Phallic Sights and Stalagmites

Phallic Sights and Stalagmites
Samcheok, Korea Rep.

Samcheok, Korea Rep.

It is not often that our blogs need to come with a warning, but this one definitely does. Some of you had a little taster on Facebook of what Samcheok had to offer and it received a mixed review. So don’t say you haven’t been warned. This blog contains pictures that are both graphic and phallic, so either enjoy or log out now.

There was simply one reason that we were headed to Samcheok( which is not really on the tourist trail, is a pain to plan transport around and it is impossible to book accommodation before you arrive), and that is to visit the Penis Park, yes you heard correctly. We took ourselves 3 hours down the coast from Seoul turned up in a ghost town where we were pretty much the only foreigners around and checked into a Love Hotel so we could visit the Penis Park.

Yup that’s right, we stayed in our very first Love Hotel and it was amazing. We arrived and played charades with the girl on the desk to get a room for 3 nights, this left her a little confused, as you can guess by the name, these hotel are generally booked by the hour! We were given our key, a razor, two toothbrushes, a sachet of lube and a condom. Believe it or not, this place was actually very classy and nice, we had a huge ensuite room, a tv and a comfy bed for the same price we were paying for a hostel elsewhere.

Anyway back to the main attraction, the Penis Park or Haesindang Park as it is less commonly referred. It is just an hour by bus from Samcheok so we made our way to the station and hopped aboard. Seemingly the driver is used to the odd random tourist taking this route as he knew exactly where to shout to tell us to get off.

There is a legend behind the park, so if you are sitting comfortably I will enlighten you. It is known as ‘The Legend of Auebawi and Haesindang’. At some unspecified time in history a young couple, madly in love and soon to be wed, was split by tragedy when the young virgin bride left on rocks whilst her lover fished was caught in a storm, her fiancé was on the shore and unable to rescue her and she drowned. The next day, the number of fish caught in this once thriving fishing village dwindled. The following day, they dried up. The townspeople were said to be cursed and wondered what to do, that is, until a local fisherman relieved himself in the sea. The fish returned and men of the town took note. To appease the spurned woman’s inability to consummate, the virile statues were erected and placed in view of the shore. The town then for a time hosted the International Penis Sculpture Competition which provided the ‘wonderful’ sculptures that now adorn the shore.

So there you have it, a bit of Korean Folklore and a lot of penis sculptures, now tell me that you wouldn’t have also hopped on that bus and taken a trip!! It was awesome, simply for its crazy strangeness. There were families there with their kids and plenty of Nan’s and Grandad’s with huge smiles on their faces. I came to Korea expecting it to be quite a conservative country, turns out I was wrong, so so wrong.

Well as much fun as that has been reliving and reviewing the photos we did have one other side trip from Samcheok as 3 days to see one Penis Park would be a bit excessive. So we also went to Hwangseongul cave, the biggest limestone cave in South Korea and apparently one of the largest caves in Asia. Quite frankly this cave was massive, it was a rainy miserable day, so being underground in a damp cave didn’t make too much different, but it was pretty nippy and I was wishing that I had taken a jumper with me. Someone has kindly built a cable car up to the cave and a set of stairs and metal walkways all the way through creating a 2 kilometre walkway. There were a few novel elements of the cave lit up, like a corroded heart, a crocodile, a turtle (there is always a turtle rock in a cave) and even a replica of a dragons head stalactite that was said to have been stolen from the cave by a man who was then struck by lightning and killed whilst making his escape, wow. One of the most interesting features about this cave is that it had a series of waterfalls flowing through it, not a usual cave feature apparently. Cold and damp and with the ever imminent fear of the heavy rain causing a flood or a roof collapse we made our escape back to the real world, although it was so cold, dark and damp we felt like we were still in the cave.

After a quick dinner and a wonder around the rainy streets of Samcheok it was onwards and upwards back the way we had come to the even less well known town of Jeongdongjin, why oh why do we do this to ourselves, this place doesn’t even get a mention in Lonely Planet, but I have my reasons and a very special Birthday treat awaits Tim….