The Iceberg

Today was election day, which in my world was good for two reasons.

1. I didn’t have to work today and

2. The blaring of election trucks had ceased, allowing me to sleep in.

I woke up at 9:30 feeling refreshed and energetic. There was nothing that I had to do today. The sun was shining and the day was completely mine. At first I thought I’d hop on my scooter and drive the five kilometers or so to either Manseongni or Mosageum Beach, but then I thought, “What the hell? Let’s make it a road trip.” I decided that I would go to Bangjukpo Beach and the Hyangiram Hermitage. Here is a map of my excursion.

I packed my camera and my tripod, stopped at the local kimbap shack, bought a couple of bottles of water and hit the road. Hyangiram is located on the southeasternmost tip of Dolsan Island, the seventh largest island in Korea. Dolsan provides some of the prettiest views that I have seen in Korea. To reach the hermitage, I had to ride though the city of Yeosu to Dolsan bridge, which connects the city with the island. Located on the edge of the island facing the city is Dolsan Park. I stopped there for about thirty minutes to take some photos.

Dolsan Bridge from Dolsan Park A small island between Dolsan and Yeosu

The park is well-designed. It is clean and green and one of the nicest I have seen in Korea. (Did I just make three rhymes?) Anyway, as a result, it is a popular destination for families and lovers. Here are a few more photos of the park.

Leaving the park, I decided to drive down to the water to see the famous (Japanese ass)-kicking turtle ship. If you look through the trees of one of the photos above, you can see it resting in the water. I mentioned in a previous post that Yeosu is famous for raw fish (회). Here is an example of what I was talking about. On the way to the turtle ship I came upon a long row of small restaurants serving fish fresh from the sea.

From 1479 the Joseon Dynasty’s naval headquarters was located in Yeosu, so as you can imagine, Yi Soon-shin is a popular figure here. Every spring the town holds a festival honoring the admiral and his turtle ship. If you want to see what the turtle ship looked like, you can visit this full-sized model.

I think the ship also serves as a small museum. I’m not sure though, because I didn’t actually board it. The reasons for this were: a) I had other places to visit; and b) I was too much of a cheap-ass to pay the 1500 or 2000 won or whatever the entrance fee was. Another interesting tidbit: Rumor has it that Admiral Yi originally had plans to build this ship before going with the turtle design.

Just kidding. This was a coffeeshop (yes, that’s right, a coffeeshop) near the water.

Next I was off to Bangjukpo Beach. It’s about a 15km ride from Dolsan Bridge, with certain stretches of the road carrying an 80kph speed limit. This concerned me a bit, since my scooter - love me though it may - starts to get cranky when I try to push it over 65. It turns out my concerns were unwarranted, however, since traffic was light and the few vehicles I encountered were surprisingly considerate. I managed to pull over to the side of the road a couple of times to take these photos.

My original plan was to stop briefly at Bangjukpo Beach before moving on to Hyangiram. Little did I know what was in store for me. I parked my scooter and a short walk later I was greeted by wiry trees providing shade to groups of people barbequeing sam gyup sal, kalbi, and seafood. It was love at first sight.

The beach was, by Korean beach standards, fantastic. It was located in a little cove, lending to it a feeling of isolation from the rest of the country. Mountains and trees wrapped themselves around the water, making me sense that I was at a lake rather than the sea.

I ended up staying there for over three hours before leaving for Hyangiram. Which leads me to the anti-climatic ending to this post. I finished the journey to the village that hosts the hermitage site. It was almost surreal. There were Korean signs everywhere, but it somehow didn’t feel like Korea. The photos that I took don’t really capture the feeling, but I’ll show them to you anyway.

Right next to the spot where I took these photos is a very steep road. I walked up the steep road for about ten minutes. Huffing a bit, I came upon some very steep steps that led to the hermitage. It was getting late in the day and I didn’t want to ride back to the city in the dark, so I decided to save the walk up to the hermitage to take some photos for another (cooler) day. The fact that I’m a lazy ass had absolutely nothing to do with it. Really.