Dolsando and Yeosu

With the assistance of Annette (one of our Korean co-teachers) we booked accommodation in Yeosu for our long weekend. We had tried to book by ourselves, but our lack of Korean and their lack of English resulted in us being hung up on every time. We found the place in our trusty Lonely Planet, selecting an inn/restaurant that sounded like it was a little out of the city centre, as that was the point in leaving Seoul. Yeosu was still a city the size of Newcastle after all.

We arrived in Yeosu after a cheap and comfortable train journey through Korea's vertical core- much of which was covered in mist-covered mountains and bright green rice paddies.

View of rice paddies from our train window

To our surprise, the inn that we had booked into was actually 45mins out of Yeosu- on an island that joined the city by suspension bridge- one of the prides of the city. We were actually staying in a quaint little fishing/tourist village, with a resident population of only a few hundred people.

The seaside village of Hyang-il-am

Silhouettes of Dolando's ("do"=island) coastline

Gazing of into the eastern sea from a local Buddhist temple, waiting hopelessly for a glimpse of sunrise through the grey haze - no luck

The rather rustic Hwangtobang Inn/Restaurant (A$50/night)

We ate dinner at our Inn on both nights- our loyalty gaining us bonus taste-tests of local delicacies (including shell fish) on the second night. Our favourite was haemul tang (a fish hotpot with three whole fish, green vegies and a light salty broth), which we ate with many of the usual condiments, but also the local specialty of mustard leaf kimchi- that actually tasted a bit like vegemite!

Haemul tang and "vegemite" kimchi

On our last day we headed back into Yeosu and wandered around the harbourside area where we encountered the local fishmarket and a ship wrecking yard.

Yeosu dock area

Yeosu and its working harbour

Eel for sale

Ship wrecking