Amethyst Caves and Bamboo Forests

So, Ulsan has obviously been having a big tourism push for the last few years. I can totally understand why its not the first stop on everybody's list. The tag 'industrial' will probably do that for you. Anyway they have devised a list, 'The Twelve Scenic Sights of Ulsan'. Its in a lot of the pamphlets here (I'd say guide books, but Ulsan isn't even mentioned in the Korea Lonely Planet). Michelle and I (but mainly I, because I'm sad like that) have decided to try see all twelve before we leave, one of which is the view across a petrochemical complex at night...err.... nice.

Last weekend we set out to cross two off of our list. The first is Paraesso Waterfall, about a few bus rides away. When I asked people at work what it was like they just said 'Umm, Tony... it's...umm, just a waterfall, umm...' So of course, I was full of anticipation.

To get there we had to get a bus to Eonyang. What a shithole. Super old school Korea. It had a lovely sewagey aroma and was full of angry old women selling bags of chilli's off the muddy floor. We also found that the bus to the waterfall was in four hours. Nice.

As an alternative we decided on some Amethyst caves that were closer. The bus was ONLY an hour and a half away. Unbelievable. No wonder they need a tourism boost. Anyway, we went to get something to eat to pass the time, getting stared at significantly more than usual for Korea. I guess they don't get many westerners round there. I tried out some Korean on the owners of the place we got food and they genuinely thought I knew Korean. I felt proud. Well, until they started to have a deep conversation with me. Cue blank looks.

Anyway, we got our bus. Then realised that we had no idea where we got off. We spied out the person with a nice camera at the front. He had to be going somewhere picture worthy. When he got off, we would! Easy. This did result in a 45 minute walk to the caves, but c'est la vie. We did walk past another of the twelve sights though! A river with some carvings in it. Less than impressive, but totally crossing it off the list.

The caves were good, if not totally mental. I mean, it started off all cavey and reasonable. Then before I knew it we were watching a variety show performance with acrobats. Did I mention that we were deep in a cave on the side of a mountain?! Then the exhibits got a little fruity. Egyptian artifacts? Huh? Dinosaur paintings? Really?! It kind of had nothing to do with amethysts at all. Here are a few pictures...

We got outside after and realised that we were miles from anywhere with no transport links. The giftshop guy dutifully rang us a taxi off his own mobile which got us back to stinky Eonyang. In the end it only cost a couple quid. Could have damn well done with that before the hours of waiting. Pshhhh. Anyway I think we'll try for the waterfall again this coming weekend and taxi it all the way. Anything to not have another lengthy wait with the little cranky Korean ladies.

The next day we tried for another of the twelve sights. The bamboo forest. This was a walk away from us for once. Pretty refreshing. We stopped off at the gym, casually located by the river. A Jesus man came up to us and gave us the good news in Korean, then asked if we wanted our photo taken. I just said yes, why not eh? So here is Michelle and I posing awkwardly bysome shoulder press machines. One for the mantlepiece I think.



We got to the bamboo forest about 30 minutes later after a nice walk along the river. Here are some shots from the walk...

We actually ended up in downtown Ulsan, so we hopped across the river to Seongnamdong, THE place for cheap shopping. There we got a little overwhelmed by the Christmas shop (see below...)

A Christmas tree, lots of lights and some banners later, we got back home. I'll show what our lovely little apartment looks like soon...

I think we're allowed to have the decorations up early. After all, there are no Christmas lights, displays, adverts or anything here! Our place is going to be the most festive place for miles around.

So anyway, that's two of the twelve sights down, with another coming this weekend. I should mention that we checked out another two already, the World Cup Sports Complex and Daewangam. Just Google it or something...