Or so we thought....
The plan was to go to Goeje, an island off the coast of Busan, and spend the weekend swimming, sunning and sleeping in tents. A group of about 20 foreigners showed up, mostly on Saturday, but myself, Rich, Charle and a few others showed up on Friday to start early.
The trip from Miryang to Goeje is about 2 hours...
So 6 hours and half a bottle of whiskey later we arrived.
After a successful scavenge for firewood, AJ and I set off to build the firepit and create the nest egg that would be our home for the rest of the weekend. Friday was a low key night, as we all sat around the fire and prepared for the inevitable shenanigans of the next day.
By the time we crashed it was about 5am. I slid into my little tent ready for some quality shut eye. At approximately 7am I awoke in a pool of my own sweat..as the tents quickly became our own personal saunas. I pulled out a pillow and a towel and slept on the beach for another couple hours, then awoke and ran immediately into the ocean where the others had already found refuge.
The water was crystal clear, and luckily for us, all the fully covered beach Koreans and their umbrellas were down at the far end of the beach, giving us the place to ourselves (minus some Russians who came out of nowhere).
In the distance, probably about a mile offshore, existed an island. We decided to name this Waygook Island and made it a personal mission to conquer the territory by days end.
As a group, we found that our scavenging skills were particularly astute on this day, as we found an assortment of floats, goggles, and other beach accessories that would be crucial to storming the beaches at Waygook island.
Now before I continue, it's important to note that Koreans are not the most adept swimmers. Perhaps it's because they are weighed down by clothing, as they swim fully clothed to avoid the sun.
As if by telepathic genius, we all simultaneously began our swim out.
2 people had paddled out ahead on a raft we found near the bathrooms, whereas myself and a couple others decided to go at it Micheal Phelps style on our own. We had made it about a kilometer out, when we started to here the whistles. Now Korean lifeguards will blow the whistle if the water is merely at your waistline...so at this point they were in full freakout mode. A few immediately turned back in, but myself and a few others continued the quest in spite of him.
Finally, after 10 minutes of whistle blowing and watching him dive in and chase us with his red buoy, team Phelps decided to turn in. The flotation crew were still going full speed ahead, and now were over halfway to the destination.
And as luck would have it...the lifeguard reached me first.
"WHATEVER!" he said to me, a face full of pure anger.
This was not the correct greeting for someone in the middle of the ocean.
"Whatever what man? Don't worry about us, we are ok."- Annie
"Not ok! Dangerous!"-anger guard
"Nah man, we are good swimmers! We are fine!"- Gold medalist in guard dodging
"I call coast guard on you!"-pure rage
"That seems a bit excessive"-Waygook jerk
He gestured to the flotation crew asking if they were my friends, and telling me they cannot swim out there. At this point I responded that there was not much I could do about that unless he wanted me to swim after him.
At this point I felt there was nothing much left for him and I to discuss so I swam ashore. Later, the flotation crew would also come ashore, except this time they would be in speed boats accompanied by angry covered Koreans. They made it to the island but told us it was covered in trash and jagged rocks.
The day progressed with many giggles, laughs, and even a few guffaws. Everyone was getting along great, I even learned how to play cricket! But then...disaster struck.
We had been playing water frisbee. I missed the one thrown to me, and I went to swim after it, afraid that it would float away otherwise (a mistake I had made earlier in the day with a beach ball...I screamed "Wilson" as it floated out of reach). I focused on the frisbee, began to swim after it, and it was just out of reach when AHHHH. My whole arm felt like it was on fire and simultaneously being pricked with a thousand death pins. I had swam right through the tentacles of a jellyfish.
Now back home, I have been stung on more than one occasion, and never has the pain or discomfort lasted more than 10 minutes or so. Even earlier that day, on my journey to Waygook island, I had felt a sting on my knee, but it disappeared rather quickly.
I jumped out of the water to see my arm rapidly swelling up. I could see where the jellyfish stung my flesh, as it was white and bubbly. I have a fairly high pain tolerance, but this was not subsiding and was spreading to the entirety of my left arm.
Joel, a guy who was also in the frisbee game, had been stung years ago and jumped into action. He helped take me to the lifeguard stand, where he said they would likely have ammonia to neutralize the burn.
Well the lifeguards had no such thing, but I sat there with ice as Joel and I laughed at anger guard as he sat there stewing at us. The guards insisted that I go to the hospital, to which I replied "aniyo, Soju joseyo." translation "no, I want to drink." They finally understood that a hospital trip would really disrupt the long night of drinking I had planned ahead, they let me go, saying if I became nauseous or felt dizzy to immediately seek help.
The only problem was the ice did nothing for the pain, and as I walked back to base camp, I remembered hearing about an alternative way to neutralize the sting....
"Hey....does anyone need to pee?!"
Now if you had told me that morning, that I would be getting pissed on, I would have laughed and thought, oh what a silly thing to say! How silly! What a silly thing!
But there I was, arm burning an swollen, with my friend Charle and y new friend Chris (we bonded quickly) preparing for the first Golden Shower of my life. We were outside the bathhouse, amidst the stares of the Koreans (only their eyes were uncovered) preparing for the urine bath I was about to endure. Charle, beig a female, took the courtesy to pee into a coke bottle ahead of time, and we poured the 98.6 degree liquid over the top of the sting. Because the tentacle had wrapped all around my arm, and because I was trying to limit the amount of excess body juice that would be getting all over the rest of my body, Chris was crucial in aiming for the underarm. I stood up, with my arm fully outstretched, my eyes closed, and ready for the taking. Chris had no stage fright, and soon my sting was fully covered in urine. Fortunately and unfortunately, both friends had been evidently dehydrated that day, so the antidote was pungent and concentrated.
Nonetheless the golden shower did help the sting a bit, and mostly made for a good story. The rest of the night went off fairly smoothly: drinking, night swimming, cooking on the fire, playing guitar, and vowing that I would seek revenge on the jellyfish who did this to me. I will find you one day you little blobby jerk...and when I do, I will pee all over you and your jelly family.
The next morning we awoke in our saunas, hungover, shamed and dirty, and prepared to pack up for our journey home. I was in desperate need for a shower (fear not, I did wash the pee off my arm after the sprinkling incident). We bid everyone adieu, and drive-of-shamed it back to Miryang. We were tired, salty, tan, smelly, and still a little drunk, but mostly happy that we were probably the strangest group of people the covered Koreans have ever witnessed in their heavily visored lives.
