The remaining days of my Korean backpacking adventure were
spent doing things I have never done before, seeing things I have never seen
and walking away with experiences that will most likely remain in mind for a
long time. It was a true fish out of water experience, but one that always felt
rewarding and well worth the effort to find and discover new things.
After spending the night in Jindo at my first jimjilbang, I
headed out with my traveling companions to attend the Yeosu Expo.
The Yeosu Expo was an event that involved different
countries around the world meeting in one place to share their latest
developments and breakthroughs in ocean conservation and protection. Along with
the many education exhibits were different bands, a k pop concert, fireworks
show and different variety all through the venue. It was like a mini environmentally
friendly theme park to spend the day in and explore.
I had heard many things about the expo, most of them along
the lines on what a unique and rare experience it was for Korea to be hosting
this event. I heard people say that eager visitors came as far away as Italy
and Germany and was willing to pay top dollar just to get in.
We only ended up paying ten thousand won for admission.
Apparently there was a foreigner price where we ended up
paying much less than a normal Korean attendee. It completely caught us by
surprise and set the tone for the pleasant day we would have. Sometimes it was
good to be a foreigner; this was one of those cases.
The entire expo was one spectacle after another. Each country
had their own exhibit featuring their own breakthroughs in protecting the ocean
along with a unique presentation to go along with it. For the US, it was a
large curved screen featuring greetings from Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama.
The German exhibit featured an interactive beach complete with fake sand and
interactive exhibits. My favorite exhibit was the Korean one, where guests were
treated to a cultural presentation complete with traditional dance and a 360
degree dome movie theater where a short film detailing the history of Korea and
the sea was shown. The amount of immersion and full sensory interaction was magnificent.
The rest of the expo had different entertainment events over
the course of the day. One was a giant wooden puppet that walked along the road
along with an ocean themed parade. Another was a water show complete with jet
skis, a water jetpack and a princess in peril. My favorite was a robotics
presentation with the latest in what Korea was producing in regards to robots. Since I was a child, robots always held my
interest and seeing a large line up of them in person was a treat.
The highlights were easily the ocean construction robots.
While most of them were designed to resemble sea creatures such as eels and
crabs, one looked more like a giant mecha from the old anime in the 80’s
designed to help build and support structures.
 |
| I want one. With optional plasma cannon. |
My childhood dreams were happening
right in front of me, a huge robot that was only a few years from reality
looking like something from the shows I watched as a kid. I was grinning the
entire time. Sometimes dreams do come true.
The show ended with a presentation at the “Big O”, a large
circular object that used lights, pyrotechnics and water to create images. The results
were spectacular and surprisingly clear for using nothing but water as its
display surface. It was a very appropriate
end to a great day of information and spectacle.
After the expo was over, we ran into another adventure in itself,
leaving the expo in one piece. It was to be expected that most people were to
be leaving but what I witnessed and managed to make my way through was one of
the most chaotic scenes I have ever witnessed in Korea.
Line stretched around the block with people waiting for
taxis. This would not be a problem if there were a line of taxis waiting to
leave like at bus or train stations. However, taxis would show up in intervals
of around every five minutes and only one taxi at a time. Suddenly the bus didn’t seem like a bad
option.
Heading to the bus was an even greater task with obstacles
of crowds of people, police and cars in the way. Once we made our way to the
bus stop, we were greeted to an even longer line of people waiting for a bus
that had strangely not shown up yet. Not wanting to wait for what would possibly
be hours, we decided to walk further away from the expo in hopes of finding a
taxi further away.
The walk would require us to make a long trek up a steep
hill crowded with cars and busses trying to leave the expo and people who had the
same idea we did moving further away. It
looked like something out of a disaster movie. Crowds of people moving away,
cars stuck in a standstill collisions between vehicles and angry Koreans
yelling at each other in angry Korean. If I wasn’t so tired and drenched in
sweat, it would have a very amusing scene.
After hiking up the hill one of the group managed to spot a
taxi on the other side of the road, after speaking to him in Korean, he not
only stopped to pick us up, but he also came over to the other side even in the
densely packed road. I was never so happy to see a taxi in my life. Taxi God if
you are reading this I want to take the opportunity to say thank you.
We made our way back to the jimjilbang where visions of
sleep and a hot shower awaited us. I was ready to call it a night, but at the
time little did I know, that my night was just starting to get interesting and
a full night’s sleep would simply be out of the question.
