Korea's Most Bizarre Park

This post is long overdue. Last month, Leigh visited Korea from her current home in Beijing. Excited by Korea's autumn foliage, we headed to Samcheok, a city in Gangwando Province.

There's plenty more to this story, but if this photo makes you uncomfortable, please skip reading this post. If you are intrigued, by all means, continue; it only gets weirder from here.  Also, check out Leigh's blog: leighinkorea.

During Leigh's three week vacation in Korea, Haesindang park was a must on our list of sights to see. In fact, it was the whole reason we made the four hour bus journey to Samcheok City.

After a hectic morning of oversleeping and scrambling to catch the metro, we boarded a bus two hours later than planned and began our adventure. Thanks to Dunkin' Donuts and Korea's love of comfort, our bus ride was possibly the most relaxing I've ever taken. 

After arriving at Samcheok's bus terminal, we set out to book a room at on of the many love hotels in the neighborhood. Love motels acquired their name from the many Koreans who seek out the rooms for one night or only hours at a time. 

Recently, because of their affordability and abundance, they've become popular with foreign travelers. Other than a couple of concerns about cleanliness (The smell in the hallway was nauseating and when we woke up the next morning, our pillows had mysteriously developed black spots.), the room was relatively comfortable. 

Soon we headed to visit Hwanseongul, Korea's largest cave. Walking through took about an hour. Going along with Korea's mantra, "natural is not beautiful", the cave was blinged out with a florescent rainbow and court.

Sunday, 11/11, aka Pepero Day in Korea, we set out for Haesindang Park. Pepero is a brand of cookie sticks that look like the number 1. Somehow, the day has caught on as a couples holiday in Korea, much like Valentine's Day, White Day (a holiday in March when guys give sweets to girls), and I've recently been made aware, Christmas Day.

The day began with an overcast sky. By the time we reached the Park, it was raining heavily. I should probably mention here Haesindang Park's second name: The Penis Park. The park is renowned throughout Korea for its abundance of phallic statues.

It seems that the people of the local town had a completely legitimate reason for building this forest of phalluses: a virgin died and her spirit took all of the fish away with her. (Almost?) Logically, the men of this area decided that the way to appease this virgin, who died before her wedding day, and entice her into returning the stolen fish was to erect large carvings of penises.

After all, what girl in her right mind, would not want to return to Earth for a little of this:

Or rather a whole lot of it:

And in case the eight foot erections weren't enough, plenty of creative embellishments give the park more character:

I assume that these statues were built to pay homage to the many men, who (only seeking to revitalize a suffering fish industry) relieved themselves into the ocean. 

So, in one of those, it could only happen in Korea, there we were: two single ladies, hunched over sans umbrellas, strolling around a wiener wonderland in the rain on a romantic holiday. 

When we sought shelter from the rain in a local coffee shop this K-Pop hit came on over the radio:



An appropriate theme song for our weekend.

Despite being thoroughly soaked by the end of our tour, the trip was well worth it. Views of the coast were beautiful, the jokes on-going and we even ran into a tour group of older Korean women in coordinating red and black sweat suits. 

Debate of the day: Penis or a lighthouse?