Vacation Day 2

Sunday I was the first one up. When I looked out and saw that the sky was blue, I had to get out to the beach! I'm glad I did. It was so beautiful and peaceful (can you tell by my pics that I enjoyed it? :) ). I wish I had gotten up earlier! We hit a convenience store for breakfast (pastries with strange fillings and white grape juice with those coconut flesh pieces in it--the ones Jason says are like eyeballs), and then changed for the beach. As the day wore on, the beach got busier and busier. The waves were fairly large, so the lifeguards were really paranoid about people going out in the water far at all. Although still in the buoys, many people were chastised for going out too far. The water was quite cold, anyway, but once and awhile you needed relief from the hot sun and sand. The sand there was super soft. I think the particles may have been even finer than the sand at Lake Michigan. Before long the beach was too crowded, so we headed off to find some lunch. I had seen corn on the cob at some of the outdoor stands, so I wanted to have some. Unfortunately, it wasn't what I was expecting. It was cold, with hard, chewy kernals. I guess they eat it differently here. Ah well. So, we stopped back at the same restaurant where we had dinner the night before. From there, Tracy and I went off to explore some more of the county. I had done some investigating on the website and chose a few interesting locations to check out. What was really interesting was trying to communicate to the bus drivers and find out how much we had to pay. For some reason they all assumed we'd want to go to "Unification Observatory"- A site really close to the border that has something to do with N and S Korea. I guess that's the only place foreigners usually want to go or something! Our first stop was Wanggok Village. Actually, the bus didn't stop where we wanted to, and we had to walk quite a ways to the intersection we missed, and then 1.5 kilometers to the village. All at the hottest part of the day! It wasn't that bad, though. The humidity there was nothing like it is here in Dangjin. It was a nice quiet country road, too. I enjoyed the smell of summer--plants that smelled like the fields in Wisconsin during the summer-- and the sound of birds singing. The village was really cool, too. I guess they're in the middle of construction right now. There were very few signs in English to help us out. It looked like they're constructing some sort of accomodations that look like the old fashioned buildings or something. Anyway, the village was still nice. It felt like what you'd expect Asia to feel like--maybe China or something. Probably what Korea was like 80-100 years ago. People living off the land, quaint houses, gardens of many types of vegetables, and bamboo! I like bamboo. It's pretty. From there we went up to Hwajinp'o Lake. It sounded really nice from the website, and it might have been nicer if there weren't so many people! It was SOOO crowded. I guess it was just the perfect day for the beach, and a weekend during vacation season as well. Besides, the lagoon makes a safer swimming area for young kids. Although, the waves there weren't as bad as at Samp'o. Tracy and I were pretty exhausted by this point, so we kinda napped there for awhile and then headed back to Samp'o. The one thing there that got us excited was the "squeaky" sand. The website talks about it. It squeaks like the sand in Michigan :). The other interesting thing was a guard hut all painted in camoflage colors and surrounded by barbed wire. It made us remember what we had read about the Northern beaches in Lonely Planet (2001): "...they're far less crowded than those to the south, though you're only allowed onto them at certain points and only at certain times of year. in the low season that endless razor wire fence that stretches along the whole of the eastern coast of Korea, separating North from South, is firmly sealed and you'll be arrested (or, worse, shot at) if you venture onto the beaches." -p.183 A strange reminder at a public beach of the conflict between North and South. Back in Samp'o, Tracy and I went looking for dinner. We stopped at a place where they offered us "Chinese Spaghetti." I don't really think it's Chinese, but it was totaly worth stopping there. We saw the guy make our noodles right before our very eyes! He kept stretching and tossing the dough until it was noodle sized, and then it was thrown into a pot of hot water and served up fresh with thick, brown sauce. Very exciting. After that... hmm... I got some ice cream... Maybe that was the night we did fireworks.... I forget now! Anyway, went to bed fairly early again and slept better this time. It started raining during the night, so that quieted people down (besides, we were worn out from our day!).