Oh-Jung Agricultural Market in Daejeon, South Korea

   Guess what! I am back to Korea!  I know I know.. I was planning to post blogs about Tanzania adventures but I had to move to Korea less than 2 weeks after the Tanzania trip so here I am! posting different yet cool adventure in Daejeon, Korea.  I am such a lucky person: I have awesome neighbors who became dear friends in very short time.  One of my friends who know so much about Daejeon than I am invited me to go to the big fish-veggie-fruit market in Daejeon today.

Matthew's favorite bus, 605 :), this bus stops 2 blocks from our apt. and stops at many useful place like agricultural center, supermarkets, furniture markets and etc. 

Woohoo~ It was my first bus ride in Daejeon.  1400won per ride! From our ( we all live in a same building :P) apt. to the market, it took about 20min or so..

All in Korean.... Good for me but it's hard for many foreign people in Daejeon

I got this photo from the Oh-Jung agricultural center website.  

It's the weekends before the Chuseok, Korean Full Moon Festival, so all the vendors were open for normal people.  Normally this market only do the whole sale very early in the morning. Our first stop! The fish market. 

Make sure that you wear shoes that you can easily wash :)  You will end up having fishy-feet. 

I guess it's shrimp season.  There were lots of live shrimps in the market.

Bloody Octopus from Pohang 

Live shrimps!

Fish sauce vendor.  They also sell pickled seafood.

Yummy expensive skate! 

Canadian Lobsters and Russian Crabs

My friends wanted to buy some scallops.  Very cheap!  about 10 big scallops about $17!

Live scallops!  

Dede got some huge prawns and fresh scallops.  The owner gave her lots of clams on the house! Dede always gets good service by Koreans.  I bet she knows more Korean people than I am in Daejeon! :)

Her fish vendor! 

Next stop, the dry fish-seaweed market.  It located right next to the fish market.  They usually don't open during the weekends but they did today because of the Chuseok. 

All kinds of dried anchovies, shrimps, pollocks, squids....

Next stop! Fruit and Vegetable market.  

During the Chuseok, Korean people give presents to each other.  Fruits are one of the popular items among with sesame oil box, Spam box, Canned tuna box and Beef ribs! :)  My expat friends were surprised that Korean people love the Spam present sets!

All very beautifully boxed fruits.  If you ever see the Korean Pear, you must taste it!  

After fish market, fruit vendors look good and smell better :P

It has small section of the vegetable vendors inside.  Daejeon market isn't as big as markets in Seoul but because of that I actually like it more: easy to walk around and buy stuff...

Korean cucumbers for kimchi!

All kinds of potatoes and sweet potatoes. 

H.U.G.E Korean Pears! 5 of them were $10. It's a good market to come with bunch of friends and share some veggies and fruits since the portions are big for just one and two people.  

Super yummy squash.  It's like zucchini but not bitter like it. We make the pancakes, add to the soup, sautée and etc. 

Amanda with delicious white peach from Moozu. We shared them too!

Dragon fruits!

If you ever come to Daejeon, you must to go to the Jung-ang market next to the Daejeon station and must eat all the yummy street food but if you have some extra time, you can check this market out.  Next time I will buy some abalone and eat them! 

Tanzania Safari I : Tarangire National Park

    The highlight of this year! We went to Tanzania! It was the first time for me in Africa :) It was long (about a month) but an awesome trip.  We started in Amsterdam, spent several days in and around the city and flew to Arusha.  I didn't expect anything: I even thought I'd be on a diet during the safari, wow what an idiot idea I had :) I enjoyed all the food before, during, after the safari in Tanzania. We chose Thomson Safaris (well our friends chose and we followed :) All arrangements were perfect.  We love Mohammad as our head guide and our driver Mohammad in Zanzibar.  All the workers at all the camps were amazing.  I loved all the food by all 3 chefs at the camps.  I want to say "THANK YOU" to Thomson Safari! 

    The trip started in Arusha -> Tarangire national park ->Ngorongoro conservation -> Serengeti national park -> dayhike on Mt. Kilimanjaro -> Zanzibar.  Today I'd like to share the photos from the Tarangire national park and the camp we stayed.  

    

   

Tanzania :) Do you know where it is? Now you do!

Arusha ->Tarangire -> Ngorongoro -> Serengeti -> fly back to Arusha

Our first beer at Rivertree Inn

Local peanuts and Kilimanjaro beer.  We tried lots of Tanzanian beer and decided that Kilimanjaro is  our favorite. 

Breakfast at the inn.  

Our friends and their kids.  We used to live together in the SF bay area and these two girls were born in the same house we lived.  My babies! grew up huge! 

During the driving from Arusha to Tarangire, Mohammad told us to be calm when we see all the animals but alas, we started to screaming at a banana tree on the way :P  The first creature, Banded Mongoose near the entrance to the Tarangire national park. 

Baobab tree.  There are many many baobab trees in the park. 

I need Mohammad now :)  He can tell me all the birds' names... 

Impalas.. I think!  I'm not good at animal nor bird! :) 

Giraffes... babies are so cute!!  squeak!

Tarangire park is very famous for... Elephants! I love them. They are magnificant to watch... huge!  

Dik-dik So very cute small antelope. 

Impala bumbum

Tarangire also has lots of zebras.  Apparently each zebra has their own pattern...

Baby zebra! still has the brown fuzzy fur..

Warthog :) Of course I call them Pumba!  My husband was the only one havn't watched the Lion King so he had no idea what we were talking about :) 

We arrived at the camp which surounded by huge baobab trees. 

Nothing like cold beer after dusty safari.  Oh by the way, Safari means 'Journey, Travel' in Swahili.  Did you know that Simba means lion in Swahili?  I learn new thing everyday :) 

There is Kilimanjaro beer.. of course, Tanzania must have Serengeti beer!

Beautiful sunset baobab tree with my husband-photobomb. :P

Beautiful Tarangire Sunset

Good morning! both mornings, it was kinda like this while we were staying at the park. 

New exciting day!

Start with yummy breakfast! 

Let me show you our tent.  Yes we did the Glamping :) . So very my kind of camping!  If camping is like this, I could do everyday, ha!

No tap water for mouth-washing.  Everymorning the camp worker brought hot water for morning cleaning and afternoon for shower. 

Yes.  We had our own shower and toilet inside the tent... 

First thing we saw in the morning.  Vultures were all over this area.  Mohammad thought that there must be a kill but we didn't see any..

lilac-breasted roller

There are lots of birds in the park.  My husband and friend took tons of photos. 

It seemed like all the non-predatory animals hanging out together.. well that makes sense. 

A herd of elephants after a mud-bath

Baby elephants are always between adult elephants.  Super cute!

Tarangire park is THE place for elephants for sure as you can see. 

In the safari car, girls stayed backseats and most of the time they even climbed up on the hood except! when there were lions :) 

Bird!  I don't know the name.

Male ostrich

Tarangire river, you can often see the animals drinking water. 

Wildebeest.  So very shaggy looking :) 

Lioness! It was one of the most memorable moments in the park.  I took lots of videos.  There were 2 lionesses with a kill and this one called cubs and 3 baby lions were came to the spot for lunch! As you can see this lioness was less than 10 feet from our car.  Super cool! In the future, when I have time, I will post the videos. 

Our lunch spot.  Amazing view.  

While drinking beer, this was what I saw.  

While friends was swimming, we drank beer and enjoyed the view.

Warthog, they were super cute when they ran: the tail went up!

Baboons

Back to the camp.  

Our friends brought the game, Spot It!, and it was a hit.  We'd played all the camps we went.  If you go to the same camp, play this with anybody :) They left the Spot-It game at each camp. 

Dinner setting.  I wanted to post some photos from the amazing dinner but it was too dark for good photos.  Here is the beautiful setting.  They changed the napkins with different animals each night :) 

I think this is my favorite photo from the park.  I will probably make it as my desktop photo. 

Morning bye-bye time.. T.T  Time for another adventure! The middle person with blue shirt is the famous Mohammad :) 

On the way to Ngorongoro park, we saw lots of animals again.  Wildebeests and Elephants

Elephant with one tusk.  

Tarangire national park was our first park to stay in Tanzania so it was super impressive to us.  My husband said in the end of this whole trip, Tarangire was his favorite.  If you are elephants fan, Taragire park, you must visit!