Jindo Miracle Road Festival

The last weekend in March I headed down to the southern coast of Korea and Jindo Island with a large group of friends. We were going for the Miracle Sea Road Festival and traveling with Adventure Korea. The Sea Road Miracle is that, on certain dates in the year, the tide goes down low enough that one is able to walk on a sand bar, totally out of the sea, from the large Jindo Island to a nearby smaller island during a span of a few hours. Unfortunately, that did not happen for us! The sea road stayed totally submerged, only shrinking to calf or knee-level water.

The festival was still fun, though. Jindo Island is known for a particular breed of dog, the Jindo dog, known for its intelligence and hard-working attitude. Sure enough, the dogs were everywhere on the island! We also got to see a show where the doggies strutted their stuff and did lots of tricks. There was a sort of festival near the area, too. Live music was had, despite the pouring-down rain, and snacks were tasted.

The basic schedule was as follows: Saturday morning we caught the bus early from Daejeon and headed down to the island. We watched a cultural performance and then the dog show. After that, we had dinner and checked out the festival. Sunday morning at around 3:30 AM, we woke up and headed down to the water where we attempted to cross the sea. That didn't work out, so we went back and rested a bit before checking out the festival some more during the day and then heading back to Daejeon.

I'd definitely check this festival out. It's worth seeing, if only for the cute puppies and the fireworks!

traditional drummers

dog art

jumping performance dogs

dogs jumping through flaming hoops

dancing performance dogs

The dogs and trainers thank us for attending their show.

This is most of my group heading down to the sea parting. Check out those waders!

This is my group before entering the sea. The boys are very happy to have fire.

Look at all those people, many of them still drunk or even drinking, wandering into the sea at night while holding open flames. Korea!

After we had walked quite far into the sea, an announcement came over the loudspeaker: "The sea road is closing time. Please get out. Do not be afraid. Get out now." Then they started shooting off fireworks, so of course everyone stopped to gawk at the fireworks instead of getting out of the sea. Nathan panicked at this point: "What are you guys doing? She said get out! This is my nightmare!" We shushed him and continued to ooh and ahh.

more fireworks

Liz, me, my crazy eyes, fireworks

Sunday-morning group shot

This adorable teenager Jindo puppy loved to nom hands.

The police mascots were really excited to take a photo with the waygookins. We also took one with the national parks mascot and with several actual police officers as they mimed pointing things out to us. I think we will be in the brochure next year.

So we were just wandering through the fair when we stumbled across a literal PEN OF PUPPIES. It was a straw enclosure full of floppy, sleepy Jindo babies. So we spent a long time there.

Amanda's puppy was none too keen on this whole being held concept. That face! 

ITS A GIANT PILE OF PUPPIES. JUST CHILLING. FREE FOR THE SNUGGLING.
Seriously, look at how that one loves his little red ball.

Apparently these are the traditional outfits for the parade. Sadly (?), we missed most of the parade because it was time to head back home.