Geoje-do

Hmm, long time no blog. Sorry about that. Some of you might be fearing that this blog is going the same way as my ill-fated Guatemala blog, which evaporated into the blogosphere about five months into my time there, which, ominously, is nearly the same time as I've been in Korea. I don't think this will be the case, mainly as I have internet access at home here, and don't work 13 hours a day during the week, with a quick stint on Saturday just to make sure that the unhappiness really stings.

The reason for my silence recently was a rather special visitor who's been staying here for the last two weeks. More on her in later posts, but suffice to say that I'm now on my own in my apartment again, with ample blogging time. This means, just as I'm about to be inundated by the various precipitations of a month of typhoons, so you are about to be swamped by all of the stuff that I need to blog. With this in mind, here's a quick review of my short break on the island of Geoje-do.

I ended up going to Geoje-do as a fallback. Shannon and I had planned to go to the disputed island of Deok-do, and had negotiated a day off to do so. sadly, the ferry was sold out more than a month in advance. However, Shannon's friend Andrea had recently moved to Geoje-do, so we decided to head there instead.

It turned out to be a good choice. Geoje-do is Korea's second largest island, home to the highest density of foreigners in Korea, and is an amazing mix of heavy industry and outstanding natural beauty. The island is home to two huge container shipyards and builds something like half of the worlds container ships (fact stolen from Rough Guides). The shipbuilding equipment is visible from a long way around the island, and was hugely exciting to an overgrown child like me, and not at all interesting to Shannon. The industry brings many foreigners from central Asia to Korea, and gives the island a cosmopolitan feel, but without the sleaziness of a port town.

So that covers the industry. How about the natural beauty? Well, there is plenty of that too, as displayed in the following photos. The first set are of Haemeungang, a series of breathtaking rock formations which rise out of a striking green sea. There is something in the water here that gives it a striking turquoise hue, and mostly has the effect of making me want to climb on a few rock formations, and then hurl myself into it.

The rocks at Haemeungang are best viewed from a boat on the way to a small island called Oedo, and the two form an interesting contrast. Haemeungang is all natural splendor, it's rock formations sculpted by aeons of wear. Oedo on the other hand, has been sculpted by very human forces into a meticulously planned botanical garden, with impressive dedication since it's purchase by a couple in the 1960s. It's a different kind of beauty, but no less impressive, and reminds me a lot of a garden at an English manor house. Here are some of the photos I took there.

Post Oedo we headed back onto Geoje, and I stopped for a pint. This Guiness cost me 6 quid. And it was poor. And it was Guiness. And it was still the best pint I've had in Korea. Seriously Koreans, grow some hops and learn to brew.

The following day we set about soaking up some more of the natural beauty, and some sunshine. I even took my shirt off for a full ten minutes. Those that monitor my tan will not be surprised to hear that it didn't make a blind bit of difference and I am still deathly white. When we'd exhausted Daisy the dog Shannon and I took Andrea's kayaks for a spin. Truly, everyone should have kayaks. We had great fun paddling out to an island, where we found starfish, sea urchins and all kinds of other marine fauna. The we found a cave, which was even more exciting. We could have stayed a lot longer, but it was time to head back to the mainland again so we paddled the kayaks back to the beach, and headed for Busan on the ferry, passing several newly made container ships on the way.

So, this is the end of this part of the blog. I should publicly thank Andrea for letting us stay in her apartment while she camped in a forest, and also for lending us her kayaks. We had a great time on Geoje-do, and I'd definitely like to go back some day. In the next few days some shark diving photos should appear, so keep an eye out for those. Until then,

A