A Nice Day for a Duck Ride

Annyong!

Cindy here.

Since we arrived in Daegu and first looked at the maps and tourist brochures, I have been pretty excited about something we refered to as "duck ride". There is a large pond/lake in Daegu where you can pay 8000 won and hop into your very own oversized plasitic duck. The base of the duck is a paddle boat, and you get one hour to paddle your own duck around! We have been waiting for the perfect duck-riding weather....and Sunday was the day!

After some confusion involving a taxi driver, a map, and poorly spoken Korean (on our side) we arrived at the "lake" and easily rented our very own large plastic duck. As always, we were the local celebrities. Children and adults were surprised and happy to see us as we made our way around the lake.

Beside the lake there were many benches and trees, which provided the perfect spot for families and couples to hang out for a lazy Sunday afternoon. We felt we should join in. So we bought some ramyen (instant noodles) from one of the many food stands, found a plastic table overlooking the lake, and enjoyed the Korean experience. All around us families were also enjoying a picnic and some relaxation. It was a very nice way to spend a few hours.

Our stress returned when we had to make our way back home. Despite the fact that we had a map, and photos of where the taxi driver needed to take us to get home, he didn't understand. He began driving in the wrong direction while we frantically called our two Korean friends, to try to get someone to tell him where he should be going. Finally we got ahold of one of our Korean friends and asked her for help. After a short yelling match on the phone, the driver agreed to take us the other way....to our our area of Daegu. We are baffled why this happens so often, especially when we can show them on a map exactly where they need to go. But, oh well. We know that soon this will all be a story we repeat to people in Canada and laugh.