Ulsan: More than just the Hyundai factory and Tongyeong revisited

Hi everybody!!!! (Hi Dr. Nick)...

Been a while again, but I finally have some new stuff to share with you guys...

A few weeks ago my good friend Karabeth and I headed to Ulsan, a major city on the east coast of South Korea. Ulsan is mostly known for having a massive Hyundai car factory there. I think it may be the largest car factory in the country!

Because of this, I have heard that Ulsan is generally not much to look at and suffers from pollution, etc, so I haven't had much of a desire to go there. But then, I found out about a neat little beach called Islan Beach, which has an awesome neighbouring park!

So, KB and I packed our cameras and on a beautiful, warm fall Saturday spent 3 hours on buses to arrive at Ilsan Beach. For those of you who follow my blog and/or live in Korea, Ilsan Beach is like a mini Haeundae or Gwangalli in Busan. Beautiful smooth sand, nice little bay, and tons of small restaurants and coffee shops and the like. Ilsan was a little deserted this time of the year, but still great to walk around at. I thought it would be the perfect place to snap some shots! (And try out my new Light Craft Workshop Fader II variable Neutral Density filter). My first shot of the day at Ilsan Beach:

After walking the beach, we hit up a massive park just down the coast. The scenery changes from smooth sand to cliffs and rocks and paths through the forest. It's a beautiful place, we walked and took pictures until well after dark and still only covered about half the park. We're definitely going to be returning there! The day was kind of hazy and overcast, so I didn't get as many shots as I was hoping, but still got some decent stuff:

At night, we walked down the hill back to Ilsan Beach and got some great views along the way:

Another 3.5 hours on buses and we were home...definitely going back, though! I'm sure not all of Ulsan is scenic, but this corner is definitely worth visiting and re-visiting!

In other random news, I got myself a car!! A sweet 1997 Kia Sephia II with only 100,000 km on the clock. It runs like a dream...perfect little gas-sipping road trip machine:

I miss riding motorbikes, they're definitely fun, but I'm a car guy first and foremost...I tried looking for a bike I can register/insure/ride legally and that's almost impossible around here for the kind of bikes (small engine cruisers) I was looking at. After 5 or 6 false starts (people claiming they have all the proper paperwork, but they don't), I gave up and got a sweet deal on this little guy...I'm stoked...it's really letting me explore more and get out to places less travelled...such as this little waterfall I found near Jindong (Masan). I was sitting at the edge of the rocks and noticed that since the water was coming in at the corner of the pool (rather than in the middle like it usually does with waterfalls), it was making the water swirl...which, when photographed with a long exposure, made the leaves leave a swirly pattern...it was pretty cool...I also took a setup shot because I like them...the setup:

And the final result:

Later that day, I headed to a county park near my house for some night shots (something I've really missed doing, and something that's pretty much impossible without a car in a country like Korea)...still a little too much light pollution (need to get farther out in the country), but I'm pretty happy with it:

Finally, last weekend, I revisited an old favourite: Tongyeong. You guys might remember it from last year:

And:

Tongyeong is a gorgeous little coastal town, with ferries going to all sorts of places, and miles and miles of seaside walkways. In fact, the walkway above had either been extended or they connected two previously independent walkways, but now you can walk for HOURS along this coast path. It's really cool, there are tons of people fishing, walking, families out for strolls, bike rides, etc. More than a few times it reminded me of the Seawall walkway in Vancouver's Stanley Park...which is an awesome comparison, considering it's one of Vancouver's gems.

Tongyeong is always a good time, for a small town it has tons of scenic beauty, and even after having been there half a dozen times, I've never been bored or disappointed.

Unfortunately, by the time I got there on Saturday, it was crappy and overcast, but I managed to get some half-decent shots...same hotel, different view:

The mini island in the above picture (with the water washing over it) is the little rock just to the left of the fishermen in this one):

Finally, when the sun had one down, the sky cleared up a bit, so I got some half-decent colours at the last second...(I have a behind the scenes shot of this as well, I'll put that up later tonight):

And finally, the last shot of the evening, before the light pretty much disappeared:

Well, that's it from me for now...work's been really good, had my annual training (and came away with some stuff I'm hoping to use in the classroom), and I'm gearing up to do my open class, where a bunch of head honchos will come in and decide if they want to keep me on for another year.

I'm not a fan of having to put on a fake show for ONE class, and that deciding my fate (rather than the sum of all my actions throughout the year, every class of every day), but that's how things are done here, so that's how I shall play. I'm hoping to sign one more contract (it will be my third and last one)...so far, the school is already talking about when I should take my bonus vacation for re-signing, and they're telling me to get my medical done (needed for a new contract), so I'm pretty sure everyone wants to see my pretty smiling face back here next year and it's more or less a done deal, and the open class is just a formality. Still, I'm going to dazzle the pants off them with this class!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day, everyone!

T