Chuseok on the Yellow Sea.

The vacation started with a few bottles of Soju and a long subway ride. We had all of our gear on our backs and enough food to last for the long weekend. It was going to be a good one and we couldn't wait to get it started.

The subway finally stopped and we were at our destination, Incheon, which happened to be the last stop on the subway line. Incheon pretty much borders Seoul's west-side. Incheon became important because its location on an estuary made it a good harbor; when the port was founded in 1883, the city, then called Chemulpo, had a population of only 4,700. Incheon is now home to almost 2.5 million people, but is sometimes regarded as a part of the greater Seoul metropolitan area due to its close proximity to the capital, and the fact that the Seoul Metropolitan Subway and the Incheon Subway systems are linked to one another. Incheon is, however, a major city in its own right and is a separate jurisdiction from Seoul.

On September 15, 1950, during the Korean War, Incheon was the site of the Battle of Incheon, when United States troops landed to relieve pressure on the Pusan Perimeter and to launch a United Nations offensive northward. The USS Incheon was named after the tide-turning battle that ensued. The Battle of Incheon (code name: Operation Chromite) was a decisive invasion and battle. The battle lasted only 15 days. During the amphibious operation, UN forces secured Incheon, and broke out of the Pusan (Busan) region through a series of landings in enemy territory. The vast majority of UN ground forces were composed of U.S. Marines, commanded by Gen. MacArthur. The Battle of Incheon ended a string of victories by the invading North Korean People's Army (NKPA) and began a counterattack by the UN forces that led to the recapture of Seoul. The advance north ended near the Yalu River, when China's People's Volunteer Army entered the conflict by deploying thousands of fresh Chinese troops in support of North Korea, overrunning UN forces along the Ch'ongch'on River and forcing a withdrawal after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir to South Korea.

In contrast to the quick victory at Incheon, the advance on Seoul was slow and bloody. The NKPA launched another attack, which was trapped and destroyed, and a bombing run in Incheon harbor, which did little damage. The NKPA attempted to stall the UN offensive to allow time to reinforce Seoul and withdraw troops from the south. Though warned that the process of taking Seoul would allow remaining NKPA forces in the south to escape, MacArthur felt that he was bound to honor promises given to the South Korean government to retake the capital as soon as possible. Before the battle, North Korea had just one understrength division in the city, with the majority of its forces south of the capital.

MacArthur personally oversaw the 1st Marine Regiment as it fought through North Korean positions on the road to Seoul. At this point, control of Operation Chromite was given to Major General Edward Almond. It was Almond's goal to take Seoul on September 25, exactly three months after the beginning of the war. On September 22, the Marines entered Seoul to find it heavily fortified. Casualties mounted as the forces engaged in desperate house-to-house fighting. Anxious to pronounce the conquest of Seoul, Almond declared the city liberated on September 25 despite the fact that Marines were still engaged in house-to-house combat (gunfire and artillery could still be heard in the northern suburbs).

There is a statue of Gen. MacArthur in Incheon and every once in awhile there are protests there, claiming ROK is "still occupied" by the US. These are the same people who complain that we're abandoning them when we say, "okay, we'll leave". There's a lot of double-talk in Korea. We did not go see it though. I thought you might be interested in a little history. (Most of that was provided by Wikipedia.) Here is a picture of the Battle of Inch 'on.




We arrived in the city around 10pm or so and decided we should get some food. The closest place we found was in Chinatown. We walked up the hill carrying all of our stuff and found a little restaurant. We ate there for a while and celebrated the clock turning midnight. It was my birthday! We had a couple cheers and then went to our hotel which we had yet to locate or reserve. Luckily we found one within a couple minutes and put our stuff down. Dave, who just returned from a month long tour of Italy, had picked up a huge bottle of Bacardi. We cracked it and had a couple drinks in the room and then went outside to get some fresh air. We walked out there with a couple of mixed drinks and sat in the streets and chatted about nothing. When we're with Joel it is very hard to talk because most of the time he has us all laughing. He's a funny guy. We decided to call it an early night and retired to the room.

That was one big bottle! The picture below is us hanging out on the street in Incheon.

Suzanna was up at 6:15 getting ready for a morning run. I heard her leave and was stirred enough that I got up and showered. The rest of the crew slowly did the same and after a couple cups of gross water and coffee, we left to catch the bus that would take us to the harbor. We went to the desk at the harbor and tried to get tickets for the 9:30am boat, but it was full. The lady said we could get the 12:30pm boat instead. We looked at the clock. It was only 8:35am. So we had four hours to kill until we could leave. We went and got some food and Rhett made the good decision to buy a mat for us all to sit on while we waited. He went to buy it, hoping he could find a nice solid colored one. He returned with a mat sporting giraffes and a family cookout. It was funny, especially when the five us all laid on it for three hours on the sidewalk. FINALLY, 12:00pm rolled around and went to line up.

We boarded the boat and found our seats. It was not a full boat, so we had a little more room than I thought we would have. Dave, Suzanna and I sat in a row while Rhett and Joel sat in front of us. Dave, like usual, fell asleep in minutes. We took some pictures of his face. It was quite funny. After a half-hour or so we went to buy a beer and get the vacation started. There were quite a few foreigners on the boat as well, all of them going to Duk Juk do. There was this one older flamboyant foreigner behind us who Suzanna named Peanut Butter Comic Book. The guy literally read a comic book for the whole ride while shoveling spoonfuls of peanut butter down his throat. After an hour, we arrived at the island or do (pronounced "doe"). From the port we hopped on another bus which finally took us to the specific beach we wanted. We got off and with much anticipation, made our way to the beautiful beach.

That's our sporty green and purple tent. We left it there...

It was a hot day and the sun was beaming down on our somewhat pale skin. (Dave was still tan from his Italy trip.) Mountains arose on all sides of the small cove, while pines lined the edge of the sand. There was a perfect mixture of grass and sand throughout the beach. The Yellow Sea stood in front of us. It was beautiful. The water was so calm and the waves gently came ashore and then, without any sound, retreated. There were other people out there, but nothing could hinder this islands beauty. We put our stuff down and sat there for a second. This place was like nothing I have ever seen before. Gazing far out into the water we could see small island rising out of the eerily calm sea. Some were big and others just a break in the flat water. The smell was of rich pines, mountain air and the faint odor of salt was the real vacation. It was a vacation for our senses. It was such an abnormal sight to see: pine and bamboo covered mountains, a serine blue-green sea and islands as far as the eyes could process. To top it all off, on a peak of a nearby mountain we spotted a temple. It was there that we truly saw the beauty of not only the Yellow Sea, but this world.

We set up our tent in the pale yellow sand and Rhett and Joel started preparing our dinner. It wasn't dinner time, but they were making a gumbo and it had to be started early. Their generosity allowed Dave, Suzanna and I to play. We threw the frisbee, socialized and listened to some great music. As the day progressed, more and more people stared arriving and the party was getting bigger and better by the second. While Rhett was at camp cooking and socializing, Dave, Suzanna, Joel and I decided to play the most dangerous game ever. First of all, we knew how silly it was to play this game, but we also knew when to stop. So before you write comments about this game, know that we were safe. The four of us started at the shore and threw a bottle that contained rum and some mixer. We then swam to that location and had to dive to the bottom and touch it while grabbing sand for proof. If any of you have been to the beach with me, you know that I do not go deeper than where I can stand, let alone touch the bottom. I'm usually scared of sharks, but there was something peaceful about this place. When you surface, you must show the sand and then take a swig. Now, the next person has to throw the bottle out into the sea and the game continues in that manner. Crazy right? Of course, but we were safe and even as a tribute to its stupidity we called it "Death by Drowning". Who wants to play?

There was also another game that I'm going to bring home with me. It's called "Cups". There are two teams with two people per team. One team stands on one side while the other team stands on the opposite side. In front of each team, there are two tent poles sticking about five feet out of the ground and standing about 14 inches apart (like miniature field goals without the crossbar). On top of each pole is one cup. One person from Team A would throw the frisbee and to either knock the cup off the pole (1 point) or send the frisbee through the center of the poles without touching them (2 points). If Team A knocked the cup off, but Team B caught it before it hit the sand, then Team B would get that point and Team A would get nothing. It was great game and Dave and I were actually quite good at it. We played this a lot.

Finally the gumbo was ready and by that point our fire had attracted most of the cool people. There were other fires, but again, we were the coolest. So we gave all of our new friends gumbo and rum and the night was just great. I've met a lot of people on the past two trips and I plan to continue meeting more people, but I really enjoyed the people we met this time. Of course, they're not as great as most of the people I work with and it's impossible to compare them with friends at home, but they were good people. Dave pulled his trademark and "fell" out of the chair and into the sand for a little pass out time. He was close to the fire and we couldn't move him, so we covered him in sand. He's lucky the marker didn't come out...

You can kind of see the islands, but again, I just couldn't capture them. The tide was crazy there as well. Imagine Hunting Island and now add about 4oo yards to that and then you'll understand low tide on the Yellow Sea.

There were some beautiful sunsets.

He literally fell out of his chair, crushed that bottle and remained here for hours. He was okay.

The morning came too fast, but in a place like this I was happy to see the warm morning sun. We ate and Dave, Suzanna and I headed for that temple we saw on the mountains. We walked to the trail head and I finally felt like I was in Asia. We passed farmers in their cool wide brimmed hats. We passed bamboo fields and people with things that just looked "Asian" to me. They were real farmers and not this city folk that I see everyday. It was great.

We found the trail head and ascended through a lush bamboo forest. It was amazing. It was so thick and the trail just weaved in and out of it. Trying to peer inside the forest was impossible. You can't see a thing in thick bamboo. We reached an elevation where the bamboo gave way to the pines and some other tree that I have yet to identify. We started getting little glimpses of the view we were about to be given. After a few water and picture stops, we neared the summit and got a taste of the beauty of Duk Juk Do. The water was amazing from there and we sat on some rocks that were perilously close to the edge. We were safe and that cool mountain breeze was too enticing to let fear get in the way. From there we could see the temple peeking through the pines. It was resting all alone on the rocky bluffs, looking after the island. We made our way up there and were stunned at the site. It was a 360 degree view of Duk Juk and all the surrounding islands. There were so many that I couldn't even count them. I took some pictures, but my photographic abilities coupled with my digital camera just didn't do any justice to this place. I'm not a religious man, but it was heavenly. We took some videos and cruised on down to the beach almost breathless.

Here's the first part of the trail. It was too dark and shadowy to take the bamboo forest pictures, but this one came out alright.

The view...

It was just amazing up there.

This is Duk Juk...

There is the temple and Dave walking to it.

Here we are at the temple. It was great up there.

We returned and played around on the beach. Frisbee, cups, laughing, talking, drinking, making fun of Dave and much more. We brought our Han river boats, so we cruised around out in the water for a while. While we were out there we saw a family running towards the water. Upon looking a little closer, we noticed the females were topless. Wouldn't you know they were French. We heard their snooty accents when we got to the shore and had a good laugh. The sun was getting low and we decided to eat some dinner. Again, Rhett was the good guy and cooked us some burritos. They were great. He won't admit it, but he's a great cook. Night came and the party started. There was a Cups tournament, but Dave and I opted to play horse shoes with some new friends.

There was this awfully unattractive girl there who did everything she could to show her big ass. She was like a drunk 16 year old. We called her Skeletor and really that was a compliment.

I thought a close-up might be nice for some of you, aka Mom. The black thing is a little dog we met who hung out with us for a while. We named him Soju...Surprised?

The next day we packed up, made it to the bus, then to the boat and said screw the subway and took a cab home.

I came here to teach and I really love teaching, but it's these excursions that make me love this place. The people we meet, the sights we see, the stories we hear and the memories we all create together is the real reason why Korea is a great place. Memories have always been very important to me. I think it is so crucial that we all take time and make sure we cherish these things. Take pictures, make movies, write a journal or just reminisce with loved ones. The future is very important, but it is the past where we derive wisdom. It is the past where we find our happiness and it is the past that shows us what we want for the future...