It was Children’s Day here in Korea, which meant a three-day weekend for us! In honor of the extended weekend, we decided to get a rental car and venture around Korea! YEAH! ROADTRIP! We left Saturday morning around 7:30 for Anmyeondo Island. Anmyeondo Island had actually been our original destination of choice when we first got a rental car back in March 2018. Our plans abruptly changed though when we suddenly realized the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival (that blog post here) was happening that weekend. Everything we had planned that weekend was suddenly scratched so we could go see the cherry blossoms (which was amazing!). So we were determined to make it to Anmyeondo Island this time so we could explore the Taeanhaean National Park. We’ve kind of made it an unofficial official goal of ours to visit as many of the 21 national parks in Korea as possible. This would knock another one off the list! The drive out there was pretty slow going. There was a tulip festival happening that weekend on Anmyeondo Island, so we were part of the slow moving caterpillar that was weaving its way onto the small island. We easily found a parking place when we arrived. The hike we had planned was all along the coast and we couldn’t wait to get started. It was reallllllly windy this particular day since a storm was blowing in, but we could’ve cared less and it actually made for some gorgeous photos. The tide was out when we started our hike and we got some beautiful views of Kkotji Beach. Kkotji Beach is huge! It’s about 2 miles long and about 330 yards wide. Kkotji beach is also home to Halmibawi and Harabibawi Rock (which translates to grandfather and grandmother rock). The two large rocks were pretty impressive. We wandered along a rocky, tide pool area where we watched locals gather what we think might have been crabs and take some gorgeous (but wind blown) pictures. We think the name of this beach is Bangpo Beach, but we walked along so many beaches that we might have the names mixed up. Next we went to what we believe to be Duyeo Beach and it was huge. Again, the wind was blowing like crazy and it was moving the sand all along the beach. It was mesmerizing. It was like the sand had a life of its own. We hiked so many beaches that day that the names soon became irrelevant. The combination of ocean, pine trees, and boardwalks made it a hike we wouldn’t forget. Ultimately, we got to our last beach, which was Anmyeon Beach. After 9 miles we thought we would be able to catch a bus back to our starting point and make our drive back home. Yet, the bus schedule wasn’t on our side and it didn’t look like the bus was coming. After some deliberation, we finally made the decision to make the hike back, so our nine mile hike quickly turned into an 18 mile hike. Walking back along a beach during sunset though is something that should never be complained about (quick confession, I may have been a little upset for a minute when I found out the bus wasn’t coming, but the sights of the water and sun on the way back was well worth a little ache in my feet.) Our feet were killing us near the end, but man oh man, did we get some great views of the ocean as the sun was setting. Even though we were close to collapsing when we ended our hike, we wouldn’t have had it any other way. The next day we actually ended up heading allll the way to the eastern side of Korea. It was raining everywhere in the country that day, but we had a rental car, and we weren’t going to let it go to waste! We had been watching a TV series about Korea and it suggested we go see an ancient temple along the eastern coast of Korea. The footage in the film was gorgeous so we decided to follow their recommendation. We started our rainy day out at Naksansa Temple which is a crazy old temple! It was built sometime between 57 BC- 935 AD. The temple grounds were gorgeous in the rain and we can only imagine how amazing they must look on a sunny day. We wondered around the entire temple grounds taking pictures and enjoying the Seattle like weather we were having in Korea. Ultimately, the rain let up a bit and we were able to enjoy just an overcast afternoon. We had a few more hours to spend in the area before we felt like we needed to head back to Cheonan. We did some quick research and found out the area we were in had a unification park. Tongil Park (or Gangneung Unification Park) was located about a half an hour from where we were (and it happened to be in the same city we went to for the Olympics, that blog post here). It actually turned out to be really neat. The park had an old warship named the USS Everett F. Larson which we were able to tour. This ship has a long history, but on October 30, 1972, the ship was given as a gift to Korea and was renamed the ROKS Jeon Buk (DD-916). This ship was in operation until December 1999. When it was finally decommissioned it was put on display at the unification park for the public to see. Along with the awesome naval ship on display, we also saw a small wooden boat built by 11 North Koreans who used it to escape from North Korea on September 27, 2009. If you look really closely at our pictures, you can see the wood they used is just from cut down trees (you can still see the bark), and they used an old tractor tire to help seal the front part of the ship. They all made it to South Korean soil. Also, within the park, there was a North Korean submarine on display. We went inside the submarine and couldn’t even fathom the idea of any human actually being in this devise under water. It was old, it was creepy, and it looked like it would leak in the rain. It was 53 meters long and only 3.5 meters wide. The submarine was a North Korean Sang-O-class submarine (if that means anything to anybody) and was sent to spy on the South Korean Navy. From a collection of things we have read, the submarine had 26 people on it. On September 15, 1996, 3 of the men made it onto South Korean soil and went to go complete their espionage mission. I believe the three North Korean soldiers were to be picked up the following night in the same location, but the attempt to make it to them failed so the rendezvous was again attempted around 9 PM on September 17, 1996. The submarine’s tail got caught in a reef, and the men on board the submarine decided to leave the submarine and try to make it back to North Korea via land by separating into smaller groups. Of the 26 men, only one was capture (who later served in the South Korean navy), the rest were found dead or killed, and one man was believed to have made it back to North Korea alive. The manhunt for the soldiers lasted a total of 45 days. It really blew our mind when we found out this kind of event happened so recently. Below are two articles I found that go into the details of the submarine events for anybody interested. Enjoy! https://www.nknews.org/2012/09/this-day-in-the-history-of-the-dprk-2/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Gangneung_submarine_infiltration_incident On our last day with the car we made a quick drive down to a small township called Boeun to do a quick walk around the Samnyeonsanseong Fortress and Daecheong Dam. The fortress was built in 470 AD and was way more dated than a lot of the other fortresses we go to visit. The area was actually stunning and we are hoping to make it back out there to do some hiking when the fall season comes around. We still had a few hours left before we needed to return the car so we headed over to Daecheong Dam which is a 72 meter tall and 495 meter long dam near a large lake system. It was a nice, peaceful walk and actually was a great way to end a three-day weekend with the car.
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