Korea: my life, my story: 무의도 [Muuido] Trip Two

[ My catch on 무의도 ]

Now, I've already been to 무의도 one other time, but it was only a day trip earlier this year. This time, it was decided to stay for two nights and really get the most out of the island. 은경 and I rented a beach bungalow, which is a stilted hut set on the beach. JC and Katrina also accompanied us, but they decide to go camping instead.

Day 1
( 10/1/2011 -무의도 )

Before departing from 인천 [Incheon], we did a little exploration of the airport, because we had heard rumors of a number of hidden treasures. We found the ice skating rink, which was actually fake. Plastic is not easy to skate on, so this venture was short-lived. We did find a pretty nice indoor garden though. After exploring a bit, we boarded our bus that took us out to the ferry port. The ferry ride is actually pretty hilarious. It takes a total of five minutes to get from 인천 to 무의도. Once we arrived, we took another bus ride out to the beach, where we quickly got settled and threw a blanket on the beach and enjoyed some drinks. We played drinking games on the beach until it got too cold to do so. At that point we all purchased various cup noodles from the one store in the area and had a little tutorial in the Korean card game, go-stop. The rules are a little complicated, but I think we got the hang of it. I'm pretty sure that none of us planned to get quite that slippy, but we were all pleased that we did.

[ 인천 garden ]

( Photo courtesy of Justin Alan Cassel )

[은경 & I on the 무의도 ferry ]

( Photo courtesy of Justin Alan Cassel )

[ beach drinking ]

( Photo courtesy of Justin Alan Cassel )

[ go-stop ]

( Photo courtesy of Justin Alan Cassel )

Day 2

( 10/2/2011 -무의도 )

The next morning, I woke up nice and early to sit on the "porch" of our bungalow and draw. I did this for awhile, then indulged in another cup of noodles for breakfast. Once everybody awoke, we departed for a pretty easy, but beautiful hike. This was quite fun, and slightly funny, because of 은경's fear of bees. There were a lot of them about, and every few minutes we would all hear a shriek that alarmed us. After the first five or six, we all got used to it. It actually became a bit of a running joke. After the hike, we sat down for a nice meal of 칼국수 [kal-guk-su], which is a delicious clam and noodle soup. This was followed by a nap and a very similar night of drinking card games. We actually were able to order chicken for dinner that was delivered directly to our beach bungalow. I love the convenience of Korea, and more so, the convenience of having a girlfriend that can speak Korean to delivery restaurants. It was yet another successful day on 모의도.

[ view from the hike ]

[ 은경 ]

[ Katrina seated at a beautiful viewpoint ]

[ enjoying the view ]

( Photo courtesy of Justin Alan Cassel )

[ 은경 & I at the peak's viewpoint ]

[ posing at the peak sign ]

[ gazing/posing ]

[ my standard "I'm up high" pose ]

[ MU! UI! DO! ]

( Photo courtesy of Justin Alan Cassel )

[ Katrina, showing off ]

[ I'm trying to be as cool as her... fail ]

[ outside our bungalow ]

[모의도 bungalows ]

[ PEPPERS! mmmmmm ]

Day 3
( 10/3/2011 - 모의도 )

We were actually a bit surprised to learn that there was a festival occurring the same weekend that we were on 모의도. It was a fish catching festival, where all the catching that occurs is done by hand. It was actually a festival to attract foreigners in the past, so it was free for us to partake, but over the years it has become an event for Koreans. We were one of very few foreigners still around when the festival began. It was pretty awesome to see about a thousand Koreans in a line across the beach waiting and waiting for the go-ahead to sprint out into the water and catch fish. There were many false starts, but eventually they gave them the ready-set-go, and a sea of people rushed out to the edge of the tide waters to catch a shit-load of trapped fish. They had a net set up out in the ocean, so that when the tide went out, the fish couldn't go with it. After taking a bunch of pictures and enjoying ourselves we walked back to the ferry port and had a great sigh of pleasure after completing an enjoying three-day weekend trip.