"Once upon a time,

in a coastal village there lived a beautiful girl who used to gather seaweed. In the distance there was a rock called Aebawi where plenty of seaweed grew. One day, this young girl was taken out to the rock by a man in a boat. The man, who had a pact to marry her, promised to return to the rock to pick her up after she had collected seaweed there and he went back to the village. At dusk, she waited for the man to come and take her home, but he was unable to come and fetch her due to wild waves. That very night a terrible storm arose and a large wave struck the rock, drowning the ill-fated girl. From the time of her death, the fishing catches turned bad for the village and so a rumor started circulating among the villagers that it was due to the dead girl's bitter soul. Finally, the people of the village decided to offer carved wooden phallics as a sacrifice inside Haesindang to console the bitter soul of the unmarried girl.
Mysteriously, after that, the village again enjoyed a good catch. The ceremony where wooden phallics are offered is still held even today on the first full moon of the lunar year."

-Samcheok Fishing Village Fork Museum

Possibly number 1 on Lauren's (yep, you're my excuse^^) "to-do in Korea" list (alongside being naked with strangers at one of Korea's hot-spring spas) was to ogle at the giant phalluses at Haesindang's Penis Park. Having got right in there with the saunas and public baths as soon as we arrived in country, it was time to tick box number two and check out the penises.

At the weekend we took the three hour bus journey to Samcheok on the east coast of Korea (which took a whopping near five hours on the way back), and on quickly booking into our quite honestly awesome motel (think wide screen TV, high speed internet and decent sized bed with no holes in the covers for 35 000 won, or approximately £17.50 between two) we hopped on bus 24 (with the help of a couple of nice high school girls) which dropped us outside the park.

Granted, it was a little silly, but some of the representations were undoubtedly constructions of the imagination! It was just a bit bizarre to see little old ladies tending to their seaweed and oh! up on the horizon are some giant penises. Certainly got a bit of a eyeful when we reacted to a "여기요!" (over here!) to be faced with an old Korean man acting out some graphic fellatio... I just can't shake the memory! *cries*

The following morning, while in the area, we hopped on to bus number 60 which took us to Hwanseon cave. So it turns out I'm a little less fit than I thought as I'm sure the climb up the mountain shouldn't have been that tough, but it was so refreshing to get some fresh air and green scenery into my system. The caves themselves were huge, but not that inspiring to a non-geographer such as myself. Still, the signs around really seemed to be clutching at straws in order to maintain the visitor's interest (cave popcorn? Statue of the Virgin Mary -- really??) but certainly made for more amusing photographic opportunities.

Despite the cold rainy long ride home, it was a nice weekend away from the big city. Have developed tonsillitis again though, so that's not so much fun, and I'm a little dubious of that throat-specialist-of-a-doctor I've been seeing since the last dose of antibiotics he gave me didn't seem to solve the problem...