Live, love and eat kimchi...: Last Hurrah on Geoje Island

I had an awesome final full weekend in Korea. A few friends- Alexis, Kate, Ryan and Fil- and I decided to go beach camping on Geoje Island, just a 45 minute ferry ride from Busan. Although we almost missed our boat because we were waiting at the wrong gate of the terminal, we made it with about two minutes to spare, and got to the island my mid-afternoon on Saturday. A taxi took us around the beautiful, mountainous island and dropped us off at Gujora Beach. It was definitely the nicest beach I've been to in Korea, not only because of the scenery, but also because of the lack of people.

We walked to the far end of the beach and claimed the best camping spot, a rock alcove at the end of the beach, where we were really secluded from everything and everyone else. Ryan and Alexis had smartly planned ahead and borrowed a nice tent from a friend, but Kate, Fil and I had decided to kind of wing it. Oops. On the way to the island, we'd past a store selling a lot of beach supplies, and we picked up a mosquito net tent, which looked like a real tent only it's walls were made out of holey mosquito netting and there was no floor. Oops again. We set up our tents, and figured we'd be just fine for one night.

We had packed lightly on the food, bringing just potatoes, garlic, corn, bananas and chocolate, knowing that we could find what we needed at the food stand near the beach. Around dinner time, the girls went to get food and supplies, while the boys set out to find wood to build our fire. We went to the food stand and were delighted to find a pack of 35 mini hot dogs- score! But when we tried to buy them, the lady said "Aneyo!" or "No." We didn't understand why, but she showed us that they were actually used to make corn dogs which she sold individually, so the pack was not for sale. We put on our best disappointed and confused foreigner face, and she finally caved, selling them to us for just ten dollars. Double score! We headed back to the campsite, and made a delighful dinner of roasted vegetables and hotdogs, washed down with some cold beer.

Unfortunately, as we were just throwing our chocolate-stuffed banana boats on the fire, we noticed that the tide was coming up really high. We knew that this was a popular camping spot, so we didn't think it would be a problem, but sure enough the water came crashing over our fire. We grabbed our things (and the banana boats, which were delicious!) and moved to higher ground. It was too late to find more wood for a new fire, so we climbed up onto the rocks and spent the rest of the night singing along to the guitar and watching the bioluminesence in the water. This beach (and several others in Korea and Thailand) have phytoplankton that mate at night and cause little sparks that light up in the water. Very cool to watch!

It was a great night and we were all so happy to be chilling on an island with a guitar, rather than be at some bar in the big city of Busan. We headed to bed sometime late at night, and I was hoping that I could pass out right away, without worrying about our "accomodations." Unfortunately, sleep didn't come so easy, and I spent the night flicking bugs off of my clothes and out of my hair. Yuck! Luckily, the netting kept the mosquitos out, but the lack of a floor meant the other critters made it in. Eventually, I did fall asleep, and woke up to a beautiful pink and purple sunrise- my second in one week!

We hung around on the beach for the rest of the day enjoying the cool water and the stifling hot sun and then packed up and headed back to Busan in the late afternoon. Despite the bugs and heat and water logged campfires, we had a great time on Geoje Island... I couldn't have picked a better way to spend my last full weekend in Korea.