A Weekend in Namhae
This weekend was National Foundation day in Korea, so I had Monday off from work. Since I had the extra day, I decided to go to Namhae to see the sights there. Located off the southern coast of Korea, Namhae is a little island connected to the mainland by Namhae Bridge.
The trip was last minute, so we weren’t able to take the KTX to Yeosu. Instead, we took a five hour bus ride from Nambu Bus Terminal in Seoul to Namhae Bus Terminal. It was quite the long ride.
So began our struggle with public transportation in Namhae. Also, our motto became “I don’t know,” because so many uncertainties were playing out that we just had to go along and hope for the best. I highly recommend renting a car because it saves on the expensive taxi rides, barely existent buses, and a huge amount of time.
Our hotel, Namhae Beach Hotel, was perfectly situated on the beach and was highly visible with colorful lights, a unique “castle” structure, and Greek God statues. It definitely stuck out in the countryside.
Namhae is stunningly beautiful. Covered in green mountains with winding roads, farming lands, grannies zooming around on their motorized wheelchairs, the wonderful smell of cow poo wafting in the air, and rice fields on rice fields, I couldn’t get enough of this beautiful place.
After dropping our belongings off at the room, we walked the short distance to the bus stop, only to discover that the bus wasn’t coming for a whole hour. So, we started walking to the little community area that we had passed by while in the taxi. I had spotted taxis there so we were hoping to find one there. Luckily, we found a taxi on our way and he took us to the bus stop where we were able to catch the bus to Darengi Village (다랭이마을). This village is known for its rice fields that grow on the hillside with a view of the sea. We hadn’t eaten lunch so we barely looked at the rice fields before heading to a restaurant. We ordered a seafood jeon, fish, and seafood kalguksu. The food was delicious!
Caught a bus at 7 pm and we were dropped off not far from our hotel. Since it was still early, even though it looked like it was midnight, we bought some ice cream at the convenience store and walked along the beach. Lots of the hotel guests and pension guests were outside in tents just chilling and grilling meat. The smell was amazing. Discovered a little toad along the path as well.
The next morning, we woke up early and we were walking to the bus stop when we found another taxi. The taxi driver took us all the way up to the top of Geumsan to the entrance to Boriam Temple. We paid for our entrance tickets and we walked the rest of the way up the mountain for about ten or fifteen minutes. They were doing so much construction on one of the buildings, and they’d blocked off a lot of the trails. There was a surprisingly a lot of tourists visiting. It is probably the top tourist destination in Namhae. We asked several taxi drivers the top things to do and they all said: Darengi Village, Boriam, and German Village. We took one of the only open trails and saw the hermitage under construction and the view of the clouds covering the valleys.
Now began the troubles of finding a taxi. From the entrance of the temple to the parking lot, thankfully there was a shuttle bus. Once in the parking lot, we didn’t see a taxi so we decided to walk along the road down to the road that connects to the temple road. It was an estimated fifty minutes of walking. Also, it was boiling hot (eighties with humidity) even though it’s October. There is the longest line of cars going down this mountain road waiting to enter the parking lot. We were so thankful that we had decided to go early.
The line went on for a long, long time. We walked until we finally got to the bus stop. At the bus stop, we discovered our lifesaver; a taxi cab phone number. We called the number and got a taxi to Namhae Chonjib Hwasoban (남해촌집 화소반). This cafe is located near Sangju Beach. We found out from the taxi driver that we could have saved ourselves the walk and walked down a trail to the beach. :( We ordered drinks (rose yuja ades and strawberry latte) and hwagwaja (화과자) and sat outside under the shade. It was before noon and we were dead tired (10,000+ steps).
We were hungry so we went and ordered anchovy wraps (멸치쌈밥) since one of the taxi drivers told it was something we had to eat while we were in Namhae.
We took a little walk at the beach while digesting all that food. It was so pretty, but so very hot. We found some very cool seashells on the beach there. Lots of people were swimming in the warm water, and I really wished I’d brought swimwear.
We used our magical taxi phone number and got a taxi to Bomulseom Jeonmangdae and Skywalk. We got to the second floor, purchased our tickets at the cafe counter, and waited in a very, very long line to go on the skywalk. Finally, when it was our turn, we walked out on the skywalk with our harnesses on. The first guide we came up to made us hang over the edge with our feet pushed against the edge of the skywalk. I was a little terrified, and the guy looked so done lol. Our turn felt so short because they were trying to hurry people along because several groups before us had taken way too much time. We took some pictures, and Lily and Monica jumped and swung over the edge. Afterwards, we got some yuja ice cream and chilled for a bit.
By this point, we were feeling a bit more rejuvenated so we took a taxi back to our hotel, rested a bit, and then bought some dinner items at the convenience store. We definitely ate a lot of snacks and dessert, too. It was a relaxing way to end our last full day in Namhae.
The next morning, we packed up our bags, went on one last short walk on the beach (found a starfish and built a pebble wish tower), and then headed back to the bus terminal to take our bus at 10. Namhae is so beautiful, I would definitely come back if I had a car.
