Jung island and a silk scarf sling

The little ferry that took us across the lake.



Me posing for the camera.



Ben and Lisa on the island.



The view of Chuncheon from the island.



Me and my lame arm on the ferry.



The view from the island.



Well had an unlucky Sunday morning. I decided to get off my butt and go for a bike ride. There is a path along this small river near my house that they have ben building since I got there. I figured cycling on the path would be much safer than traveling on Chuncheon streets so I headed off. The only problem with the path is that it's fairly short when your cycling. Anyway, I went a couple kilometers and turned around to head back. As I was approaching the area to head back up on the street I started slowing down because there are a lot of big rocks because they are still digging and doing who knows what. Exactly as I braked, I hit a small decline in the pavement, which somehow sent me flying over my bike. I wiped out pretty hard, landing on my right arm. I was a little shocked. Luckily there were only two old Korean men who saw my little tumble. One asked how I was and I just shook my head ok and quickly started heading back home. My ego was a little deflated. How many years have I been riding a bike, like 20. I must have looked like a total goof to them. I felt not to bad physically - a bit sore, but I figured I would be ok.

As soon as I got home, everything changed. My elbow and arm started throbing and I was a little concerned I fractured something. A few hours later I could barely move my arm. Of course this little incident just about put a bit of a damper on my plans of going to Jung island with Ben and Lisa that afternoon. I decided to suck it up and we went anyway. Ben and Lisa made a little make-shift sling out of one of the scarfs I bought in Taiwan and we were off.

We caught a cab to the dock where the ferry was. It's about a 8 minute ferry ride to the island, which is in the middle of Chuncheon's famous lake. I have no idea what it's name is. Personally I don't think the lake is all that great, but every ad for Chuncheon boasts the city as the "beautiful lake city in Korea." The island is known for it's bike paths and grass. Yes grass. Who knew grass was an attraction, but in Korea it is. Ben, Lisa and I all stared in awe at the long, green,freshly cut blades of grass. People were whizzing past us on their rented bikes. I obviously had had enough biking for one day and we walked around the island. I was a bit disappointed because the paths would have been good to cycle on. We walked around for a couple of hours and Ben drooled over the people who had probably paid a small fortune to go waterskiing on the lake. They probably got some fungal disease from swimming in that water (it's fairly polluted.)

As we were walking back toward the ferry, Ben spotted a cluster of spiders that had taken over this entire tree. I have never seen a spider web that big before in my life. When you looked into the air all you saw were these vibrant yellor and black spiders. It was amazing and creepy all at the same time. It was like a scene right out of arachnophobia. We tried taking pictures but the camera couldn't capture the sight very well. There must have been seventy spiders on those webs. The spiders here scare me. They probably don't even come close to the spiders in the jungles of the rainforest, but they're a lot scarier than the ones we have back home.

Anyway, after that we headed home and I relaxed for a while. Today I went to a doctor to get my arm checked out and to my relief nothing was broken. The doctor wanted to put my arm in a splint but I gave him the sob story about how I am leaving for Hong Kong in two days and it would be really incovienient. We agreed on a sling. He gave me some anti-inflamtory medication and some kind of cream. Basically it's just a bad bruise. It's feeling a lot better than it did yesterday and I figure it should be good within a couple days.

So on Wednesday morning I'll be boarding a bus for Incheon airport at 4:30am. My flight leaves 10:00am. I can't wait. The biggest challenge is going to be lugging my two large suitcases to and through the airport with my lovely little sling. I'm sure some generous Korean will offer some assistance.... haha.. yeah right... somehow I'd be surprised if that happened. I'll manage.