This last weekend I headed down South to Jindo Island with a couple of friends.
Our day started super early with a 7am bus departure. It then took us another 6/7ish hours to get down to the beach.. pretty much the average time it would take us Joburg vaalies to get to Durban anyway so it seemed normal.
We arrived and dropped our luggage off at our minbak. A minbak is a house that Korean people sometimes use as home-stays This one had rooms interlinking around with a courtyard in the middle. The family that owned the minbak we stayed in still lived there. They actually stayed right next to us.. It was a bit strange to have tons of Korean baby portraits staring down at you while you sleep but it was pretty humbling to know that these families that live super simple lives on the island are willing to open their homes to groups of foreigners like us.
We explored the beach front for a bit, browsing around at all the different street vendors, trying on adjuma hats, tasting dried fish snacks, snapping some pictures of babies and playing with some Jindo puppies before we headed to the shore to start the miraculous Jindo sea parting walk.
We bought some rubber boots for the walk and started making our way, along with hundreds of other people, across to the opposite island. It was kind of surreal to think that the water, which is normally swimming level deep all year round, was at our ankles. We were quite literally walking on water, with deep sea on either side of us! Proper Moses stuff.. Some friends even had Moses beards to fit the occasion!
Unfortunately we didn't get all the way to the other side because the sea decided it had had enough of its parting business and the tide started coming in like crazy. We finished the walk with some live octopus eating. You choose your octopus and they cut it up for you, no killing or cooking, just chopping. When it gets to your table, the tentacles are still squirming around. They suction onto the sides of your mouth when you eat them too! It was one of the strangest foods I've had in Korea so far and a vegetarians nightmare but it was surprisingly pretty tasty.
Our evening ended with a bonfire on the beach with all the people from our tour group. Guitar playing, song singing (chorus of songs singing as one does around a campfire) and new friend making :)
The next morning we packed the bus and headed off to a temple on the island. When we arrived I braved it and went on a hike with some people in the group. My first hike in Korea you guys!!!! Its pretty embarrassing seen as though Korea is kind of known for their hiking and I haven't done one in my 4 and a half months, but it was really good and I will definitely do some more pretty soon :)
All in all the trip was a lot of fun and it was awesome to see a new part of Korea. Cant believe that my next trip is to Hong Kong! Expect at least a 4 page long post for that :)
 |
| Our minbak housing |
 |
| Moses and his adjumas |
 |
| I don't know why these were not around when I was this small? |
 |
| Moses mates |
 |
| The choosing of the octopus |
 |
| this guy was still squirming |
 |
| View from the top of the mountain we hiked |
 |
| temple grounds |
Unfortunately we didn't get all the way to the other side because the sea decided it had had enough of its parting business and the tide started coming in like crazy. We finished the walk with some live octopus eating. You choose your octopus and they cut it up for you, no killing or cooking, just chopping. When it gets to your table, the tentacles are still squirming around. They suction onto the sides of your mouth when you eat them too! It was one of the strangest foods I've had in Korea so far and a vegetarians nightmare but it was surprisingly pretty tasty.
No comments:
Post a Comment