Last week, I posted about our first camping experience. It was definitley a whirlwind and it only gets better. I can't wait to share the rest of the story with all of you! In case you missed my Korean camping misadventure, you can read part one here.
Last I left you, we finished setting up camp and realized that we didn't have any food. Before setting up our tents, we drove from Busan to Pohang and from there to Gyeong-ju. Basically, we spent most of the day in the car and were pretty exhausted. Despite our feelings, we needed to fill our empty stomachs, so we all jumped in the car and searched for a place that would satisfy all our shopping needs.
We had many issues on this trip as I stated before. Our main problem was our location. We were far into the countryside and we missed our chance to go to a mart. On the way to Gyeong-ju, Gwang-jin missed the exit for Costco and instead of turning around, he decided to keep going. After driving for another 45 minutes we finally found a Mega Mart in Eonyang and we were able to get all the food we needed. We happily stocked up on all the essentials and headed back to Gyeong-ju..
Once we finally made it back to the campsite, we realized that we didn't have a table, seats or even a way to cook the food. By this point, I was beyond frustrated and just went with it. Thankfully, they found an old table and rented a grill. We didn't have any seats so we just found big rocks and sat on them. The boys also realized that they didn't have any way to start the fire. A nice Korean dad at the tent next to us came over and started the fire for us. I think he took one look at our "beggar" style camping and decided to help. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have been able to eat if it wasn't for him.
Even though we all had a long frustrating day, the minute we started cooking, all our worries disappeared. We were all a bit annoyed with Junnie, but we know he meant well. He kept saying that he wanted to give Markus and I an unforgettable experience. How could I be mad at someone so sweet and sincere? We spent the rest of the evening stuffing our faces full of delicious barbecued meats and playing games. It was actually a fun night and it was like the stressful day didn't even happen. Around 11pm it started raining, so we all went inside our tents. We played a few more games and then around 1am we called it a night.
I would like to say that we slept through the night and woke up the next morning and made breakfast. You would think that after all the stress we already went through that the camping gods were done toying us, but you would be wrong. Oh so very wrong. It rained through the night and at 3am Markus and I were startled awake by something cold and wet. We sat up and realized that our whole tent was flooded with water. We woke up the boys and they told us to go sleep in the car. I slept for about 30 minutes but then woke up to metal hitting metal. When I looked outside, the boys had taken down both tents. They decided that we would either find a motel or go sleep at Junnie's grandmother's house in Pohang. Markus and I didn't want to stay at his grandmother's house so we decided on a motel. Although, we still had to go to Pohang to drop off the tents. After dropping them off, the boys again decided that we would skip the motel and drive the extra hour and half to Busan. At this point, all I could think about was my warm and dry bed. So, I readily agreed. When they finally dropped us off at our apartment, I looked at the clock and realized that it was 6am. We didn't even camp for 24 hours. We were out for only 22 hours! We waved goodbye to our friends and sought solace in our warm beds.
So this concludes, my first camping adventure. I know it was a crazy and unbelievable experience. Just writing about it, brought it all back. It's funny though. When I think back on it, I don't remember how annoyed or frustrated I was. I remember how much fun I had. I remember all our inside jokes and getting to know one another. It's one of those stories that I'll tell my kids when I tell them about my time in Korea. It'll be the time that mom and dad went camping in Korea and had the time of their lives.