We decided to make an all day trip to the East coast of South Korea to Samcheok. We woke up early and left around 6 am for the 3.5 hour drive. We stopped at a rest stopped, got some donuts and arrived at Jangho Beach around 10:00. We chose Jangho Beach, because it's supposed to be the best place to snorkel in South Korea. We found a parking spot, and went on a recon mission to check out the snorkeling spot.
The snorkeling spot was a small hole on the side of the port surrounded by rocks. This was defiantly not what we were expecting to find. The designated snorkeling spot was covered with every square yard with a human being. There were so many people just swimming around backside up. There wasn't a single fish or coral anywhere in the snorkel spot. We asked the girls if they wanted to snorkel here or go over to the beach and snorkel at the beach. The kids all wanted to go to the beach. I was happy about that because there wasn't a single place to sit and no sand in sight at the snorkel spot.
We walked down to the beach and set up our umbrellas and got out the sand toys. Mom and dad sat in the shade under the sunshade. They didn't bring suits (even though I told them too) and so they enjoyed the beach from afar.
Little A and Monster had a blast under the umbrella with the sand toys. They would fill the dump truck with sand and then dump it.
M&M and Big Sis had a great time snorkeling at the beach. We had all the kids wear a life vest since we weren't sure of the tide. The kids had fun seeing the fish and shells in the wake of the waves.
I had a glorious time people watching. When Koreans go to the beach they cover up from head to toe. Another interesting fact was that almost all the Koreans had on a life vest. This is much different then an American beach, where it seems like there is a skin competition for the most shown. I think Big Sis was showing the most skin, and by American standards, she was very modest.
We had to cut our beach fun short to pack up and hurry to our 1:00 appointment at the Samcheok Ocean Railbikes. The Ocean railbikes were the highlight of our entire day! It was so incredibly fun. We all loved it so much. We found a parking spot and it was exactly 1:00. According to the Korean standard time, we were ten minutes late. Kevin went to check in, while we quickly made sandwiches for the starving kids, threw water bottles into our backpacks, and changed the Monster. Kevin and the Korean railbike worker came over and through a series of hand motions and facial expressions we interpreted that we were beyond late and needed to get to the bikes now.
As we start walking away from the car with backpacks unzipped and diapers, water bottles and food falling out, we realize we have no keys to lock the car. Everyone starts ripping the car apart searching for the missing keys! Everyone is getting frazzled and frustrations are becoming strong. It even gets to a point that dad says he will stay in the car while we go. No way! I yell for everyone to start walking to the bikes and just leave the car unlocked. From what we have experienced, Korea is a pretty safe place, so I was banking on the safe factor and we all walked away from the car in hopes that we would come back to a car and all our belongs.
We got to the bikes, loaded up and took off!
It only took a minute on the bikes to leave the lost keys and craziness of getting to the bikes behind us. The bikes were amazing and the trail was even better! The path followed the ocean and we could smell and feel the salty ocean breeze!
Big Sis and M&M rode with mom and dad since we didn't know how physically exerting the bike ride would be. The older girls really loved spending the time with grandma and grandpa! Mom really loved the bike trails, and I think dad did too. His look in this picture is more like, why am I doing this?
Little A and Monster rode with Kevin and I. It was so wonderful to have seatbelts in every single seat. I didn't have to worry about Monster getting out of his seat or falling out of the bike. He absolutely loved the bike ride and being in the back with daddy!
The best part about being the last people to leave the railbike station was the huge space we had between us and the people ahead of us. For the first half of the ride, we never saw a single bike except our own. Kevin and I were in front and Mom and Dad and the older girls were behind up. Straight from the beginning was downhill, so the bikes were cruising! It was wonderful going fast and not having to stop because a slow bike was in front of us.
After riding a few minutes, I went in my backpack to get water and a snack from Monster and Little A, and lo and behold, I sheepishly found the missing car keys at the bottom of my bag. Oops!
It only took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the half way rest stop. We caught up to the entire pack of people since everyone had to take a ten minute break. There were ice cream shops and food and drinks to purchase. There was also a great view of the ocean. We spent our rest time just talking about how much fun the railbikes were already and looking out into the ocean.
Since all the bikes were parked, we were also able to get a rail bike employee to snap a picture of our whole group.
We got back on the bikes and were now in for a super special treat! The last portion of the trail lead us through a few dark tunnels. The only annoying part was having to watch our break because we were now going slow due to all the bikes in front of us. It was still super fun, because we were able to yell back at mom and dad and the girls since they were so close.
The tunnels and the scenery were amazing! We loved all the tunnels, they are defiantly Korean style tunnels filled with acts of randomness! The first tunnel was in honor of a Korean olympian. The tunnel had lights and pictures of the olympic runner along with facts and quotes.
The next tunnel was filled with lights and laser lights and played smooth elevator music. The pulsing blue light was sensational. All the kids were whooping and hollering at all the lights. Monster loved that we were in a tunnel.
The next tunnel had lively music with lights everywhere! There were lights that looked like falling stars and twinkling lights through the entire tunnel, even on the floor.
The lights and music then changed to lights and laser lights everywhere and of every color. The kids were oohing and awing at the colorful display. The tunnels were truly the best part of the ride!
We made it sadly to the end of the ride. Everyone was all smiles and talking excitedly about the ride, scenery and tunnel lights. We got off our bikes and found the shuttle bus right out of the station that took us back to our car. We were very happy to find our car intact and all belongings accounted for! Since we left in such a hot mess, we stopped at the sign and snapped a picture! This was an awesome and super fun trip. The Ocean Railbikes are like nothing we have ever done before and it was fabulous. I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment