OFF MAP KOREA-Outdoor Activity Information in Korea

Nobody Told Me the Whole Island Was Purple I expected a few Instagram-friendly flower beds and a gift shop selling lavender soap. What I found on Banwol and Bakji islands was more disorienting than that — rooftops painted violet, fishing nets dyed indigo, school walls in lilac, even the handrails on the jetty. Sinan County did not put purple in one corner for the cameras. They painted the entire inhabited landscape and then planted lavender and chives between the houses for good measure. It sounds gimmicky. Frankly, on paper it reads as gimmicky. On foot, in the early morning before tour coaches arrive from Mokpo, it is one of the more quietly surreal walking experiences I have had anywhere in Korea. Why You Almost Certainly Need a Driver to Get Here Banwol-do sits in the Sinan archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula, roughly an hour south of Mokpo by car and then a short bridge crossing. Public transport from Seoul or Busan to the island involves a KTX or ...