I took a late afternoon bus from Gyeongju towards the not so popular town of Tongyeong, which was located about 3-4 hours bus away and 2 hours west of Busan on the southern tip of the continent.  I had read a blog post about an amazing looking hike on an island just off the coast of Tongyeong and knew I had to do it.  The major problem was that I basically needed a full day in Tongyeong in order to make it work and that meant at least 2 nights which had initially added complexity to my schedule.  The southern park of Korea is full of mountainous islands which proved to be very beautiful at sunset out of the bus window! I made it work and arrived in Tongyeong just as it was getting dark.

I have come to rely heavily on Google transit directions and unfortunately full integration has not yet been achieved and the tourist information centre was closed and I could not find a route map anywhere.  I jumped on a bus that seemed to go close to where I wanted to go and hoped for the best.  Turns out that almost all of the buses take a main artery before splitting up into various areas of the city, and in my case the Hostel was located right before the split.  I got to the Hostel just after dark and the host was not there as I was intiially taking a later bus and managed to catch an earlier one which meant he wasn’t expecting me until later.  Turns out it was slow season and I ended up being the only one in the hostel anyways, so he put me in my own room, rather than a dorm room which was very nice of him.  The one thing I needed to figure out is what time the bus came in the morning.  He did his best to help me out and we walked to the bus stop, called his friend and even tried to look at the internet but could not for the life of us find the schedule.  I opted for the strategy that most busses start between 5:45 and 6 am and this one is supposed to come every 30 minutes, so if I arrive at 5:45 I should be able to catch the first bus.  More on that later.

He also took me for a walk around the neighborhood and pointed out the good cheap food options available.  I had had dinner on the bus so was not hungry and ended up just heading to bed since I had an early morning the next day.

I woke up at 5am and made it to the bus stop by 5:40am which I thought would be plenty early enough to catch the bus I needed to get to the Ferry.  As I waited, I watched bus after bus after bus after bus after bus pass me by and none of them were the one I needed.  Once it hit 7:15am I figured I should probably start to find other options as I really wanted to catch the 8:00am ferry and if I was going to take a cab I would ned to start thinking about it.  At 7:30am, I gave up and hailed a cab.  I spent almost 2 hours at the bus stop and not one of the buses I needed came.  I am not sure what happened but the cab got me where I needed to go, although it did cost me $20 for a ride that would have been less than $2 on the bus.

I arrived at the ferry terminal with 5 minutes to spare and ran over to the ticket window to secure my ticket.  I made it just as they were preparing to disembark and I was happy I didn’t have to spend an hour at the ferry terminal.  I went to the top floor and enjoyed the beautiful view of the surrounding islands the whole ride over.  It was only a 30 minute ferry ride and there were a wealth of hikers excited to get started with their day.

When we arrived at the island port, there was supposed to be a free shuttle bus to take us to the other end of the island as the hike goes up along the ridge of the island, starting from the far end and concluding back at the Ferry terminal.  For some reason that I am still not sure about, the free shuttle was parked and off and the other hikers also seemed a bit confused.  There was a mini bus parked next to the free shuttle with a tour guide offering to take people to the hiking point for $5 each. The other Koreans talked to the guy and it seemed like they were convinced the shuttle wasn’t running and so I followed suit and jumped into the tour bus.  The tour guide was apparently very funny and stopped along the way telling people little tidbits.  Of course this was all in Korean, so I had no clue what anyone was saying, but there was lot’s of oohhss and laughter.

I felt like I should have gotten a discount, but the tour guide wasn’t having it when it was time to pay.  He dropped us off at the beginning of the hike and we were on our way.  I made a really quick video of this hike which I threw up on youtube and have embedded it below for your viewing pleasure.  I will also post a lot of photos as well because it was so much fun!

The hike started as straight up hill and we quickly ascended straight up to the first of 4 peaks.  The weather was not 100% and it seemed like it could rain at any moment.  It was also pretty foggy at the higher elevations, so as we climbed the visibility decreased a decent ammount.

At some point you could not see anything and there was a rolling fog dancing across the rock face.  It was a bit eery to be honest, but the view was changing by the minute as the wind blew the fog around.  The first summit was 398M and marked the start of more rolling ridge line rather than a solid uphill climb.

There were plenty of technical bits which required some scrambling and very narrow ridges.  Despite this, there were ALOT of older seniors crushing this trail like it was nothing.  If I have learned anything from Korea is that it is possible to stay active into your old age.

As a side note, Korea was full of seniors taking the stairs, hiking pretty difficult trails and generally being way more active than most North American seniors you would see.  Unless they appear older than I expect when they get older, I envy their ability to stay capable!

Anyways, the trail continued and at one point a large group of people were resting with a few bottles of Soju and beer and I made an offhanded that I should have thought of that and they immediately called me over and offered me some soju, beer and snacks.

They were very friendly and even gave me a roll of Gimbpop for later consumption.  We rested for a little bit then continue on the trail after having more shots of soju than I probably should have on such a technical trail.

It was 10am and I was feeling great though, so I pushed on!  The next summit was next and there was a large group of people taking group photos by the summit stone.  I offered to take their group photo and they asked me where I was from and I said Canada.

From that moment on, I bumped into this same group all throughout the trail and they were constantly taking group photos, so I kept offering to take them for them.  It was pretty funny and when I asked how they all knew each other, they were apparently the Court hiking group and one of the Justices was there.  At some point I had asked to take a group photo, so I said I would go back and see if I could spot them and when I did, I really couldn’t tell.  Oh well.

The hike continued and at one point there was a set of stairs that looked like they were just dropping off the face of the cliff and when you got there you saw very steep stairs that are basically ladders.

Some of the other hikers were having trouble with the fright and technical ability so it was slow going, but I thought it was great.

A bit further up the trail you could finally see the beautiful suspension bridge that connects the two nearby islands as well as the bridge on the trail that connects two peaks.  The weather had begun to clear up a bit and the view was becoming spectacular.  Because we were walking along the ridge, we had fantastic views of either side of the island which included many of the other islands in the vicinity.

I eventually got to the final peak at 303M and then the walk down began.

It was pretty steep and required additional steps at some points and due to the narrowness and number of people, things got a bit slower.

The stairs were pretty steep so people were taking them slow.  I eventually made it to the bottom and made it to the Ferry terminal just as a Ferry was pulling into the dock.  There were tons of street merchants selling seafood on the side of the road, but it didn’t look like they had much cooking capabilities and so I was basically SOL unless I wanted to buy some and then figure out how to cook it in the hostel.  I opted to just window shop and then head home on the Ferry.

The way home was amazing because on Korean Ferries, they have outdoor seating areas, but in the interior cabins where there would normally be more seating, they have heated floors with hard padded blocks for your head.  You could take off your shoes and splay out on the floor with 30-50 of your best Korean friends.

I opted to have a nap, as did several other people and when we were approaching the port, the lights came on and they supplied a chime to wake people up and to indicate that they should put on their shoes and get ready.  I wish every ferry would do this as it was awesome.  There is something amazing about lying on a heated floor that is wonderful.  I got off the Ferry and went to the Bus stop to try my luck again.

I said that I would give the bus an hour and ask someone else around if they wanted to split a cab if the bus did not show up.  There were a few others waiting for the bus, so this plan seemed legit, although I was also excited that it seemed as though there were other people expecting the bus to show up as well, which means that the bus would hopefully actually show up.  After about 15 minutes of waiting THE BUS ARRIVED!!!!

I was pretty pumped to not have to pay the big bucks for another taxi ride.  I got back to the hostel a bit earlier than I had expected so had the entire evening for activities.  A German couple had just checked into the Hostel (the only other two people there) and we decided to explore the town a little bit.

There was a nice little graffiti village which had a lot of examples of local artists and we had some Instagram fun taking stupid pictures with the art.  The Koreans were much more into their photo taking though with selfie sticks and tripods galore.

We walked through a fish market and generally just wandered.

The host of the Hostel was going to do a city tour that evening and despite the impending rain, we decided to take him up on the offer and see the additional sites.  He had a few friends visiting from out of town and so they joined as well.  We jumped into the company van and headed to the major bridge in town which is really nicely lit up at night.

We then headed to the underground tunnel which used to be the main thoroughfare for car traffic before the bridge but has now been turned into a pedestrian tunnel.

 

It was the first submarine tunnel in Asia when it was constructed in 1932.  The manager of the hostel told us all about the town and how tourism peaked when they installed a cablecar up the mountain and for several years people flocked to Tongyeong for the views, although eventually it was less exciting and tourism dropped again.  We did a few more insta photos at the tunnel and then headed back to the Hostel for some rooftop hangouts.

We had some really cool discussions with the manager about owning a hostel and his ambitions and what not.  He actually lived in Seattle for 12 years before having to return to Korea when his dad got sick.  He wants to go back but is now decently set up in Korea and it would be difficult.

The next morning I had a bus booked to Busan but had most of the day to kill.  I went for a wander towards the cable car peak with initial delusions that I would make the hike up to the top but once I got there, the return trip price wasn’t that bad and so I decided to take the cable car both directions.  During this walk, I also went to no less than 5 ATM machines and none of them would accept foreign debit cards.  I was out of cash and needed to eat and a lot of places don’t take card so needed to find an ATM.  I figured that the cable car would have a foreign friendly ATM and I was RIGHT!

The views were great and a passing hiker gave me an apple which was super nice of them!  I headed back towards the hostel, grabbed some Lotteria bolgogi burger and then made my way to the bus station and eventually on to Busan.