Deokjeokdo - truly the world's greatest. Who's up for some snacks?

After work, Friday 29th May, the weekend following the death of the former President, Roo, Moo-hyun, which caused much sadness, uproar and copycat suicides, Faye, Anda and I decided to head off for a girly weekend of fun on Deokjeokdo Island!!!

Deokjeokdo is the largest island (at 36km2) of Deokjeok-myeon, part of Incheon city. The island itself has 2 peaks, one of which is reserved for military type things and the other, Mt. Bijobong, is a popular hiking trail for guests. There are plenty of beaches scattered around, of both the sand and pebble variety and there are many boats, owned mostly by kindly local fishermen, that can take you to the other nearby islands, one of which looks just like a crocodile! Other things of interest to do on the island involve walking through ancient pine forests, sea fishing, which is a big sport on the island and biking. I have to say that Deokjeokdo is one of the nicest places I have been to in a while, and knowing that it is just outside of Seoul, which has often been slammed for it's terrible pollution (1988 Olympics, anyone?) is pretty amazing. The air smells so fresh and you kind of get a taste of what Korea was like before it was seduced by the west and donned it's 'I *heart* Westerners' badge.

I left work at about half 8, after a little bit of a grilling from Sarah, about what, I forget, but you can bet your bottom dollar it was something banal, it usually is, 'Penny, please remember to put holes in the paper like this, otherwise it may crease and I will be disappointed.' I popped home to stuff some stuff in my bag and then jumped in a taxi to Sungkyun Kwan Uni to meet Faye. We headed over towards Anda and, after failing to communicate and get her on our train, which then involved some platform hopping from the Butch and I, we all went on our jolly way to Incheon, which is a delightful place to be. Not. Once we arrived, we headed straight to 'Spa World,' the local massive jimjilbang, which was ok, though not the best, in order to fully prepare ourselves for the next day. It took us a while to find the way in, but after circumnavigating the place a few times and finding the entrance we paid and got naked. A load of back scrubbing (thanks Panda, we truly did look like Koreans right then), face masking, ginseng bathing and saunaing later, we had a bit of a nap and waited for the next morning, like teenagers waiting for a school trip. Or at least tried to, the snoring man in the ice room and the random farting/general noise makers/perverts made this pretty hard. Still, when you're tired...

7.30 in the morning came and found me still snoring, despite pledging to get up at 6am to have a treatment at Dr. Fish's. Dr Fish is a chain around Korea that offer pedicures to people. The pedicures are special in the fact that the beauticians are in fact fish, which nibble at the dead skin on your feet until you have tooties like a baby's. Or so I've been told. I never found out, despite the fact there was one at the jimjilbang as, like I said, I was still asleep. We finally got our act together and left the place pretty much on time then tried to flag a taxi, which was nigh on impossible. We ended up asking the black cab outside to take us to Incheon ferry port, who, amusingly, asked us to call a number to book him before he would take us anywhere. As we put the phone down, the person we spoke to called the man and he agreed to give us a ride. Even more fun for us was the fact he was dressed in about 12 different items of sports gear - golfing trousers, driving gloves, tennis shoes, you name it the dude was wearing it.

On arrival at the port, we paid out about 27,000 won for a return ferry ticket to the island and sat on the boat pigging out on kimbap in front of about about 12 fascinated Korean men. The crossing took about an hour and a half, which meant that we landed on the other side about 10.00am. The hajemars were out in force, trying to sell us anything, mostly fish. I was accosted by a particularly forceful old lady sporting the biggest 'tasche I've ever seen, who was quite intent that I stay in her minbak (room with no bed that you can hire out for the night. There are plenty of pillows and duvets, plus a kitchen and you can sleep many people, for a pretty cheap price.) that night. I politely declined and, after prying my arm from her sweaty grip, found a cool hajemar, with a huge visor, who offered us a ride to her minbak, on Seopori beach, which is the best sandy beach on the island, and a room for the night for the bargain price of 35,000 won. For 3 people! Legendary. Needless to say, after taking a couple of photos, we jumped in and set up base.

Once everything was sorted we took some bikes, which were also offered in the minbak deal, and took a trip around the west side of the island. I know I mentioned it a few blogs previously, but I really miss cycling. Even when the bikes are crap and we clunk up the hill like we're on our last legs. One of the highlights of the trip had to be Anda clunking up a hill, pissing herself and screaming 'help me guys! What the fuck is happening?' while we watched on in amusement. Sorry Panda! On the whole though, the biking experience was brilliant. We cycled through rice paddies, round the bottom of the mountain, down the pier, where we were enveloped by a strange mist (and saw this amazing rock, which to me looks like two faces, pressed against each other), which got caught about the island and made us feel like we were starring in our own personal horror movie, by the beach and back to the village we were staying in. After what was unanimously voted one of the best meals in Korea, we decided to head off to hike the mountain. Luckily our hajemar intervened, and pointed out to us that going up a 292m mountain, in thick mist, would not be a good idea. We mulled over this point for a while, before laughing and deciding that yes, we were utter fools. After touring the village on foot, being stalked again by the moustachio'd hajemar, who followed us around the whole village and getting some snacks, (guys, like, lets have some snacks! Shall we have some snacks? - the most used phrase that weekend) we proceeded to the beach, where I fell asleep while uttering the words 'we're only here for the weekend, I really want to swim, or do something else really act....' SNORE. Turns out I was a bit too tired for activity and only woke up about 45 mins later, when my head flopped and I got a mouthful of sand.

The rest of the evening passed pretty peacefully. We had some more food, more snacks, met some cool Korean men that were staying in the same accommodation and gave us mackali, went to the world's greatest gym (a broken walker, broken spinner and some rusty weights. Truly the world's greatest.) and ended up chilling on the beach, with some beer, around a bonfire some other ex-pats had made. Our new ex-pat buds turned out to be pretty cool, though one guy was a complete racist and ruined the mood somewhat, specially after he flung his soju at Anda and I for not being 'laid back' about his insulting stance on Anda's heritage. Amusingly, he decided to defend his actions by screaming 'I'm a Jew! My grandmother had to hide underneath her mother's body during her time at Auschwitz'. Well done, Slappy. Sorry to hear that, but you should know how horrific rascism can be then. Dick.

Sunday saw us waking up and making the most of the day by hiking up Mt Bijobong. At the top of the mountain there is a gorgeous pagoda, so we made it our mission to get up there, and get up there we did. Faye proved her athletic prowess, by racing up the mountain like is was nothing, singing, 'The World's Greatest' whilst doing some star jumps and a few cartwheels. Anda meanwhile, was sweating and falling all about, with me somewhere in between. It took us about 45 mins to head to one of the most breathtaking views I've seen, this being my first proper mountain climb (not in a helicopter), and decided to rest for a while. After this, we attacked the last leg of the journey and stood for a while soaking in our awe-inspiring panorama and feeling like we truly were the world's greatest.

The journey back down proved fruitful, with Anda falling often and screeching even more, trying to kill Faye and swearing that she would never survive the descent. Faye ran down the mountain, still singing, and I made a spectacular fall as we started to descend from the top, after taking a photo of our middle aged walking buddies. Thought I was going to roll straight off. Still, the bottom arrived about half an hour later and, after seeing a snake, which was very cool, we spent the rest of our time on the island doing a little more biking and chilling on the beach. I attempted to swim for a while too, but I could only withstand a couple of strokes at a time, seeing as it was very, very cold in there. Still, my first swim in the Yellow Sea? Check!