Sunrise Watching on the Korean East Coast

To celebrate the new year, Joyce and I decided to join a meetup to watch the sun rise on the Korean east coast.  The trip cost us 30,000 won each (~$30) for the tour bus and guide.  We met the group at 11:15 pm on December 31st and boarded the bus a short while later.  After ringing in the new year at midnight (and sharing a small cup of white wine the meetup group leader brought), we settled in and tried to get some sleep.  Unsurprisingly, we didn't have much success; it's hard enough to sleep on a bus, but we also made three pit stops (lasting between 30-60 minutes each time) and they turned the lights on in the bus every time we stopped.  I maybe got an hour of uncomfortable sleep, but most of my time was trying trying and failing to get any meaningful rest.

We finally arrived on the east coast at the city of Samcheok at around 5 am.  The sun was expected to rise at 7:30 am, and we were told to be back at the bus by 8:20 am or risk being left behind.  Joyce and I left the bus at 5:20 am, though we hadn't been given any directions on where to go from there.  We wound up simply following the largest groups of people and made our way to a cliffside observation spot above the nearby beach.  It was already crowded by then, but we managed to find a good spot standing at a railing.  We chatted idly about movies for a little while, though we were both too tired to make much conversation, and shared a sandwich she had made for breakfast.  We also watched as people on the beach and a ridge close by released small red lanterns/hot air balloons into the air (each containing a written wish), as well as the movements of the fishing boats in the water (catching squid, she said).  Eventually, at 7:41 am the sun rose, and everyone took out phones and cameras to take a million pictures.  A lot of people also took selfies (selkas, or self cameras, in Konglish) with the rising sun in the background.

When we were finished admiring the sunrise, we joined the departing crowd and headed back to the bus.  While on our way to the next stop, we snacked on a couple bananas Joyce brought and split some Ghirardelli chocolates my family had sent me for Christmas, then napped a little more.  Our next destination was Mukho harbor in the city of Donghae, where we were given free time from 9:30 am to 11:50 am.  Joyce and I set off on our own and climbed the hill to the Mukho lighthouse, admiring the many, many murals and other artwork on house and buildings in the neighborhood.

Once we finished thoroughly exploring the steep, narrow alleys and taking dozens of pictures, we went back down and had lunch at one of the many seafood restaurants in the area.  The menu was limited, but Joyce picked a dried pollack soup with daikon radish and bean sprouts for us that was very good.  (I'm not sure of the name - hwangtaeguk, maybe - and I forgot to take a picture.)  I picked up the tab (paid the bill, for any English learners reading this!) for lunch since she provided breakfast.  We didn't have a lot of time left, but we quickly walked through a seafood market and checked out the small fishing boats in the harbor before going back to the bus.

The next part of the tour involved driving along the east coast, which turned out to be fairly underwhelming.  The best view were on the right side, but Joyce and I were sitting on the left side.  The bus turned back around after about an hour, but we were too tired to really care by that point.  It started to snow a couple hours in, and we got stuck in traffic (most likely a combination of the weather and everyone going home) for a long time.  Joyce fell asleep for about three hours almost as soon as we started driving, and I did my best to do the same.  I read a tiny bit before remembering that reading in cars and on buses made me motion sick.  I tried to follow the movie the driver put on, then tried and failed to ignore it.  (it was a despicable film that I already thoroughly lambasted on Facebook, so I won't repeat myself here.)

This unfortunately wound up making me very motion sick around 5 pm, and I spent the next hour sitting up at the front watching the road very, very carefully and concentrating very hard on not throwing up.  We mercifully made a pit stop around 6 pm and I was able to get my stomach under control, and we arrived in Seoul at about 7 pm.  Joyce and I said our farewells and parted ways for the night, and I got back to my apartment around 9 pm, almost exactly 24 hours after I left to join the group.  I ate a quick dinner, took some advil for the headache that had been plaguing me all day, and relaxed for a couple hours before crawling into bed for some much-needed rest.

Overall it was a good trip, as I got to do some new things (such as watching the new year's sunrise and visiting another province) and see some beautiful urban artwork.  However, the traveling was miserable and reminded me of why I hate early-morning activities and long car/bus rides.  At least I got a ton of nice pictures out of it!

Happy New Year, everyone!