Daechon Beach

On the weekend of August 12, I had 4 days off so I decided to go somewhere outside of Seoul. I got some advice from other staff and eventually decided to head to Daechon Beach ( on the East coast about 2.5 hours from Seoul by train) for a weekend of fun in the sun. It was a Korean national holiday so many Koreans also decided to make the trek which meant space on the train was tight and I could only get standing room for most of the trip (by the way: standing space is a little compartment just outside the washroom area between cars).



Despite all this I did manage to see a bit of the Korean countryside which looked quite nice. They grow rice pretty well everywhere they can and then they fill in any small spots with potatoes and other vegetables (they will plant anywhere--- like 2 feet away from the train tracks on 1/2an ounce of soil! ) I also managed to meet a few other foreigners travelling to the same beach so I had some people to hang out with.The beach itself was not that impressive. There was not a whole lot of sand but it I enjoyed being able to relax. It was nice to dive in the ocean and cool off. Despite warnings that the water was a little dirty, the Koreans spent all day in it and appeared to come out relatively healthy.

At night they all went crazy over fireworks. The sky over the whole beach was lit up with crappy fireworks that made Clearwater Lake Store seem like a fireworks mecca (for anyone that has witnessed the Flaming Outhouse firework, imagine this x10). You would think being so close to China would mean that Korea had a little better supply but this is obviously not the case. Anyways all in all I had a great trip down and enjoyed being able to see a little bit of the country.

Clark