The first one was an awesome show of what mother nature can do when she is pissed off. Wind gusts of over 200 km were reported. There was a fair bit of damage in my area and the river was at an extremely high level.The other two were far less dramatic than Bolaven but a pain in the ass nonetheless. In between the typhoons was insanely hot, humid and awful summer weather. Today I woke up got out of bed and was a bit chilly...It was the best feeling!
So Chuseok is the Korean version of Thanksgiving and as such is a public holiday. The way it fell meant that we were given six days off... Glorious!!!
There is an amazing guy here who does trips throughout Korea and designed one for the break to Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands. Most Koreans will never check there places out so we were pretty lucky. We tried going camping on Ulleungdo before but given our sub-par Korean it proved too difficult.
So out trip started on Friday at 11:30pm and we headed north-east towards the ferry terminal in Muko through the night by bus.While I am all for safety stopping every 45 minutes was driving me insane... just when I started dozing off we would stop again but I guess the driver falling asleep would be a pretty bad way to start the trip.
We arrived at a lookout point and watched the sunrise, which was definitely worth it!!!
After breakfast we boarded our bus again and made the short final trip to the ferry terminal. Our final journey involved a three hour ferry ride... I can't tell you much about the journey but I can tell you that the back of my eyelids were beautiful for practically the entire journey.
When we landed on the island I was feeling refreshed, add in an energy drink and I was good to go.
So the first thing to do is pile into out minibus. The bus was filled to overflow with the twenty something of us plus all of our gear. All of a sudden a few random Korean jumped on automatically making this an entertaining ride...luckily it was a short trip to the place we were staying.
We stayed at a Korean hostel, which basically meant it was a room without a bed just a pile of blankets that we were supposed to make a bed out of. We were only staying for a couple of days so it will be fine. (Fast forward a couple of days this idea changed).
The first stop after checking into out hostel was the Bongnae Waterfall. Our guide told us that many claim it to be the best waterfall in Korea. With raised expectations we hiked up to the waterfall, which is the islands drinking source.
It was a nice waterfall don't get me wrong but I there are many more waterfall far more dramatic.
Next stop was Hyangmok Observatory. On a clear day Dokdo can be seen from the top but today was not the day. Such an amazing view...nothing I expected to see when we decided to take the trip.
The roads on the island are windy and steep...no way in hell I'd like to be driving a minibus around but our driver must have had a buttload of experience as he was throwing the bus around the corners as though he was a rally driver.
We stopped for a traditional bibimbap and makoli than back into the bus to head back. If we thought that the last bit was a bit scary... add night time to the mix... that journey seemed to last for ever!!
We made it back safe and sound. Called it an early night as we had a 530am start.
Up at crazy o'clock we grabbed a great breakfast of bacan, eggs and fruit then headed back to the ferry terminal to head to Dokdo.
If you don't know about Dokdo it's the island that both Korea and Japan claim as there own. The island itself is nothing special' basically just a bunch of rocks. The main reason they are fighting over it is the fishing rights and natural gas that is under it. From a foreigners perspective it seems the fighting is more about nationalistic pride.
Anyway the island is a 2.5 hour hour ferry ride. We were told that it was our lucky day as the water was calm enough for us to dock and step on the island. The best part of the trip was our Korean guy got incredibly excited as he not only got to see the island but also got to walk around on it. Few Koreans will ever see it and even fewer will step foot on it. I was happy to be part of him being able to cross Dokdo off of his bucket list.
The excitement of the Korean s from not only seeing but also walking around Dokdo was extremely obvious when we encountered the first slightly larger wave. Hands went up, yelling and cheering much like that of roller coaster riders...this did not last very long as people quickly realized that the trip back was going to be a long journey back.
There was a mad dash for the bathrooms and sickbags... most people were feeling rough... if not for motion sickness then the smell and sounds got people going. Thankfully I have a pretty rock solid stomach so I was fine.
Back on the mainland it was lunchtime of mussel bibimbap... given my disdain of seafood and shellfish I bailed on that one.
After lunch we were given two options...A four hour hike up a steep mountain or a coastal walk.. Well that was an easy choice for me. So the mountain can partake in the leaving of my general direction in this situation...I love water!!
It was flippen amazing!! The water was crystal clear, and the path winding it's way around the cliffs. This was by far the most amazing place I've been to in Korea.
I said it many times that day and still wonder if it really was Korea.
That night we hit one of the bars on the harbour for some beers. Others ordered seafood and from all accounts it was amazing...I struggled to believe them but will have to take their word for it.
We decided to hit the town and grab more beers... alas it was a holiday so nothing was open... road drinking it was.
The next day we headed back. It was a long trip back. Three hour ferry ride, and seven hour bus ride due to holiday traffic... it sure did suck ass.
I was reluctant at first but glad Lush really wanted to go so I went... Definite highlight of Korea.
So thats about all I can report... Hope all is well and be good.
