A fishy day with a fantastic ending

Sunday started with a trip to the fish market in a port town near Pohang (on the East Sea). Driving there we saw towns of squid boats in the harbor, which have rows and rows of huge light bulbs on these arms that they raise up and shine over the water for attracting the squid at night.

Having lived in land-locked states all of my life, the fish market was definitely a trip. So many strange and exotic sights, smells, and sounds. I think the craziest part was seeing the octopus laid out on display, some still alive enough to be trying to climb (do octopus climb?) away. One of the octopus (about the size of an 8-year-old child) had almost gotten itself moved off the seller's tarp, so we pointed it out and she (does "fish monger" apply here?) picked it up and threw it back down in its place. If you've never heard a fresh octopus being slapped against a tarp, I can't quite describe the sound.

Lots of squid also. We ended up picking some tiger shrimp, clams, sea scallops, and tuna to take with us to grill at the beach. So cheap! Less than $30 altogether for a good amount of each. But, not an experience for those with particular olfactory sensitivity.

After I thought our day had ended with plenty of goods times (a barbecue on the beach with fresh seafood isn't shabby at all!) we decided to swing by Bogyeong-sa, a site of natural beauty and ancient Buddhist temples. This was so amazingly beautiful and peaceful. It was the perfect time of day (about 6:00 pm) with virtually no other tourists around and the hazy light of evening putting this enchanting look over everything. These are some of my favorite pictures so far, by far.

Then we decided to try a quick hike (as it gets dark about 8:00 pm) up to some of the waterfalls in the valley nearby, which is actually called Waterfall Kingdom. It's a series of about 12 waterfalls of different sizes winding up through the valley as the elevation gets higher. We were all wearing sandals, not exactly prepared for a hike. In fact, Rachel was wearing a dress and I was wearing a skirt.

Everything aside, this was one of the most amazing places I've ever seen in my life. Maybe THE. I'll have to just share as many of the pictures as possible, get them blown up as large as possible, because I don't even really know what to say or how to describe it. Standing there, all I could think is that this is what I came for, to Asia, to Korea, even though I didn't know it. This is what I was waiting for. It's natural beauty on a scale I've never seen before.

Believe me, if the pictures don't seem like anything all that exciting, all of your jaws would have been falling open with every bend in the hiking path. Just immense, immense, beautiful, and overwhelming. You can feel the age of everything and know that for thousands of years, people have been standing here awestruck, unable to say or do anything that does the sight justice.