Today we headed further east, winding our way through a lot of mountains with beautiful views. We were headed to Hwajinpo, which is in the top North East corner of Korea, right against the border with North Korea. You can see that you are close to North Korea as the military presence is all around and on various sections of all the roads in the area, they have large concrete blocks standing on the sides of the road, which if there was to be an invasion, these blocks are easily toppled across the road by placing some explosive charges in certain sections, invading troops then cannot use the road network already in place.
There was a continuous drizzle throughout the day, but it was still a pleasant drive. We thought about going to a place called “Pond of twelve angels’ bath” (Sibiseonnyeotang), but when we got there we realised that it was more than a 2 hour hike up to the valley, so over 4 hours total, if your are fit and without a baby, so we had to scrap that idea. We also thought an area called “Yongdaesan Natural Receation Forest” sounded nice, and we found pictures of small log cabins in the forest, but unfortunately we couldn’t find it. My GPS had it in, but when it came to moving off the main road, the GPS told me to turn left, which meant directly up a mountain without a road. I think we actually had to stop there and then hike up into the mountains …who knows. So these two ideas did not materialise and we headed into Hwajinpo.
We decided that we would visit the aquarium since it was raining. The aquarium was small and not that impressive but it was Brandon’s first visit to an aquarium and he especially enjoyed looking at the brightly coloured coral reef fish. His little eyes were as big as saucers and he became a bit mesmerised with the fish elegantly gliding through the water. He got slightly scared when we walked through the shark and stingray tunnel. 
It was too dark and overwhelming for him. After the aquarium we found a pension which was recommended in the Lonely Planet, January Pension. The pension was very nice, overlooking the sea, with large windows in every room. 
The owner was very kind and we met a regular guest at the pension who called himself Fat Peter. He loves Hwajinpo so much that he is going to move there and open a large fish restaurant, he’s very keen for us to visit him at his restaurant and offered to provide us with the food on the house if we come back and his restaurant is open..
We rested at the pension for some of the afternoon and then headed out for Samgyupsal (Korean pork barbeque)
for dinner. The owner of the pension called the restaurant and told them we were on the way and placed our order for us. We sat on the floor in one of several small rooms to eat and Brandon, who was asleep in his pram, was parked outside the room where we could keep an eye on him. The food was good, but as usual the restaurants do not do much to make themselves look nice, the wall paper was dirty and the fan was covered with plastic. Back home I do not think anyone would dare enter a restaurant that looked like this, but here it is normal and at least the food is good.
After dinner we sat outside the pension overlooking the East Sea (else where known as the Sea of Japan, but in Korea that is not an accepted name). We could see a string of bright lights across the horizon and these are the fishing vessels that are catching squid, apparently the bright lights attract the squid. The light pollution is phenomenal.
So far everywhere we have been, people have been really friendly and helpful although the language barrier has sometimes been a problem, but between some of my broken Korean and their broken English, we manage to get by.
There was a continuous drizzle throughout the day, but it was still a pleasant drive. We thought about going to a place called “Pond of twelve angels’ bath” (Sibiseonnyeotang), but when we got there we realised that it was more than a 2 hour hike up to the valley, so over 4 hours total, if your are fit and without a baby, so we had to scrap that idea. We also thought an area called “Yongdaesan Natural Receation Forest” sounded nice, and we found pictures of small log cabins in the forest, but unfortunately we couldn’t find it. My GPS had it in, but when it came to moving off the main road, the GPS told me to turn left, which meant directly up a mountain without a road. I think we actually had to stop there and then hike up into the mountains …who knows. So these two ideas did not materialise and we headed into Hwajinpo.
We decided that we would visit the aquarium since it was raining. The aquarium was small and not that impressive but it was Brandon’s first visit to an aquarium and he especially enjoyed looking at the brightly coloured coral reef fish. His little eyes were as big as saucers and he became a bit mesmerised with the fish elegantly gliding through the water. He got slightly scared when we walked through the shark and stingray tunnel. 
It was too dark and overwhelming for him. After the aquarium we found a pension which was recommended in the Lonely Planet, January Pension. The pension was very nice, overlooking the sea, with large windows in every room. 
The owner was very kind and we met a regular guest at the pension who called himself Fat Peter. He loves Hwajinpo so much that he is going to move there and open a large fish restaurant, he’s very keen for us to visit him at his restaurant and offered to provide us with the food on the house if we come back and his restaurant is open..We rested at the pension for some of the afternoon and then headed out for Samgyupsal (Korean pork barbeque)
for dinner. The owner of the pension called the restaurant and told them we were on the way and placed our order for us. We sat on the floor in one of several small rooms to eat and Brandon, who was asleep in his pram, was parked outside the room where we could keep an eye on him. The food was good, but as usual the restaurants do not do much to make themselves look nice, the wall paper was dirty and the fan was covered with plastic. Back home I do not think anyone would dare enter a restaurant that looked like this, but here it is normal and at least the food is good.After dinner we sat outside the pension overlooking the East Sea (else where known as the Sea of Japan, but in Korea that is not an accepted name). We could see a string of bright lights across the horizon and these are the fishing vessels that are catching squid, apparently the bright lights attract the squid. The light pollution is phenomenal.
So far everywhere we have been, people have been really friendly and helpful although the language barrier has sometimes been a problem, but between some of my broken Korean and their broken English, we manage to get by.
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