed to the potato soup and waited. Side dishes arrived--all scrumptous, especiallythe cucumber in red sauce and the itty bitty fish good for women. Then the main dish. A cauldron of what appeared cabbage, mushrooms and potatoes. It cooked, we waited. The adjumma came back and scooped out a huge portion of bone and meat--(me; that's huge fucking meat. beard:shit, sorry)--into each of our bowls. I ate around it and drank the broth, which my body can seem to handle, while beard picked all the meat off the spine of a cow. He then took my portion to begin the picking. I was more than happy with the potatoes, other veggies and side dishes. Photo to come.

THEN off the the good stuff.

We went to Bugok Hawaii. 4 million (MILLION) Koreans can't be wrong. We packed our swim gear and waltzed off to the resort. There seemed to be a few options and the information booth was out of English handouts so we paid 13,000w each to get in. This let us into the jungle spa, amusement park, outside pools, botanical garden, kiddie pool and lane pool.

Our first stop was the botanical gardens. Pretty flowers, nice smell. Cactus house. Prickley. We heard tell of the worst zoo ever but since the last time I went to a zoo I cried for the pony in the petting zoo, we opted out. We made our way back outside--we had been in a large greenhouse sort of deal--we found the emptied pools. NOT A KOREAN IN SIGHT!! Or anyone else for that matter. It was great. Normally there are people EVERYWHERE, but not here in this magical place. We could walk anywhere without being bumped into or helloed. We took some cheesey pictures and moved on.

Next was the amusement park. They have a ride that looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen. It sort of like the Silly Silo but it doesn't go so fast so you can easily go into the middle. You sit on a bench and link your arms around the bar and it spins and bounces this way and that to some dance music while the announcer/operator makes his/her remarks (this is the same thing that happens at dance clubs too by the way). Usually we are awestruck when watching this ride (there's no need to ride it) and it was the exact same this time. We watched as teenagers pulled their friends' arms free and they tumbled into the middle then fell repeatedly on the floor and on others trying to get back to their seats. We watched for a good five minutes--does this ride never end?!

ON TO THE SPA!! We get inside and are instantly confused. Everyone is already in swimsuits. We came thru the pool entrance. What do they know that we don't? Oh, right. They're from here. We followed the signs to the "rocker room" but the woman at the desk stopped us short. After much jesturing we realized she was asking us if we needed to rent suits and caps. Caps were needed. Beard bought one (he's been wanting to join a gym with a pool for quite some time) I rented.

We meet outside and realized the jungle spa is not co-ed. BOO! Oh well, there's always the outdoor hot spring. Again stopped by the lady at the desk--who are these people and why are they out to get us?--we need to pay 4,000w each to enter, our tickets don't cover this area. WHAT?! We bought the most expensive ticket! Why doesn't it cover everything?! It was starting to feel like every amusement park back home. We go back out to discuss what we should do. We REALLY want to go to the outdoor hot spring. really. Stupid jungle spa isn't co-ed. OK 8,000w poorer we head in, stopping to ditch our stuff in a locker and grab a couple coldies.

It was perfect! The water was not too hot. There were 8 other people--6 in a hot tub in the shade by the door and 2 at the other end of the hot spring. We hung out, drank our beer, made fun of each other and the people around us, said anyong! to babies. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Beers finished it was time to check out the jungle room--with cave spa. We split up and headed in. It was more like a jungle themed jim jil pang (bath house). I hadn't brought my shower supplies up--they were downstairs in the changing room, so I probably looked like an idiot not scrubbing myself silly like everyone else, but I'm a waegook so it's to be expected. I tried sitting in the hot bath, too hot, tried the cold bath, too many naked kids, the warm bath was JUST right. To my right I noticed a walk way--normally I would think, hmm that's not for me, however I can take advantage of being a foreigner, and say Moolayo (i don't know) and it'll be ok if I end up somewhere I'm not supposed to be--and I head up the rocks. There was a covered walkway back to the---cave spa! No need to use the Moolayo today! It was behind the cold pools and I could hear the kids splashing and screaming but it was secluded enough. There were two large streams of water coming from the ceiling that are used for massaging shoulder muscles--quite nice and the lighting was non flourescent.

Upon leaving the locker room of the jungle spa I was ushered downstairs through a back stairway and ended up in the changing room! Who knew? I took this to be the point where I showered and changed back into my clothes. I then went back upstairs to wait for Beard. I assumed the same would happen to him. Nope. He came out in his suit and asked why I was dressed. I said I was done with water. He wanted to swim laps--more power to ya, I'm sitting here in this massage recliner and drinking a beer.

When he was finished we were both hungry so we headed down the strip to see what we could find. We ate at a raw fish place--we were the only customers--and then went to the bar with the shiny ceiling where we were alos the only customers. Well, maybe. There was a man sitting with the woman who served us...it could be any number of situations. She gave us a sampling of the side dishes for free (service) and we drank our stouts in peace.

Not being quite ready to go back to the motel we headed out to see what more this town had to offer. We found a jazz bar with a statue of elvis out front but it looked dead so we moved on. Then we saw our next bar--Good People--it didn't matter that it was dead. With a name like that, how could we not go in? The woman led us to a booth but I noticed the balcony and I pointed and nodded and she said ok. We ordered beer and cooked fish -suh la di-as a side dish. The beer I ordered was big as my head, literally. If I could only post pictures in order...

The next morning we took our time leaving our motel room and walked across the street to the bus station to get a bus to Daegu. The bus ride was pretty. Lots of countryside, sunshine.

Bugok was a great time. Not too crowded, not expensive. Very relaxing. However, if we would have gone in say, oh, July, I doubt I'd be saying the same thing...