South Coast Trip

I had two trips this winter to Korea's south coast, both to the same general area. One was an EPIK cultural trip, the other was a Yeongcheon Girls' teachers' trip. I was skeptical of visiting the area in the winter, but although people told me it was much more beautiful in the spring/summer, it was still actually quite nice. Even though the EPIK trip was called a "cultural" trip, it was pretty much just scenery with little to no explanation. Oh well.

The weather was also a lot warmer in the south, so it was a bit of a relief to get to hang out there for a bit. As usual, the teachers' trip consisted of most of the teachers getting drunk on the bus and singing karaoke (also on the bus, as well as in a Norebang). For the occasion I had prepared a Korean song to sing (너를위해 by 임재범). It went over very well, and the teachers who heard it were impressed with my dedication to Korean culture. Sadly, there was no encore. I'm not much for singing in public.

For more scenery and some descriptions of what we did, follow the link.

First up is Geoga Bridge. This is the longest bridge in Korea and connects the island of Geoje to Busan. This bridge created a shortcut to the island (previously reached by an hours-long roundabout method) and promoted lots of tourism and commerce. As a result, the bridge is highly regarded. Our cultural trip visited a museum dedicated to the bridge, although it was all in Korean, so we mostly just looked at stuff, like this model.

And this floor map and hanging fish display.

Next up was Windy Hill.

The tour didn't explain anything about Windy Hill to us. I assume it is so named for bing Windy, hence the Windmill. Although I heard that windmill is fake. All there really was to do there was walk along this scenic path. You could go down to the windmill or up into the forest. I chose up.

The path going up was very steep and it was pretty hot, so it was kind of hard going. Every so often along the path were pavilions like this, presumably built to give the occupants a good view. Actually, the trees blocked most of the view anyway, plus it was really foggy that day, so we didn't really see anything.

Right now those two guys, Rob and Tarrick, are wondering why they listened to Colleen and came up this neverending ascent.

About the only good picture I got of the scenery.

It's still going up! We went almost to the top. It was a decent hike.

After Wind Hill, we cooled off at a pebble beach. According to the internet, these are famous for the beautiful sounds the waves make when they wash against the stones. I didn't find that out until afterwards, though, so I didn't notice anything. As usual, the guides didn't tell us anything about it. What they did tell us was NOT to steal any pebbles from the beach. That they told us multiple times, even threatening rock thieves with a return home at their own expense and a fine. Pretty sure no one was thinking about stealing one until they said that. But out guide was really sarcastic, so it was hard to tell where reality ended and fantasy began.

Out hotel. The itinerary warned applicants several times that the lodgings would be "uncomfortable" and hold 6 or 7 people in a room. They were probably talking about traditional Korean-style rooms where you sleep on the floor in a large room shared with many other people. However, when we got there, we were paired off and given our own rooms after all. I got a bed. I heard the boys got the floor rooms. Anyway, my roomate went out drinking and didn't return, so I got the room to myself afterall. When I returned here with the teachers' trip, we stayed at this exact hotel, but that time we did sleep in the big, bedless rooms.

The harbor at night.

And in the daytime.

Walking along the pier.

Next we boarded a boat to take a trip to Oedo Island, a privately-owned island which has been turned into a botanical garden and become a big tourist attraction. Since a lot of people were hungover, they didn't really want to ride on the boat, but that's what you get I guess.

In this part of the ocean are many rocky islands like this one. Oedo is one of these. You can take a boat tour of this whole area.

On Oedo, we got to see lots of beautiful flora. I was surprised by how green and beautiful it was. In fact, it was positively hot on the island. Very sunny with lots of walking.

More plant art.

I spent most of the time on the island with Courtney who had recently bought a new camera. Suffice it to say, all of her pictures of this place are WAY better than mine.

Thank goodness for the shade, because the sunny areas were almost unbearable for a cloud-lover like me. I had to borrow Courtney's sunglasses to survive.

A statue in an alcove.

Close-up.

Another statue, a Nike replica. Actually, there's a lot of pictures of statues here. That and plants made up the main attractions of the island. One person commented that it looked more like an island in the Mediterranean than off of Korea. All the statues and buildings were Greek-inspired. There was no hint of Korean culture at all.

A beautiful hill.

Like I said, statues.

A view of one end of the island.

And to wrap it up, a Sphinx.

Now comes the teachers' trip section.

Our first stop was a large reed park. I guess it's one of the biggest reed fields in Korea. Doesn't sound that interesting, maybe, but it was actually quite pretty. I hear it's much better in season.

Me with Hwang Kyoung-ha. Much of the field was crossed via wooden bridges suspended over the shallow, muddy waters. You could look out and see reeds all the way to the horizon.

The reeds themselves.

Me in a little boat. There were model boats dotting the field where you could, I don't know, relax and take an amusing picture, I guess. So I did that.

At the edge of the field was a large hill that you could climb to get an impressive view of the fields below.

A partly frozen stream.

Right after being told that there wasn't enough time to climb to the lookout point at the top of the hill, I was told that we were going to hike to the top of the hill. Oh, Korea. This is why nobody ever knows what's going on. Jung Mi-gyung, who's right in front of me there, didn't know there would be a hike, so she was wearing high heels. Oh, Jung Mi-gyung! Have you NEVER been on an outing in Korea before? There's always a hike!

More of the hike.

The view of the fields from the lookout.

At the bottom again.

The next day we took a boat from the same harbor as the cultural trip and cruised the same waters. But we went to a different island. Here's Jung Mi-gyung, Kwon Eun-hee (English teacher), and Mrs. Yu.

Here's the island we went to, whose name escapes me. There are two or so small villages on it. And by villages I mean a collection of houses. I wondered what it would be like to live here.

As per usual, the day involved hiking to the top of the island.

Three teachers (Mrs. Yu on the left) relax at a resting point to enjoy the view.

There is a museum at the top of the island dedicated to the time when this island was an important lookout station for harbor patrolmen trying to prevent smugglers and pirates from reaching Korea. The museum was not open, though and looked empty.

This one's out of order, but the ferry boat again, this time with me.

At low tide, you can walk over to this adjacent island (really part of the same island) and visit the lighthouse, but it was not low tide.

A view of the village. Looked like a few fisherman's huts along with a restaurant or two and some other houses. Some of the buildings were mud and straw.

At the end of the hike, we rested on the pier. And while waiting for our boat to come pick us up, many of the teachers became fascinated with watching a fisherman and his wife gutting seafood. It was clams, sea cucumbers, and other unidentified slimy things. I got to watch their heads get cut off, their guts and blood squeezed out, their bodies chopped into pieces, and their various shells and entrails discarded. Only when the vice-principal invited everyone into the nearby tent to eat did I realize I'd just watched our snack being prepared... Yes, it was all raw and extremely fresh. Yes I tried one - a sea cucumber. Not worth it, in my opinion. I was assured that while many people don't care for the taste, they are very healthy.

After that we went home. Despite threats of a second day's worth of bus karaoke, all the teachers were too tired (and hung over) to do it afterall. I was saved.