Deokjeok do

Deokjeok do was just the mini-break i needed after a long month of August intensives and a whirlwind September.  The "red holiday," Chuseok, was the reason for our break, which is very much like Thanksgiving, where Koreans give thanks and pay homage to their ancestors.  For us teachers, it meant traveling to a nice little island off the west coast of the peninsula to enjoy a virtually deserted beach, devoid of all regular travelers, who were in their home towns spending time with family.  A few convenient stores and restaurants were open, and obviously our minbak, which we had completely to ourselves.  They provided us with "yo" sleeping (floor mats), and a small kitchenette.  The island also has pensions, which are like little cabins (some more elaborate than others).  You can buy charcoal or little gas tanks to grill, and there's a lot of good hiking that most people didn't get to enjoy due to the typhoon right before we arrived.  Oh, and there's not a single ATM on the entire island.  This meant I spent about $30.00 the entire weekend, as I missed this extremely important memo. Good way to save, right?  I'll have to thank Amber for most of my beer. (You're the best!) 

On the ferry

Arriving to the island

After an hour long train ride, a short 10 minute cab ride, and a salty, but very fun hour-long ferry, we arrived and took another (insane) bus-ride to our beach on the other side of the island.  It was a sleepy little beach town from my experience, but I'm sure it's less relaxing during peak times through the year.  There are stray dogs that roam the island--mostly friendly--and really welcoming year-round residents who were happy to sell us fireworks and allow us to clean out their stocks of beer and snacks.  

View from our room

This is a pagota at the top of one of the trails.  Unfortunately, we didn't quite make it up there.  The beach held my attention quite nicely for the full three days. 

Pomegranites

Little Korean bum bums playing in their undies.  Very cute.

 This picture deserves an explanation:  although it doesn't appear very interesting, this was meant to be a long-exposure of us spelling out D-E-O-K-J-E-O-K-D-O with sparklers.  Interestingly enough, "sparklers" also translates to "bottle rockets" in Korean, which were all aimed directly at me while they were being lit.  So much for that.

So instead, we shot roman candles at this street sign.  No one seemed to be bothered in the least, and they sold us some more shortly after.

A big full moon behind the clouds that we enjoyed from our bonfire in 

the yard of the minbak.

The beach was completely empty this morning for over 2 hours, so I took the opportunity to fulfill my complete obsession with the sand:  

Off shore, there are all these neat little rock-formations/islands sticking high up out of the water that reminded me of something you'd see in Thailand.

Crab art: Untitled No. 1, water and sand.

Sorry friend.

Most of these pictures were taken early in the morning, so although it doesn't look it, the weather was great--warm, windy days, warm water, and cool, comfortable nights.  We even enjoyed a little night swimming.  From the pictures, you can see how far out the tide went--I felt like I walked for 20 minutes to get there.  Considering the minbak only had one fan for the five of us, the cool nights made for comfortable sleeping weather.  It was a great vacation, and I was nearly sick about it when we had to pack and leave.  

Met some really great people that I hope to keep in touch with, AND found my travel buddy for Christmas--hopefully to Vietnam :)  VIVA DEOKJEOK.