Trip to Mokpo, Korea (October 2021)

Our next stop was Mokpo, my birthplace. I was born, grew up, and completed my primary and secondary education in this city. My mother's youngest brother still lives in this city, still active in his business. We had to take a train to Osung and took another train to Mokpo via KTX.

How can not love this city?

In this city, my mother's youngest brother still lives with three children's family out of four children. He is still active in his construction business. For his age of 75, he looked just fine with his younger wife of my age. We stayed at their condominium for two nights.

Mokpo is famous for many, but live octopus (San-Nak-Ji) is definitely one of them. It is a delicacy and was their first treatment for us.

I know. It is not real without seeing it in action. Here it is.

Click here to see it in action

My uncle's wife and her youngest daughter, Ja-Young, took us around the city surroundings. The first stop was the Marine Cable Car, supposedly the longest of its kind in Korea. It crosses over the famous rocky Yu-Dal-San to an island, called Go-Ha-Do.

After the cable car riding, Jayoung drove us to an island, called Imja-do, which is now connected to the land by a bridge. In fact, all major islands are being connected to the land by bridges. A large fish statue greeted us at the beach.

We had our lunch at this island and what did we eat? Right! Seafood. A lot of uncooked and a little bit of cooked food. But, both were good.

My uncle's family owns and operates a condominium complex that has almost 60 rooms. I was welcome to use one of them for my planned stay early next year.

I met a classmate from my high school in almost 50 years of not seeing each other. We could barely recognize each other. We have never seen each other since we graduated from high school in early 1973. He is a dentist and still practicing. It was a short but joyous reunion. We would spend more time later.

We stayed in Mokpo for only two days and good times pass fast. it is a time to say farewell.

We also met up with my cousins, my mother's nephew and nieces, living nearby my uncle's. It was a surprise visit and they were busy with their work to fulfill. It was a delight to see them in decades.

I was planning to come back to Mokpo to learn calligraphy later and my departure was not as heavy as it could be. - Jeffrey