Suncheon Bay & The Birthday Surprise

What an unforgettable birthday! Sam planned a secret trip for us to take. For weeks I was wondering what we would do, asking subtle questions to get some hints about our destination. Even when we got to the train station I diverted my eyes and tried to keep the secret for as long as possible. I love surprises ☺♥

When we arrived at Suncheon, a city I have never heard of, we were greeted by epic blue skies and beautiful mountain views. Sam told me our first stop was to the Suncheon Bay Gardens.

Here is the tl;dr version in a video Sam put together:

Suncheon Bay National Garden

Looking at the map we realized this garden could take someone a full day to explore completely. There are dozens and dozens of different sections, from Bonsai gardens to international gardens (Mexico to French to Chinese themed), rock gardens and wetland areas. 

Sam told me the plan was to explore the gardens for the afternoon, drop things off at our pension/guest house room, and then go to the bay itself to view the sunset ♥

So we wandered around, taking everything in, and overall relishing in the beautiful day we had for viewing this beautiful place.

Mexican themed gardens

Chinese Garden Section

The Dream Bridge: a collection of 140,000 drawings by children from 16 different countries

The tiles were so cool, they just went on and on and on. I really loved looking at each child's "dream" drawing.

The "Sky Cube" monorail model car

Pretty flowers in the greenhouse section

♥

I've been loving Korea's wildflower scene

Stacking a wish stone here and there

Cute little goaties ♥

Flamingos relaxing outside of the convention center area

Random Aldabra Tortoise in the animal section

As the sun was starting to make its way down we decided we better head over to the Bay. The goal was to make it to the top of the observatory by the 7:34pm sunset.

Our pension/guest room had a really cute, screened-in veranda

Suncheon Bay Ecological Park

The Suncheon Bay Ecological Park and Wetland Preserve is a beautiful expanse of coastal wetland just south of the gardens, facing the South Sea. Visitors can usually take the "Sky Cube" monorail system from the gardens to this area, but on this weekend they were doing safety checks so we were unable to experience it.

The wetland area is registered with the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, and consists of 5,409 acres of tideland and 570 acres of reeds. It is the largest reed bed in Korea. Some of the animals found here are Whooper Swans, Spoonbills, Chinese Egrets, Hooded Cranes, Otters, Crabs, and a host of rare and common migratory birds throughout the year.

It was so cool to visit this place and see these protected wetlands.

The observatory (notice the moon in the top right corner)

Haha so nerdy ☺

Observation cruises went out daily but we were a little too late to go on one

Again, those endless blue skies just made this trip so beautiful and unforgettable

♥

Probably a billion or more mud crabs make their home in these wetlands

One of those cruises making its way back to the dock

After reaching the end of the boardwalk we started our hike up to Yong-san Observatory. The sun was starting to set and all manner of flying gnatty, mosquito-y insect was flying about.

the meditation road looked crowded, and we didn't run into a single person on the hard road

Meditation road vs the hard road

The rice paddies lit up by the sun were so beautiful

Sam is really good at taking panos

Suncheon Aretjang Market

Sunday morning we spent kind of wandering into this huge market. I mean, we got turned around and lost multiple times. It was 90% fresh fruit, veggies, spices, and fish. With about 10% being clothing and accessories.

The most garlic I've ever seen in my life

Squid, Octopus, fish, cuttlefish, eels, clams

Ajumma/Ajussi clothing for days

~

Overall amazing trip! I was so surprised, had no idea about the city at all, and was really impressed with everything we saw (plus I was really impressed with Sam, planning this incredible trip!)

Birthday successful! Thanks for reading and thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it was a great one. 

We hope you enjoyed our pictures/video ☺