Day 167: Ocean Adventures

Today we decided to leave Myeongsa and head back up the coast to the ferry terminal. There was some stuff on the coast we wanted to check out, and plus we were heading back to Busan the next morning so we thought it best to head up that way. We bid goodbye to our adopted little town and beach that we had spent the week in, and took a taxi (Mr.Man With The Van again) up to Hakdang. Hakdang was a madhouse, crawling with tourists and beach-goers so we only stayed long enough for lunch. After lunch we bussed it all the way back up to Jangseungpo and found ourselves a yagwon (motel) to spend the night in. It felt SO GOOD to have access to a shower and to airconditioning again! Ahhhh the pleasures and luxuries of modern life! :-)

That evening we decided to take an ocean cruise and it was a great choice! We boarded a boat that took us on a three-hour cruise along the island's shores and we couldn't have picked a better time of day - just before sunset! The boat stopped for a while on this off-shore island that proved to be a pretty cool place. It's this rocky plateau jutting out of the sea that this elderly Korean couple have turned into a massive complex full of gardens, statues, and flowers and plants of every imaginable sort! We strolled around took some fun photos on the island and then it was back on the boat.

We then went to our main destination - Haegeumgang. Haegeumgang is one of the most famous and most beautiful natural attractions in all of Korea. It's a towering rocky island that soars up out of the sea into the sky. It's jagged and very imposing and intimidating-looking, and the coolest thing about it is that it looks like it's being ripped in half. There's a massive split right down the middle and the giant cracks allow tour boats to squeeze into the middle of this enormous rock. Wow! I felt that it had a very Lord Of The Rings feel to it and the light mist hovering above the water added to the mysteriousness of the whole island. We navigated through some of the sea canyons along the island's edges before circling the whole rock. After that we cruised back to our home port and it was completely dark by the time we got back.

After that we had some dinner and then relaxed in our motel room. We were all pretty tired so we had an early night and were happy to sleep in an airconditioned room! Tomorrow we have to head back to the mainland....