Monday Nami Trip and Barbecue

Besides the welcoming dinner at Vicolo Caffetteria on the Sunday night before the conference, there is another welcoming meal, a barbecue where Chef DeVries grills meat and everyone who has arrived by Monday evening's dinner time gets to eat and meet one another. Last year's barbecue was held in Pastor DeVries' home in Uijeongbu, but this year's was held at the church which has more space. Our resident Thai chef, Tain Palanun, whipped up a batch of his famous green curry for everyone with a hankering for spicy food. Many of the people eating that night had spent the day visiting Nami Island.

Nami Island is located north and east of Seoul in the middle of the Han River. 

According to Wikipedia, the island is the result of a dam being built in 1944. A former banker bought the island after he retired in 1965 and developed it into a beautiful nature preserve and cultural center. We all took a train from Seoul to Chuncheon then hopped into taxis to ride from the train station to the ferry terminal 


where we bought "passports" (tickets) to enter the imaginary Republic of Nami. After a five minute ferry ride, 


we arrived on Nami. Nami has become a famous destination for many women throughout Asia, because a romantic Korean drama, Winter Sonata, 

was filmed there, and there are markers on sites on the island where memorable scenes took place, and there is a statue of the romantic hero and heroine too. 


The lanes of beautiful trees are some of the most photographed scenes on the island. 


You can also see some beautiful gardens and traditional Korean buildings. 



When Tain and the Chinese people we were escorting arrived on the island, we discovered Pastor Clyde and the Filipino visitors sitting in the shade just finishing a morning devotional. We arrived just in time to help sing, "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever."

Tain and I had visited Nami last summer, so we, along with some others who had been before, were available to provide direction for any who needed it. Nami is quite small and it would be almost impossible to get lost, so our help was not much needed, and we took the opportunity to seek out something cool to eat on the hot day. We ended up eating dessert first. We found a place serving ice cream and then someone bought us corn on a stick, so I had both hands full.


Corn or ice cream? Eventually, we hooked up with a friend who helped us find Korean cold noodles and scallion pancakes. Cold noodles are the perfect meal for hot days. The cooked noodles and other ingredients are in a vinegary-tasting broth that often has shaved ice floating in it that melts and keeps everything wonderfully cool as you eat. Here is a picture of a cold noodle dish I ate just the other day...


Tain had cold noodles with some kimchi juice in the broth, which gave it a little tasty kick. 

One of the highlights of my time on Nami was tracking down one of the rabbits that live there that are purported to bite if you try to feed them. I found one and then Tain's older brother Ake came along, crouched down, and coaxed the rabbit to nibble at his fingertips. This attracted the attention of other tourists who came along and snapped photos of this "bunny whisperer." I wish I had taken some photos to show you.

By the time we finished our allotted time on Nami, we were all very hot and ready for an air conditioned train ride back to Seoul to eat barbecue.

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