Tong Yeong

Our weekend trip to Tong Yeong was a trip of firsts, it was our first time using the local bus system, it was the first time we left the Island since getting here, and sorry to scare you mom(s) reading this blog, but it was also the first time we got decently lost (yes no mother loves to hear that, even if it not her kid!)

As you can tell, we did figure out where we were, and manage to get home, but I will let that story unfold!

So we started fairly early (well for a weekend, it was a hard week and we had stayed up late hanging out with Willow and Sean… so we got up about 10 and managed to make it to the bus station in Gohyeon by noon. )

Without much idea of what to do, we approached the Bus station counter and said “Tong Yeong” in as good a fake Korean accent as possible, and like magic, the lady behind the counter repeated where we wanted in a perfect Korean accent and printed off our tickets for a grand total of Five dollars. ( for both of us! Yah Public transportation)

Now we only faced one problem… what in the world to do next…. So we stood there, and said, “ok we’ve bought this ticket… which one is the Tong Yeong bus?” Well the Bus station Gods must have been listening to us, and they sent a prophet in the form of a lackadaisical Korean bus driver. He heard us say Tong Yeong, and pointed to the bus he was heading too “Tong Yeong”… and pointed us in the right direction… Joseph who is now almost at master level by his own standards in Hanguel ( the Korean written word) managed to sound out the first few syllables on the bus sign and it was in fact the bus to Tong Yeong. Victory is ours!

We got on the bus which left right on time ( like it was moving as we were finding our seats) but unfortunately we could not sit together. There were three seats, two near each other in the very back and only one up front. Opting to sit near each other we headed to the back. Joseph sat next to a loner Korean, who I am pretty sure, slept the whole way there with his head on the window, and I was lucky enough to sit right on the back row in between a father and his son who had no desire to relinquish his window seat… I figured out half way through the bus ride that the row I was inhabiting was actually an entire family and here I was, “Miss Whitey” sitting right in the middle looking like the blaring obvious adopted albino Korean kid! It was fine since it was only a half hour bus ride, but when the kid almost spilled a can of coke on me, I held my backpack close to my chest on my lap and prayed we would get there soon!

Thankfully we made it in one piece, and no coke spills to mention! So we hopped off the bus and began our unguided tour of Tong Yeong. We stayed in the bus station terminal looking American and trying to figure out what time was the last time our bus could take us home, but we figured that we would not stay much past 9, and since that was the last time that was on the scrolling Board in the station, we figured we would be okay! At least we had a timeline.

The Display board of all the places and times of bus arrivals and departures.

All is Korean!

The Bus Station in Tong Yeong... Very Swanky!

So we headed out of the station and stopped by a tourist information stand that was in English, so when we approached we though… Ohh Good they speak English…. WRONG… we need to learn just because we can read it does not meant it will have English speakers. The lady was nice enough and her exact words:“ No English, Here Map”… was all we got! We graciously took the cartoony map with absolutely NO SCALE whatsoever… but it had pretty pictures of happy dancing fish in all the water surrounding the islands so I may forgive it for being so inaccurate, just because it made me laugh! ( can you see why we got lost for a bit?)

And our Adventure began. We went into a few shops near the bus station but according to our map the Main part of two was about four or five blocks in another direction so we started heading that way. We had not had lunch so we stopped at our favorite Bakery chain, the Paris Baguette and got some delicious baked goods to tide us over until we found a suitable place for lunch/dinner. ( not sure which we would get first!)

A Group of TaeKwando Kids setting up mats to practice outside it was a beautiful day... we saw them doing back flips while waiting for the light to change so we could cross the street!

After walking quite a bit, ( I was sure it was 5 blocks, Joseph assured me I was wrong) we decided we would never find the city so we hailed a cab and for three dollars got drive to what we thought was the center of the Town… it said “Pavilion” next to a harbor with a happy dancing fish and a fish Market ( I am seeing a trend in these Korean cities) so we figured that was downtown and where we wanted to be!... So ten minutes and three dollars later, after driving about 7 or 8 miles ( like I said, the map had no scale at all!) we arrived at our destination.

Pink buses in the Pavilion!

Right in the “Cultural pavilion” we found the Turtle Ship… which was a recreated ship used in some Korean war against the Japanese. It was really cool, and really free so Joseph and I took advantage of it… After of course stopping to purchase batteries since my camera ate the last bit of battery juice as soon as I took the first picture!) So upon returning to the Turtle Ship, we captured these great shots! The first one is the Turle Ship mast with the harbor!

Entrance to the Turtle ship!

Below is the view of the Habor from on board the Turtle ship!

Some Helpful info about the Turtle Ship, and proof that I didn't make up the name turtle ship!

Joseph Loves Maps, so this was actually really cool to see traditional Tong Yeong vs. Modern Tong Yeong... they were very different!

Look Mom! I am steering the Turtle Ship!!!

And I even gave Joseph and turn!

Next we headed towards the fish market, and watched all the Ajummas selling their goods… lots of fish, and Kimchi… so nothing that was really wanted to take home with us, but I did get a good shot of one of the many Kimchi stands, and some fish!

There are many different varieties of Kimchi, using different cabbage, some even use radish...all are spicy!

Lovely fish that flipped about in their baskets... Most fish if they are not dried are sold alive!
This was all well and good, but we decided that we were hungry… so we tried to find a restaurant… and for some reason, we could not… it was very disappointing. Tong Yeong is a bigger city that Geoje-si but for some reason there was no pizza, or chicken or even a Korean BBQ place to go to… just weird seafood restaurants that hold two or three tables, and still make me nervous.

So we began to walk… and mistakenly walked towards another bay which we thought might have more food options…. And unfortunately this was not the case… so we stopped at a local convenience store and got string cheese, crackers, Beef jerky, and a Pepsi for lunch… this was turning into a long day…. We started back out, and ended up wandering through a construction area of the bay, we saw ships of every kind, and a bunch of blacksmith shops, motorcycle repair shops, and lots of rusty things, which I am honestly not sure what they were.
We decided just walking around aimlessly was a bad idea, so we tried to use our map to find a really neat statue garden… it looked huge, so we figured we could see it from the road…. So we headed in that direction, and got to where the map said it should be, and guess what… IT WASN’T THERE….

This is Not a Sculpture Park! This is a scary stairwell and long windy alley way!

And all that wandering, and we realized, Hmmmmm.....we were not even really sure where we were…hence, that whole lost thing… but we kept our cool, didn’t panic… well Joseph didn’t anyway, and we continued to walk back towards the main Pavilion. On the way I saw someone’s home that was really cool, but that is not laundry they are drying… It is Squid and Octopus… yummy!

So we finally made it back to town and were ticked that we missed the statue garden, only to realize, the entrance was on the other side from where we had been wandering around….

City view before we realized where the entrance to the Park was located.

So we hiked up a HUGE Hill and took a few pictures

SUCCESS!

Looking at the map to see where we wanted to go walk!

Cool exhibit where you walk through suspended rubber tubes. It was like you were walking through another demension or at least that is what the description that was translated from Korean to English said. This was by far the coolest thing in the park! We had some fun taking a few pictures!

Can you see me? can you tell i felt like a loser?

Where is Joseph? i think this is a very creepy picture!

A cool tree at the Park... not a sculpture, but some of those were not a cool as this!

Pictures from the top!

The Sun was really bright in the background but I still like this picture!

The City has so many built up portions, but much of it is almost in ruins from the poverty that still exists.

Tong Yeong is really beautiful… and we realized we had been lost for quite a bit since the sun was about to set!

Pretty pink sun about to sink below the buildings!

So after this, we decided we had two options, walk in the other direction towards what we thought would be the downtown area, or hail a cab and head back to the bus station, but we were still fairly hungry since lunch was really “snack time” so we began our walk and headed towards the bright lights… and we actually found it, not using the map but using Joseph’s incredible internal compass… Hooray!!!...

We stopped in a few shops… like the world mart which funny enough only had Korean food items, and overpriced crappy wine from America. ( we did not partake!) but then decided food was the most pressing point on the agenda. We found a place called Pastario ( no idea if it is Pas-tario or Pasta- Rio) but anyway we ate there. Joseph got a “ Hambug risotto” which was hamburger… and I got a “creamy ham pasta” which was noodles in alfredo sauce with pieces of ham in it. It was very tasty… and they had steak fries on the menu for 3000 won which is 3 dollars so we got some… and they gave us Five! But it was a fun treat. And we ended up being so full we didn’t even want to go to the Baskin Robbins we found later on!

Me Enjoying my pasta dish!

Joseph and his "Hambug" risotto

After dinner we started walking towards a place called Lotte Mart and saw this on the way .

On the way to Lottel mart we saw that Cone pizza is sold in Tong Yeong, too bad this after we had eaten dinner... Darn it... maybe next time!

Impossible crane game... I think it was either a violin or a tennis racket... no idea how you wond this item! It made Joseph and I laugh!

And a Hello Kitty Coffee Maker at Lotte mart... Look Lindsey!!!! Did Miss Nancy sell this one at sanrio? I can't remember! This was pretty much the only item worth taking a picture of!

By this point it was almost 8pm, we were tired, and I had a headache from so much walking so we hailed a cab and went back to the Intercity Bus station… we stopped in a really cute coffee shop and got iced mochas, since we had not had desert, and caffeine always helps my headaches… ( I am addicted, I know!) We then purchased our bus tickets which had a big number 14 on them, and we walked to our corresponding #14 bus ( easier than in geoje with the paper signs on the bus windows) and this time we got to sit together on our short ride home. It was beautiful to see all the lights on the water as we drove over the big bridge! Sleepy eyes on the bus!

We pulled into the Gohyeon bus station and walked home. It was a long busy day but eventful and a change from the normal! We didn’t bring home any souvenirs, but we did learn from the map that Tong Yeong has cable cars up the side of a mountain, so we will have to make plans to travel back at some point so we can ride them!

All in all, it was a super fun trip!