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About a month back, Kyra called me out of
the blue. She was pretty excited about taking a trip to
Everland, the largest theme park on the Korean Peninsula. And
anyone that knows me knows that I can’t pass up an opportunity
to potentially throw up on roller coasters. So we planned a
trip. Kyra, Rob and I were all free for the weekend, so we
decided (since we would already be near Seoul—in Everland) to
take a side trip the next day to Ganghwa Island.
Everland was really exciting. It is half
theme park and half zoo. The areas of the theme park were
styled after several areas of the world. There was America
Town—with an array of American-style thrill rides, Little
Amsterdam with shops, restaurants, fountains and gardens, an
English Garden, Aesop’s Land—a kind of storybook type of area
filled with Kiddie rides and Global Village—displaying replicas
of famous structures from around the world including St. Marks
Square (Venice), the Taj Mahal, the Hagia Sophia (Istanbul), St.
Peter’s Basilica (Moscow) and the Eiffel Tower. We spent all of
Saturday exploring the park and adjacent zoo. Some of the
highlights were: the Teacups (where Rob and I spun the teacups
so much faster than all the kids that the parents started a
commotion thinking the ride was broken), the Hurricane (it’s a
giant spinning Pirate Ship ride), the Loop Coaster (because of
the loops) and the Rock & Spin (it’s name fits well).
After leaving the Park, we drove (I DROVE)
through Seoul (I DROVE THROUGH SEOUL) to get to Ganghwa Island.
Ganghwa Island is actually part of Incheon Metropolitan City,
however it is located right in the Seoul Connurbation. There
are two bridges that connect it to the mainland. We took the
South Bridge (totally irrelevant information for you).
We arrived late at our Bed and Breakfast.
It was a small house, right on the Yellow Sea. We got one room
and we all slept on the floor. It was very nice and
quaint—styled just like a log cabin. We stayed up for a couple
of hours drinking some beers and talking before retiring for the
night.
The next day, we set of going west; our
goal was to drive around the coast and just stop and do whatever
we saw to be interesting. Our first stop was a historical
military installation from the Three Kingdoms Period (oh, I
don’t know…a thousand years ago?). Ganghwa Island has always
been of extreme military importance to Korea. It is situated
right on the delta of the Han River. It’s the same idea the
French had when they built New Orleans—control the river mouth,
control the whole river. Anyone with control of the Han River
mouth has direct access right into Seoul. Ganghwa has been
attacked by many armies including the Mongolian, Chinese,
Japanese, French and American (I guess we had a little skirmish
there during the reign of Teddy Roosevelt. In the age of
speaking softly this seemed a time when we used our big stick.)
This ancient fort must have been around when the Mongols
invaded. However, the most interesting part was the small,
modern military fort built right next to it. Juxtapose that!
It is kind of sobering thinking that standing right there, at
the mouth of the Han River, the North Korean army is looming
nearby.
We continued along the coast of Ganghwa
Island to a small beach. Normally, a beach wouldn’t seem that
amazing, however it was a little out of its element. Gangwha
Island is located at the mouth of the Han River and is also on
the already-shallow Yellow Sea. The combination of the two
creates the perfect place for mudflats. Miles and miles of
mudflats surround the Island. At this small beach, however,
sand had collected and there was a small crescent beach hugging
the shore between the bank and the mud. We stopped there,
walked a bit in the mud of the Yellow Sea and rode an ATV across
the sand before returning to the car with ice cream in hand.
From there, the next stop was the Tideflats
Heritage Center. The museum was kind of boring, but the lands
around the heritage center were very beautiful. The center was
perched high on a bluff and we could see out into the Yellow
Sea. The mudflats went on forever. We hiked down to the
water’s (mud’s) edge and took a trail that the center had build
out over the mudflats. We didn’t see any Cranes (which are a
protected species in that area) but we did see two hovercrafts
flying across the mudflats.
Just north of the Tideflats Heritage
Center, we stopped at the ferry dock for Seongmo Island. We
didn’t wait that long, as it was only a fifteen minute
crossing. I was a bit concerned that we were going to miss the
next boat, but we made it on—the last car! Such luck!
Seongmo Island was extremely beautiful. It
contained rolling hills and quiet farmland. The contrast with
Ganghwa Island was stark—Ganghwa Island was full of steep, green
mountains. Seongmo Island was much more brown in color and it
just seemed peaceful, while Ganghwa Island seemed a bit
too…hmm…well, I guess it was peaceful, too. Seongmo Island is
famous for Beomun Temple. The temple is located quite a ways up
a hill. Stair climbing is required. But, the top is definitely
rewarding. There is a stone Buddha carved into a cave high
above the Yellow Sea. The day was quite hazy, but I could
imagine that on a clear day you could see all the way to Beijing
(too bad the world is round). We were only on Seongmo Island
for a short time as it is a small island and we were short for
time. We got in line for the ferry, which was a massive queue.
We thought we were going to be in for a long wait, but it only
took about a half an hour. It was a ten minute crossing back to
Ganghwa Island and they had three ferries running in contrast to
the on ferry running at the other dock. Speaking of docks,
these docks were not the type we see in Puget Sound. These were
just boat ramps that went down into the water. The ferry just
nosed up to the ramp and the cars drove off. It was
very…interesting.
Our last stop of the trip was at the
northern end of Ganghwa Island. I wanted to visit the very
northern most tip of the island because Gangwha Island is
situated in extremely close proximity to North Korea. There is
nothing between the Island and North Korea but a small channel
of water. After driving nearly all the way to the top (I was
driving), I suddenly realized what we were looking at. We had
been driving north, through a wide valley and there was a
mountain range directly in front of us. I knew we were driving
north and I knew we were close to the water. I suddenly
shouted, “North Korea!” Just about then, we could see the
beach. Between us and the beach, however, was a roadblock.
Nearly panicking because I didn’t have a driver’s license and we
couldn’t just pull a Chinese-Fire-Drill right in front of the
station, we just decided to pull forward. He didn’t care that I
was a foreigner. The soldier simply asked Kyra what our
business was. She replied that we were sight seeing and he
politely asked us to turn around due to our proximity to North
Korea and Kim Jong Il’s army of two million. It was as simple
as that. Although we couldn’t stand on the beach and pee into
the water, we simply backed the car up, got out and took some
pictures of the North, gave Kim Jong Il the finger and peed a
bit in the direction of North Korea and the dictator’s army.
After that, we returned to Daegu. I, once
more, drove through Seoul. This time, however, the trip home
took seven hours. Despite the bad Sunday traffic, the trip was
well worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. |
