Korean Road Trip Day 7: Samcheok, Sinnam and Hosan

Wishing Tower in Samcheok

Today we woke up to a beautiful day (finally). It is Father’s Day and I was hoping to find something special to do for Brad but there are no shops to buy nice food and no nice restaurants to go to. The only thing I could think of was snorkelling. Brad has been dying to snorkel because the coastline is so beautiful but the weather hasn’t been good until today. So we headed to a small beach and Brad managed to do some snorkelling. Brandon slept on a beach towel under the umbrella and I watched the nearby military tower’s binoculars/telescope swivelling around checking out the area. I’m sure whoever mans that post must have fun watching all the people on the beach especially during peak season because I noticed the telescope was often pointed to the beach. The beach was quiet and there was only another small group of people there and they had a 15 month old baby girl with them. They came over to talk to us and find out where we were from and the little girl was quite taken with Bradley. In fact, the parents left her standing with us while they went further down the beach to play in amongst some rocks and seaweed. The little girl just stared at us and seemed content too just be around us.

We then headed to Haeshindang Park and the Fishing Village Folk Museum. Haeshindang Park is a park dedicated to penis sculptures – yes, you read that right. The story goes that there was a beautiful girl who used to collect seaweed. One day a fisherman, who had a pact to marry her, took her to a rock where there was lots of seaweed and said he’d return for her and marry her. Unfortunately he couldn’t return to fetch her due to a terrible storm. The girl was knocked off the rock and drowned. After her death the fishing catches in the village diminished. The people thought it must be due to the girl’s bitter soul and they decided to offer carved wooden phallics to appease her virginal soul. After this the fishing village once again enjoyed bountiful fishing. To this day wooden phallics are still offered at Haeshindang to ensure good catch. The park is very amusing with all kinds of weird wooden phallics. The Chinese Zodiac is even presented with each sign carved inside a big penis. The park is in a lovely setting with beautiful views of the shoreline. It was very hot and we didn’t want Brandon to overheat so we had to keep cooling him off with a damp cloth. We then strolled around the fishing museum which also included more historical information on phallic symbols and sex sculptures, these were very amusing. We then got on the road again to find accommodation for tonight; we carried on down the coast going in and out of many small villages and harbours. There are many natural coves which have been made into small harbours and fishing villages have developed around these. We are now in a little area called Hosan and we’ve booked into a lovely hotel that overlooks the East Sea called the Hosan Beach Hotel. It seems like we are the only people in the hotel, I have to wonder how these places stay alive.

Korean Road Trip: Day 6 Jeongdongjin and Samcheok

We had quite a bit planned for today, but thought it would be okay because Samcheok is just over 30km from Jeongdongjin. The day started off badly for two reasons: one is that it was raining again (the entire week it has rained and today it rained continuously for the whole day), and two is that I set my alarm so we would have an early start and it didn’t go off, so we started an hour later than planned.

We first went to a small park right near the hotel (we had actually been there the night before but were not really paying attention, so did not realise what we were looking at). There is an enormous hour glass that is timed to last exactly one year. On the 1st Jaunary each year at 00:00 it gets turned around to start the new year. ( I wonder what they do on a leap year?)

Next we moved onto the Unification Park, which has a decommissioned warship and the North Korean submarine that we wrote about yesterday. The warship was interesting and we walked around it for about an hour. The submarine is really small inside and you have to wonder how it can hold 33 people, where did they sleep, eat and go to the toilet? There was also an old aeroplane, but for some reason it was locked up so we couldn’t go inside. I carried Brandon in his carrier and he slept through the whole thing despite the fact that it was drizzling.

Next we moved on to the Deungmyeongrakgasa Temple. The Temple itself was quite nice, but it was very complicated trying to see it all in the pouring rain (it was really coming down by this time). I had Brandon in his carrier and Carla was carrying the umbrella, trying to keep the three of us out of the rain, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Brandon had fun though, he is really enjoying being out and about, looking at all the sites.
We drove along the coastal road, the scenery here is really beautiful with green mountains going down to a calm green sea. The only thing to distract from the scenery along coastline is the barbed wire fencing to stop North Korean spies coming in, this also means that there are constant military posts and lookouts all along the coast.

We decided to continue up the coastal road which had some really nice areas, but eventually time was running out and we decided to head down to Samcheok. By now we had been moving back up the coast so had increased the distance to travel. We got into Samcheok around 15:00 and then had some difficulty finding accommodation, where a few places were booked out, one hotel was far to expensive, but we eventually found a nice place overlooking the sea, called Paradise Motel.

We hadn’t really eaten all day, except for a small pastry which we picked up at a local convenience store in the morning. We again did not feel like eating kimchi and fish soup with rice for breakfast. Lunch seemed to disappear with time, so by the time we started out for dinner, we were starving. We headed back to the hotel that we rejected because of their price, we had seen some adverts showing that some food other than sashimi was served there. The hotel is quite large, and we ended up being the only people in the restaurant. The restaurant even called the live entertainment for us and called us their “special guests” for the evening.

We then went to see the Wishing Tower and watching two military guys walking to their posts for the evening. Then we took a walk along the boardwalk, it was a lovely evening and we got back to our Motel about half an hour before Brandon’s feeding time. He was sleeping so peacefully in his pram so we left him in it but by the time we took him out to feed him he was so hot and we were quite worried about him. He had a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We took his clothes off and tried to cool him with a wet cloth and after quite some time he started to cool down. He didn’t seem at all distressed by any of this and was smiling away and seemed to enjoy all the attention.

Brandon's Photos

We were told that Brandon looks serious in most of the pictures we put up, so here are a few of smiling Brandon taken over the past couple of days.

Korea Road Trip, Day 5: Seorak national Park.

We woke up this morning to mist and rain, which made us question our plans to hike in Seorak National Park. However, after we’d gotten ourselves dressed and spent some time playing with a very cheerful Brandon, we realised that it wasn’t raining anymore only misty. We decided we’d go to the National Park and catch the cable car to one of the mountain peaks. Once at the park, Brad carried Brandon in the baby carrier and I took all his things in a backpack. We weren’t too sure what to expect because it was so misty but luckily the cable car took us above the clouds followed by much cheering from all the Koreans in the cable car. It was a bit of a hike up to the peak of the mountain from the point where the cable car dropped us off. Brandon was an absolute darling the whole time – he needed his pacifier to quieten down just before the cable car ride but was as happy as anything being carried up the mountain despite the fact that it was his sleep time (he stayed awake the entire time and was fascinated with the scenery and seemed to really enjoy the fresh air). We got close to the peak when some people stopped us and said it was very steep and would be difficult to get right to the top with a baby. So I sat with Brandon while Brad went to the peak. Brandon got lots of attention and was so good even though by this point it was getting very warm and he was starting to sweat and get quite red in the face. We headed back down to the cable station where we were able to feed Brandon and get an icecream and a Korean-style pancake to eat (yes dad, the ones you love). Once again, Brandon got lots of attention especially from one family who had a baby girl – they were very keen to take a picture of Brandon with their baby. By the time we got back down to where we started from it was 12:00 and Brandon had fallen fast asleep against Brad’s chest. We didn’t think there’d be time to hike to the waterfall (it would be too much for Brandon) and so we headed to our next destination – Jeongdongjin.

Jeongdongjin is a coastal town where they once caught a North Korean submarine that had got stuck on some rocks. In order to avoid capture the captain of the submarine killed his crew and landed with his soldiers and attempted to return to the North. It took 49 days to capture or kill them but in the process 17 South Korean civilians and soldiers were killed and 22 injured. The area is under heavy military protection and the military lookouts are manned with armed soldiers. We were merrily driving around trying to find a place to stay that is off the beaten path when we accidentally drove to the entrance of an army base and the two armed guards hastily moved to block the gate and give us threatening looks. We retreated …and drove around the main town for a while until we decided to stay at a small hotel. We then went for a short walk along the beach. Brandon was in his carrier, he enjoyed watching the waves and he eventually fell asleep against my chest. We then thought we’d have an early dinner but neither of us felt like going to the Korean fish restaurants that lined the shore and we struggled to find anything other than fish restaurants (which usually means choosing your fish, watching it being killed and then having sashimi brought out). Finally we settled on a quaint looking coffee shop that had a limited selection of food. Brandon, refreshed after his nap, was very entertaining and kept trying to grab my kiwi fruit drink. Brad placed his beer in front of him and he made a number of grabs at that as well. He was fascinated with our drinks and was drooling all over himself. Now we’re back at the hotel, the mist has rolled in again and we are making plans for tomorrow.
(We packed the camp cot for Brandon – it takes up most of the boot and we’ve only used it once. It is so much easier to let him sleep on a folded up blanket on the floor. This seems to be the way it is done here because the floors are usually heated with the ondol. He’s been quite content sleeping like this.)