OIDO - The West Coast

Memorial Day June 6th was a school holiday but it fell on a Wednesday, middle of the week. I had no plans but wanted to make the best of it. We had to escape the city heat. So we took a day trip to the west coast – a town called Oido. It’s famous not for bikinis but seafood. What do Koreans do at the beach? They eat.

This hazy grey photo is exactly as I saw it. With the pollution, I suppose it’s never clear, but the weather turned against us.

On every map I have of Korea this is a bay, colored blue for water. But as far as the eye can see, it’s just mud. There are clam diggers everywhere. They can walk out about 1km. These mud flats reminded me a bit of going through Sackville NB back home.

Fishing boats sit ground in the mud, waiting for the tide to come in.

We looked for a spot to lay out our towel.

This pic is embarrassing but I have to include it. Here I am the typical idiot North American traveler. I’ve just bitten the head off of a giant prawn, chewed it for a bit and spit it on the ground. I need a beer before I puke.

I have to admit, the famed seafood restaurants lived up to expectations. The dinner we had was a bowl of soup with clams and assorted shellfish. It was excellent. But a beach without bikinis was still a bit of a let down. Next mission - the east coast.