Free Trip part 2 - Yulpo Beach -


Advertisement
South Korea's flag
Asia » South Korea » Jeollanam-do » Yulpo Beach
August 9th 2010
Published: September 23rd 2010
Edit Blog Post

Part 2: Yulpo Beach

Yielding crazily side to side the entire bus awoke with a fright for their lives as the bus rounded yet another tight twisting turn down a hill laced in an early morning fog. Being three chairs behind the driver peeked out the window thinking we had left Korea all together with the rolling hills popping out beneath the haze, water dripping off the windows and farmers out beginning early morning chores. Three turns later, past a goat and a quick left our bus pulled into the Dangbae Beach Hotel parking lot in Yulpo Beach. Everyone began grabbing their bags and rustling their heads with the backs of their hands to wake themselves at the early morning hours. The organizer climbed on board clipboard in hand to notify us we would have "One hour and a half, enough time to catch a glimpse of the sunrise and take a shower at the bath house but if you wanted to enjoy either one, you should only choose one."
I glanced at Shauna who smiled, I smiled back thinking the same thing, 'bullshit' and we were determined to do them both!

Of course, the first thing we needed to do when we got off the bus was use the facilities. We went into the hotel in search of a bathroom, to wipe out the sleepies we built up in the corner's of our eyes as well as use the restroom. Competing mission number one, we headed out the back door towards the beach, past a couple of outdoor showers, past people using an outdoor hand sink through several tents on the beach we weaved into the crowds from the bus standing on the beach. I looked to the left then to the right realizing the people weren't moving but picking out locations to sit along the calm waterfront to enjoy the rising sun when it began to peak out over the small island mountains out across the water.

Oblivious of how ugly the sunrise would be from this location, I began walking down the beach towards the sunrise. Shauna followed suit believing I knew more than most of the people on the beach about photography and where to position themselves for something fantastic to observe. As I headed down the beach stopping here and there to take a quick picture of fishing boats and the randomness surrounding the beach front. Following behind me fifty yards Shauna was doing the same thing, stopping here and there pulling out her DSLR camera to compose a picture of this boat and that. Rounding through the anchor lines of the beach trapped fishing boats, I finally reached the first jetty escaping the beach front sand. At first I looked down the jetty noticing a few early morning risers attaching bait to long sticks figureing they were trying to catch an early morning breakfast meal, I decided to leave them alone to their fishing tactics since I was chasing the sunrise and not documenting local culture.

Beyond the first jetty were stacks and stacks of small fishing baskets. There must have been a thousand if there was one. I couldn't quit make out what they would be for catching? Definitely not crab, not big enough but perhaps something smaller like squid, or octupus, or mini lobsters? I really couldn't tell from the type of trap what they were actually trapping? With no one in sight to inquire about the baskets, I kept walking further down the road, when I noticed a second jetty about two hundred yards away.

After taking eight large steps in the direction of the second jetty, I noticed the ground on my right towards the waters edge something was moving... no it was scurrying... quickly away from where ever my feet landed. I thought about stopping and waiting for Shauna but when I turned around she was crouching in the sand taking a picture of the front of a fishing boat about one-hundred and fifty feet away. I wasn't about to stand around waiting for her because now I was intrigued about these little millipede like creatures and had to explore where they were heading? And what the hell they were?

Each step I took a hundred little creatures with their hundreds of legs scrambled off the edge dropping over the roadway head long down the embankment down against the sharp rocks rippling in and out of the ground below me another twelve feet to the waters edge. Each little creature would scramble five yards as fast as all their legs could move and then stop. If I pursued, which I was, they again retreated another five yards stopping to figure out if I was coming or going? Obviously they weren't aware of my curiosity and that I just needed to get a picture of these little buggers so I could explain exactly what I had seen to others.

Five minutes later I gave up my chase of the little creatures continuing down the roadway because they were obiously frightened by either my immense size or they all just had a built in "oh shit" mechanism telling them an invader of their world was headed in their direction and to get the F-away from it as fast as their little creature legs could carry them.

At this very moment as I peered on down the roadway I noticed several of their kin laying splattered all over the roadway I was walking down! Either they had seen another one of my people frieghtend of them and they were squished beneath sandals or the trucks of the local delivery people had taken them out one by one in their passing. Either way the little creatures that didn't make it over the roads edge were spewed out over the landscape in monumental proportions.

I moved another handful of steps past the fisherman traps, looking towards the east to judge how much more time I had before the blazing sun would caress the tops of the island mountains out in front of me. From my position, I judged I had five maybe ten minutes before the real show I was after would begin. Taking another fifteen steps or so, I tried sneaking up on a couple of the little creatures as I headed for my destination. Somehow with each of my steps these little things knew I was coming. It had to be they could feel the vibrations of the asphalt as I stepped forward warning them to get the heck out of the way! However, I couldn't be certain of this since there were so many splattered friends lying around the roadway or maybe it was just those with the fastest legs were still alive? Either way, I would try again and again to take pictures of these little millipede like creatures.

Six repeated tries of catching them off guard had yielded zero pictures and I was running out of time because I really wanted to take photographs of the sunrise and enjoy its beauty instead of these weird little creatures drawing all my attention! Slowly, I began to come up with unrealistic goals like waiting in one place for them to return close enough then I would stoop to their height and snap a photograph or two. At this point I realized I was still carry around one of my cup cake papers from earlier and a lightbulb went off inside my head. Instead of waiting for their return to where I was standing, I would throw the paper ball at the ground in hopes of scaring the bejesus out of the little creature, stalling it in its tracks long enough for me to get close enough, stoop in over it and snap a couple of images. I had to try. It was the only thing I could come up with in such a short amount of time.

I began tossing the paper ball against the ground. Each time I did, the little thing would stop. I bent over and it would run. I tried again. Picking up the paper, I tossed it harder against the ground. The thing would stop, momentarily but aware I was coming and then it would freak out and run again. This happend another three times and each time he somehow would only give me a thirty second window before trying to escape my strange wrath again. "Okay, one more time or I am giving up!" I said to no one in particular and this is when I threw the wad of paper against the ground this time instead of it slamming into the ground around the little thing it landed within a mere centimeter of its head! The thing froze! I stepped one giant step closer, it didn't move, it's eyes didn't do anything, it's legs were caught in the same place, even its little antennas were sitting still. I stooped down with the camera, clicking off two quick snap shots, I adjusted my position and shot again. Finally, I had done it! I captured the weird little creature just before I was going to give up.

Triumphantly I smiled to myself as I adjusted to the right of the little thing getting ready to snap off another two more pictures. Then I heard a noise coming from down the roadway that I had just walked. Glancing up, expecting there to be a little Korean person barrelling down on me in a mini-truck heading to an unknown destination, to my relief it was only Shauna gaining on my position but within the movement of my head and eyes away from the little creature and up the road, he had regained his confidence and was once again barrelling across the roadway, instead of giving another chase to grab a picture, I picked up the wad of paper and stuffed it back into my pocket, while smiling at Shauna as she drew closer.


As Shauna reached my position she began by asking me, "what are you doing?"
Aaron: "Well, have you seen those little creatures on the ground?"
Shauna: "Yes, they spooked me at first until I realized they were running away from me. They are grotesque don't you think?"
Aaron: "Heck no! I've been trying to take a photograph of them! They are really strange looking and remind me of those little creature things we saw in Brisbane on the waterfront that one afternoon at the market? Do you remember those? I wanted to bring on home to the states but thought better of it after a while."
Shauna: "Yea, I do remember that. You are right they were kind of the same thing. You would have been in sooo much trouble had you been caught trying to smuggle a strange millipede back in the states!"
Aaron: "But I didn't and now we are here. Are you ready to watch this sunrise, or what?"
Shauna: "Yes, how much farther are you going to walk?"
Aaron: "No more than the waters edge over there."

Reaching for Shauna's free hand, I interlaced my fingers into hers walking the final twenty yards together to the waters edge, we began readjusting our cameras to the settings we wanted to capture the sun as it began to crest above the mountains and billowing cloud cover. Standing in awe of the amazing sunrise, smiling at each other because we were the only two people in this particular location. Without needing to really ask her because the clouds were turning a bright yellow and pink I said "Well, was the train and bus ride to Yulpo Beach to catch a glimpse of this sunrise worth it?" She replied with a smile, "Its gorgeous! And I'm happy to be here standing alone with you enjoying it. I knew you were up to something when
Ready for the oncheon Ready for the oncheon Ready for the oncheon

oncheon = bath house
you began wandering away from the crowds at the beach which is why I followed you this direction." In a smug voice, I retorted "I thought it was because you were obligated to me by marriage, therefore you 'had to' follow me," laughing and smiling, I moved closer to kiss her. We embraced momentarily, turning our attention and cameras back towards the billowing clouds turning a blazing yellow with streaks of white appearing out of no where!

Breaking the silence Shauna asked "Can you tell me why my DSLR isn't capturing better pictures of this sunrise? My little camera is working fine but I am having troubles with this one," pointing at her shoulder strap. I put my own camera into my pocket, asking her to hand me her DSLR. I took it, checked the settings, read through it, took a snap shot. It was severely blown out by the strength of light coming through the camera lens. I took another shot just to confirm my thoughts. Then I adjusted her shutter speed. Took a few snaps. Adjusted the f-stop. Took another few shots. Adjust the timing between the two. And took my tenth snap shot in less than two minutes. Handing her the camera back, I said "it's back to normal. Should be taking good pictures again." "Can you tell me what I did wrong?" She asked. "Simple. You forgot to adjust your shutter speed to match the amount of light your
f-stop was letting through your lens. Simple mistake, we like to call 'human error.'" Smiling back at her. "Are you ready to make our way back to the hotel to grab a shower and a dip in the bathhouse?" She asked. Putting away our cameras, we held each others hands and began walking back down the road in the direction of the hotel.

Less than fifteen minutes later we reached the backdoors to the hotel. We walked in not really knowing where we were heading but knowing the bathhouse was someplace nearby. We approached the front desk to ask even though neither of us knew the word in Hangeul for "bathhouse" which in Japan was 'onsen' but that wouldn't help us out here today. As Shauna spoke to the desk agent in broken English, playing charades, I tried finding a picture of a bathhouse in some of the local pamphlets lying around in hopes of pointing to the picture of a bath and using the universal, where is it shrug, to learn directions to. But before I found a picture, Shauna was involved in a searching tirade in her Berlitz Korea pocket language book trying to find the correct words. Somehow, the desk agent could tell we were in need of a shower and pointed down the hallway. Honestly, I think he could smell us more than anything and guessed what we were searching for. We both thanked him "gum-sum-nee-da" and walked down the hallway.

With just over thirty-minutes before we had to be back in front of the busses outside to continue our day, we walked in behind a few other Koreans receiving tickets to enter the bathhouse (oncheon). As soon as we reached the doors everyone moved aside because of Shauna. The gentleman in everyone let her go ahead of all of us. I said, I'll see you in about twenty minutes. She smiled walked through everyone taking off her shoes and dashing to put her shoes in a locker. After the Korean men, walked off in front of me I followed suit except I wasn't really paying attention closely enough and missed the fact that everyone was taking off their shoes prior to walking over to the shoe lockers. An unfriendly man looked desperately at me and pointing to my sandals played a game of 'take your damn shoes off foreigner (wai-goo-k)' only did I realize what he was asking when one of the Korean organizers in plain English explained to me I had to pull off my sandals before walking onto the wooden floors. I thanked him in English, took off my shoes, was told locker 313, was mine and the key would work upstairs as well with the same locker number.

Heading for locker number 313, I stuffed my sandals into the compartment, shut the door took the key, walked around the corner and up a flight of stairs. Reaching the second floor, I walked off to my left through an open door into a larger room housing several rows of larger lockers, a locker room attendant sat behind a counter with several products for sale or rent, a couple of massage chairs sat in front of a large screen television playing some random commercial to the right of the chairs were three vending machines; one with beverages, one with a variety of products like toothbrushes, combs, mouth wash and condoms, the last one with snacks. Beside them was a single glass door opening into the wash area of the bath house. They had both sitting stalls and standing stalls to wash and scrub yourself clean prior to entering the baths. I followed the number signs back four rows finding the correct locker and started undressing. Once complete, I walked through the room noticing to my right six sinks, a few hair dryers a couple of combs inside glass jars resembling those of a local barber shop, a weight scale and a table with two different colored towels on them. Paying no particular attention, I walked through the second glass door into the shower area. One of the strangest things for myself in the memory banks of Japan onsen's was the sitting down on round stools washing yourself off while other men were mere inches away doing the same thing! I contemplated using the sit down stool style bathing area but decided against this and went to a standing shower instead. Both were set up the same, shower knob for hot/cold water, soap, soap holder, mirror, adjustable spray nozzle the real difference here was one you sat and one you stood at. Since I was in a bit of a hurry, I decided the standing shower would work to my benefit. I took my usual five minute mildly warm shower making sure I was clean enough to enter the baths and then took an extra couple of minutes from my showering position to look over the four baths to my left. Each bath had an LED temperature gauge situated at the back of the bath near the windows overlooking the ocean and beach. Starting from the left, the baths were 35c/95f, 42c/107f, 39c/102f and 32c/90f degrees Celsius/Fahrenheit. I decided immediately to head straight into the hottest bath first to give my body a good hot soak in the tub since time was precious and I needed to get out sooner than later on. Walking across the room, I didn't notice any other foreigners. I climbed into the scolding hot bath, wondering whose idea this was to have open public bathing houses and why this never caught on in North America? Not really caring, I submerged myself into the bloody hot water cringing at its strength but relieved to know there was nothing hotter than this one.

In the bath to my left there were men standing near the glass, doing what looked to be calisthenics, running in place, stretching and jumping jacks? I couldn't help myself but watch the absurdity of doing jumping jacks in a 35c/95f tub of water! Not only were they in a tub of hot ass water but they were working out the kinks in their muscles and heating up the tub, their body temperatures and quit possibly wind up fainting in the water with a slight chance of drowning or at the very least counting on those around you to revive you from your workout? Crazy came in many forms. Looking to my right, I noticed the bath next to mine was bubbling what appeared to be mud? Mud? Really? I looked again, thinking about what the rest of our day was about... the Green Tea Plantation, Lotus Festival, Lunch, Fair Grounds, Bazaar Market and the ride back up to Seoul. This is when I noticed a person getting out of the bath to the right, except I was certain he'd be covered in a muddy liquid but he came out as clean as if he was exiting a regular bath. I didn't know what to make of it. I then noticed the clock on the wall, it read 6:55 am, holly shit! How did it become 5 minutes to seven? Fuck! I thought I was on top of the time! I now had ten minutes to be outside in front of the bus! Damn it, I was certain I had twenty five minutes when I climbed into the bath! Oh well. Realizing I needed to get out of the bath, I skipped the mud bath and headed back to the showers to cool myself off. Two minutes later I was drying off with a handful of other men around me. This is when I realized I needed to still brush my teeth. Fuck, again! I wiped down quicker, went to my locker, fumbled with the key, it fell to the floor, I picked it up, shoved it back into the lock, turned and six things fell out onto the floor! Damn! I dug into the bag, grabbing my toothbrush and my toothpaste, shoving everything else back into the locker and locking it once again. I walked hurriedly towards the shower room again just then catching a glimpse of another clock but it stated the time as 6:35 am? What the fuck is going on here? What time is it? Grrrr.... I headed back into the shower pit, stuffed the toothbrush in my mouth and began brushing. I looked over once at the bath I had emerged from the time on the LED was 7:03 am. I turned around looking back out the glass partition to the clock near the attendants desk, reading it as 6:43 am. Honestly, either I am loosing my marbles or the hot bath water has destroyed my eyeballs. Either way, I as going to rinse off again, get cleaned up and head downstairs to try and find something to eat prior to our departure on the bus.

Grabbing my toothbrush and toothpaste, I turned off the shower once again heading back through the glass doors to the dry off area. As I was drying off for the second time Juan approached me with a greeting of "hello" and "how did you like the bathing experience?" Honestly, I said, "I wish I had more time to experience a bit more of the baths but sometimes you just cannot have things your way." Juan then asked, "where did you get your toothbrush at?"
I replied quietly, "I brought it with me, why?" "Oh, I forgot to bring mine but was hoping I could just buy one here."
This is when I suggested he speak to the attendant about having a toothbrush or check out the vending machines.
During our conversation is when I realized how much I really didn't like bathhouses when there were other English speaking people around you to strike up odd conversations when you were naked. Perhaps there is some phobia, I have residing in my consciousness but then I thought about a conversation I had with Phil back in Calgary about habits of men in the locker room at the gym. His response is what I think ninety percent of all men would respond, "I try to get in and out without seeing anything. The less you see in a locker room the better!" At this moment I thought to myself, I wonder what Shauna thinks about this in the female bathhouse? Well, I'll have to ask her later. I walked back over to the locker. Gathered my new set of clothes. Put everything on, stuffed everything else back into my bag and headed for the door. The time on the wall above the attendant read 6:59 am, I had just over ten minutes before I needed to be at the bus, I thought to myself I should go in search of some breakfast food and water.

Taking the stairs back down to the main floor, I wandered over to locker 313 to retrieve my sandals. This is when I pulled out my camera and took a snap shot of my shoe locker because I couldn't ever recalling a time when I had to put my shoes into their own little locker space. The lockers reminded me of the Post Office, laughing to myself I returned to the edge of the wood floor putting on both my sandals and walked out into the hotel lobby hallway to begin the next step in my short morning journey. After six minutes, I realized there wasn't a thing open in the lobby except for the bathhouse and that they were only open probably because there were fifteen buses sitting outside. Reaching back into my bag, I pulled out the strange breakfast pack the Korail people had given us just before we arrived at Suncheon station at three in the morning. There were five small white cup cake looking rolls in the package. I had already ripped open the package and eaten two of them prior to the sunrise walk and since the little convenient shop wasn't open yet, I would have to indulge on the remaining three. Each little cup cake was filled with butter cream. The delicious little butter base of everything in Korean pastry!

As I ate the last of my cup cakes, Shauna came wandering out the front doors watching me stuff my face and taking photographs of randomness in front of the hotel. "Is there anywhere we can get something to eat before getting back on the bus?" She asked. "Not that I can see, but you have these delightful little butter cream filled cup cakes, still." I smiled with contention. "Sure, they are as tasty as week old bread! How was your bathhouse experience?" She inquired while tearing open her cup cake package. As she took her first bite into the cream cake breakfast roll, I ran through my journey inside the bathhouse in short snippets here and there while bringing up the 'etiquette' question once again because of the weird conversation with Juan while drying off and just how much more comfortable I am in a bathhouse then in a gym locker room back home. Furthermore, I expressed my futile reasons behind the subcultures of men in Western culture twisted amongst the comfortability in a bathhouse when no one else speaks your language. It's a conversation we've had in the past between ourselves and others who frequently go to the gym however no that we weren't standing in a bar with beer in our hands someplace in Calgary, the situation has brought on a whole new value since you are literally bathing with the same sex.

To my surprise Shauna explained to me that while living in Japan, women were much more open about staring at her while in the locker room but since being in Korea, the women didn't really gawk as intentively towards her nor did they openly stare at her while she was changing. However she has notice many young girls who are in the locker rooms tend to stare at her even after the mother's have reprimanded them. However the comparison from Asian culture to Asian culture versus Asian culture to Western culture was a whole different set of values and reasons for looking at each other. She did say that back home it was simpler because you tend not to have a problem with people's wondering eyes.

By this time, she had finished off three of her cup cake breakfast rolls, and we had managed to move the conversation from the front of the hotel to the front of the bus. As we climbed onto the bus we both began to wonder what was in store for our next destiation location. We all knew it was the Boesong Green Tea Plantation but none of us really knew what to expect? As the people began climbing back onto the bus the organizer climbed on board to tell us it would be about twenty minutes before we arrived at the tea plantation. They checked to make sure all people were on board, and they were, then the driver turned the ignition, fired up the bus, honked his horn and lurched forward into the early morning sunshine.

A quick right out of the parking lot, another right back up the main road and we were on our way. I peered out upon the farmer's field to our right wondering about the short period of time we had spent at Yulpo Beach, it had been nice but extremely quick. I sure would have liked to have spent more time in the bathhouse soaking up the warm mineral waters, pouring out my toxins into the bath and eating something more than just a pastry roll. But such is life when you are subjected to another persons idea of a "tour trip." I rested my head for a brief minute on the window to my left and then thirty seconds later wish I hadn't done so because the bus lurched to the left then to the right winding around the roadway as my head went from against the window to a mere inch from Shauna and slammed back into the glass! OUCH! But the driver persisted on making sharp turns through the road way, picking up speed and pushing us further up the road. Ten minutes later the driver yielded to oncoming traffic, swerving to the right we were on a country lane heading north, or east either way it was away from Yulpo Beach and in the direction of the Green Tea Plantation.

Dominique who sat beind us, asked how our Yulpo Beach adventure went and if we did the sunrise or the bathhouse? At once we both replied in unison, "we did both." Smiling at each other. "How did you manage to do that?" We then explained where we went, what we saw and our quick time back at the bathhouse. She replied, "David, Tom and Mark O, tried to get some pictures of the sunrise from the beach but said they didn't have a clear enough shot." Shauna replied, "they should have followed Aaron, he found us a great spot and we have some amazing shots of the sunrise." "Really? Where did you guys go?" She asked showing appreciation for our escaping the crowds for a better sunrise spot. "Aaron, walked off in the direction of the jetties to the left of the beach. So, I followed him because he always knows where to go to get the best shots of pretty much everything. We ended up down past the second jetty and the sunrise was spectacular! What did you do? Did you watch the sunrise too? Or just go to the bathhouse?" At this point, I stopped listening in on the conversation to smile at my brilliant self, just then the bus swerved to the right, lurched to the left and the engine whined as the driver pressed harder on the gas! Everyone, laughed, someone screamed and the driver persisted on pushing the bus up the steep hills. As the scenery flew by us, we tried to capture a couple of pictures of the lurking fog amongst the top of the mountain sides as the valleys swirled below us. Another five minutes of this insane drivers grand-prix skills and he'll have everyone puking in their own personal trash bags! This guy is intense and where are our seat belts located?

After the storming rush to the top of the hill, Mario "the bus driver", finally pulled off at an exit just before beginning the downward slope of the hill he had drastically climbed in less than ten minutes! Pulling off to the right, we braked to a very slow crawl, turned left under the highway and drove to the other side directly into an awaiting parking lot. From here we drove through the parking lot at a snails pace, around another corner, up a short hill and then he pulled a
180-degree rearview mirror parking manuever that would have impressed any driver's education teacher around the world! We were finally there... Boesong Green Tea Plantation...


Advertisement



Tot: 0.269s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 13; qc: 69; dbt: 0.1375s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb