A Day in the Country

Pyongtaek Rice Paddies


Well, we left the urban jungle of Seoul and headed south for a little bit this afternoon. Our goal was a small village about 70km south of Seoul--to visit a clothes tailor whom we befriended long ago. We were planning on having some new outfits made and needed to go back for some more measurements and fittings. Well, after spending about 4-1/2 hours parked on Hwy 1 (all of 43 miles to go) we eventually make it 'near' the village where we used to live on a previous 'life' in Korea many years ago.

Why was today's traffic such a nightmare? We haven't a clue!

Such is life in such a 'tightly' condensed country. The South Korean population is roughly 49 million (the same population as California, Oregon & Washington combined) in a country about the size of Indiana. That's 1/16th of the entire US population squished into Indiana!!! I guess traffic would be pretty crazy there, too, if that were the case!

Once we cleared the park and go situation on the highway we eventually made it to 'rice paddy' land and were able to floor it in our 12 year old Hyundai 'hoopdy'. We were so late for our appointment that we weren't able to 'slow down' to take our photos of the rice paddies along the way. Hence, the 'moving' pictures of the paddies. By the looks of the paddies, the rice has already been planted and the paddies have been flooded. They should be sprouting green stalks out of the water shortly!