On 6 June 2013, South Korea celebrated Memorial Day. The celebration remembers all those who died in military service. To enjoy the break from school, as well as take advantage of the start to a beautiful summer, Travelinds headed to Hagampo beach in Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do.
A Beach Worth Seeing on the West Coast of South Korea
From our house, it is a drive of about 1 hour 30 minutes, and we we were not disappointed. This West coast beach is beautiful! When we arrived, the beach itself was almost deserted, despite it being a public holiday. It welcomed us with clean sand, blue water and an island to explore at low tide on the one side. On the other side, there were some rocks to clamber over. What a gem it is hidden in this Taean National Park site!
Finding a shady spot on the far side of the beach, we settled in for the day like good South Africans do. Why not? There was perfect weather (about 26 degrees Celsius), a slight breeze to keep us cool, sunshine, peace and quiet and even a few South African snacks left to keep us fed (acquired on my recent trip back home!). All in all, it was an absolutely perfect beach day not too far from our tiny apartment!
Lunch Around the Corner from Hagampo Beach
After a nice, quiet time to relax on the beach, we needed to find some lunch at about 3pm. We ventured into the small village made up of mostly small restaurants, tiny shops, a camping area and guesthouses (called pensions). Eventually, without really reading anything right because it’s all in Korean, we settled on some mool naeng myeon (물냉면). This is a summer-only noodle soup containing kimchi, radish and fresh veg — with big pieces of ice in the soup. So refreshing after a hot, sweaty beach day!
We even watched the day end with a beautiful sunset over Hagampo at 19.50pm. Then, we headed home.
Memory Maker on Hagampo Beach, Taean
We can’t leave it at that without mentioning the highlight of the day! On this particular trip, it was seeing a group of seals — yes, real and wild ones — swimming up and down in the bay! You read that right, living and sea-wild seals right there in the Yellow Sea of Korea.
We love animals of all kinds, so we went over to another family on the beach and asked them if they had seen the seals. We also wanted to check that we had the right name for them: mool-gae. Mool (물) means water and gae (게) means dog. The direct translation is “water dog,” which makes sense I guess.
The other family looked at us as if we were absolutely crazy. They said, “No! No animals. No animals. Barrier.” They had pointed to the “net barrier” that was about five metres off the shore. Is that supposed to be a shark net of sorts? We laughed heartily, and promptly drew their attention to the actual seals playing about 25 meters offshore.
It was great to see the amazement and disbelief on their faces. They slowly realised that these Westerners were not, in fact, crazy. They, too, really saw the seals swimming in the bay. The lady looked so shocked and said, “My first time to see this! Thank you!”
Wow! Nature-loving South Africans educating Koreans about their local sea-life? It was a proud and happy moment.
Travelinds recommends visiting Hagampo for all who love the beach, nature, forest walks and camping. It’s a perfect spot, and there are quite a few other beaches along this same coastline. If you have a car and want to explore, the Taean coastline has over 30 beaches, including Mallipo beach, which is over 3km long. This one is still on our must-see list!
