Journey to The Far East - Saturday

Saturday
Due to tiredness, a chunk of my memory seems to be missing...slightly worrying. However, I can recall the walk that Tom and I took in the afternoon up the small mountain behind the church. For a second time we trekked to the top of the wooden steps up the hill behind the church.

Tom on slightly challenging wooden steps

Somewhere...

We followed the trail to the right at the top of the wooden steps and tackled a few step hills before eventually ending up at a concrete bridge crossing the main road from the West that eventually ends up in the centre of Cheonan. The surface of the bridge has been covered with soil to allow foliage to grow and offers you the illusion that you're still within the wooded area.

The wooded bridge

We took a little bit of a detour from our original route and when wandering down a path not far from the bridge we spotted an Asian giant hornet, it was huge! Well, we thought so anyway. We tried to capture it with my camera it but it doesn't show up on the video against all the foliage. The excitement of seeing this hornet made us curious as to whether there were others nearby, even a hive maybe? It wouldn't really do us any good if we did stumble across a hive, aparently their stings release a sort-of acid that can kill you if it gets into your blood stream and also releases a pheromone that attracts other giant hornets. Yeah, that wouldn't be fun.

Jacob invited us over in the evening for dinner at his place. Beth had to go out of town so it was Tom, Jacob and I. The lads! This was my first time trying dog as well. Yes, dog. I found that it had a similar texture and taste to beef.
We also experienced Korean TV for the first time and watched Top Gear Korea together after dinner. My experience was cut short as I fell asleep on the sofa.

Quality TV

Top Gear Korea

Journey to The Far East - Days 1 & 2

After a ten hour flight from Frankfurt, Tom and I arrived at Incheon International Airport internation airport around midday and met with Jacob. Jacob is a good friend of Tom (and now me) and is the current English Pastor at Cheonan Cheonsung Presbyterian Church.
Jacob drove us back to the church where we spent a small amount of time before going out for a superb meal with Senior Pastor Kim and the associate pastors.
The restaurant that we went to eat at was recently opened by one of the members of the church, so we were visiting to pray for the restaurant and support the owners in their new business.

Friday
We had a well needed lie-in before heading out with Jacob to a popular walking destination not far from the church that I can't remember the name of. We treked up some wooden steps to a stop off point where a outdoors goods salesman was selling his wares. There were a lot of people walking here (a lot wearing 'proper' walking gear) which said a lot about how the Koreans view their health and fitness.
Jacob played the guitar and sang whilst Tom and I gave out small drinks that resembled Yakult to walkers. This is something that Jacob does every Friday to serve the people here and bless them. It was a real joy to take part in this and we came away on a bit of a high.

On the way back down we stopped by some funky stone tortoise taps to get a drink. These taps dispense water from a natural spring under the hill.

We went out in the afternoon for lunch with Jacob and his wife Beth along with a close friend of Beth's. We ate at a place called 'All that Barbeque' which was an 'all you can eat' buffet. The food was delicious but not all of it was authentic Korean food. Similar to when you have a Chinese or Indian in England and it's not 100% the real deal.
In the evening however, we went out for a meal with Jacobs parents to celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary. We traveled to a restaurent located in the hills just outside of Cheonan that served delicious authentic Korean food. I'm not quite used to how spicy the food can be so I often have to stop myself from coughing after my first mouthful. It was a real pleasure to spend time with these guys but I found it hard staying awake due to the lingering jetlag.
The night ended with myself falling asleep on the floor at Tom's amusement.

It's actually more comfortable than it looks.