The Tour Agency we used

We used ButlersKorea to go on this tour, what we paid was 80,000 Won (80$) for an overnight trip. This price included the bus trip to and back to Jindo from Gwangju, a pension stay, and breakfast. Overall it was not a terrible price, and we had not experienced a tour trip like this before, so why not? However, it was not until I paid that they informed us that the sea might not form a land bridge due to the weather, and there was no refund for the spot. That is pretty disheartening because that is the whole reason I am going, it would be like going to the butterfly festival, and all the butterflies are still in their cocoons.

The travel group planned to meet up in Gwangju at the bus terminal around noon. To us, we expected that the coordinators would be there earlier to make sure people knew where to meet but that wasn't the case, we were the first ones there, and the coordinator was there right before the bus. That is a small thing, but I think for trips like this you should be there early for others.

We took a bus down to Jindo, for a straight bus ride, it should take about an hour and thirty minutes. Someone, for some reason, told the bus driver to drive slowly.........for some unannounced reason. So.....we got there in three hours...okay great. At least we arrived at the pension.

The pension house.

The statue on the left is Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the most badass naval officer in the history of the world. I talked about him and his turtle boats, well this area is his stomping grounds. He knew the water so well; he could lead enemy ships into natural traps, where they get sucked into whirlpools.

The pension wasn't terrible, what you expect, got some sleeping mats and sleep on the floor, whatever. They did have soap and shampoo in the bathrooms which were pleasant, though I brought my own and they had towels as well if people forgot theirs. I am a hitchhiker though, so I never forget my towel when I travel 😂

The Jindo Sea Parting

!steemitworldmap 34.2859 lat 126.1543 long Jindo Sea Parting Festival d3scr

Making it to the sea parting was more on time, but we were already an hour and a half behind schedule and hungry, so we missed out on a few of the events. We did get some good food though.

The main food street of the festival.

This Bibimbab (비빔밥) was pretty good!

The coast.

Grandma Bbong (뽕할머니) and Tiger (호랑이)

The sea partying festival revolves around this woman, Grandma Bbong. Long story short, a family got exiled to Jeju island, their ship got wrecked, and they ended up on Jindo. Jindo has a lot of tigers on the island, and people were frequently ate. So, after two hundred years they made a raft and went to Modo, but they forgot grandma.

Grandma starts frequently praying to the Dragon God to let her see her family one more time. The Dragon God comes to her in a dream and tells her to walk on the rainbow he will provide for her. When she woke up she went down to the sea and prayed, the rainbow appeared, and she began walking on the sea. Her family also saw the rainbow path and began to follow it. The way was too long for her though, and when she was reunited with her family, she passed in their arms, but she got her wish to see them again. Christians also take this event as proof of Moses' parting of the Red Sea, for more information about this myth, please follow the link above.

A plaque on the back of the statue.

The tigers.

A shrine built for Grandma Bbong.

People come here to pray for their wishes to be realized like hers.

The shrine at night.

ATM fiasco

So, I brought about 10,000 Won (10$) with me to the festival which I used for the bibimbap we had earlier. So, from that point on we tried finding an ATM, because regardless of what the woman told us, only the food trucks took cards. I wanted to get some fried chicken, or lamb, or even just a beer, but they only took cards (except the beer place but only if I spend 15,000 won (15$), I don't want three beers though). So, we asked where an ATM was, one person said down this way and on the left, we go that way, at the booth were it should be they say back the other way and on the left. You see the problem here? Then, we asked another information booth, and they say there is not an ATM......okay. Later I tried to order chicken again, doesn't take cards, she tells me the ATMs are this way and on the left......

Translation: 'Please use our car ATMs a lot'......what fucking ATMs, they are all closed up! I go back show the woman the picture of the non-existent ATMs, and she still points me that way to the closed up vehicles. What fucking ever... I guess I paid enough for the tour anyway. If you are going to have a festival where vendors don't take cards, have ATMs that are easily accessible, or the vendors should take cards since it is 2018. So, that was pissing me off the whole day. Should I have brought more cash? Yes. Was this still ridiculous? Yes.

TheLantern Lighting (풍등)

Wasn't sure precisely the significance of the lanterns for this festival. Since we were lighting them before the parting, I would guess they represent the lighting of the path for Grandma, but your guess is as good as mine. The amount of shoving that the old woman did to get a lantern was borderline stupid, I know it is just a Korean thing, but it doesn't make it less annoying when I was standing in line, and five of them shove against me.

My lantern.

So this is where the fun begins! It was windy, like really windy that day. Not the kind of weather you want for lighting flammable lanterns over a bunch of trees. The announcer only spoke Korean; this festival is about one third English speakers. He was trying to tell people not to light their lanterns, wait, and release them all together. Do people that have been in Korea for less than a year understand that, well possible but that wasn't the case. He kept repeating, "불 하지 마세요," over and over again. The simplest way of saying, "No fire please," in all the commotion, not ever Koreans were listening. So, here are the photos of this beautiful sight.

This without context is beautiful.

Then it comes straight down to the tents 😂

This was mine, I figured let it just go towards the fire truck, I wasn't going to allow it go any higher and get caught in a tree.

Again, looks beautiful without context.

Then, it went straight towards this woman...

The police stomped a lot of them out.

Look at the trees, and how many got stuck... 😂 Wait, maybe these represent Grandma's prayers. Looking at it like that I guess all our prayers are dead today. lol
That was the most entertaining part of the day lol

Fireworks and Laser Show

So, due to the wind, the laser show was pretty much a bust because they send lights through a mist of water. This video is what I managed to get though.

##The Laser Show

The Finale

After the Fireworks

There was an "EDM party," which was pretty much pandering to the foreign crowd. Uhm, I call the whole thing clickbait because they used a good picture from the light show to advertise the EDM party and the music starts off with a foreign band that did exclusively 80s covers. The music after them was supposed to be K-pop. Idk, I couldn't deal with it; I left to get food from the food trucks which was the only place I could go.

If you are going to have music, at least have a general theme to it, don't just take a cover band, a K-pop group, and a 'dejay,' yes they wrote 'dejaying' in the pamphlet and hope it appeals to everyone. Maybe if I could have bought beer, I could have seen the genius of this. Also, the band's singer/guitarist introduced each member with some sexual innuendo. You are in your forties, man, just come on... you are entitled to one one of those for a member. When you do it for each member that looks creepy.

The EDM Party

Chicken Skewer.

Mini Churros with chocolate syrup.

On the Way to the Pension/ Gwangju

With my friends, I joked that if that was what band they brought, then the DJ must be playing just popular music and bridging the songs together. Oh, according to people on the bus that stayed for the music, the DJ played the Cupid Shuffle. That is just worse; apparently, he can't mix a danceable beat if he has to pull that trash out to get the white people able to dance 😂

The next day we got up and ready, had breakfast (eggs, toast, and hashbrowns. The hashbrowns were like Mcdonald's which was surprisingly good) at 8 am, the bus didn't leave till 10ish. Then we came back to Gwangju and were off to the next festival! Tomorrow will be a much more light-hearted post, and I won't be as salty. Thank you to anyone that stuck through to the end, you are the real MVPs!

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Ride on!