11 June 2022
Inspecting the fleet
Looking at boats in Yeosu
As this is the ancient naval capital of Korea and in my honorary self appointed role of Grand Rear Admiral (retired), I thought it best that I go examine the fleet.
I took a short walk along the shore in the opposite direction of the town. There were thousands of boats. Do they all come back for the weekend? This was not something I allowed back in my day.
There were so many boats I wondered how they actually get them out again, they are not in individual berths, they are all tied to each other, it would take half a day to coordinate getting everyone back out to sea.
In addition to fishing boats I also inspected a ferry. There are a lot of ferries that go to the hundreds of islands, but finding info on where they go, when and where to get on seems hard to come by. There is an actual ferry terminal in town, I have been past it 4 times, and there is a sign at the roped off doors, and never has there been a ferry there at all. I have a theory that is probably wrong, there is a trucking strike in Korea at the moment, the union is called 'The cargo truckers solidarity union', so I am wondering if the ferry operators are part of that union. There are party boats running around, but nothing that looks like an official passenger commuter service.
After all that, I finally also inspected the police fleet. Very well appointed, but needs more guns.
Tomorrow, all the way back to Seoul. All fast trains but I do have to change at Iksan in the middle of the country.
About 1 block from my hotel is the only thing resembling a department store in Yeosu. I had not been in there yet, that would change tonight. Yes I know the photo is crooked, only way I could fit it in.
Down at the fishing port, food trucks are setting up. Actually this is interesting, behind me along the waterfront there are some rather sad looking parks. I can see them out of my hotel window. There has been no one there the last couple of days but now a band has set up, and people are setting up tents. The park extends into the water. I think this is all a setup for people to go fishing all night, with food, music and camping. Lots of kids running around.
Here is the only ferry I have seen the whole time I have been here. Scabs! It is arriving at an unmarked boat ramp.
And the impressive police fleet. The gun looking things are just water cannons.
I walked across all these boats back to the shore.
Some time later and I am doing a few laps of the running track. This is actually the local university, very small. But it is open for old people to entertain themselves on a Saturday night. They were getting in the way of me setting a fast time.
Now for the local Lotte mall. No basement! The 1st level is just a huge supermarket. The 3 levels above it are individual stores like this, in a grid layout more like a factory outlet or market than what we tend to call a mall these days.
Before going to the food court, I went up to the roof car parking for a couple more view shots. I have seen the view of Yeosu enought times now.
OK one more. Quite a few solar cells.
The mall has a little food court with about 6 places to eat. One is Lotteria which is Korean Mcdonalds, over to the right is a shabu shabu, but I would have neither of those....
When Koreans think of Chinese food, this is what they think of. This and ONLY this. If you ever go to Incheon Chinatown, the largest in Korea, there are 200 places serving ONLY this. Actually it is often served with noodles, but the sauce which my research tells me was actually invented in Incheon by a Chinese immigrant, is what Koreans understand is 'Chinese food'. It is a black bean based sauce, with larger bits of bean in it, and probably some pork, and this being Yeosu, probably leftover bits of octopus.