I made a short stop over in Korea mainly to celebrate my mother's 88th birthday. Due to the cancellation of my trip to Pakistan, I extended my stay in Korea for two more days. For good reasons.
Right after I arrived, the next day, my two sisters and the daughter of my younger sister Eunsun and our mom made a trip to the east coast of Korea, called Dong Hae. The coastal line was beautiful and the foods were exotic.
We stopped over at a Buddhist temple called Nak San Sa, established by one of the famous monk called Eui Sang Dae Sa. There was a gazebo named after him, namely Eui Sang Dae. The coast line was pristine with blue and white combination.
We also stopped over at Sea Garden. It is a bakery cafe located by the seashore with a lot of flowers and some photo spots, including angle wings. My two sisters acted more like teenagers than the actual teenager Eunsun. Ha...
The place we stayed was Kensinton Beach Resort, one of E-Land's resort network. The building and facilities were not that impressive, but the crushing water sound was overwhelmingly powerful. So soothing and refreshing.
The beach was a lot wilder when got closer than looking down on it from above. Beautiful!
In the evening, we sang 'Happy Birthday!" to our mom who is now 88 years of age. After that, we also celebrated Eunsun's birthday that would come a few days later.
We played Korean card game called Hwatoo or "Flower Battle" with a lot of giggle and laughs. It was so much fun.
The next morning, we drove up the coast to the north. Technically, this district called Kosung used to be part of North Korea before the Korean War. After the war, the DMZ was newly established and this part belonged to the south while part of Kyungki Do became part of the north.
The coast line was beautiful. There were many fishing villages also. They were tranquil and peaceful. We stopped over at Ayajin, a small fishing village. We walked over to the end of the pier and enjoyed our pastime fully.
On the pier, we found several street arts painted on the board walk. I would say the quality of the art was not quite impressive, but my ladies thoroughly enjoyed them. That was good enough!
We stopped over at another beach and unexpectedly an incident occurred. Minja, my older one of two younger sisters drove the car too deep into the sand beach. The sand was too soft and the car did not have the traction to pull out. We ended up asking one of the residents who owned a tractor to pull out the car. He asked for small token of appreciation. Another happy-ending mishap.
We visited a place called Hwa Jin Po. This place has access to both lakes and beach. There were a lot of pine trees, called Keum Kang Pine, and the entire scenery was beautifully harmonized. No wonder the place has a special summer villa for Kim Il-Sung, the founding president of North Korea and another villa for Lee, Seung Man, the first president of South Korean Republic. Also there was a small villa for the first vice president of South Korea, Lee Ki Boong. Inside the houses were nothing much, but the scenery in the surrounding was fabulous.
It was a short trip, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We took a lot of photos and it turned out to be a memorable trip. I hope it was also the case for our mother. She said it was. I am grateful.
But, throughout the trip, I missed my younger brother, Mintae. I wish he could be with us. We keep waiting for him with our arms wide open.
Although it was never intended, I could not travel to Pakistan because I failed to secure a visa in time. So I stayed in Korea for two more days. During this short time gained unexpectedly, I met up with Mr. Dong Hoon Choi of Cconma and Mr. Bong Rae Lee of Joybells. We enjoyed our fellowship.
Also, I had a get together with Yoon Duck Suh and Nam Hyun Kim of Agape Club. They both are investors in SfK BAM Fund and I wanted to update them on the progress we are making with SfK Ministries. It is always joyous to see them.
Friends in Christ are friends indeed. - Jeffrey
