When Ginny said she was coming to visit during the first week of May, I had no idea that South Korea was going to shut down to celebrate a five day national holiday for Buddha's birthday and Children's Day. We found out about this extended holiday weekend while attempting to make plans to visit Jeju Island off the south coast of Korea. Admittedly, this put a bit of a crimp in our plans because most of the tour spots I knew were already booked...
But we did manage to find reservations at a wonderful beach area due west of Daejon, called Daecheon Beach near Boryeong-si. Fortunately we latched onto a couple rooms at one of the few remaining hotels with vacancies in Korea, called the San Ho Beach Hotel (pronounced Beachie when sounding it out in Korean). Having exhausted other options, Ginny and I asked no questions and quickly packed our bags.
Well, it turns out our hotel was not exactly ***** (five star) but it did provide a lot of entertaining moments. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw, among the other toiletries proudly displayed in our rooms, a complimentary can of bug spray appropriately labeled Good Night! I am glad to report that I didn't need to spray my room as first thought... although I did sleep with one eye open =)The highlight of our stay, of course, was Daecheon Beach itself. The area reminded me a lot of Sauble Beach back home with clean white sand, clear water and amazing views of the sunset. Even though the waters of the Yellow Sea were quite chilly, many kids decided to 'brave it' while the rest of us had fun on dry land.
We didn't realize we were going to get an air show while taking in the sun and surf. Actually, it was quite entertaining and looked more like a scene out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And how can one watch an air show without something to munch on? So Ginny and I headed to the nearest street vendor to gnaw on some dried octopus legs -- not.
Daecheon Beach sure took on a life of its own after sunset. Never before have I seen so many individual fireworks displays. What a great idea to have tubes of fireworks ready at street vendors for individuals to purchase and blow up. What's not to like about setting things on fire? Not only does the general public get a constant show of fireworks throughout the evening, but it proves entertaining watching people shoot these things off. We witnessed a couple times when someone was distracted and didn't point the fireworks into the air... needless to say not many people stood around them for long. I can hear the protests and calls for legislation if these things were to ever hit the shores of Canada!
And there were definitely no shortage of seafood restaurants along the beach, each housing an aquarium of fresh ocean creatures ready to put (sometimes directly) onto your plate. Ready for an adventure, Ginny and I girded our taste buds and decided to give one of these restaurants a try.
Fortunately the restaurant we chose had a menu with English translations. I say fortunately because we learned the special of the day was octopus which our waitress was suggesting we order. Not in quite-that-adventurous-a-mood, we ended up ordering spicy clam soup which was the only thing on the menu that appeared to be cooked. Everything else was raw. To our surprise, they also brought us a wonderful plate of sea bass which, we believe, the owners cooked up for us special. I think they know westerners are not too hyped on eating seafood while it's still moving.
In typical Korean style the side dishes outnumbered the main dishes. From what we could identify, the sides included quail eggs, spinach, honeyed sweet potato, dried anchovy, stir-fried octopus, seaweed soup and, of course, kimchi. The clam soup turned out to be really good, although I wasn’t quite expecting to have to shuck the clams out of the shells before eating. At least there was no doubt I was eating real clams! Here's a before and after picture to prove my efforts...
All in all, a great time enjoying the beaches of Daecheon -- Korean-style. By the end of our stay, I must admit I was ready to head back to the city of Daejon to enjoy my next meal which was going to include a side order of fries!
