jrkorea's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deokjeok Island Update Look out. The entry so big, it deserves its own page. PICS are now updated (email me if you don't remember the website). Arriving Deokjeok is an island that not many Koreans seem to know about(not enough mod-cons I guess) but it is being discovered by Westeners who learn about it mostly through word of mouth. We arrived off the ferry with a bunch of these wannabe intrepid travellers. Several buses were waiting to depart to various points of the Island. These were the first buses I've seen in Korea with NO English language on them anywhere. Brilliant. The weekend was already getting off to a strong start. My highly advanced Hangul reading skills soon kicked in and I steered Jon toward the bus for Seopiri Beach. We easily got seats as all the other foreigners were too busy milling around, asking each other which bus to take and looking blank. The rickety bus creaked its way toward our destination and I gleefully noted a complete absence of anything that resemebled modern Korea. We had truly stepped back in time to a Korea of half a century ago. This glee was marginally diminished when I discovered there were no banks on this Island and I'd failed to bring any cash at all but screw it, after all, what's money to a philosopher? We checked out the beach straight away. It was deserted. Heaven. Most people decided to stay at Mimbas (little husband-wife operations) but they were missing out. After a quick tour of the entire town (approximately 4 and half minutes) we decided to head down to rocks past the beach. A fishy story It was great fun clambering over the rocks. The smell of the sea and the sound of the gently crashing waves brought something home to me. I could have kept walking for hours. However fate stepped in, a group of Korean fishermen summoned us over and bade we eat their catch with them, 'Sushi' they called out to us, laughing. Their English was rather limited (to one word we later found) but we managed to understand them perfectly. They fished a bunch of tiny fish out of the sea and one man knelt and deftly cut them open in one fell swoop while the poor things were still gasping for air. The raw fish was thrown into a tin. The discarded half, with perfectly intact skeleton and organs all still in place was tossed aside. The idea was to take a big gulp of Soju (think: methylated spirits), dip the raw fish in chilli sauce and slam it down. Jon did it. Wish I had. After we had all bonded, Jon and I wanted to head on our merry way. This proudly gave the fisherguys the opportunity to use their one English word: 'Danger, Danger!', they cried stirring faint memories old Lost in Space episodes. Apparantly the tide was coming in. The rocky corner was not to be ours tonight. We thanked them and headed back to hunt and gather some rather more cooked food from the local eatery. (Actually we cooked it ourselves, but that's the Korean way). That night we discovered something about camping. It's a really good idea to set up a strange tent while it's still daylight. However since we discovered this about an hour too late it was lucky a bunch of people from the next set of tents gave us a hand and some light and lent us some pegs. The wind was blowing fiercly that night. We all huddled around their campfire, drinking way too much beer. Some hike. Saturday started with an early morning walk on the beach. What a way to shake off the grogginess. After an interesting breakfast of scrambled eggs mixed with carrot and onion, no toast, we were determined to go scale the island's (second) highest peak Bijobong. Scaling it was one thing, but trying to find the damn thing was another. After several wrong turns we found ourselves back at a path that seemed to be pointing in the right direction but unfortunatly had a huge crevice smack in front of us. It was like the bit in Speed where the freeway isn't finished. Well, at this stage, we'd been wandering for an hour and I was determined to get to that mountain, one way or another. We inched our way around the pit and began to scale the sheer cliff that confronted us. We found a dried river bed and scrambled up the rocks, it was the most fun I've ever had if only I could have taken all the damn spiders out of the equation. Finally after several gruelling days we met up with the proper trail. It was pretty easy from then. And wow, was the view from the top amazing. 360 degree views of an island edged with sandy beaches and rocky coves. We just wanted to sit hours lost in our thoughts and the amazingness of the moment. However after a cursory glance and rest, we reluctantly made our descent. There were still plenty of adventures to be had before the sun set. Fishier and Less Fishier. We procured a couple of bamboo rods and were about to resort to a tin of spam for bait when the storekeeper pushed a large matchbox at us. Yippee, worms we thought. We headed back to the same rocks as Friday, hoping to meet fishermen with sharp knives to slice up our (rather over-) estimated hordes of catches. I have never fished before. I've certainly never baited a hook before but was determined not to be squeamish. Then... oh-my-gawd... we opened the bait box and a pile of giant things with squillions of legs (millipede/centipede thingies?) started squirming everywhere. These were not worms, these things had mouths for gawd's sake. One of them bit me, whatever Jon says. Anyway, I took a deep breath and grabbed one. I tried to hook him but he began squirting blood all over me. I thrust the hook in hard and split him in half. Both halves fell onto the rocks below, still writhing angrily. Second go lucky. I flung (well, dipped) my rod in the waters, trying not to mind the sharp barnacles I was sitting on (I later discovered they razor-tore the back of my pants to shreds). Hey Jon, I cried, take a pic of me fishing, noone will ever believe it. He grabbed the cam and at that moment I caught a fish. Amazing. I am the 30-second queen of learning new skills. Unfortunately I'm never too good at the repeat performances. I did catch a crab though. And then Jon caught a crab. And then we both kept catching crabs. And then all the damn crabs kept scaring the fish away. And then they started getting sneaky and eating our bait without getting hooked. Jon tried to give our crabs to other fishermen who seemed politely bemused by this gesture I think. Repel This. Sunday morning we got up early (but missed the sunrise as hoped) and found a hidden trail that led off from behind the beach. It led to a small, rocky cove that was just amazing. We had to abseil down a cliff to get down. Jon calls that repelling but as everyone outside of north America knows, repelling is something you to do to insects. We found a rocky corner which led to an even more deserted cove where we got to sit with our own thoughts for a bit and look at the other beautiful and completely uninhabited islands that surrounded us. You can't really describe moments like these, you just have to be there. Heading Home. We could have stayed another day. It would have been perfect to just sit somewhere and not talk and not think and just enjoy, or read, or get inspired. We wanted to walk the perimeter of the island but that would have taken a day in itself, so we headed back to the rickety bus and once more met up with the other foreigners at the pier. All along the pier, old fishwives sell their wares, they'll slice em and dice em for you, bring your own soju though. Flat fish, octopuses, things with strange eyes. Then the ferry came and it was time to go. That's all Folks? So much more happened. The old ajumma (Korean aunt) who kept hitting Jon whenever we ran into her and who tried to make me give her my necklace. The washed up alien jelly fish and the live swimming alien jellyfish. The local peasants who kept giving us misdirections to the peak. The drunk ajummas who hiked the peak too. The conversations. The nice people we met. The people who got thrown out of their accomodation at sunrise without a shower because the owner had to go to work. The odd snatches of English translation we came across. The red hot chilli peppers and rosebeds and sunflowers. The derelict houses with so much potential, the bamboo grove and the rock we sat on halfway up the mountain where I thought with misguided relief we had finally reached the top. It was amazing. At least as beautiful as anywhere I've seen in Thailand or elsewhere but completely underdeveloped. And not a souvenir stand to be seen. 12:35 a.m. - Weds, Oct. 08, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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