Hitchhiking in South Korea: Mungyeong and Andong
24th of April, 2025.
I’m waiting for only a few minutes when Kida stops his small truck. He’s going to Daegu, but he believes it will be easier to get a lift to Andong from there. I ask him if he can take me to the road leading to Andong, and he assures me he know the best place. I take it!
Kida has quit his job after 20 years, contradicting what everybody else was advising him to do. Well done! I tell him. We can only expect something from changes. Staying still will never bring anything possibly new, and if you are unsatisfied with anything in your life, you must change. Now, he’s selling drinks for Coke Company, and that’s why he went all the way to Busan, by train, to buy this brand new truck, just today! It still has all the plastic covering everything. Laugh.
He also tells me that, when he was young he wanted to travel by hitchhiking but it was too afraid to do it. What a shame! Kida drives me a hell out of his way to home just so I can be in a great spot. Thank you!
A wonderful surprise was awaiting me…
A little red car stops, and as I approach the driver, a woman, she explains to me that she’s going near Andong, and show me on the maps where, I accept. The best decision I could’ve possible have made it.
Lee mi-ja looks like a woman in her forties but she’s over 50 already. I can barely believe it! As she was telling me about wanting to travel and be more adventures, and more confident, I keep telling her she can be brave and adventurous, and I don’t understand why she would say that. Of course it doesn’t make any difference if she’s 40 or 50, she still can do whatever and everything she wants, I am just so surprised on how young she looks, it’s really impressive.
On the way, she invites me for two things: first, to join her on visiting her friend’s tea shop, before carry on to Andong; but she invites me to come over to her place in Daegu afterwards, so tomorrow we could go and visit some places. “If you have the time” – she says. I think with myself, why not? – I rather spend a nice time with a local friend then simply going to visit a spot or a town. So I tell her I would do that gladly, and that I didn’t need to visit Andong after all. She seems surprised and happy with my answer.
We arrive to her friend’s tea shop. It’s a cute little place, with an elephant as a logo. It’s gorgeous inside, with lovely ceramic for tea everywhere. China, Japan and South Korea, all of them look gorgeous. And there’s so many different types! I’m impressed. Her friend is Nam Jeong-wan, a 64 years old man who I admire since the first look already. He’s so adorable! He serves us some tea; I ask him some questions about tea; Lee mi-ja tells him about my story and he seems impressed; he invites me to come over to his home for a ceremony.
A small walk distance from his shop is his home and their second tea shop. Laugh. At his beautiful home I meet his lovely wife, Kim Yong-mi, who again, looks like a doll even so she’s 56. These South Korean women are out of this world! Kim not only look young, she feels young, as she moves around like a young girl. She has prepared and arranged so much food for the ceremony. It’s impressive. The ceremony is called Chesa, and it’s for Nam’s late father, and he proceeds with the rituals. There’s another man too, and they both do bowls during the ritual. The women do the bowls to, so I follow them. They are surprised and happy with that. In the end, Nam drinks some rice liquor and offers me some too. I feel so honoured for been part of such import, deep and intimate moment. What a moment!
After the ritual we all sit and eat the food. Everything is amazing! They are all so sweet and kind, that I feel so blessed for being here, almost not believing in how generous the universe is to me.
After eating we go to the second tea shop. Is also super cute! He have three more different teas. All very special, according to Nam. And one of them, it hits me in the heart. It’s a powdered tea, called Puer, and it’s prepared in a special way. As I inhale, the aroma transcends me and I know there’s something else about this tea. It’s pure aroma and it talks loud to my heart. Suddenly, it hits me: it’s Aamir’s perfume. I don’t what to say or how to explain, bu that’s what my heart and my brain tells me, so it must be true.
As I’m still recovering from this moment, Nam Jeong-wan, without me noticing, attached a necklace to my neck. It’s a germanium necklace, and we had already talked about it before, when Lee mi-ja told me he would give her one. I was just not expecting that I would get one too. And for him to put himself on my neck… Oh! What a gentleman! I can’t help the tears which come to my eyes. And, of course, I think about Aamir. They have similar hands, by the way…
We sleep over. Laugh. It’s so awesome and I feel like a teenager sleeping over in the friends’ house for the first time. Or like in the movies when you just meet someone through somebody else, and then they invite you to stay over. And this couple is so precious that I am overflowing happiness.
As they were not awesome enough, they don’t let us sleep in the couch but offer us their bedroom. I try to refuse but there’s no way. Kim gives us pajamas and clean towels, so we can have a shower. And she even gives us tooth brushes! Oh, dear Loki, these two human beings are out of this world! And all of this is only possible because of Lee Mi-ja too, so basically I am surrounded by three of the best people in the planet. Laugh. I’m so blessed!
Next morning, an incredible and healthy breakfast awaits us. We all help, and Kim prepares a gorgeous serving table. What amazing food!
Now we go exploring. I mean, they take me to explore. Unfortunately, Kim cannot join us, so we say our sad goodbyes.
Nam knows so much about everything and I love to be in his presence. We drive for about 20 minutes to a scenic spot called Mungyeong Saejae Province Park, which used to be a palace but it’s now used for the shooting of many K-dramas.
The place is simply coming out of a movie. Gorgeous and breathtaking! I am all the time just wondering how can I be so lucky to end up here! Wow! Soon enough there will be a tea festival here, where Nam and Kim will be among the people selling things. They will have a tea stand. How amazing! Nam shows and tells us many things about the place. When he goes down to the river and start moving some branches around in order for the river to flow better, my heart is apprehensive. But as he moves around like a young boy, I have nothing to fear.
On our way back, we stop in a regional ceramic museum; and a local ceramic maker, kind of the biggest one around, due to the importance of the master responsible for the first pieces ever made it. It’s a beautiful and well looked after place, and we even have the chance to see the outside clay ovens where the ceramics are finished. And in all this I still cannot believe that this is happening.
We have lunch in a lovely local restaurant in town. The food is Bibimpap but the kind that you mix all the things in your own plate, as you wish. I loved it!
As we go back to Nam’s home, he even invites us for tea, but as it’s already 15.00 hours, Lee Mi-ja says we must carry on in order to arrive in Andong still today. No, let’s stay and have tea with Nam, forget about Andong… that’s what I want to say. But I don’t. Instead I just tell him how honoured and amazed I am for meeting them, for their amazing kindness and generosity. I want to hug him but as he extends his hand to me, I only give him a strong hand shake. What a gentleman!
Before reaching Andong, Lee Mi-ja takes me to visit a temple which is on UNESCO list, Bongjeongsa Temple. It’s just outside Andong, but deep inside the mountains. A famous movie had a scene filmed here. The movie is called Why did Bhodi-Dharma left for the East?
As we arrive in Andong, Lee Mi-ja offers to take me to the bridge. I was considering to visit the bridge tomorrow, as I am tired from such a wonderful day, but as she offers, I decide it can be a good idea, so tomorrow I can either do something else, or carry on straight to Incheon Airport.
The Woljeonggyo Bridge is fantastic! It’s the longest wooden bridge in Asia and it’s absolutely beautiful. There’s also a very long pathway, also on wood, all along the river, and it seems amazing. If I had the time I would love to do that. But I don’t.
As the wind is so strong, Lee Mi-ja doesn’t cross the bridge but tells me she will be waiting on the car. I do it by myself and it’s a nice moment.
When I come to the car, she has bought the most delicious pastries in a nearby bakery. They have a strawberry ice cream filing and are superb! She also gives me another bun, filled with red beans (what a surprise!) just before she leaves. She drops me off nearby a church. She’s so sweet to say that would be nice if we had more time together. How adorable!
I consider to ask to camp around some local’s house. I don’t. In the first church I try, there’s nobody around. The second one Mokseong-dong Cathedral is huge and on the top of a hill. It’s beautiful! I can’t find anyone to talk for a long time. When I’m almost leaving, I see a nun and talk to her. She is so adorable and kind, so much the opposite of most nuns I have talked before. She calls the priest and soon enough he comes to talk with me.
After I explain everything to Priest Ancelmo, he offers to pay for a guest house owned by someone from the church. If he had said that the person wouldn’t charge, being asked by someone from the church, I would’ve accepted, but him paying for a room I couldn’t. Also because, as I could see there were many meeting rooms available at the church, I told him that I would be totally fine staying in one of them. He is quite in denial, and I’m sure is simply because he thinks is a too simple of a room for someone (mostly a foreigner female “guest”) but I manage to convince him that this is all I need.
I eat what I have, which is not much but enough, with a walnut and almond tea. I sleep well and silently.
10 Years Around the World 