Wonderful Tongyeong, Korea's Napoli #1

I had been dying to go to Tongyeong for months after my boss showed me her vacation pictures. She did not plan to go there and just drove there by chance (yes, accidentally) all the way from Seoul. She kept saying how this city has a lot to offer and three days won't be enough. But none of my friends ever heard about this city. Everyone rejected my idea of going there.

I finally managed to drag two of my friends after going through a very difficult and stressful time. I was dying to have a refreshing vacation. I said to a friend, "I will pay for our hotel, please just freakin say yes!"

We went there on the first weekend of April. We were there for two days. We took the latest bus from Seoul and arrive there at around 4 AM. I always believe that taking the latest bus and sleep on the bus is a brilliant idea. But the problem is... We had no idea that Tongyeong is not a metropolitan city. Nothing was open for 24 hours, even McDonald's open at 7 AM. So we had to wait for about 2 hours at a convenience store across the terminal before taking the bus to the city center.

Tongyeong at 6.30 AMish

We went to the Cultural Plaza or 'Gangguan Port'. I was really excited and I could easily get it why they call Tongyeong as 'The Napoli of the East' (I don't really like the word 'orient').

I couldn't resist posing with my friend's umbrella

Tongyeong is quite rich with history, especially for the fact that Geobukson Ship is sort of the icon of the city. We also passed by a complex of patriotic relics but I am not really sure why they are there.

On the way to our hostel, we walked through to the Undersea Tunnel, which was amazing. We thought it would be transparent, but no no. As soon as we got out of the tunnel, we could already enjoy the beautiful view of blooming cherry blossoms.

Yes!

Our next destination is the cable car! I had no idea where it would lead us to. I just knew that it is one of the longest cable car in Korea and for sure, the view would be amazing. Our kind host, Jeroen, drove us to the station. Man, he is amazing.

Turned out the cable car leads to Mireuk Mt. None of us is a fan of hiking but we were already up there, it would not be funny if we backed out and just went straight home. So we slowly climbed our way up.

View from the top

We managed to reach the top! With blouse and skirt! Yeah, we were not prepared at all haha. There were quite many people at the top and we also spotted other foreigners. We thought we would be the only ones in such a small city like Tongyeong.

We stayed for quite a while to enjoy the scenery and of course to make worth of the hardship to climb up. Then we headed back to the cable car station and went for lunch. It started to rain really hard after lunch so we could not go straight to Dongpirang Mural Village.

Dongpirang was so much fun, compared to Gamcheon in Busan. I liked the charm of the murals in its small alleys and the overall vibe. Gamcheon has become too commercialized and overrated, of course.

Our last destination was to catch the sunset at Dara Park. Dara Park is realllly remote and hard to reach. We took a taxi and sadly, we were not able to see the sunset as the weather was really bad that day.

It was supposed to be beautiful but...

Still, it was a nice decision to come to Dara Park. I was fascinated by the foggy view of the islands around Tongyeong. The atmosphere of the park itself was very charming and unique.

Next: Tongyeong Day 2
Also check #alirajalanjalan Tongyeong on Youtube.