땅끝 - Ttangkkeut: The Edge of the Land.

The entrance to lands end

Finally I went to a place I've been longing to go to for months now! The Korean peninsula's southern most point, the edge of the land - Ttangkkeut Village in Haenam.

I've been wanting to go for quite some time, I just never had anyone to accompany me there. Finally one of my friends had the time, so we met in Haenam on a Saturday and got a bus to Korea's southern most tip. 

The first thing that I noticed stepping off the bus was the smell of the sea. Gosh do I love the smell of the water. We walked along the path, finding our way to where the cable car began that would take us up to the observatory. Cable car tickets purchased, we then waited in the gift store for it to arrive. While we waited my friend asked if I had ever tasted  연양갱. I hadn't the slightest clue what it was, but the packaging looked just like an average chocolate bar to me. He assured me it wasn't, but definitely was a Korean treat worth trying. So I bought one and we split it. Turns out it isn't chocolate at all, but a jelly made from red beans, and it's good. It tasted very rich and naturally sweet like the beans themselves, and the texture was nice too. My only complaint would be that it was a little on the sticky side. It's something that I would surely indulge in again if I came across it though.

Edge of the Land Marker

The rail car was nice, a bit packed with people, but the walls were covered in writing and it gave the car a unique nostalgic look that I liked. Once reaching the observation tower we found the stairs down to the official 'end of the land' marker and began our hike down. When I had decided to go there, I hadn't any clue how many hundreds of stairs there were... My legs, and most specifically my knee...do not handle stairs well at all. The walk down was beautiful and green with forest, but by the time I reached the bottom my legs were shaking so bad I literally couldn't stand in one place; I would've collapsed. So I had to sit down and rest for like a half hour. Luckily for me I had a beautiful place to rest. Sadly though, my phone decided to do a random 19 HOUR update... so I have few photos from my trip, except for those I borrowed my friend's phone for. The shoreline was lined with dark cliffs and rocks, The water lightly crashing against them and the sun bright overhead. We chilled and munched on snacks until other people came and we needed to vacate the 'photo zone'.

View from Lands End

Hiking back up the stairs was no easy task either. Gradually I grew slower and slower, just dragging my body to go on, envious of how Korean people seem to all be able to handle so many stairs with such ease. I want to blame it on the fact that they grew up in a mountainous region, while I grew up in a flat one... but more likely I am just severely out of shape. 

In front of the observation tower

Taking the rail back down from the observatory was a memorable moment too. We both felt so out of place in the rail car, as we were surrounded by a gaggle of ajummas (elderly women) that were all decked out in their hiking clothes and chatting up a storm. I found our situation somewhat amusing, it seemed like something you would see in a movie comedy scene. 

After exploring lands end we looked around the village for food, but there wasn't much aside from a few seafood restaurants. I had sort of expected that, since we were by the sea. We ate something similar to bibimbap, but with raw slices of fish in it. It was tasty and fresh, with the vegetables, rice, and fish all mixed together. 

We also explored the beach before we headed out for home. The beach was nice. There were families camping under the pines along the shore and it seemed to be a laid back kind of place to take the family. I miss going camping. We played some frisbee and I walked around in the water, enjoying the feeling of the sand and the water washing against my calves. It was hot and the buses weren't frequent though, so we didn't stay too long. Just long enough to enjoy it for a while before heading home.