Tom and Elicia had come up with a bit of a walking tour for us, and we figured we could do it in somewhere between two and four hours depending on how many little side trips we did along the way. But we found there is simply too much to see! What a beautiful city!
We've found that most Western travelers visiting Korea end up in Seoul. And if they do happen to make their way outside of the big city, they end up on Jeju Island and/or in the 2nd biggest Korean city of Busan.
But we like to visit the out of the way places, and so here we are in Yeosu. It's such a beautiful city and there's so much to see, we can't figure out why more travelers don't come here.
C'mon out with us and explore...
We set out from the apartment at about 11:30am.
Does this wall look about 6" too high? Or Ruth is a little short for the wall?
Yeosu has two beautiful bridges.
And lots of islands!
We saw in the distance what looked like a shipbuilder. Sure enough, here's this company building ships right on the shoreline in the middle of the city. So we stood and watched them for a while. They build the hull upside down! Can't quite figure out how they get it flipped over, but I bet that big crane has something to do with it.
The one on the left is almost finished.
They're doing the paint job on this one now. What a bright red "mast" (or whatever you call it!).
Fishing boats. There are so many people selling fish that we can't figure out how any of them make any money!
More fishing boats.
From there, we walked inland a little bit because Tom had told us about a "specialty" fish market. Octopus, squid, eels, sharks, and living, moving things that we've never even seen before. All of it in the name of seafood!
Squid, anyone?
Not very busy. Can't figure how they stay in business.
Ruth, looking at the crabs.
More crabs. There is so much seafood, we can't figure out why it's so expensive.
Look at the size of these crabs! Compared to Ruth's hand, which is right up against the glass. Yep, only 36,000 won ($38.00) per kilo ($17 per pound)!
Tiger shrimp? Not sure...colorful tails though.
When we exited the specialty market, we crossed the street to the normal market. We found a place that sells bibimpap. Bibimpap is essentially a salad, but it comes with a fried egg, and all of the normal Korean condiments.
Bibimpap! Only 4,000 won ($4.40 each).
Beside the waterfront, there was a replica of one of the "turtle" ships that Admiral Yi Sun-sin used to defeat the Japanese invaders between 1592 and 1598. It was free to enter, so we went in to check out what ship life was like 400 and some odd years ago.
Ruth, standing at the entrance.
Very cool!
We boarded the ship, and were doing some investigating, when I came across a hat that was the style they would have worn back then, and you were allowed to try it on. It turned out that they had the full outfit that you could try on, and a group of local high school girls were watching us and insisted that we put all the clothes on and they would take pics of us. Too funny. So we did, and we all had a good laugh!
Ha! We joined the Korean Navy!
Ruth, with the Korean high school girls. Thanks for the laughs girls!
There's the Admiral himself!
Along the way, we stopped at Jinnamgwan Hall. The largest open floor space of any structure in Korea. Originally built in 1599, but destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1718.
It's huge. You can see Ruth standing on the right side.
This stone sculpture was a decoy built to confuse the Japanese. Seriously?
Lot of shipping traffic.
Yeosu was the site of the 2012 World's Fair!
We walked over to Odongdo Island. Highly recommend a stroll around this island. But we were running out of time and so we're not showing you any pictures.
Oh, okay. One.
Dragon Cave on Odongdo Island.
Sunset tonight. Wow.
We had walked about 15 kms and ended up taking a taxi back to the apartment. Again, cost of 4,900 won ($5.00) for the cab ride. And no tip. Remember, there is no tipping in Korea.
What a fantastic day.
Tomorrow, we're off to the city of Busan for our Temple Stay experience. Can't wait to tell you about that!
Definitely a fun day you had, great pictures.
ReplyDeleteIt makes it more fun when you are able to interact with the locals and we got a chance to do that a number of times today. People here are so friendly!
DeleteI like the Navy uniforms and open hall. Wonder if they still use it?
ReplyDeleteAren't the new uniforms colourful?!
DeleteI don't believe that they use the open hall anymore at least not for any kind of normal sort of ceremony. We weren't even allowed to go and walk under it.
What incredible pictures! I am showing my ignorance but had no idea it was so beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem because you don't normally see much of South Korea other than Seoul in picturs or in the news. Sometimes you might see Jeju Island and possibly Busan but very rarely do you see much else of South Korea. We are very impressed with the country it is so beautiful, very mountainous but also lots of gorgeous coast lines with tons of islands scattered all around.
DeleteWow, you certainly accomplished a lot in a single day. I'm tired just virtually tagging along!
ReplyDeleteWe were tired ourselves by the time we were finished at the World Fair area. We were going to walk home but instead took a taxi, I don't think our feet would have taken us the whole way back.
DeleteYou're right -- a beautiful city indeed. Nice to find these out of the way places for a more realistic picture of the country.
ReplyDeleteWe are hoping to find a couple more before we leave. You are totally right on them giving you a better perspective of what local culture is really like.
DeleteThose navy uniforms looked great on you! I guess you were discharged early because you were pressed for time? ;c)
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul and Marti! We got discharged because we couldn't stop smiling. ;-)
DeleteHow fun! It looks like a great day. And I'm loving the looks of that Bibimpap -- looks so healthy! And the price, wow.
ReplyDeleteYes, we like bibimpap too. It is very healthy and is gluten free, and the other thing we like about it, is that we can add our own red chili paste to it so that we can make it only as spicy as we want.
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