Chuseok, round 2, Part 2

So because we had a three day weekend, plans were to head out of Seoul. Originally I'd wanted to go down to Busan for a river lantern festival, but most festivals this year have been canceled due to an over-reactive government, and sadly the lantern festival was one of the victims. The other issue was traffic and travelling. I'd also thought about doing a quick Japan trip, but all flights to Japan were overly expensive, and all the flights to Jeju-do (Korea's version of Hawaii) had been booked months in advance. The traffic leaving Seoul the weekend of Chuseok is horrendous (I experienced it first hand last year when I drove to Pyongtaek with my co-teacher - what should have taken about 45 minutes actually took about 5.5 hours.) It's like Thanksgiving traffic on steroids. So - any travel using the road system was out, and all flights were gone. The KTX train was booked as well, which left us with the subway system and...boats! So, that's exactly what we did.

Thanks to the resourcefulness of some of James' friends, we found a lovely little island off the west coast of Incheon (Seoul's main airport). Originally we'd though about Moui-do or Yeongheung-do, but were somehow re-routed to Ijak-do (do - pronounced 'doh' - is Korean for island). Rather than being a problem, this turned out to be perfect.


Once we got to the Incheon area, we had to take a ferry to the island. There were only two ferries a day, one at 9am and one at 2pm. Because I live about a 2 hour subway ride from the ferry, I decided to take the 2pm ferry on Friday. James, Kathryn, Gary, and Juliet all caught the same one. There were about 8 other people that went as well, but they stayed in Incheon on Thursday night, and caught the first ferry out on Friday morning.

Gary, Juliet, Jack (the dog), James, and Kathryn in front of the Rainbow - our ferry to Ijak-do

The ferry ride was interesting in itself. I'd only been on a ferry once before with Steph, but it was more for sightseeing than for transportation. I'm not sure what the ferry is like when the seas get rough, but at one point while sitting on the main level, you would see only the sky, and then only the sea out the window - Kathryn was convinced we were going to pitch over. I actually had an interesting conversation with her about how I've become so nonchalant about so many things. I've heard people say numerous times that I nothing seems to upset me, and I've said to more than one person that I can't remember the last time I was offended. I don't worry that often, and very little seems to phase me, though I certainly get excited about traveling and seeing new places. I'm not sure if it's just the fact that I've been through experiences in my life at a young age that most people don't experience till they're older, or not at all (like divorce or moving to another country), or if it's just that I'm finally growing up.


Anyway, the views were amazing, and I realized that I felt much better when I was on the top deck. I think the combination of the rather brisk breeze and that I could see the entire landscape instead of an alternating sky/water window made for a happier stomach. I convinced the others that the upper deck was more gastronomically friendly, so we spent the last part of the ride on the top deck.


We expected the ride to last for about 2 hours, but it was closer to 2.5, and we were starting to get a bit anxious. The ferry stopped at three ports, and we wanted to make sure we got off in the right place. We made it off the boat just fine, and were told by Jess, who was already at the pension, that a Korean man in a minivan and a bluish-greenish hanbok would pick us up at the port. Well, we disembarked with about half the other people on board, and after about 7 minutes were the only remaining people within sight. Aside from the building near the ferry dock, there was nothing to indicate any other life, or even which direction to take the road in order to find civilization. We waited for about 10 minutes for something - anything to happen. Finally a black minivan drove up with a Korean inside, asking if we were friends of Jess' in broken English. So we loaded up the van and drove about 10 minutes up some really steep roads to a pension near a beach.

I can't read all of it, but the left side says "Stress NO!!"

We unloaded at the top of a hill, where we could barely see a beach down below. After sorting out the accommodations (the five of us were to share a 'big' room - which really only slept 3-4 of us comfortably), we headed down to the beach.




The only people there were friends of ours. There was another group of foreigners staying at our pension, but they were all up in the rooms. Aside from them and the people that ran the pension, we were the only ones in sight. The beach was beautiful, and we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming resting on the sand, playing soccer, and just generally enjoying the restfulness of it all.

One of the people brought his own tent so he wouldn't have to pay for the pension.

We wanted to see the sunset, so we hiked up, and then down the road we came in on, to get past the mountain that was blocking the view of the setting sun.

Sitting on the road with everyone, watching the sun set.

It was beautiful.

We found a lovely spot on the beach to watch the sunset, and camped out there for about 20 minutes and watched it sink down behind the water.

Following in the footsteps of others

There were only 4 other people on the beach besides us.

After getting back to the pension, we ordered dinner from the restaurant - which was more like a kitchen near the beach, and enjoyed the side dishes but practically gagged on the main dish, which had a nice sauce flavor but tasted like it was made from ground up cartilage and low-grade meat. After dinner and several drinks, we decided to join the other foreigners who had built a lovely bonfire on the beach.


The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around the beach; swimming, drinking, eating, relaxing, and just generally enjoying each others' company and the peaceful surroundings.

Eating pasta for lunch on Saturday

The tide coming in

Kathryn and Gary walking along the beach

Making squishy faces from a persimmon

At low tide on Sunday we could see some sort of fishing apparatus on the beach that had been previously covered up by the water, so I went out to get a better look at it.


I'm still not sure exactly what it did, but it was certainly interesting.





And then, sadly, it was time to head back home. So being slightly sunburned, and all covered in sand, we piled into the back of a truck and headed to the ferry dock to go back home.

Not sure how I managed it, but this picture makes me dizzy.

Don't worry, mom, we were perfectly safe in the back of an open truck with no seat belts.

We made it back to Incheon, and took the subway to Itaewon. Almost everyone I was with also had Monday off, but I had to work. So after a lovely dinner at a Thai restaurant (I think it's the first time I've ever said "wow" after tasting something and really meant it), I headed home.

Kosu Cave, Chungju Lake, and Dodamsambong

This Sunday I went on a trip to Kosu Cave in the Chungcheongbuk Province, which is south of me.Picture courtesy of Adventure Korea.

I had to be out of my house by 5:30am to get to the bus on time, and I was actually running late, so I wasn't able to ride the subway with Stephanie, who came as well. The bus took about two hours to get to Chungju Lake, which was created by the Chungju Dam.

We boarded the ferry on the right that's partially cut off.

The ferry ride was about two hours, and was clipping along at about 22 knots. We changed ferries about halfway through.



I was fascinated by the scenery, as a lot of it was striated rock. I was trying to have an intelligent conversation with Steph about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rock, but I could barely remember the difference. We had the same type of discussion when we went to the art gallery - "I know I learned this in school, my mother would be very dissapointed that I can't remember it."


The second ferry that we boarded was bigger, and you could go outside to take pictures - the other one was pretty much completely enclosed.

A sign on the second ferry. Gotta love the English translations...

We got off at a rest-stop type area, and took a few pictures before heading back to the bus to be moved to the cave.

Stephanie and I in front of the scenery

Kosu cave is semi-famous, not for anything in particular, but I guess there aren't many caves like it in Korea. It reminded me a lot of Carlsbad Caverns, though not quite so... cavernous. It was actually very close quarters at times, and you were often holding onto the cave walls so you wouldn't fall off the steps.

The entrance to the cave. It can be pronounced Kosu or Gosu.

I won't put the massive amount of pictures that I took inside the cave on here; a lot of them were very similar. It was really interesting though, and about 11 degrees C (59F) inside the cave.

Most of the cave looked like this, and it was such close quarters that you could touch the walls.

I saw a bat! It was really dark, so it's rather impressive that I saw it at all. It was so close I could have touched it! Everyone else started taking pictures of it, too. But I saw it first...

This is my favorite picture from inside the cave. There was lots of water.

The "path" split at one point, and you could take the upper one (which Stephanie did) or the lower one (which I did).

Me and the cave.

Stephanie playing with the pool of water.

A rather strange flea-market type set-up outside the cave selling souvenirs. Why a toy gun would be an appropriate souvenir for a cave, I'll never know.

After the cave we went to Dodamsambong, which means "three weird rocks on the river". Which is exactly what it is. I don't think they'd be as impressive except there's a gazebo on one of them. How they built it there, and how you're supposed to get to it, I have no idea.

Dodamsambong

A better shot of the gazebo. So cool looking!

Some people went climbing up a nearby hill/mountain (depending on where you're from. For me, it was mountain) to see the Stone Gate.

An appropriate name. It's a stone bridge, which looks like it could be an entrance to something.

A view of Dodamsambong from the top of the Stone Gate

Stephanie's on top of the world! Or just the top of the Stone Gate.

We climbed over the "do not enter" sign (it was in Korean - I plead ignorance!) and walked to the top of the Stone Gate. What an awesome view! Though it was a bit scary since you could barely fit two people side by side, and there was no railings, so it was very easy to imagine yourself falling off (though of course no one did).

On our way back down - the steps were pretty fun!

And that was it, we headed back home afterward. All in all a restful and interesting end to the weekend.