Countdowns, Travel Tips

Five Road Trip Essentials

 2 Comments

The Allure of the Road Trip

It’s no secret that I’m a big advocate of the road trip. I’m sure a part of that is to do with the fact that as a non-driver I get chauffeured around, but I think it’s more an appreciation of the freedom that a road trip gives you over taking a train, bus, or plane.

Growing up in relatively isolated country towns such as Ben Lomond, Tibooburra, and Menindee – every holiday required the family to pile into the Land Cruiser and embark on a drive that went anywhere from 5 – 24 hours.

Along with memories of Dad’s mixtape of Sting, Phil Collins, and Dire Straits; I also recall the disappointment of being told dinner would be fish cakes rather than McDonalds, and the whistle of the engine once the car had stopped and we’d arrived at our destination – often well after dark.

Those early road trips had an enduring impact, and there are few ways I’d rather travel than in the passenger seat (or the backseat, at a pinch) of a car – tunes blaring, snacks on hand, and adventures ahead to be had.

Most recently, my brothers and I took the six hour drive from Ben Lomond to Windsor in western Sydney, before Roma from Roaming Required and I took a scenic three hour drive from Sydney up to the Broke Fordwich region.

With a rental provided by Redspot Sixt, all we had to provide was the entertainment and the snacks.

Five Road Trip Essentials

A good road trip has a few essential ingredients, and below you’ll find the five that I find most necessary.

#5 – Snacks

Whether it’s a can of Mother and some Twisties in Australia, a Big Gulp & Twizzlers in the US, or a Perky Nana & Coke in New Zealand – a good road trip needs some thoroughly unhealthy snacks to keep energy levels up when the view loses its luster.

While you can go down the healthy route with sliced fruit, sunflower seeds, and *shudder* water, that’s like going to a five star restaurant and ordering the salad.

Save the calorie counting for when you’re back in the office.

#4 – A Car Charger

In these days where being without electronics is tantamount to one of those dreams where you go to school naked, even a few hours without the phone can feel like an eternity. Chained to work or just needing some Tinder time when the conversation flags, the age of the smartphone has assured nobody need be bored on the road.

Even when there’s no signal; games, music, movies, and books are all just a swipe away. I don’t even know how parents dealt with unruly kids in the time before smartphones and tablets.

As many of us have found it, however; searching for signal burns through your battery. A phone that normally lasts a day suddenly dies within a couple of hours, and even if you can make do without it on the road – chances are you’ll need it to search for directions or bring up your reservation details when you do reach your destination.

On our recent weekend in Broke Fordwich, Roma and I were lucky enough to have an opportunity to road test the Kensington Powerbolt Dual Fast Charge Car Charger. While it’s true that there isn’t a great deal of innovation left in something as tried and tested as the car charger, I do like the spin that Kensington has put on the design, offering a charger that not only charges two devices – but also caters to the fact that not everybody has upgraded to the iOS devices with Lightning Cables.

The charger comes with an in built Lightning Cable, which does mean you don’t have to bring yours along for the ride – but for those with other USB charged devices (including non Apple devices and even the Kindle), there’s also a USB outlet you can use with your existing power cable.

While I don’t drive enough myself to warrant buying one, the charger in question has found a loving home with my brothers and their daily commute to and from work.

#3 – Car games

When conversation just won’t cut it, it’s handy to know a few games. This is doubly true if you’ve got a couple of restless kids in the back and don’t want to entrust your electronics to their grubby little hands.

From old favourites like “I Spy” or “Twenty Questions”, to more sophisticated games such as “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” – a good game can pass the time when the scenery turns repetitive. I’m putting together a list of grown up car games to share with you in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out! Essential reading for any road, train, bus, or plane tripper.

#2 – Good company

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that good company can make a bad trip great, and bad company can ruin even the most fantastic of destinations. In the past I’ve talked about the ten people you should never travel with, so be sure to check that your travel companion to be doesn’t fit into any of those groups!

fear loathing road trip

There’s no real checklist you can use when you’re preparing for a road trip, and that’s doubly true if you’re just looking to get from Point A to Point B and you’re not spoiled for choice.

A good road trip companion can hold up their end of the conversation, isn’t too demanding or picky when it comes to food, and has a relaxed attitude to pit stops, scenic detours, and the inadvertent disasters that strike from time to time.

Their skills ought to cover areas that yours do not. If you’re a crack Google Maps navigator, maybe you need somebody who knows how to make a good mix tape or has a stockpile of funny stories to help pass the time.

#1 – The mix tape

Is it controversial that I think the mix tape (or mix CD, Spotify playlist, or iTunes Playlist) is more important than a good companion?

When your phone dies and the conversation dries up, the last thing you want is a long and awkward silence as the kilometres tick by.

A good mix tape isn’t just there to fill the silence. It can lift flagging spirits, prompt a spontaneous singalong, or even reboot the conversation as you reminisce, discuss, or debate the merits of a certain song.

I’m currently working on my ultimate road trip playlist, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Safety First!

Above all else, it’s important to stay safe when driving. This is especially true over long distances.

It goes without saying that you should always wear a seat belt and always get plenty of rest.

If you’re traveling with young adventurers, make sure you’ve got a safe child-friendly seat. You can check out reviews on Carseatexperts.com to find the best fit for your little one.

Your Say

What are your road trip must haves?

Do you have any mixtape or road trip game suggestions? I’d love to hear them!

 

Australia, Broke Fordwich

A Wine Virgin in Wine Country: Broke Fordwich

 7 Comments

Enter the Pretender


As I’ve previously confessed, wine is right up there with modern art and ballet when it comes to things I don’t understand, but feel as if I should.

When friends discuss the differences between a pinot noir and a merlot, or debate whether a semillon or a chardonay would be best paired with their dinner, I instead hear waves crashing on the beach and seagulls crying out overhead.

I have a similar reaction to girls talking about shoes, come to think of it…

When I was invited along to the Broke Fordwich region to participate in a weekend of wine and fine food, I was just a tad daunted. My knowledge of wine didn’t extend far beyond what some would consider an impressive ability to consume a four liter cask of Fruity Lexia while in college.

Would I be welcomed by Broke’s collection of wine makers, grape growers, and wine enthusiasts? Or would I be driven out of town with pitchforks and torches as a heathen Philistine?

Having consulted wine drinking friends prior to departing, I felt adequately equipped to at least look the part. My theatrical training coupled with a handy list of key wine terminology, I felt confident I’d be able to bluff my way through.


Found Out Over Dinner


It took all of fifteen seconds for my cunning ruse to be pierced. I stepped off the bus into a wonderfully warm and star strewn Friday night, only to have somebody call out, “You’re the one who doesn’t drink wine, right?”

I’d been hoisted on my own petard. Fool that I am, I’d imagined nobody would read my preview before I arrived.

Far from being an accusation, though, it was a light-hearted barb that would set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Our hosts for the evening, Graham from Broke’s Promise and Mel from Motty’s Farm, couldn’t have been more different. Where Mel was a warm and approachable woman whose personality reflected the simple yet delightful food she served, Graham was every bit as acidic and gruff as a very dry white.

 

Motty's Farm specializes in simple yet delicious food - the kind you'd eat at home. The baked mushrooms were magnificent!
Motty’s Farm specializes in simple yet delicious food – the kind you’d eat at home. The baked mushrooms were magnificent! Photo courtesy of Motty’s Farm Facebook Page.


Mike of Mt. Broke Wines was softly spoken and quiet, while Barb of Ascella Organic Wines had the bubbly personality of the sparkling Rose she was kind enough to share with us.

What I found on my first night in Broke was that, wine-aficionado or not, I was welcome. I was treated no differently than the gorgeous Swedish wine importer who sat beside me, and found myself laughing along with fresh forged inside jokes within an hour of arriving.

As an outsider looking in, I’ve always associated wine with a kind of pretension and faux intellectualism, so it was a wonderfully pleasant surprise to find that these people – incredibly passionate about wine as they were – ran the gamut from gruff to worldly, from chatty to quiet.

The one thing they all had in common? The warm, honest openness that you only really experience in the country.


A Wine Tour in Broke

Jumping for joy after a fun, boozy day in wine country. Photo courtesy of A Wine Tour in Broke Facebook page.
Jumping for joy after a fun, boozy day in wine country. Photo courtesy of A Wine Tour in Broke Facebook page.


Buoyed by a wonderfully fun and filling first night in Broke, I woke early on Saturday morning for the main attraction of the weekend – a day long wine tour in Broke that would introduce us to the flavours and sights that make the Broke Fordwich region such a gem.

Paul and Margueritte of A Wine Tour in Broke would ferry our motley crew of bloggers, journalists, and TV producers around for the day. I can’t think of a better representation of the area than these two. With their adorable daughter also along for the ride, it felt more like a trip out among friends than it did a tour.

Our tour gets to know one of the local wine-makers while visiting Whispering Brook.
Our tour gets to know one of the local wine-makers while visiting Whispering Brook.

A pair of Newcastle natives who love the Broke region; you’d be hard pressed not to immediately like Paul’s laid back Aussie sense of humour or Margueritte’s wildly inappropriate Irish spirit.

Our day’s itinerary saw us visit five wineries: Mt. Broke Wines, Stomp!, Nightingale Wines, Whispering Brook, and Ascella Organic Wines.


A Day of Diverse Experiences


While I’ll admit to having feared that the day would be a tad boring for somebody with no real knowledge of wine, I was pleasantly surprised.

Each of the vineyards we visited presented a different style and experience, while being similar in the way the passion and simple country openness of those we interacted with shone through it all.

Where Mike at Mt. Broke Wines regaled us with the story behind such creatively named wines as Skinny Dipping and Sticky Fingers on the wonderfully appointed deck outside his converted dairy, Whispering Brook’s Don took us into the barrel room where we were given a brief lecture on the role that the barrels play in deciding a wine’s taste and quality.

Stomp! saw us perched on stools to sample the Hunter Valley Chocolate Shop’s trademark sweets with some of Stomp!’s finest wines, while Barb & Jeff of Ascella not only gave us a tour of their extensive vineyard – but also paired wines with organic cheese and olives.

Pairing Stomp! wines with Hunter Valley chocolate. I was in heaven!
Pairing Stomp! wines with Hunter Valley chocolate. I was in heaven!
Barb of Ascella lead us in a quiz at the end of the tour to test our newfound organic wine knowledge. I won a prize!
Barb of Ascella lead us in a quiz at the end of the tour to test our newfound organic wine knowledge. I won a prize!


I’ll be sure to give a more detailed run down of each unique experience in later entries, but I just wanted to illustrate what a diverse day it was.

Far from being a repetitive exercise in dour lectures and fine wines, it was a day that fostered an appreciation of the craft in me not through an abundance of information – but through the infectiousness of the local passion.


Conversion


I may never be able extoll the virtues of the Portuguese Barbera grape or quite fathom how a semillon grown from the same vines in the same vineyard can taste so wildly different from year to year – but I left the day with a newfound appreciation of wine.

This isn’t just because I was given the opportunity to try wines and find my own tastes, but also because that myth of exclusivity was well and truly dispelled by the people of Broke.


“I’m not going to tell a person what they can or will taste in a wine,” Graham of Broke’s Promise argued on our first night in town, “I don’t know their palette”.


“I’m a wine drinker, not a wine expert,” Marguerite confided in us later that same evening.


While there are those who will sniff, savour, and spit out their wine – my visit to Broke taught me that there’s room for a wine novice such as me, even in wine country.

Loading

Winners are grinners! Thank you Ascella Estate Wines

View on Instagram

Thank you!

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everybody who helped put the weekend together and make it such a fantastic time. I’ve mentioned most of them above, but it would be remiss of me to overlook Margan’s Restaurant, Pitted & Pickled, and Pemberley Grange.

Your Say

Have you ever paid a visit to a wine making district? What did you think?

Are you a wine novice considering a visit to wine country?

 

Australia, Newcastle, Plans

Going for Broke Fordwich: A Weekend of Wine and Tranquility

 7 Comments

Headed to Broke Fordwich

This coming weekend myself and Roma from Roaming Required have the pleasure of being invited along to the Broke Fordwich region of the Hunter Valley to act as blogger ambassadors.

While the Hunter Valley has long been synonymous with wine and weekend escapes from the hustle and bustle of Sydney or Newcastle, the Broke Fordwich region has emerged as the ‘tranquil side of the Hunter Valley’ away from the more touristic portions of the area.

As part of this push to become a region synonymous with good food, good wine, and a little peace & quiet – the Broke Fordwich Wine & Tourism Association have invited a number of food and travel bloggers along to explore the region and spread the good word.

I’m only too happy to have the opportunity to see more of the region that my family comes from.

I'm a country boy at heart, and this looks like heaven to me!
I’m a country boy at heart, and this looks like heaven to me!

A Confession About Wine

Anybody who knows me well will tell you I’m not exactly a wine connoisseur. My tastes and past experience don’t range much farther than the bags of Fruity Lexia I used to drink at college, in fact.

Armed with Wikipedia’s handy list of wine tasting terms, I’m hoping I’ll be able to at least pass muster as I try the best that the Broke Fordwich region has to offer.

Hmm… this has an oaky finish to it. Aromas of pine and… it’s earthy! How wonderful. *Cue droll laughter*

While Whispering Brook isn't on our itinerary, I couldn't resist this image.
I quite fancy taking a moment to enjoy a drop of Whispering Brook this weekend.

Our itinerary for the weekend includes visits to Whispering Brook, Ascella Pure Wines, Mount Broke Wines, Nightingale Wines and maybe even a little chocolate indulgence with our wine at Stomp! Wines. We’ll also get to pair our wine with organic cheeses and locally grown olives at Ascella, just to really drive home the decadence.

While it’s true that I may not know how to talk about wine, I do have an appreciation of the art. I’m not only looking forward to sampling the local flavours, but also being able to meet with the winemakers who call the region home and hear their stories.

More Than Just Wine

While it’s true that the Hunter Valley is perhaps best known for the many wineries in the region, it would be unfair to say that it is only worth a visit if you like wine. With an abundance of quaint little towns and beautiful surrounding landscapes, the Hunter Valley truly is a place to find a bit of serenity without having to drive too far afield.

I never knew this smell had a name. It's my favourite smell, too!
I never knew this smell had a name. It’s my favourite smell, too!

Just a few hours from Sydney and Newcastle, the Hunter Valley offers city slickers an opportunity to hike, go horseriding, take a joy ride in a hot air balloon, play a round of golf, or just soak in the peace and quiet while doing a bit of shopping.

Our own itinerary affords us the opportunity to visit the beautiful Baiame Cave. In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame was the Creator God and Sky Father, and his depiction in this cave makes it an invaluable glimpse into the history and beliefs of Australia’s ancestral inhabitants.

Our visit will see us accompanied to the ancient site by Elders of the local Wanaruha tribe, which is a real privilege.

Oh, and did I mention food?

A Foodie Paradise

While I may not be an expert in the art of wine, it’s fair to say that I have a good appreciation of all things food. One look at me and you’ll know that’s true.

Broke just happens to be home to the Australian Tourism Awards 2012 Best Restaurant: Margan Restaurant.

In a country with more than a few stunning restaurants and cafes scattered across the map, that’s fairly high praise. I’m excited to say that we’ll be dining at this renowned restaurant on our second night in the region. The restaurant has won numerous honours, but I’m most intrigued by its status as the reigning Sustainable Restaurant of the Year.

I'm more than a little excited to be dining at such a well known and well loved restaurant as Margan Restaurant.
I’m more than a little excited to be dining at such a well known and well loved restaurant as Margan Restaurant.

The quality dining experience doesn’t stop at Margan Restaurant, however. There are a number of well regarded restaurants in the region, and we’ll get to sample the food and wine alike at Nightingale Wines when we stop in for lunch on day two of our visit.

Our first night in Broke also sees us paying a visit to the Broke’s Promise winery, where we’ll be treated to the best local produce the region has to offer courtesy of Motty’s Farm Cuisine. I’m particularly excited by this opportunity, as we’ll have the chance to try locally grown and prepared foods!

I Can’t Wait!

In case you couldn’t tell from the above, I’m pretty excited about the opportunity. While I’ll be attending as a guest of the Broke Fordwich Wine & Tourism Association, I’ll be bringing my typical irreverent sense of humour and nose for adventure along for the ride.

Keep your eyes peeled next week as I review the weekend, the region, and the many places we’ll be exploring.

Your Say

Have you spent any time in wine country?

Got any tips for an amateur wine taster looking to make an impression?

 

Blog, Travel Writing

Four Years of Aussie on the Road

 6 Comments

Happy Birthday Aussie on the Road!

It was with surprise that I received the notification (via the groovy TimeHop app) that yesterday marked four years since I embarked on this crazy ride and started sharing my travels, life, and innermost thoughts on this humble little corner of the internet.

I’d known that October marked the fourth anniversary of the site, but I guess I’d let the exact date slip my mind.

This is criminal. Given how hugely influential in my life this site has become and how many great friends I’ve made through sharing my stories online, you’d think I’d have been preparing something suitably epic to celebrate the birthday of my bouncing baby blog.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to reflect on the four years that have been and also cast an eye towards what the future holds for Aussie on the Road.

Read on, if you will.

The Story So Far

As I’ve said elsewhere, this blog started with very humble intentions. My girlfriend at the time had started her own healthy living blog (now long gone, may it rest in peace) and I’d hoped to share an interest.

While both the relationship and the healthy blog that inspired Aussie on the Road didn’t quite see out the year, I found the process of sharing travel stories and encouraging people to get out of the daily grind to be something I really enjoyed.

Over time, this enjoyment also translated into financial rewards and – most recently – the occasional ‘free’ trip in exchange for a review or a mention on social media.

While I’ve not hit the heights of a Nomadic Matt or an Everything Everywhere, I like to think I’ve carved myself out a nice little niche here. I’ve managed to interact with people from all over the world – from the Philippines to the Czech Republic, South Africa to Canada, and England to China.

I’ve even been recognized in a bar on two separate occasions as ‘that guy from Aussie on the Road’. The Paparazzi will be at my door any minute, I’m sure…

Favourites

Rather than waffle on with every up and down I’ve experienced over the past four years, I thought I’d instead highlight the ten posts that best summarize the journey so far. These are the posts of which I’m most proud or, in some cases, the posts that have earned the site the most notoriety.

Oddly enough, very few of them are directly related to travel.

Love, Sex, and Romance

With almost all of my romance (so far) having taken place abroad, it’s no surprise that it features rather heavily in the pages of the blog. From my time in China (and the US) with Nomadic American to the various other romances that I’ve had while traveling, I’ve always tried to tread a line between honesty and respecting the girl in question’s privacy.

So far, so good!

Nomadic American and I on her first day in Shanghai.
Nomadic American and I on her first day in Shanghai.

Often controversial, but always a blast to write – my list of travel blogging crushes was initially inspired by Will Peach’s irreverant ’10 Travel Bloggers I’d Go Gay For’. With a tongue-in-cheek view towards ‘ranking’ my favourite female bloggers, reactions have ranged from flattered to outraged.

While I’ve written a few posts on relationships on the road before, this recent post was one very close to my heart. Having loved and lost in romances with an expiry date on two occasions now, I felt it was finally time to share some of my thoughts and offer some advice for people who are in love, but know it can’t last.

Part tongue-in-cheek joke, part contest, and part desperate cry for human contact; my recent post about wanting to audition a (female) travel blogging partner with whom to romance my way around the world was more fizzle than sizzle.

Still, I enjoyed writing it.

Depression and Self Improvement

imagegen

I like to think that people have responded to these posts because I’m very frank when discussing my mental health issues and the processes that I’ve used to cope with them while abroad. These posts have certainly been the most well received when it’s come to comments or ‘fan mail’.

The record holder for most views in a single hour, my ‘confession’ about my ongoing battle with depression and how it has shaped my life was met with a truly humbling wellspring of support. I still periodically receive emails and PMs from complete strangers who want to thank me for sharing my story, and it never gets any less flattering.

A more recent post I wrote upon reading some old blogs I wrote as a petulant, tortured 18-year-old. I remember really struggling to write this, because it dredged up some very raw memories of my earliest days with depression – even if I didn’t know it by that name.

Sharing one of my favourite stories from my time on the road, My Best Birthday talked about what it felt like to feel welcomed into my first expat community. While it has now been seven years since that fateful, heart-warming evening in South Korea – it still makes me smile whenever I think about it.

Travel

Last, but certainly not least, travel is obviously a huge part of the site. While the individual posts don’t generally draw as much traffic when they’re published, they’re the ones that slowly but surely keep building over time.

Sinking Paulaner beers at the Qingdao International Beer Festival.
Sinking Paulaner beers at the Qingdao International Beer Festival.

My second most viewed post of all time, my ever-expanding bucket list and the motivations behind it seems to resonate with a lot of people. One of the first posts many people comment on, and one I occasionally get rather saucy proposals regarding.

My mother does not approve of many items on the list. Read at your peril.

A consistently popular post, my post on my favourite spots in Sydney is a quiet achiever. While it’s nothing ground-breaking if you’ve been to the Harbour City before, it’s got some interesting options if you’re visiting for the first or the fiftieth time.

The record holder for most views of all time (with 120,000 more hits than the next hit), this one gets press for entirely the wrong reasons. Written as a frank discussion on views of sex and sexuality in South Korea, it instead gets a lot of traffic from perverts looking for photos of naked Korean girls. They must be so disappointed.

Thanks largely to a retweet from Lonely Planet, this post written in my very early days in China got a huge amount of feedback. While I would later write a less successful follow up that benefited from my having actually traveled in China, this one remains a popular post with those heading behind the Great Firewall.

It’s rare that my posts generate much controversy, so this one was a real shock to me. While I knew listing the reasons why I don’t enjoy living in Australia for an extended period of time might upset some people, I’ve been surprised by just how many people have found and commented on the post. While many have come out to agree with my sentiments, there have been some… ahem… colourful comments from my less educated compatriots.

One of (if I may say so) the most comprehensive guides to Australian slang you’ll find anywhere. I spent countless hours compiling and editing this list for consumption, and I believe it’s one of the most complete lists of Aussie slang you’ll ever read.

My childhood visits to Green Valley Farm are fond memories, and revisiting it as an adult was no less fun. Writing about this quirky local attraction was not only a lot of fun, but earned me plenty of praise from the family who created and maintain this unique New England icon.

Somehow, this relatively innocuous post about my early impressions of Nanjing has become a bit of a cult favourite with Nanjing residents. No less than three people have told me that this post was a factor in their deciding to come to Nanjing – something I feel bad about when I realize they turned down the opportunity to live in Beijing or Hong Kong.

Drawing on a number of uncomfortable travel experiences from my past, I compiled a catch-all list of the traits you definitely don’t want in a travel partner.

The Future

Things are looking quite exciting for the coming months.

This weekend sees me heading to the Broke region of the Hunter Valley for a weekend of wine and delicious food as one of the region’s blogger ambassadors.  You’ll read more about this tomorrow.

I’ve also got a week long safari in Tanzania coming up in November, and who knows what the future holds beyond that? While I’m home in Australia for the remainder of 2014, I can’t foresee myself sticking around here long term. Not when there’s so much to see elsewhere!

Your Say

Do you have a favourite post that I’ve neglected to mention above?

 

Gwangju, Korean Festivals, South Korea
The three of us hard at work at creating our masterpiece.

Making Kimchi at the Gwangju Kimchi Festival

 8 Comments

What is Kimchi?

For those not familiar with this stinky, fermented cabbage dish from South Korea – allow me to introduce it.

Made from vegetables (typically cabbage, but also radish, cucumber, and others) – this dish is made by allowing the vegetable to ferment in a mixture of brine, scallions, ginger, garlic, chili, fish sauce, and various other ingredients. Traditionally, this was done by putting the ingredients in a jar and burying it for the winter; although these days many Korean fridges even come with a drawer especially for making your own kimchi.

With each Korean eating an average of 18kgs of this spicy side dish a year, it amounts to a large chunk of their daily intake for vitamins, iron, and calcium. Some Koreans even go so far as to believe that kimchi cures everything from H1N1 (avian flu) to cancer to AIDS, although there’s been no proof of this.

Fans don’t kill you while you sleep either…

Nomadic American and a piece of lettuce (?) "Say Kimchi" together.
Nomadic American and a piece of lettuce (?) “Say Kimchi” together.

The food is so popular that “Say Kimchi” is the equivalent to saying cheese before taking a photo.

The Gwangju Kimchi Festival

Every year in October, the city of Gwangju (my former home of two years) holds the Gwangju World Culture Kimchi Festival – a celebration of all things kimchi.

As I’ve said in previous posts about Korean festivals, this is a country who will have a festival at the drop of a hat. These range from the beautiful (such as the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival) to the decadent (such as the Boryeong Mud Festival) to the downright odd (such as the Slow Walking Festival).

As festivals go, however, the Kimchi Festival is a wonderful celebration of an iconic staple of the Korean diet.

The kimchi prep station before the foreigners descended on it and made a mess.
The kimchi prep station before the foreigners descended on it and made a mess.

As you would expect, the bulk of the festival is made up of kimchi, kimchi ingredients, kimchi making demonstrations, kimchi making lessons, and various characters wearing suits representative of kimchi ingredients.

There are also cultural activities, live music, and talent shows – as is pretty standard at any Korean festival.

Attending the 2013 Gwangju Kimchi Festival

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already, but last October I had the pleasure of finally making it to the Kimchi Festival after missing the 2008 and 2009 editions. Despite living there at the time, weekends were generally reserved for the making of or recovering from hangovers.

I was young. Gimme a break!

As it was my last day in South Korea, myself, Nomadic American, and my friend Stacy decided to make a day of hitting the festival.

Team Ramrod posing with our kimchi prints.
Team Ramrod posing with our kimchi prints.

Not only would we get to participate in the making of kimchi, but the local Gwangju English language radio station (GFN) would be running a scavenger hunt that we’d entered ourselves into.

Learning How to Make Kimchi

For me, the highlight of the day was the opportunity to make my own kimchi.

While the fermented vegetable dish can be a bit confronting to a Korean newcomer, I’ve yet to meet somebody who spent a good amount of time in the country and didn’t acquire a taste for it. I can’t even be at a table with kimchi on it without emptying the bowl.

Lessons in how to make kimchi were available for a nominal fee, and we gladly paid up for the opportunity to prepare and ‘bottle’ our own kimchi to take home with us.

While I wouldn’t be able to get my kimchi onto my flight back to China, I did sample a bit later in the evening and it was… acceptable.

The three of us hard at work at creating our masterpiece.
The three of us hard at work at creating our masterpiece.

The process was both messy and fun, as we had to roll our lettuce in various spices and foul-smelling liquids before it was acceptable to our stern-faced but patient teacher.

After about twenty minutes of kneading and accidental splashing, we had finished and had our creations whisked away to be crammed into plastic bottles. They would be a rather pungent burden for the upcoming scavenger hunt.

The Kimchi Festival Scavenger Hunt

Our next port of call was registration for the scavenger hunt, where we were furnished with pens, paper, and bright orange t-shirts (pictured above).

From there, we were given a sizable list of clues and sent on our merry way. We’d have ninety minutes to find as many as we could.

Our frantic searching ranged from the inane (find the number 3) to the challenging, and I’m ashamed to say we didn’t even get halfway through our list.

This dog nearly bit my hand off, but we got the photo.
This dog nearly bit my hand off, but we got the photo.

Part of this was that we had to complete certain challenges (participate in an archery game, make some craft, cook a pancake) and part of it was because – well – let’s just say Team Ramrod didn’t exactly cooperate well when put under pressure…

I dominated this children's game! Bow before me!
I dominated this children’s game! Bow before me!

Either way, we finished a dismal “somewhere in the middle”. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however; while we didn’t win any prizes, every participant got a lunch of gimbap (a Korean sushi roll style dish) and a bottle of makgeolli (rice wine).

While I enjoyed my lunch, Stacy bogarted the Makgeolli...
While I enjoyed my lunch, Stacy bogarted the Makgeolli…

The Korean bystanders were fascinated seeing a sea of foreigners in matching shirts, and requests for pictures and handshakes came thick and fast.

I’ll forever enjoy the feeling of being a ‘celebrity’/spectacle while in Asia, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to ham it up with the locals.

The End

Whether you’re a Korean culture enthusiast or just happen to be in the country’s south during early October, the Gwangju Kimchi Festival offers a fun and fascinating insight into Korean culture. While it has an understandable focus on this unique dish, it’s also got plenty of activities and typical Korean quirks to keep the avid people watcher entertained for a few hours.

While I can’t say I’ll be rushing back to experience it all over again, I’m glad I finally got to attend the most famous thing my former hometown does.

Your Say

Have you ever attended a cultural festival while on the road?

Have you got any kimchi experiences of your own to share?