I awoke slightly after 730 and continued on jotting down of the memories for the day before. Had to maintain the discipline as I was getting forgetful and wouldn’t remember some of the details if left too long! As I was thumbing away on my handphone, mommy started to wake up too and soon K also woke up just before 9, surprising as he wasn’t getting his usual 12hrs of sleep. Thankfully I was nearing the end of my note and I started to get ready.
We planned to drive to Yeosu for another 2 nights and so we packed to check out. K was unwilling to leave the huge bathtub and we only managed to persuade him after several rounds. The staff was out there to meet us early in the cold morning before bidding us goodbye with a bow, like the one in Busan as well. Punched in Windy hill and it was a 30mins drive away.
En-route, we went through a small town and parked at the parking lot to go over to the popular black pebble beach of Hakdong, called Hakdong Mongdol Beach. K was excited to see this different kind of beach and we were soon throwing the pebbles into the waters. Stayed for a while before using the nice clean loo and left for the next destination.
The drive to the Windy hill was easy and initially we drove into the carpark (GPS led us there) that was situated below the Windmill. Suspecting that it wasn’t the right place since it didn’t seemed to have a path up to the windmill, we drove back up and ended up by accident at a Sinseondae observatory which had a nice viewpoint of the surrounding. A quick photo shot before we drove back downhill passing a huge parking space near SK station and fortunately slotted into one empty carpark opposite Angel-in-us coffee, facing the Sinseondae cliff.
It was a short walk of 10mins across the road to the windmill and a further few meters down to another patch of land to the edge to sit at the chairs for the beautiful photo shoot, of both the bay and the windmill. The windmill couldn’t be visited and it did looked fake as the blades had through holes. I supposed it was just built there as display for Instagram.
We returned back to the main road and went across to find a Korean restaurant and ate there. Language was a barrier and my feeble attempt of using the app ended up with them asking for another lady staff that spoke excellent Mandarin to speak to us. We ordered 2 fried fish and an abalone porridge for 45k, cos after all, the restaurant was a seafood one.
Sat at the short table as the meals were served and it was delicious! The freshness of the fish kept the succulence of the flesh even though the it was fried! K had no problem eating at least half of the fish that was at least 25cm. The porridge was the usual nicely flavored one that I expected it to be, with tiny chunks of abalone that was soft and not rubbery like the one I am used to back home. All in all, great food!
We left satisfied and after using their loo. Got into the car and punched in the next destination Yeosu. It was a 2.5hrs drive! Before leaving Geoje, we returned to the Hakdong Mongdol Beach for another round of pebble throwing as K loved it. Then as we hit the road, we tried to get K to nap first which he did, as I negotiated the bends out of Geoje and soon mommy was asleep too. Driving became easier after getting onto the highway though I still find it difficult to gauge what a good speed should be as cars zoomed past me really quickly even though I was already above the speed limit, trucks included!
Had to pay a toll of 4.5k at somewhere in between. Then along the highway towards Sancheon, we stopped at one of the service station as I was informed that the service station were really nice. Once parked, I got off to used the toilet which was impressively digitalized, to say the list. There was a information board of the occupancy of the cubicles! The design was nice too as it had an aviation theme to it and models of airplanes displayed.
Returning to the car from the loo, K awoke and we spent some time at the loo (again) and bought some snacks to eat, including a corn shaped pastry with corn paste called Deli-manjoo and pork dumplings (Mandu). K spent some time at the fighter jet display before I got my vanilla coffee from Holly’s coffee and went to pump gas at an EX brand gas station.
I was stumped as I found out that it was a self service station and I couldn’t figure out the Korean words on the automated machine and pumping wouldn’t start without paying. The office was empty and I was almost at wits end when I saw a staff returning and asked in English that I needed gas. Immediately after putting some stuff at this office he came to my station and helped with entering the details into the automated system. He was asking how much fuel I needed and it was my first time so I also didn’t know. He helped looked at the fuel gauge and suggested 30k and I just agreed. Then a quick pump that brought the level back from half to 7/8 and we left for the last 1 hr drive.
After the highway, we entered a slow moving road of speed limit 60km/hr into an industrial zone, one that reminded me of Jurong Island back home. The place was just filled with industrial plants all over the place but it allowed road access to the public. It was a boring place for the rest of my family since I was the only person who could relate to this.
The drive to our hotel was not easy and one of the directions given by the in car Navi brought us to the wrong road. Had to make a few detours and mindfully avoid the wrong road and took the direction for what I thought would bring me to the right road before we managed to drive into the multistory carpark of MVL hotel. The initial impression I had of this 5stars hotel was that it reminded me of the Al Burj Arab, where one building stood out from the rest as it was obviously the tallest one there. Of course it couldn’t be comparable in terms of opulence and luxury but it looked comfortable enough.
After check in, we entered the room to find a view of the port and a rather normal room. Spent some time on the TV before we went to explore the surrounding. We decided to walk to Odongdo island which was about slightly more than 500m away.
The sun was already setting and winds were getting cold. We made it to the water fountain that coincidentally just started and skipped the walk around for the day since it was getting late. The fountain show had about 4-5songs worth of show before we walked back.
Then we walked over to the cable car station that had a pavilion with a nice view of the surroundings. It was also a place where there were hundreds if not thousands of heart shaped messages hung on the railings and lamppost.
We proceeded quickly to the cable car station building that had a nicely designed Korean restaurant and had our dinner there. It was recommended to try their marinated crab on the internet and so we ordered a soy sauce one, a pork dish with rice and another one with chicken. However, we received not one but 2 additional crab as a gift from the restaurant owners, all 3 flavors of the crab! There was also a bowl of mussel soup! I was in disbelief in the amount of food but very grateful for such hospitality. And the food was very yummy!
The crab was raw and I was apprehensive at first but after the first bite, I just went on and on as it was really delicious! It tasted like raw scallop but much softer so that the flesh could be just sucked out. Loved the one with soy the most. Mommy who didn’t like raw seafood couldn’t appreciate it so I had to finish all them. I was worried about having the tummy runs after this.
The soup was awesome too and am amazed how they could get such flavors into the soup. The other dishes were fine too. All this for just 39k!
Before leaving for the hotel, K wanted to go see the “fantasy land” that was something like the trick eye museum. It was closed by the time we finished dinner and so we just walked back to the hotel quickly, braving the cold as we crossed the road.
The night was spent in the bathtub, as usual and I went to the convenience store that was within the hotel, to get some water, coffee, milk and yoghurt. Then it was some TV which was showing the Bahrain F1, books and then off to bed.
