The Night Train to Jongdongjin

 Saturday, 12:35am, I am struggling through the haze of a premature awakening, to introduce my left leg to the correct hole in my trousers, which, given the relative dearth of options for such an operation, suggests a hopeless lack of preparedness for the journey that lies ahead of me. Luckily I am soon acompanied by Son Mi La who possesses enough sense for us both (thankfully by this time I am entirely betrousered), as well as the means to ambulate chancers such as myself from their apartments to the railway station in Sangju where we hope to make the 01:08 to Jongdongjin. Thankfully we do so and once aquainted with our seats on the train, the only requirement for the next six hours is to abandon our heads to the gentle lolling and occasional rolling which invariably accompanies the uneasy slumber of the weary on public transportation at such unearthly hours.

Jongdongjin is something of a tourist draw here in the Republic, thanks - in no small part - to a Korean drama which introduced the town to millions during the mid nineties and accounts almost entirely for its modern day popularity. Being on the east coast puts us in perfect sun rise territory and the intention of most is just this, for us - however - the slow meandering of our vehicle through the sharp inclines of the northern provinces has rendered such an appointment impossible but then, I have never been one to jump on a bandwagon.

Jumping off ours sees us alighting exquisitely close to the ocean and - but for the inconvenience of the train station's fence - we step off our carriage less than 10 meters from the sand of the shore. there is little to fill the time in Jongdongjin between our arrival at around 6am and our return train at 1:30pm but this is exactly the charm of the place, we manage to wander up and down the coast several times before our lack of sleep takes its toll and deposits us upon the sandy foreshore for a rest and an ice cream. Our lethargy though, does little to dampen our enthusiasm and we manage a tilt at the sea, inso doing we become the only inhabitants of the foreshore to immerse themselves beyond the hight of a kneecap - koreans, you see, do not swim - and before long our unorthadox actions have drawn the attention and constellation of those in our vicinity. 

A short while and several tours later, we are ready to make the taxing journey back to the sleepy environs of Sangju, a twelve hour round trip may seem like a day wasted to some and to that I would always reply that there are few better ways to waste a day!