Jindo Sea Miracle Festival

Every year, the tide recedes low enough that a path (2.8km long, 40 meters wide) reveals itself between Jindo and Modo island. The Jindo Sea Parting Festival celebrates this miracle with traditional performances, heaps of food vendors, and a rare opportunity for locals & foreigners to walk on land that is normally covered by ocean.

Jindo is the third largest island and located off the southwest coast of South Korea. It is part of the Jeollanam-do Province and known for breeding Jindo dogs, which are native to the island. Jindo is also known for it's annual sea miracle festival.

One of the first things we saw were Jindo dogs!

Jindo puppy

woof! woof! woof!

Roast pig

I woke up at 7:30am to make sure that I secured a bus ticket to Jindo. From Mokpo, you can purchase a bus ticket for 6,000 Won. Travel time takes about 1 hour. The ticket was open-ended meaning that I could take any bus to Jindo that day. Tickets usually have fixed times, so it seems like they anticipated a lot of foreign traffic that day. I returned later to catch the 11:20am bus. I got in line behind a swarm of foreigners who looked my age. Where did they all come from? Most of us ended up catching the next bus at 11:50am. I staggered the trip to meet Shirley in Jindo around 12:30pm, so I was a little late. The bus was packed with foreigners. Usually it's 100% native Korean people, but for once, they were the minority. On the way there, I sat next to a foreigner from Germany who was working in China, but on a brief holiday in Korea. Just from our conversation, he seemed really well-traveled. I met Shirley at the Jindo Bus Terminal, and we purchased shuttle tickets to the festival. That took another 30-40 mins.

We watched the Opening Ceremony at the Hoedong Seaway Stage in a sea of Korean festival goers. We didn't see many foreigners in this neck of the woods. 

VIDEO: Opening Ceremony at Hoedong Seaway Stage

Opening Performance at the Hoedong Seaway Stage

Opening Performance at the Hoedong Seaway Stage

Opening Performance at the Hoedong Seaway Stage

Opening Performance at the Hoedong Seaway Stage

Sunny daze in  Jindo

Shirley couldn't keep her hat on

We sat right behind some important officials -- including the Mayor of Jindo [right]!

Confetti blast!

It was snowing confetti!

We watched part of the congratulatory performance by the Jindo Municipal Folk Art Group, but that got boring so we left.

Jindo dogs on display

Jindo puppy play pen

Panoramic view of the sea

Older women (아줌마) fishing for abalone and clams  

Looks like backbreaking work

The statue of Grandma Ppong and the tiger marks the location where the sea will split. Legend tells us that blood-thirsty tigers threatened the village of Jindo, so inhabitants escaped to nearby Modo island. Grandma Ppong was accidentally left behind. She missed her family very much and prayed that the Dragon King of the Sea would grant her a passage across the water. Soon enough, the Dragon King split the sea. Although she was found collapsed on the path, she was happily reunited with her family and died happily in their arms.

We found the rest of the foreigners on the other end of the festival. There we haggled for rubber boots. 2 pairs for $15 Won instead of $10/pair.

Ready to trek into the sea

Seafood pancake (해물 파전)

Walking through the mud to get to the path

a carpet of seaweed

a starfish! I think it died   :(

Heaps of people inching into the sea as the path slowly reveals itself

Walking into the sea was a neat experience. The land beneath our feet was covered in sand, gravel, rocks, pebbles, empty clam shells, seaweed, and puddles of sea water. The seaweed was slippery. Some of the rocks were sharp. A few of the puddles were deeper than they appeared. Meanwhile, local Koreans --mostly older women equipped with pails and fishnets-- dug ceaselessly for clams, while the circus of foreigners and celebratory hoopla bustled  noisily around them.

a little crab

locals digging for clams

hard at work

VIDEO: Jindo Sea Miracle Festival

drummers at the front line

VIDEO: Jindo Sea Miracle Festival

a 7-sided starfish!

We didn't walk all the way across for fear that the sea would suddenly rise and leave us stranded on Modo island. We also wanted to beat the other foreigners to the bus terminal.

View from the shore

We must have looked crazy running back to the shuttle, but it really was worth it rushing past all of the foreigners that were ahead of us.

On the bus ride home, I befriended a nice girl from South Africa teaching English through the EPIK program. I ended up going out to dinner with her and her friend from New York, who was also really cool. You'll never know who you'll meet on these trips. It's a miracle!