Ulleungdo

We hit the waters nice and early on our fifth day, taking the three-hour ferry to Ulleungdo. It’s a small, rocky island a good distance east of South Korea, in the Pacific. As it’s pretty far north, it’s not the sandy beaches and sunny skies one might imagine of a Pacific island. The ferry was very choppy. We rode with the retirees of South Korea, and were in a very small minority being younger than 60. There were people getting seasick all over the place, but a group of old men close to us were living it up and drinking soju and eating dried squid. They weren’t afraid to start the party at eight in the morning, and I admire that. I slept for a fair amount, but managed to notice a long video about the history and politics of Dokdo during the first hour of the trip. Dokdo consists of two small rocks about halfway between Ulleungdo and Japan-but a little closer to Ulleungdo. They are of historical and political importance to South Korea, and also some to Japan-although I never heard its side of the story.
After arriving in Ulleungdo, and walking past scores of drying squid, Danthemanstan keenly found a hotel. He saw a group of people with bags walking up some stairs on a side street. We followed them up, were greeted by the guesthouse owners, and quickly got a room. It was a pretty nice room, but no beds-it was the ondol style, which is the way many Koreans sleep (or did so in the past). It wasn’t a big deal, as the floors in this guesthouse were honestly more comfortable than some of the wooden beds I’ve slept on in China. Lunch consisted of another point and hope for the best situation, and turned out to be quite good. We spent the afternoon walking around the island. It was very pretty. The blue skies, endless blue ocean, and forested cliff edges were a much needed respite from the buzz of Seoul (and more so from industrialized, polluted Changzhou). The island of Ulleungdo isn’t much, and most of it is pretty steep, going up to the center of the island. It is just a volcanic point sticking out of the ocean. There are some really cool rocks jutting out of the ocean that surround it, and there was an outpost up a hill that provided great views of the island. Danthemanstan, in a bit of entrepreneurial genius, was proposing some great zip line routes along the coasts. We had a little more trouble for dinner, as we were hoping to eat in one of the restaurants along the shore, but couldn’t find one with a menu or food or prices that we like. Eventually we found something. It’s a little frustrating, but should be expected when you don’t speak the language and aren’t really on the main tourist route.
An interesting, and very South Korean thing happened in the evening. We needed to book some tours of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). So we went to the building marked PC center. It seemed closed, but had an open door, so we peeked in. Well, it was under renovation, so definitely no Internet browsing there. As we walked back, I saw a pool hall, and figured there would be some young guys there that would know how to get on the Internet. We walked in to stares from everyone (clearly we weren’t there for the pool), but there was a computer in the corner. The guy on it got up before we even got to him, and graciously motioned for us to use it. After we were done, some guys playing poker and drinking-and looking “in charge” adamantly refused the small payment we tried to give them for using the computer.