The Islands

The weather has changed. The monsoon has passed way to blazing humidity, and we're just coming through the other side of it, with blue skies and a bit of a breeze, so i'm not complaining anymore. These days I'm spending my Saturdays in the park with Rachael, who's teaching me guitar. I bought the cheapest one I could find on Monday and have been practicing everyday with painful fingers. It's worth it.


Yesterday whilst in the park, we attracted the attention of a small curious group of young Korean girls. They tried talking to us, and I explained we don't understand Korean (using the only phrase I really know!) But they continue, thinking that by looking us straight in the eye and talking really slowly, it might help. In response, we sang them the "kimchi song" (kimchi being the national dish of cabbage). We included other Korean dishes into our song to spice it up a little, like galbi and shabu shabu, and used all the Korean words we do know, as our attempt to communicate with them. It worked a treat and they wanted an encore. One of them gave us a little bunch of flowers each. So cute and with a face like pocahantis.

A month has passed since I last wrote. In this time I've visited two of the islands off Incheon. My first trip was to Deok Jeok Do, with Angela. Neither of us have a Korean guide book. We tried to do some research on how to get there by checking out the internet and talking to locals, but we still got lost, so just incase anyone wants to go, heres how we did it. We drove to Yunan Bu Du, on the 120 highway from Gyeyang gu. Yunan Bu Du is 15 minutes drive away from the Wolmido port (and was where we first got lost due to false information!). From there you go to the ferry port for your ticket, and can park your car in the car park there which is 15,000 won for 24 hours. You need to go to counter 6 or 7 to buy a one way ticket to the island. It costs 14,000 won one way, and i think they leave about 3 or 4 times a day. This is the ferry we took anyway, we later learned that there are two ferries, this one, which takes about 2 hours, and the faster one takes 50 minutes and costs 18,000 won, but I don't know where to take it from.

(Just after locking my car up and going to buy my ticket I realised I'd locked my keys and purse in the boot of the car!!!!!! Don't you just hate it when you do that!). Anyway, the ferry journey was beautiful and worth it just for that. Escaping the city, the air no longer effected by the pollution, there were blue skies all the way, something I hadn't seen for quite some time. The view from the boat is great as it makes its way past other scattered islands, and they're mainly untouched comparitively speaking. It really was a breath of fresh air. We arrived at Deok Jeok Do about5pm and didn't have any trouble getting a bus to take us to the beach, which cost 1000 won and took about 15 minutes. We were dropped off at the road and we made our way down a windy little path towards the beach. Arriving in the middle of a small but clusted area of tents we enquired about renting one for the night. Our chosen tent was at the point where sand and grass meet, facing out to sea we were very happy. 30,000 won a night, including all the blankets and pillows you'd need. Because I had locked my purse in my car, I didn't have any money for the trip! Thankfully Angela had enough on her to keep us going, but we budgetted to make sure we could get back on the ferry the next day. We had ramyon (noodles) for dinner and shared a bottle of soju, which came to a grand total of 5,000 won, bargain.

We walked around a bit, sat on the beach (got burnt!) read books, practiced poi and collected shells. Deok Jeok Do is beautiful in all its lush green that blanketts the island, and chrysanthiums that border the road. We didn't see any hotels, I really don't think there are any. Wow. No chain convienience stores. This place, for now has escaped the clutches on capitalism. So I plan to go back for Chusok. Assa.

More recently Lara and I visited Ganghwa Do. It's an hour from here. We drove in the sweltering heat, windows down, music up. Listening to Death Cab for Cutie, The Beatles, KT Tunstall and others, we cruised the island, visiting the beach and temples. Open green fields, mountains and beaches. There's a lot of agriculture here and the pace of life seems slower. A place "the city kids" think is dirty and boring. On the contary, it's cleaner than the rat race, and has a relaxed atmosphere. We only had time to visit two temples and the old fort, of the historic places. Ganghwa stood as the capital of Korea in times of invasion. The monks and workers at the temples are welcoming, offering information and answering questions. They vary in size. I prefered the smallest one we saw. In the shade of the trees and calming quietness. This temple houses important buddhist artifacts. Paintings very similair to Tibetan thankas, protected behind glass frames. The old fort too is quite impressive. Within its walls, it used to bind the community. There are temples, other brightly coloured buildings, an old copper bell and other bits and pieces that are clustered in different areas as you wonder around. It was a really good day out.