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Published: April 18th 2007
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A room with a view
Single room beachside apartment, unfurnished, avilable immediately Once again we slept fantastically in our new tent. The evening was much warmer, and we hardly woke up during the night. Having trekked around most of the Yongjongdo coast yesterday evening in search of food and the best place to camp, we opted to head catch the bus over the huge bridge back to the mainland town of Incheon. I managed to find another coffee machine while Cathy woke up gently. With the hot coffee inside us we did the quick trick of getting our entire campsite into our two daypacks.
We jumped off the bus at what looked like an interesting part of Incheon. The next hour we spent wondering around the local covered market, which turned out to be selling mostly raw fish and the usual foul-smelling very local food. (stuffed pig intestines, boiled whole pig heads, etc.) Between these stalls sold $1.50 DVDs, leather shoes and fruit we'd never seen before.
On the other side of the market we found a little Columbia outdoors shop, where we found Cath some fantastic new shoes to replace her tekkies which were far beyond their recommended mileage. Freshly shod, she was even more keen to walk everywhere
Our beachside campsite
The spot we claimed for the evening, with our gear spread out all over than usual and once again stepped up the pace in the direction of Chinatown.
The centuries old Chinese buildings, schools and street were a strange mix of very traditional and incredibly kitsch. It seems that while half of the locals have strictly tried to preserve their culture, the others have imported every kind of plastic trinket and mass produced ornament to sell for a dollar.
Just above Chinatown is a beautiful park with some big US monument, an open air gym, and the most incredible cherry blossom display at this time of year! We spent ages just moseying around, taking in the peacefulness. After stopping by an old pagoda overlooking the city from the hillside park, we headed back down, and caught the bus back to the Wolmido pier.
At the pier we walked along the food stalls playing mental roulette with our stomachs. Cath settled on some chip-vienna thing on a stick and I managed to find a guy roasting chestnuts (really!), although they were practically inedible.
We then did what we thought was a pretty normal thing, but ended up drawing quite a few looks. We bought an ice-cream tub to share and sat
Packed packs
...and all that fits so neatly onto our backs. The life of a nomad! watching the sea. Maybe it was just because two Westerners walking around with backpacks and sleeping bags always seem to be the general point of interest. Anyway, we were worried that we would not finish the 1litre tub of cherry ice cream. Turns out we had nothing to worry about because soon our little plastic spoons were scraping anxiously against the cardboard bottom.
Having had a fantastic weekend, we decided to quit while we were on a high and hop back on the train for home. A few hours later we were once again being greeted by the familiar "Engish Village" sign that dominates the outside of our castle wall. Too easily the whole adventure seems like a dream...
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