Tongyeong: Day tip to Bijindo

Beautiful Bijindo beach!

From the Tongyeong Ferry Terminal it takes 40 mins to get to Bijindo. One way ticket is about 12k ($12) but there are only a few ferries returning back to the main land. Tickets can be purchased at the terminal the day of. On Bijindo there are pensions and people do stay there for a few days, but there is literally nothing there. This is a location where you come just to enjoy the beach because there is nothing to do, unless you want to hike. 

On the ferry going to Bijindo

Lighthouse

There was actually a lot to see of the ferry to Bijindo. There are so many small islands around the southern part of Korea.

Random island

This is your view when you get to Bijindo. It's so beautiful.

Bijindo beach

Right away we wanted to hike because we didn't want to get pressed for time. The hike seemed like it would be easy. We looked at the map and decided to take the shorter route thinking it would save us time. Boy we were wrong, this route was hard because it was very steep. I haven't hiked in forever plus it was extremely hot which made it even more difficult. It took us about 40 min to get up to one of the look out spots but the better one was higher. 

Hiking

Rocky path

But as soon as I saw the view I knew this climb was worth it. It was amazing. It reminded me of something I would see in Thailand, even though I haven't been there yet. Bijindo is actually called "The dumbbell" island because of the two islands on both sides with a narrow pathway in the middle. The water is so blue and clear. It's amazing how many beautiful islands Korea has and I've already been to three of them.

View from the summit

In the background you can see some of the other small islands in the background.

View of islands

View of other islands

We stayed up here for about 15-20 minutes because it was just us. The breeze was amazing since we were literally sweating buckets. We had to change into our bikini tops on our hike because we were so hot and sweaty. We just took selfies and pictures with the view.

Posing with Bijindo

I didn't want to leave because it was so beautiful. Also, I was dreading the hike back down. Since we didn't get to the top of the mountain we had to take the way we came back down. I guess it's not the hardest hike i've done but in this weather is was.

Us-sie

Bijindo

It actually took us about 20 minutes to get back down. The only season it was hard was because it was steep. We actually slipped a few times going down. Also, because of the hard climb up my legs felt really shaky. We also hadn't eaten since breakfast and we were hungry and ran out of water. *Note to self- bring lots of water when going hiking* When we came down we walked around the the boardwalk but all the restaurants were closed; there was only like 2. We decided to just go in the water and cool off a bit. The water was freezing, even worse than Jeju. It felt like someone just used a hose and filled up a small swimming pool. We couldn't go past our waist because it was just so cold. Instead we just stood around people watched and took pictures.

Selfies in the sea

On the beach there was a lot of water equipment like canoes, tubes, etc. but I think you have to be staying at the pension to use them. On the beach one thing we noticed was that it was all foreigners. There was only about 30 people on the beach, and every single one was a foreigner.

Water sports

Everyone on our ferry had backpacks, suitcases or coolers with them. We actually had nothing, we thought we would be able to find food on the island but we were wrong. We went to Bijindo on the actual Chu'seok day, so no restaurants were open and we were starving. We actually found a little store that had ramen which is what we ate. Moral of the story, you need to bring snacks and drinks with you here.

Mountains

We took the last ferry, which was at 4:55 pm. This island was beautiful. But I think I would have been okay being here for like 2.5 hours. To get there we took the 11:10 ferry and got there 11:50 am, so that was a lot of time doing nothing. After we ate we just sat off to the side and drank our beers and people watched. This island is definitely worth the visit if you are in Tongyeong, especially because I don't think there are any other places like this in Korea.