Weekend Vacation on Hanagae Beach
The weather is a consistent warm, and my inner adventurer wanted to do something fun for the weekend. What better way than to explore a nearby island and go beach camping?! Apparently, Incheon has a total of 168 islands, each with different beaches. After a bit of research, we decided on Muuido Island, Hanagae Beach. It took us three buses and a ferry to get there, but only about two hours! We were on the beach with our tent set up and a beer in hand by about 2:30 and had plenty of time left to soak up some sun.
We enjoyed the sun, some good ole Korean Bud Light (aka Cass) and some badminton on the beach before the tide went down. One of the cool things about this beach, was how low the tide got. By early evening, people were maybe a mile out and the water was only ankle deep. We walked a ways out and eventually came to a part that had thousands of tiny snails. It was hard to walk and not step on them!
After we came back to our tent, we each grabbed our photography gear and set up for the sunset. We are both aware of how unoriginal sunset pictures are, but as we both get more and more into our unintentionally similar hobbies, we just can't get enough of them. Ever. And we aren't early risers enough to get those sweet, sweet sunrises. So Luke went over to a small rock cliff to fly his drone away from people, while I setup camp with my tripod at our tent. By this time, it actually felt like we were vacationing. It was so peaceful and relaxing.
We had bought charcoal from the mart and packed some hot dogs with us, but knew we were going to want a bit more food. So we walked over to one of the beach front restaurants and got a pajeon and a bottle of beer to fill us up a bit. One of the best pajeons either of us have ever had! Afterwards, we had a teeny little fire where we roasted our hot dogs on chopsticks haha! Yum!
In the morning, we woke up slowly, people watching and drinking our coffee (made from instant packs + hot water from the Ramen station). We wanted to do a little exploring while we were there so we packed up a bit, and first went to scope out our breakfast options. There were obviously no American breakfast options so it came down to either instant Ramen or rice from the mart, a long sausage on a stick with a thin corn-dog like breading twisted around it (which didn't look so fresh), or some Korean seafood that we had never tried before. I took the plunge and decided on the Korean seafood we hadn't had before. We just split one entree of Kalguksu μΉΌκ΅μ which literally means, "knife noodles". It was 7,000 won and was the perfect size for the two of us. It contained handmade noodles, clams, and thinly sliced carrots and zucchini. It was a delicious Korean breakfast! Our neighboring tables consisted of about 20 ajusshis (old men) and a few ajummas (old women), having their big hearty Korean breakfasts - complete with multiple bottles of soju. Mind you, this was about 11 AM. Koreans don't mess around.
Next, we headed to the trail to scope out a couple views. This "hike" was more of a walk through some trees. There was no incline and a couple of small "lookouts" along the way. We eventually made it out to the other side of the trail which lead us to some rocks on the beach where Luke got more drone footage and I unsuccessfully skipped a couple rocks.
It was a nice walk to end our miniature weekend vacation and I can't wait for more beach time over the next couple months!
