Picnics and Bike rides — Finding Bouken

Our intinerary for today is pretty short:

Street Toast
Han River
Jjimjilbang (bathhouse / sauna)

The weather app indicates it will be sunny and clear in the low 80s. In short, it will be another toasty day. Speaking of toast...

STREET TOAST

Today's breakfast was brought to you by Isaac Toast, with special thanks to Mama Bee for taking us out. They sell sandwiches called Street Toast, mostly because it's toast sold on the street. Street Toast isn't your typical butter and toast combo, but an actual toasted breakfast sandwich.

Usagi ordered the potato special and Hamu ordered the ham and cheese. The sandwiches had a sweet taste to them. Bee wasn't sure what it was, but said it's how street toast is normally made. We also got to try what our friends called milk coffee, made by Soul Milk. It wasn't as strong as Hamu liked her coffee, but it was very delicious. If all iced coffee tasted like that, she would be drinking it everyday. A visit to the convenience store might be in order...

HAN RIVER

The cab we took dropped us off at a parking lot, then we made our way to a bike rental place. There are clear bike paths and a lot of rest areas in case you feel too tired walking or pedaling.

We decided on renting a tandem bike for us - yay bucket list - and so did Bee and Buns. Usagi and Bee didn't feel like putting in much effort so Hamu and Buns ended up on the driver's seat. We hereby dub Usagi and Bee as "Team Butt Capes" (see image). Hamu and Buns are now officially part of "Team Pedals."

We rode our bikes along the river until we hit the graffiti tunnel. The tunnel allows people to draw graffiti during set hours, and only on the walls. Bee said the walls don't get cleared out on purpose. Often they get replaced when someone else decides to draw over them.

We made a few more stops for photos on our way back to return the bikes. We then found a nice shady spot down near the river where we ordered chicken for delivery. Yup, they deliver to you at the park. Technically the motorcycles can't go into the area we were at, but since the call came from a foreign number, the delivery man had no choice!

For this order we got green onion chicken and snow cheese chicken. The green onion chicken came with shredded green onions cut lengthwise and an oriental sauce that tasted awfully like wasabi. The snow cheese chicken was covered in powdered cheese and reminded us of the popcorn seasoning you can purchase at the movies, but creamier and less salty. Both tasted very good, but as expected it was too much even for four hungry people

JJIMJILBANG

After catching up with all the exercise we missed in the last couple of days (-ahahaha...ha...), we went to a Jjimilbang. A Jjimjilbang is basically a traditional Korean sauna / bathhouse. The one we went to had a lot of amenities, if you wanted to pay extra. Entry for each person was about 9,000 won (about 9 USD). Bee said it's not uncommon for people to stay a night or two for one entry payment. Since they stay open for 24 hours, people can technically stay for up to 72 hours before they get kicked out.

Instead of paper cups they have paper packets you use for water!

The dressing rooms are separated, but the amenities are mostly co-ed. For the one we visited, there is a special sleeping area for women only and an ultra hot sauna also for women only. Bee explained that the hottest room is usually used by old women who take their shirts off because of the heat, therefore no man eyes allowed!

Rooms varied in both temperatures and themes. The mildest room, the mud room, was 30°C (86°F) and had mud walls. The room we used, and also next on the scale, was 36°C (96.8°F) and had stone walls. The rooms eventually go up to over 80°C (176°F).

In the cold room, the temperature drops to -5°C (23°F). There is a nice cool waiting room inbetween, which Usagi thought was the best and refused to leave.

We hit another cafe shortly after (they're everywhere!) and then back to the Bee House to prepare for our DMZ trip for tomorrow. Stay toasty, folks!