emily and i chose mongsanpo beach as our first camping trip destination. mongsanpo is a beach on the western coast of south korea, south of incheon. the nearest city is taean. mongsanpo is part of taean national seashore (which boasts of 520km of shoreline and over 130 islands and was designated as a national park in 1978).we left incheon early saturday morning and took a bus to taean. it took about 2 hours to get there. we wanted to take a local bus to mongsanpo, but could not find the bus stop nor anyone who would help us. we decided to take a taxi, knowing that mongsanpo was not too far away. it ended up costing about 11,000 won or $8 USD to travel the 7km to the campground. we did not (and still do not) know the exact rules of camping in korea. we wanted to just pitch our tent on a beach, but did not know if that was allowed. for our first trip, we wanted to play it safe by staying at a designated campground.
our taxi driver dropped us off at the campground and pointed out where the nearest mini-mart was to buy food. we were hoping to rent bicycles and explore the area, but realized that was wishful thinking. there was not much around this area. definitely no bicycle rentals. we first tried to find someone who worked at the campground, but we were unsuccessful. eventually, we found a woman who spoke decent english and she told us to just put our tent anywhere we wanted and that a man would come around later to collect money.
we picked out a flat-ish spot beneath some pine trees as close to the beach as we could get. later (when it got dark), we realized that we pitched our tent beneath a lamppost, but it didn't really affect our sleep. immediately, we noticed that we did not fit in with our fellow korean camp-mates. we had the smallest tent by far. koreans like to camp in style: huge tents, covered cooking areas, fancy chairs, endless cooking supplies/utensils, hammocks, cots, and even flat-screen televisions! i think we were also the only people there without a car. of course, all of this didn't matter, but it was interesting to see what the korean camping standard was. at least they didn't have RVs!
after we set up our tent, it was time to explore! we walked around the nearest buildings trying to find a bicycle rental shop. no such luck. i did happen to see two neon green kayaks collecting dust, so i thought we should investigate. the kayaks were outside of a minbak or pension. minbaks are a sort of mix between a home-stay and a motel. pensions are usually houses that are rented out (so you have several bedrooms, a full kitchen, bathroom, porch, deck. etc.). even though the weather is warming up, april is considered the off-season for any sort of camping or beach activity. for this reason, the minbak was deserted. however, we managed to find one korean lady who looked confused when i asked about renting the kayaks. she found another man who worked there and together they took a long time to tell us no. we weren't able to communicate fluently, so i'm still not sure what the reasoning was.anyway, emily and i continued to walk. we headed along the beach, climbed over some rocks and walked toward the sound of music. we eventually stumbled upon a small octopus festival. lots of vendors were selling fresh seafood delicacies and other goodies. since emily is a vegetarian we opted to try some cinnamon bread thing-ys that tasted a lot like the cinnamon/sugar toast my mom would make in the oven.
we walked back to the campground and set out our "tarpaulin" on the sandy beach. we did crossword puzzles and played minhwatu (a korean flower gambling card game). we both dozed off at one point and woke up with rather pink faces (even though it was chilly and overcast).
we were hungry and decided to try the one restaurant nearby. of course it specialized in seafood. the menu was all in hangul, but i managed to read "kimchi jjigae." we ordered one as well as two bowls of rice. however, our order seemed to cause some confusion. there was only one other table of customers in the restaurant, an older man and his wife. the man had obviously been drinking and was way too enthusiastic to see foreigners. he begged us to come sit with him, so we did. he then bought us beer and later paid for our entire meal. his flirtatious nature was a bit odd, especially with his wife right there. but i think we all had an unspoken agreement that alcohol was to blame.
after dinner, we bought them ice cream as a thank you. then, the man bought fireworks at the min-mart and wanted us to go with him to the beach to set them off. we obliged one last time. it was actually quite fun. he had one big sparkler as well, that we all took turns holding onto and dancing around feverishly with. once the fireworks were all used up, we parted our separate ways.
it was really chilly, but i didn't think it'd be a big deal. i was confident since i'd been camping in much cooler weather. however, the entire night was quite a painful ordeal! the sleeping bags were not warm and the tent kept collecting water on the inside. it didn't rain or anything, so it must have been condensation from our breathing. needless to say, we didn't sleep well.
some noisy newbies decided to wake us up early by pitching their tent right next to ours at 7am. it was okay i suppose since we were so uncomfortable (cold and sore from no sleeping pads). i finished cutting emily's hair (i started the day before, but had to make a few adjustments). then we decided to walk along the beach again going the other direction. we followed a path in the woods for awhile that led us to a swampy/rice paddy area. it was quite nice since there were so many birds around (maybe egrets?). we made it to the nearest civilization where we bought some snacks. we sat down for a bit to enjoy them and then headed back to the campground.
we had seen what we wanted to see, so we decided to head back to incheon early (around 12pm). we managed to catch the local bus back to taean. only 1,000 won instead of the 11,000 won we paid for the taxi on the way there. the last stop was right at the taean bus terminal, so we bought our tickets back to incheon for 7,500 won. the bus time was 13:30. we hopped on the bus parked outside the incheon sign. we took our seats, #17 and #18, and the driver took our tickets (ripped them and returned the stub to us). we slept most of the way. 2 hours and 10 minutes later we expected to be in incheon. so we were quite surprised when all the road signs said we were in daejeon!!
sure enough. we were on the wrong bus. emily and i looked at each other, laughed, and waited for everyone to get off of the bus. we showed our ticket to the driver and immediately he noticed it said "incheon" not "daejeon." why hadn't he noticed this the first time when he collected our tickets?! arghhhhh! he seemed to get very angry at this point. not at us, but at the situation. emily and i sat on a bench outside and waited while he made some phone calls.
a short while later, an unknown man led us to a nearby bus terminal. he made more phone calls and eventually bought us each a new ticket. our original tickets were only 7,500 won, but these tickets were 14,400 won each! he did not ask us to pay for them. i still do not know who he was and i think he used his personal money to pay for the tickets. i am sure that the bus company felt guilty and responsible for the situation. however, we both felt really stupid and partially responsible as well. but what are the odds that another bus leaving at the exact same time as ours, parked under the "incheon" sign, almost-full yet empty seats #17 and 18 (that we were assigned to on a different bus) and identical arrival times!!!
everything worked out. as it always does. just 2 hours and 15 minutes later, we were back at the incheon bus terminal. it took longer than planned, but luckily we had gotten an early start to our day. all in all, we had a great trip. it was very relaxing to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the city and be able to breathe fresh air. even though we were a bit cold, we are already planning our next camping trip!
