Day 176: I Love Shamanism

Oh boy, another 'Dear God is it time to get up already?' early start today!! The alarm went off at 6am and it was time for the four of us to get up and get ready to head out to catch our bus. I felt like death warmed over - again - today and I think my whole body was starting to resent me! It can forgive me for one no-sleep night, but two in a row? Uh-uh....

There was a bit of a confusion when we got to Seoul Station as to where and when to catch our bus... We had been giving conflicting schedules from two different sources, and there was like no signage in the area where we had to wait for the bus.... My contribution to sorting out all of this uncertainty was to lay down on the bus stop and sleep. (Again, another first for me!) Finally our bus came and we boarded it and headed for the ferry terminal which is way out in Incheon. (And guess what I did on the bus the whole way there? Yep, you got it - S-L-E-E-P!)

When we got to the ferry terminal in Incheon we discovered that the boat that we wanted to catch had already been sold out. We'd have to wait another two and a half hours for the next one. Argh!! We had some lunch (I ate my new favourite Korean dish - chumchi kimchi chigae, which is tuna and kimchi soup) to kill time and then hung out in the ferry terminal for a while. The ferry terminal was absolute mayhem and not a fun place to be. It was completely packed and the whole idea of 'queueing up for tickets' merely seemed like a fun, idealistic concept here. Boats were selling out left right and centre as everybody and their dog (and there were may dogs there actually) were dying to get out of the city for the weekend.

The ferry ride was about an hour long or so and took us out to the island of Deokcheokdo - a small hilly island 77 km. off the coast of Korea in the Yellow Sea. We arrived at D. and were so happy to have finally made it! We were all tired and cranky and hot from the crowded terminal and ferry ride and were so anxious to hit that beach! My camping companions have all been to D before and knew of some special beach that hardly anyone ever goes to that's supposed to be really beautiful. Having never been to this island before, I just went along with the ride...

The beach was only a short 15 minute bus ride away from the ferry terminal and let me tell you, it was a little slice of paradise here in Korea! The entrance to the beach is not well-marked at all and you have to climb down a wooded embankment to get to it so I can see why it's not popular with the Koreans. But it's secluded, clean, and absolutely gorgeous! It's banked in on each side by large rocky cliffs, the sand is soooo soft and white, the water is clean, and you're awarded with a beautiful view of the sea and offshore islands. Magnificent! We set up our tents right on the beach and made ourselves at home.

We spent the day laying in the sun, reading, and swimming in the refreshing ocean waters. Nick had brought along a fishing rod and attempted to catch some dinner but didn't have any luck. There was a town just up the road so we ended up going there for dinner. It was a lively, charming little town with a variety of inviting restaurants so we strolled around for a bit before plunking ourselves down at one. The owner immediately welcomed us there and chatted us up. We ended up having a really super dinner there and shared two bottles of soju and became rather silly as the night wore on!

When we got back to the beach we were even more silly and hyper and so we decided to turn the weekend into a Survivor weekend! We thought it would be great fun to make up some challenges and then vote someone off at the end of each game, and then see who, at the end of the weekend, would become the soul survivor of Survivor: Deokcheokdo! The winner would receive a free dinner in the city on Sunday night and we all thought this would be a blast!

Our first challenge would be an intellectual one, so we set up a bonfire and then broke out the ol' Scrabble game. I ended up losing (usually I rock at Scrabble!) and Angele won and was therefore awarded with the much-coveted title of Immunity. Knowing that the next day's challenge was going to a physical one, none of us wanted to be matched up against Nick, who is very strong and athletic, so the three of us deciced to vote him out! He was outta the game so fast he didn't know what hit him!!! In exchange though he got to make up the physical challenge for the next day and spent the rest of the night taunting us with how hard and strenuous he was going to make it! LOL

We spent the rest of the night goofing around the bonfire and even had our own impromptu Shamanism ritual! This was in direct response to the signs that we saw last week in Geojedo that banned shamanism on the beach - (see my splashbulb pics to check that one out) and we took a few really hilarious silly photos of ourselves dancing around the fire, chanting, with sticks! (as well as a basket, some scissors, and some rope that I found on the beach and thought made *great* shamanism props!) After wearing ourselves out with the shamanism, we eventually went to bed and I slept like the dead that night!!