I parted the sea!!

You ever hear the story of  Moses parting the sea?  Whelp, now you can hear the story of Apes parting the sea. That's right, I work miracles. Well, maybe that's a stretch, but here's the story....

In the wee hours of the morning, Apes left her home of Jinan and headed on a new adventure. She was off to an area of South Korea called Jindo, to see the phenomenon of the parting sea.

Ok, enough of that...

Yes, this is about to happen!

 Here's the story behind the Jindo Sea Parting: 

"According to the local legend, a long time ago, there were many tigers on Jindo Island. When tigers began appearing frequently in the village, the people fled to Modo Island accidentally leaving behind an old woman named Ppong. The old lady longed to be reunited with her family and prayed for help night and day to the Dragon King of the Sea. Then, one night, the Dragon King appeared to her in a dream and told her to cross the sea by walking on the rainbow that he will provide for her. When she awoke the next morning, she ran to the sea and saw the sea part."

Ppong and the Tiger

I arrived in Jindo around 3pm and our 4 buses unloaded at the Sea Parting Festival. We put on rain boots as we knew we were walking into the sea.

New boots, or rubber socks?

 Once outfitted in our sea walking clothes, we watched traditional Korean dances,  played with Jindo puppies, had some Korean food (I finally tried the penis fish**!), took tons of photos, and ran into friends from other trips I had been on, and then it was time.

Penis Fish!

We started walking from the main land toward the island of Modo (no, not Mordor!), wading through the water. The water never reached our knees, and soon enough it was getting more shallow. As we walked, the sea started to part. By the time we were a little over half way to the island,  it was completely parted. We were in the middle of the sea,  with water on both sides of us,  but sea rocks in front and behind us, connecting the mainland to Modo Island.

A parade had started on the island, and flag carriers and a band of drums came barreling through the path. Everyone was singing and dancing and enjoying the special event. 

The Koreans all pulled out buckets and shovels and started digging in the mud. They pulled out clams, squids, and even starfish.  I got a starfish myself (it was already dead) and got a few shells.  We followed the parade back to the mainland, and as we were on our way back, the tide came in and the sea started to rejoin, and the water was ROUGH! It was coming in quick, and we had to hurry back! Once back, we reunited with our friends, and within a few minutes the sea was back to normal, with no sight of any "parting" taken place. 

Ghamsamnidah,

Apes

**The rest of my pictures wouldn't load for some reason, so check them out in my South Korea album.