A Day of Surprises in Pohang! (Day 238)
Today was a day of Surprises in Pohang! Suddenly chatting to a friend online, an unknown place in Pohang and much more.
Facebook is such a useful tool if it is used beneficially. This morning I noticed in my feed that Judy who we met in New Zealand was having a Zoom call in a few moments. Tim popped out for some washing powder while I connected with Judy. She didn’t recognise me at first, probably due to my hair being scrapped back in a bun - it’s getting quite long now! We have a mutual interest in the 3 principles and during our chat talked about habitual thought patterns. I remember seeing these like Facebook adverts. Certain adverts keep popping up due to algorithms and such like and the more we metaphorically “like” them, the more they appear. I’ve noticed that if I leave them alone, they gradually disappear…just like old habitual thoughts. Judy and I chatted away about how we can get tricked by the illusion that our thoughts seem real, yet we know that they are not, just neutral constant energy via consciousness that creates our psychological experience of life. Such a lovely conversation. We put our washing on and went for a walk to the Harbour. We walked along the river with the Steelworks puffing away on the other side of the bank. Luckily it didn’t smell like I was led to believe. At the harbour, a very helpful lady gave us details of where the nearest Tourist Information office was and also showed us an explanation of the Canal that was completed in January 2014. This waterway was built to rejuvenate the area (evicting 2,225 people in the process) and to create one of the most beautiful seaports in the world, attracting more tourists. The weird thing is that I have done a bit of research about Pohang and didn’t know that this existed…what a lovely surprise. So if the local tourist board want this to be the best destination for maritime tourism, they need to improve their marketing. We walked along this canal. It is a lovely area with swathes of wildflowers, trees and many art installations. Most are quite fun and I loved the “Flower Tree” by Choi Jeong Hwa. We stopped to see whereabouts the Jukdo Market was. I looked across the road and by fluke, it was right there. Wow, what a place! A massive grid system with about 1,500 stalls and stores here of seafood both live and dried, vegetables, fruit, clothing and a few stalls selling bits and bobs. We bought some vegetables and fruit and wanted just a couple of garlic cloves. They usually sell these in very large bags. We asked a lady for 2 cloves and she put about 5 in a plastic bag and gave them to us, refusing to accept any money – very kind and I gave her a hug in exchange. We decided to buy some fish. Now, we didn’t want dried fish, they sell this in bulk as well, so thought that we would buy a live fish and ask the stall owner to prepare it for us. A very nice man helped us choose a fish, and said it cost 4,000 won per kg. That seemed very reasonable, cheap in fact. He caught it in the net, weighed it – near enough 1 kg. Great. His colleague then chopped its head off (which still moved for quite some time) and filleted it for us. Tim went to pay and then came out of the shop looking surprised – it wasn’t 4,000 won but 40,000 won! Gulp! The fishmonger was very considerate when we explained our mistake and we didn’t want to pay that amount. He wasn’t annoyed at all and shook hands. We went on our way…quickly! We wandered back to our Airbnb for a late lunch and to hang our washing up. No Clothes Horse, luckily some hangers in the wardrobe so we used these. I do wish people that have Airbnb have a dry run at their accommodation. They should turn up just with luggage for a couple of days and live in their place. Does it work? Anything missing? Perhaps then, if they provide a washing machine, they would understand that people need to dry their clothes after washing them! Other things that would be useful is a hair dryer and liquid soap, I really don’t want to use someone else’s bar of used soap; a hair dryer. If a kitchen is provided then some basic condiments like salt, pepper, oil etc. would be good. If someone was to make a basic meal, what would they need? One saucepan really is not enough - a frying pan would be nice. Glad I got that off my chest. I might write to Airbnb with suggestions for their “hospitality” advice to hosts. Dinnertime now, no fish for us though and then an early night. Tim wants to get up at 3am to watch the football. What a surprise that is, England in the semi-finals! Woo-hoo! As we live in one room, I guess that means I’ll be watching too.
