Deokjeokdo - An island off Incheon, S. Korea

Honestly speaking, I would never expect myself to visit all the little small areas within Korea, especially if I've never ever heard of them. The funny thing is, these are places that people always go to for short getaways, especially with their loved ones or as a group of friends. It's funny how if I've never joined programs, I wouldn't have known of all these little interesting places either. Well, here's another story of when I went to Deokjeokdo, an island off Incheon, South Korea.

Woke up at an ungodly hour and took a 2.5 hour trip all the way to the ferry terminal. If you would like to get there, you would have to take the Seoul Metro Line 1 all the way to Dong Incheon (동인천) where you would need to change to bus 24 which brings you to the terminal. There, you can actually get ferry tickets to many other islands off the coast of Incheon as well, but we were going to Deokjeokdo! As a foreigner living in Korea, I just needed to bring my Alien Registration Card for verification but I believe foreigners should bring their passports in case.

Got on the ferry, felt a little seasick, slept a bit, got frustrated a bit, and finally arrived after an hour and a half of bobbing on the water. Fortunately it was not to choppy and was still bearable. Tried to turn on Pokemon Go for a little bit in hopes that it might have some... but to my dismay, South Korea is literally out of Pokemon (except for Sokcho and Ulsan).

Finally arrived to the Healing Island, and got on a bus which would bring us to our lodging and provide a little tour of the island and what it's known for. It was a pretty long ride roughly around 15 minutes, more than what I would have expected. The thing about the roads in these areas is that it's extremely rough and coarse, which meant a lot of rocking in the vehicle.

Got to our lodging and dropped off our bags, waited for the short tour before lunch and carried on with the day. It was really interesting because we got on 2 different cars catered for our entire group. It really felt like an episode out of Jurassic Park because of all the rough terrain that the cars went through, all the way to some secluded area where they had an energy production facility out in the middle of no where. 

Shell

Funny how there's a karaoke in the middle of a beach

The wonderful thing about this entire area would be the fact that you may have your own private beaches because there aren't many people around. But the downside would be that because it's underpopulated, your beach would be dirty and no one would clean it but you. Yes, it was true, the beaches were kinda dirty, or maybe it's because I'm from Singapore and our sand is clean, despite the dirty waters.

Walked through a little forest to find this interesting tree trunk where it looked like a man in a sitting position. The guide told us to go sit for a photo but nobody dared to so she went up and we took her photos instead.

Finally reached the facility and we had the staff give us a little tour and information on how it actually works. We were to have our lunch here in the little shack below, so I guess this was actually a guided tour thing for many people seeing how they have a place for lunch for travelers. 

The lunch looked simple but it was absolutely delicious. I really really enjoyed the food and you could tell that the food had no preservatives and tasted really fresh and healthy. Apart from the fact that there was too much food, I enjoyed every single dish here and it was an entirely different experience from the food that I usually eat in Seoul.

Not to mention a cute ass puppy following us around

Headed off to another beach after lunch where there was no sand but rocks. It was really difficult to walk and I feared for my camera. Walked a little to the shore and decided to turn back in case I really fell. The rest, however, went all the way to the end to get a look at the huge boulder and the beach. It was really beautiful though.

That concluded our tour and we were brought back to our lodging where we had a short rest before going for the main point of this island tour: the music festival. Well, when you call it a music festival you usually think of it as a large scale event. This, on the other hand, was a small scale event where they were trying to promote little islands such as this to invite more people to the islands of Incheon for a quick getaway.

When we got there, there were already people sitting down and getting comfortable with food and drinks preparing for the event to start. It started off with a little podcast talk show and then it went into 3 different performances. It was quite nice to be away from technology and phones and just sit down and listen to music while enjoying the sea breeze and great weather.

The second performance was what I felt to be the highlight of the show because they were a band, unlike the other two who were doing solo shows with their guitars. They played some mainstream music and some of their own (I think?) and it was really enjoyable. As the sun set slowly they got people to stand up and dance and I think that the more beer people drank, the more willing they were to get up and dance.

It was an interesting experience and a great opportunity for me to enjoy the 70-200mm well due to its long range and stability for better photos especially in low lighting. After that when it got really dark they lighted a campfire for better atmosphere but by then all I wanted to do was to go back and take a shower because of all the mosquitoes coming over. But the entire day was pretty well spent and I got to see a different side of South Korea which I probably would never have the chance to. I would count this a great experience to add to my arsenal of different travels that I've done.

Ended off the night with snacks, drinks and television while I drifted off to sleep. Woke up the next day, having skipped breakfast in exchange for sleep, had lunch and then took the ferry back to Incheon where I came back to Seoul and took a well deserved rest.