The Iceberg

In about two weeks I’ll be saying good-bye to Yeosu and hello to Anyang.

I’ve enjoyed the past year in Yeosu. About six months in, I used to say that Yeosu was a nice place to visit, but not to live. However, as the time to leave approaches, I have somewhat surprisingly discovered that the place grows on you and it is with mixed feelings that I move on. But, when push comes to shove, I am more of a big-city type. Plus, I suspect living in the outskirts of Seoul will provide more fodder for the blog.

On that note, I will spend my remaining few days here sharing my impressions of Yeosu.

Like most things in life, many of Yeosu’s charms and vexations are inextricably linked in the same elements. Whether or not one enjoys the place largely depends on his or her personal outlook, or perhaps even one’s mood on a particular day. When I reflect on the time I’ve spent here, this proves to be the recurring theme. I’ll begin with Yeosu’s location.

Yeosu is a small, isolated city of about 300,000 people. It is located on a talon-shaped strip of land that extends from Korea’s southern coast, sort of a peninsula on the peninsula. To access any other part of Korea, one must first venture north on a four-lane highway for 45 minutes to the city of Suncheon before setting off in any other direction, so any desired visit to larger cities like Gwang-ju, Busan, or Seoul is no easy trek. There is an airport located between Yeosu and Suncheon, so you can fork over about 75,000 won for a one-way flight to Seoul (plus about 10,000 won for a taxi to the airport) and get there in about 50 minutes. Bottom line, if you’re not willing to expend money or time, you’re going to spend the majority of your time in Yeosu.

On the other hand, Yeosu’s isolation lends it a sort of “other-worldly” atmosphere that I haven’t experienced in any other city on the peninsula. Though it is a city, and therefore offers the bare amenities that any other city possesses (hospitals, restaurants, drinking establishments, E-mart, etc.), the pace of life here is incredibly slow. You can travel to pretty much anywhere in town in less than fifteen minutes and the taxi fare will never exceed 4000 won. In Seoul, if you traveled the same distance, the meter would often run to nearly 10,000 won. The same goes for crowds. Venture out to Yeosu’s nightlife areas on a Friday or Saturday night and you’ll find the number of people on the street is sparse. Yet, if you enter a bar or club, there they are. If complete isolation is your thing, simply hop on a boat and make your way to one of many islands off the coast, where the population rarely exceeds the hundreds.

In summary, Yeosu is a nice place to escape the hustle and bustle. One can’t help but purge the big-city tension that stealthily makes its way into your neck and shoulders. However, if you’re not careful, you’ll find that the stress can easily be replaced by cabin fever.

Last week I took a nice little drive to a place called Heungguksa.

The temple was built by the Buddhist monk Bojokuksa (보조국사) in 1195 during the 25th year of the reign of Myeong-jo (명조), the 19th king of the Koryeo (고려) dynasty. It is said that the name “Heungguksa” was derived from a saying that goes, “If this temple prospers, the country will prosper, but if this temple perishes, the country will perish.”

Heungguksa is famous as the location where 300 Buddhist naval monk soldiers trained during the 1592 Japanese invasion.

Here are some photos of Heungguksa, which is located about 25-30 minutes from Yeosu by scooter.

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.

Click photo for video

The main reason I decided to use my own webhost was to upload video without having to route through YouTube or Google Videos.  I’m still in the process of figuring out the necessary steps to uploading and linking videos but once things get rolling, expect to see some interesting vids.

This is a short video of the pavillion near Jonggak Station that holds the Boshingak Bell.  Actually, it is not the original bell.  It has been moved to to the National Museum of Korea.  The original bell was made in 1468 and used to be tolled 33 times at 4 o’clock every morning and 28 times every evening.  Imagine living in that neighborhood, huh?  Now it is rung 33 times at midnight of the new year.

This is the cherry blossom season in Korea, one of my favorite times of the year.  Make time to find a nice place for a walk or drive and do it fast - the blossoms only last for a couple of weeks before falling to the ground.

I found this information on the KBS Global website:

Manseongni Beach, the only black sand beach in South Korea
Manseongni Beach, five kilometers off from the Yeosu station, is the only black sand beach in South Korea. Taking a sand bath in this beach is said to be particularly effective to alleviate neuralgia and a variety of gynecologic diseases. In particular, on April 20 in the lunar calendar, so-called “the day when the black sand open its eyes,” a tremendous number of people flock to the place because the effect of the sand bath is said to be the maximum at the moment. 

Black sand, huh?  Sounded cool, so I decided to check it out.  I never took any art classes in university so I hardly qualify as an expert in these matters, but the sand didn’t look black to me.

Okay, so the beach is a very light shade of black.  Still, it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun to hang out there in the summer.  Swim, suntan, barbeque sam gyup sal, drink soju, and eat fish.  Every locale in Korea has some food that it is famous for.  Yeosu’s specialty is “hoi” (sashimi).  The sign below displays the variety of fish in the waters near Yeosu and the best time of year to eat them.

If you travel up the road just a bit you can get some fantastic views of the beach and sea from an overlooking hillside.

Manseongni Beach was devoid of life on this day, presumably because the black sand’s eyes were closed.  I’ll return on April 20 (lunar calendar), when it awakes and the masses are alleviating their neuralgia and gynecologic diseases.  That should be somethin’.  Hope I don’t encounter any crabs.