Wednesday's bike trip and Market day

I notice that I have put on a few pounds (or maybe more than a few) so I started fighting my love for sweet food. Man! I'm glad I don't have a problem with cigarettes or booze, but at least those are 'Adult' problems. Am I still 10 years old, with my sweet tooth? I guess it's a part of being Young at heart.
In the last two months I haven't been exercising much so I've tried to change that. You may have noticed the recent spate of bike blogs.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back on the road and getting some exercise. Today's ride took me behind a ridgeline going northward, finally crossing it and reaching the ocean at Naksan Temple. Crossing the highway, I was almost run over by TWO buses running the redlight (I'll post later on my thoughts on Korean drivers- not that there's much new for me to say). Near the ocean, I saw this fire-fighting helicopter.

water-copter

A man servicing the helicopter told me that there were many fires in the mountains in November. He spoke excellent English and went on to say the helicopter was in 'frequent use'.

-A year ago, a helicopter like this took some tourists over the Yangyang market and blew over a lot of awnings.-

Which brings me to the end of my bike trip, at the Yangyang market. Yangyang has an 'O-il Jang', a five day market which occurs on dates with 4's and 9's.

Today, in late Autumn, Kim-jang supplies were everywhere.

Kim-jang time of year

I think 'Kim jang' means both 'the making of kimchi' and 'the supplies for making kimchi'. There were huge stacks of Cabbage, Daikon Radish, Leeks and other other ingredients. The market goes year-round but Kim-jang is only for late November, so tractors drove in and out loading and unloading cabbage.


Yum- tasty bark!

This is more typical of the market supplies. On the bottom-right, are berries similar to cranberries. The left side and the top row are all woodbark. I think it's for medicine or may be used for tea.


Korean traditional medicine supplies

Here are medicinal supplies. There are ground plants but also centipedes and a snake.


medicinal centipedes and dried snake

I hope I'm never that sick! Still, I have eaten bondaegi- silkworm larvae, and they weren't too bad.

The market has a lot of less remarkable products; it's a great place for tangerines and fresh vegetables, tools- modern and traditional, clothing, fish-live and squirming and more. It doesn't seem to have the exoticness that I associate with middle Eastern or Indian bazaars but that may be because I have lived here a while.