For
our first long weekend in Korea, we headed to the coastal town of Yeosu. Our
director had recommended we go to Yeosu over Mokpo, so we took her advice. We
caught the train from Jeonju and it was really quick and efficient. Living in a
country with easy public transport is just the best.
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| Only in Korea... |
Yeosu
is a city that hosted the World Expo in 2012 and it still seems a little
obsessed with it. The Expo advertising is very prominent and it is everywhere!
I’ve never heard of a World Expo but apparently it is quite a big deal. There
are many contrasts in the city from the futuristic expo site, to the
traditional fish markets and the hundreds of islands scattered around the
coast. Before we arrived we hadn’t done much research and so we relied on the
tourist office outside the train station when we arrived. The lady at the
office gave us maps and some general information but we had hoped to go on an
island cruise and she wasn’t sure how to help us so we ended up giving that a
miss.
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| The expo area. |
We
stayed at a motel (Silla motel-very good value for money) in the older area of
the city and away from the expo site. We were able to use the bus system well
so it wasn’t a problem at all.
On our first afternoon we went to the small island of
Odongdo. You can walk to Odongdo across a 700m bridge near the expo area. The
island is a sort of botanical garden, with wooden boardwalks all over it. The
unique feature of the island is that it is covered with bamboo, pine trees and camellia
trees, a unique combination.
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| Walking to Odongo. |
After Odongdo we headed to Manseongi Beach. After waiting
for a bus for over an hour we caught a taxi there (a very expensive trip mind
you) as it is just out of town. The beach is the only black sand beach on Korea
mainland but it was actually rather dull and uninteresting. Once again we were
frustrated by the lack of swimming and so we settled for just relaxing on the
beach and enjoying the warm evening.
Early the
next morning we went to Yeosu Aqua Planet, the aquarium. We had seen the queues
the previous day (literally hundreds of people) and wanted to avoid them (well
we managed slightly). Aqua Planet is the largest aquarium in Korea. The most
impressive thing was the Beluga Whales. I had never seen Beluga Whales and the
2 at the aquarium were beautiful and I loved watching them play with balls in
their huge tank. After an hour and a half of wondering around the aquarium we
enjoyed a western lunch at the aquarium restaurant.
We then hopped on a bus to Dolsando Island. Somehow we ended up missing
our bus stop and we were on the bus for over an hour, getting further and
further away from civilization and into the rural farm villages on the island.
We eventually got off the bus in the middle of nowhere and hoped another one
would pass soon. Luckily a bus came soon enough and we made our way to our
original destination, Admiral Yi’s Turtal Ship Museum. Looking back we should
have stayed on that bus to the end of its route because we found out later
there is a famous temple there, but oh well. Anyway, Admiral Yi was a famous
Korean conqueror and is renowned for the design of his turtle ship, a wooden
ship with spikes coming out the top. The Turtle Ship has some interesting
history and there are several replicas around Korea.
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Stuck in the middle of nowhere... 
Later that afternoon we spent our time relaxing on a little shelly beach under Dolsan bridge and then wondering around one of Yeosu’s many fish markets. The fish markets are just hectic, I can’t believe they can even sell all the fish and how it all gets eaten. It’s not the most enjoyable site seeing all the fish, octopus and crabs crammed into tanks, barely surviving. After being put off eating any fish we luckily managed to find a nice home-made burger restaurant in downtown Yeosu.
      
This sweet little dog was lying outside a fish shop and keeping cool on the piece of stone.
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We spent 2 nights in Yeosu and I think we could’ve
just spent one. While it is a pleasant enough place, there is not too much to
do and we ended up catching the train home early
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