Hupo Harbour showed me what would
likely be coming as I travel up the coast. Gangwondo looms on the
horizon and that is Korea's playground, in many ways. And it is
getting on to the tourist season. Korea is not immune to the tourism
disease known as tourist gouging. I suppose I could have found a
place to stay that would have been a reasonable price, if I had been
willing to stroll away from the harbour area. But I was too tired to
really have a go at that, so I chose a place in the harbour area.
But it cost me. Sigh!! And this will likely continue as I get
further north. I'll have to think about where I might want to stay
for my nights as I go farther along. Luckily there isn't really that
much to go.
Hupo has a fair headland right at the
edge of town. There is a good viewpoint from the top...
...as well as a lighthouse.
It was early...
There were some interesting sights in
and around town. I saw some women doing some fishing, although it
looked more involved than just a rod and reel. The frog women of South Korea perhaps?
There were lots of murals on walls.
Then it was off and along the coast
again. It seemed that it was a season to be harvesting form the sea.
There were some kind of little fish.
And lots of seaweed.
I'm not sure, but I wonder if this
couple ever debates whether it's more interesting to watch paint dry
or the seaweed. Probably the seaweed since they get a nicer view
from the couch.
I passed a town with this fancy-looking
place to stay. “Come stay with us!!! Big windows with every
room!!! Ocean views!!!”
“Even while you take a bath!!”
Hmmm... If I can see out to the view while I'm taking a bath, won't
that mean... “Hey Martha... Why is everyone pointing at our
window and laughing?”
There was a nice temple...
...with a nice view.
And more construction that modifies the
coast. This looked to be construction of a new seawall for a new
harbour.
I was even Dokdo'ed. There are some
islands between South Korea and Japan. Both countries claim them.
Currently South Korea has a presence on them and has pressed some
international court to rule them as belonging to Korea. Their Korean
name is Dokdo. Koreans have displays all over, usually with some
kind of sculpture of the islands (and they are barely islands; really
just more or less barren rocks sticking out of the sea between Korea
and Japan), and some kind of statement that Dokdo is Korean
territory. The point of all these displays is to promote the idea
that Korea owns the rocks. I wish they would leave non-Koreans out
of it, as most of really don't care/have no idea of what this dispute
is about. This display was quite large, with a big sculpture taking
up a chunk of the waterfront real estate.
The final part of the leg before I
headed back to Seosan was along the coast, where I saw yet another
female diver/fisherwoman, this time in a wetsuit, as the trail headed
around a little point and into Giseong.
Some final views of the coast led me
into town and to the bus station that served as the end point of the
leg. I arrived as a bus pulled up, and it was probably the bus I
wanted. But I still didn't have a ticket and it left without me.
Luckily, the buses came by every 30 minutes, so I didn't have long to
wait. However, I bought a ticket for Daegu. I did that not knowing
that the buses that came through this station were milk-run buses,
stopping in every little town along the way. I suspect the kid who
sold me the bus ticket knew this. He might have told me that I would
have better success getting to Daegu in good time if I bought a
ticket to Yeongdeok and then continued on a regular bus. But he
either saw no need, or couldn't be bothered trying to communicate it
to the foreigner. Luckily the bus driver noticed that I was still on
the bus along the way and transferred me to a better bus in Pohang.
But instead of leaving off on that sour
note, I'll leave off with this guy instead.
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