I got a rare 5-day weekend last week due to Chuseok, the Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving but with less racism. So David and I decided to take another WINK (When in Korea) trip to Namhae Island. It started out like most WINK trips with a overnight bus ride from Seoul. I hate these overnight rides but luckily I was able to sleep quite a bit this time around. Around 5am we arrived at our first stop, a temple on a mountain. Bleary-eyed and half asleep we climbed to the top and watched the sunrise over a series of small islands that dotted the coast. It was quite beautiful.
*Please note that the following two pictures were taken by Oisin Feeney of WINK Travels.
On our walk down to the mountain it started pouring rain. We got a little nervous because we were supposed to be tent camping on the beach. Luckily, the rain stopped right as we were setting up our tents. After eating a delicious lunch of chili dogs and hamburgers, we did some kayaking in the bay. It was lots of fun and only marred by a dead seal found on one of the “secret beaches”.
One of my favorite things that we did on Namhae-do was going to the rice terraces. It was a beautiful area with amazing views and fun walking trails.
Another amazing thing that happened was getting to witness bioluminescent plankton. It was pretty hard to take a picture of this awesome experience but hopefully I will remember it forever! Basically, when you walked into the ocean, the plankton lit up in a neon blue color. Apparently, the plankton do this as a defense mechanism to scare away predators.
On our last full day, we moved to an area that had a German Village. It was really random but also fun. David and I ate some German sausage and I had a beer. We also got to see some German architecture. Overall, it was a great trip!