About a month back Navneet posted a message in Korea Kannada Koota (KKK) FB group about an idea of going on a trip from KKK to any beach near to Seoul. Lots of responses came to his post including suggestion from self. Many suggested to go to beaches near Incheon, as it is very close to Seoul and can be comfortably finished in one day. Majority suggested going to Eastern side beaches as they are better than the Yellow sea beaches in terms of cleanliness and tourist point of view. Finally Navneet again posted information about Gyeongpo beach on the eastern sea which is one of the longest beaches in Korea with white sand and a major tourist visited place. His idea was welcomed by all and everyone showed their eager to join the trip. He asked members of KKK who are interested to volunteer in the trip. I became one of the volunteer of the trip with this. We posted the details of the tour on the FB and requested the members who are interested to join the tour to sign for the same and gave a deadline date. Initially the response was not satisfactory. We were hoping a minimum of 35 people but when the deadline date was completed there were only 24 people on the list! With this number we had two options infront of us. One to go with 25 seater bus or second option was to include some non Kannadiga friends from IIK group just to increase the number. But we decided to book a 45 seater bus and anticipated some late entries from KKK members. We fixed the tour cost at KWR 24,000. Our expectation was infact right. Suddenly a week before the trip Sangam Swamy and more than 10 friends of him registered for the trip! Also few more showed their interest. Now the number becomes more than 45, which means no seat to accommodate all. Some late comers were disappointed to hear the houseful J A week before the trip, Navneet arranged for the conference call amongst the volunteers to discuss the activities. Volunteer were assigned different tasks. Navneet for arranging the bus and the trip plan, Divya Sudharashan incharge of money handling, Rahul with lunch arrangement and snacks arrangement, Divya Shree and Myself for in bus entertainment, Brijesh and Rajesh for the PR activities. I planned to conduct a small Quiz programme as a part of in bus activity. I prepared three rounds of questions and the game plan and shared with the team members. The idea was appreciated. So we were all set ready for the trip.
On 14th August got up very early at 4.00 am. Took shower, had two slice of bread a glass of milk, surfed net for a while and head towards subway station. Vijay and his wife were also coming for the trip. I met them in the subway station and we head towards the bus pick up point. Around 6.45 we reached the Gangnam, the bus starting point. Infact we were the last one to board the bus from that point, everyone were waiting for us! The bus immediately started, the next pickup point was Suwon. People were already waiting on the stop, by the time we reached Suwon. Everyone board the bus and occupied the seats. We head towards the Gyeongpo beach around 7.45 from Suwon. After the bus started moving, Navneet briefed everyone about the day’s activity and introduced himself to everyone. He also requested others to introduce themselves one by one. He put the condition to members while introducing to use maximum Kannada words which himself failed to keep! Everyone gave their introduction and as expected no one spoke in full Kannada. It is always Kanglish with more words of later. After the introduction everyone were served with water and little snacks. The traffic was moving very slow due to long weekend effect. Rahul who is the main host made his introduction and called my name to conduct Quiz programme. I explained the rules of the quiz and made the teams. Initially I had kept the team names as English alphabets a,b,c,d &e, but the members gave a suggestion to change the names to popular Karnataka food items. The suggestion was accepted and changed the names to Chow chow bath, Dose, Dharvad peda, Mysore pak and Golibajji. The members actively involved in the game, took seriously and answered with Great Spirit. When the first round got over, our driver stopped the bus at some road side bus terminal for a short break. After the short break (which lasted for more than 30 min, due to late arrival of few members) the quiz programme was continued. 2nd and 3rd round were much more interesting. At the end of all rounds there was tie between Dose and Golibajji team. To decide the winner put additional questions to each team. Finally Golibajji team were announced winners. They were given chocolates and cookies as an appreciation. People appreciated my efforts in conducting the quizJ After the quiz Divya Shree announced to play Dumb sharads. Now the group is divided into two teams. First half of the bus is one group and the rest are one group. This was a real fun game. Thanks to Roshan and Vinay Gowda for making it more fun. Roshan is unbelievable; he browsed through 3g and picked some unknown kannada movie names. People not heard of these names failed to recognise when their team member was doing the actions. The bus again stopped at one more station for a break. The traffic was moving very slowly. As per our original plan, we were to reach Gyeongpo beach by 11.00am but at 11 we were just half way through! To make the environment lively Divya shree conducted few more games. Again Roshan and Vinay Gowda pair were big entertainers. They coined the gay story between them and made us believe that, real funny guys. Finally at 1.30pm we reached Gyeongpo beach (2.5 hrs late than our plan). Immediately we had our lunch. The lunch was excellent. Rahul had ordered in advance to one Indian hotel near Gangnam, Seoul. The lunch menu was good. Two chapatis, 3 vegetable currys, vegetable biriyani, Gulab Jamoon, Salad and Samosa. The packing was excellent, and food was fresh even after 7~8 hrs of preparation. The serving and cleaning of the food items by the team members were to be much appreciated. After everyone had the lunch, the place was cleaned such that, there was no visible proofs that some had food at the place, so clean. If we follow the same practise in our India also, then our place also will be very clean and hygienic! Well after the lunch we changed the dress, and head towards the beach. Gyeongpo beach is really good. The white sand attracted me very much. The beach was fully crowded. We took two umbrellas and tubes for rent. Placed our bags and footwear under the shade of umbrellas and got into the water with the tubes. The water is shallow for initial 5 meters and immediately becomes deep. Unlike our beaches in India, due this waves are not much. With the help of tube, I was swimming and with the water current I was flown more than 50~60 meters away from the shore. I see my surrounding but there were no one, all alone. Everyone were playing on the shores. I don’t know much swimming and the tides were pulling me more into the water. I was scared at this moment and called for help. After a while a Korean safeguard came for my rescue. He drove me towards the shore. Thank God, I praised him for the help. After this I carefully restricted myself to play near the shore. Some people go for banana boat ride and bungee jumps. As I am scared of water sports and heights, I did not show any interest even in attempting L but playing in water for more than 2~2.5 hrs was fun. After the beach game, went to take showers. The shower places in Korea are weird. The place is so small for the number of tourists who come and it is an open bath. Korean men in their natural dress go to the shower in a public bathroom. Total embarrassing situation for me and my Indian friends. We never experienced this type. Somehow we managed to take shower (ofcourse we were not naked like Koreans in a public bathroom). After the showers, most of us were back to the bus and started waiting for others to return. Meantime some guys opened up Soju bottles and started to drink as some sort achievement! After everyone was back, group photos were shot. Around 7.00 pm we left Gyeongpo and head towards Seoul. Back way some more games were played in the bus. Navneet conducted some funny game followed by Antakshari. Again Roshan sing some funny songs which were not heard by anyone but him. The traffic was bad this time too. Rahul asked each and every one share their experience. Everybody praised organiser for arranging such a memorable trip. Finally we reached back Seoul at 1.30am in the midnight. Me, Vijay and his wife took a taxi and reached our place around 2.30am. The trip was really good, memorable and conducted nicely. Thanks to the organizers and members.
Few photos taken from Divya Sudarshan, Divya Shree and Devesh Patel:
KKK members inside bus
me conducting quiz
playing dumb sharads
funny pair Roshan and Vinay
Divya shree conducting antakshari
playing in beach
taking rest
group photo to mark the event
Slowly moving traffic back way to Seoul
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