The Ramblings of Loren Christopher

It’s that time of year again, my precious week vacation in the summer.  Last year I went to Beijing and Shanghai over the summer break, but this year I had my eyes set on Russia.  It’s a country I’ve always been curious about, mostly because of the dark history and the Cold War.  So, here I am finally (arrived yesterday) and I still cannot believe I am in Russia right now!!  Haha.

The flight was lacking in leg room and smiles, but we landed safely, went straight on through immigration without any questions.  I had heard so many stories of people getting hung up at immigration and being drilled a bunch of questions, but it took less than a minute, she just checked my tourist visa (which WAS a grueling process to get) and let me on through.

The train ride into the center of Moscow was interesting.  I got a chance to see the slums.  Small small little rooms with tin roofs all adjacent to one another.  Packs of wild dogs (big scary wolf-looking dogs) roaming around.  It justified my feelings that I didn’t want to backpack through the country or venture out of the city on my own, not this trip at least.

My hotel is lovely….room service, about 8 different restaurants, spa, pool, casino, the whole nine yards.  I checked in last night and hopped on the subway to go straight into the city center (it stays light out until around 11:30pm).  I had heard that the subway stations were beautiful, and they are!  Marble columns, statues, frescoes, murals, chandeliers….but all old looking, definitely was like that under the Soviet Union.  It’s very cool to see all this stuff firsthand!!

Anyway, I headed to the Red Square.  I found my way around a few corners, and then all of a sudden through a big red gate I could see St. Basil’s Cathedral off in the distance.  I seriously stopped, smiled, and said “Oh my god.”  I was in a trance and just kept walking closer and closer with a huge smile on my face thinking “I cannot believe I’m really here right now, this is crazy!”

Not to brag, but I am a fairly seasoned traveler (23 countries).  There are amazing things I’ve done and seen….but it is hard to remember the last time I was in awe of being somewhere monumental like this.  The Great Wall of China was cool, but I could believe I was there.  The Acropolis was amazing, but it didn’t give me goosebumps.  Walking around the Red Square though (yesterday and today), I still cannot shake the feeling of wonder.

So I snapped some pictures last night before it got dark.  Walked around just a bit and then headed back to my hotel.  Today was a big day though.  I went back to the Red Square and did a tour of the Kremlin.  Again, just drove myself nuts thinking about how Nicholas II, Stalin, Lenin and many others have lived on the grounds I was now walking on.  I don’t idolize those people, that’s not it.  They are just such huge figures of history.

Well the Kremlin is enormous and it took about 5 hours to see (and I didn’t see everything).  The Armory was my favorite though.  It houses jewels from the previous Russian dynasties.  They had everything there….Catherine the Great’s wedding dress, the throne of Ivan the Terrible, amazing jewelry, crowns and chariots covered in gold.  It was more than impressive!  I went on to see the changing of the guards at the eternal flame memorial for the Russians who died in WWII.  The guards picked their legs up as high as their heads when they walked, and then stomped their black leather boots against the pavement.  I got it on video…super cool.

I went into St. Basil’s, walked around the Kremlin, went to a couple other cathedrals, ate at a really good Russian restaurant (had sausage), then went to a souvenir shopping district called Arbat.  The place was really interesting and reminded me of the French Quarter in New Orleans kind of, except it was Russian, not French.  I bought a couple things, but am doing more shopping tomorrow.  I was exhausted from the day and am now back at the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow I’m going shopping, will visit the Cosmonaut Museum, The Bolshoi Theatre, maybe take a riverboat tour at night.  I’m also supposed to meet up with a couple friends I met a long time ago through couchsurfing.

What else to say about this city.  It’s not quite what I expected.  It seems much safer than I imagined.  The people remind me of the Czechs (I find myself thinking about Prague a lot while I’m here), but the Russians are different in a lot of ways it seems.  Customer service is NOT their forte.  I was confused when I went into St. Basil’s Cathedral….I had bought an entry ticket and paid a little extra to be able to take photos inside.  

There was some confusion with the lady who takes your ticket at the door.  She wa trying to explain to me (in RUSSIAN) that I needed a different ticket.  I was confused and quickly whipped out my miming techniques.  ”Photo” (pointing to my camera) “Ticket” (showing the ticket) “I paid” (place one hand over chest….with other hand, rub fingers together to symbolize money).  I was sure she’d get it.  Instead she shook her head and gave me the “shoo, get out of here” signal, while murmuring something under her breath.  Now you must keep in mind, Czech and Russian are similar languages, and I did learn a couple curse words in Czech….I am 99% sure that she told me to “f*** off” in Russian.  She works at a CATHEDRAL folks, come on!!

It all worked out in the end though.  The people have been through an enormous amount of history.  I was watching this 90-year old woman on the subway, just wishing I could sit down with her and a translator and ask her questions.  Geeze, she has lived through Stalin, Lenin, WWII, the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and now the Russia of today.  Can you imagine??

I am absolutely fascinated by this city and my eyes are wide open taking everything in all the time.  Two more full days here, then I’m riding 1st class on an overnight train to St. Petersburg, which I have a feeling will be more beautiful, less communistic feeling, more European-like.  But, we shall see…

For more pictures of my trip in Moscow, go to my Moscow flickr album.

Korea is so funny sometimes.  You travel just a couple hours away from Seoul (or less) and soon stumble across some special sight or nature that takes you into a completely different world.  Whether it’s hills of green tea fields, deep caves that go on forever, rocky cliff beaches, bamboo forests, or in the case of today….a sheep farm that looks as though it is set in the hills of Scotland, Korea still amazes me.

I am a big fan of the Official Korean Tourism Guide website , and had stumbled across some information about this sheep farm a couple hours west of Seoul.  The photos caught my interest, and I decided I had to go visit just to see if it really was that beautiful!  After having lived here for a year and a half, I still have slip-ups getting around.  The website said that the bus station to go to is Heonggye, but in Korean it reads quite different.  So I had some difficulty getting a ticket, finally went to an internet cafe near the big bus terminal and found out how it was written in Korean and realized I had been pronouncing it totally wrong.

(future note for those of you who decide to visit, it is pronounced Hwayng-gyae, not Heonggye)

Half of the reason I enjoy visiting places around Korea is simply the bus ride itself.  The sheep farm is located in Gangwangdo, which is a really mountainous province.  I was reading today on the bus ride over there, that an ancient Chinese philosopher once said of Korea, “If you could somehow squash the entire country flat, it would be as big as China.”  That may be ’stretching’ it a bit too far…but it does indeed have some beautiful mountains.

Well, 2 and a half hours later I arrived in Heonggye (see proper pronunciation above).  Take a taxi to the farm from the bus terminal, it will cost you about 10 minutes and 7,000 won.  I was actually quite worried because I had read online that the farm would close if the weather wasn’t permitting, and it looked like it was about to rain any minute.  They were open though (9am-6pm in the summer, 9am-5pm in the winter) and for just about 2 bucks entry fee I was hiking my way up the green hills, surrounded by a sea of Koreans.  I was the only foreigner there, didn’t see a single other one today!

I am exaggerating the hike, it really wasn’t so bad.  Evidently they care for over 200 sheep here on the farm.  Pretty soon I could hear them “Baaa”-ing (so cute, I laughed when I first heard them) and started spotting them everywhere.  At first you walk by their stables where some are hanging out and eating hay.  You can buy a little basket of hay and feed them yourself if you want….the Koreans were taking full advantage of this opportunity for a photo shoot.  Young couples taking turns feeding and snapping shots of each other with their cell phones, families with the little kids throwing hay at the sheep and yelling “Yangi, meoggeo!!” [Sheep, eat it!]  (yeah my Korean is getting better, haha.)

A bit further up and you have to stop and turn around to admire the view!  Just amazing green mountains everywhere, the rain was about to come so you could smell it in the air, but it was also much cooler for being July.  I snapped some photos of course, which felt REALLY good.

I have been so busy with my promotion, working on projects, and studying Korean that I have hardly had any time to be creative and work on my photography skills lately.  This Saturday I set aside specifically to enjoy myself and be out in nature.  Who knew that a trip to Scotland was just a couple hours away?  I hope to go back and explore the area more again, possibly in the winter since they have a big ski resort nearby too.

A couple weekends ago I went with friends to the east coast of S. Korea, we visited a small little beach city called Samcheok.  Things were starting to warm up a bit and we were all severely in the mood for a weekend getaway trip!

The bus ride (very comfortable bus) was almost 4 hours….we left around 7am so got there in good time.  We were dropped off at a small bus station, and after a few of our feeble attempts at conversing in Korean, we found out which local transport bus would take us down along the coast.

It was so nice to see the ocean again.  I’ve always said that I need to live near the water…there’s just something about it.  I never fully realize how much I love it until I’ve been landlocked for a while and then get to see the wide open ocean again.  The bus stopped along a few coves and beaches, and we just got off at the one that we thought looked the most beautiful.

We searched around for a 민박

 (guesthouse) and found a lovely one right by the water so we checked in.  The owner was an older Korean man and was soo nice.  It was the start of the tourist season so we were the only people there, perhaps some of the first customers of the season, so he was waiting on us hand and foot to make sure we had everything we needed, hehe.

We immediately dropped off our bags and took a stroll along the beach.  Mind you, when I say it was “starting to warm up” in Korea, it was still a little chilly and the water was FREEZING so none of us went for a swim.  It was nice to walk in the sand again though, hear the waves, look out into the blue blue water.

We ventured further down the coast to a park (actually hitched a ride on a high school bus, which was hilarious).  Haeshindang Park is beautiful.  I’d been there before, but not with my big group of friends so I wanted to show them.  The water is beautiful and there’s a big rocky cove that is just stunning.  I felt like I was back on one of the Greek islands!

So, our first day was a relaxing one….we headed into town before sunset and ate at a lovely Italian restaurant called “Buona”, then had Baskin Robbins and walked around a bit.  We actually ran into a couple other foreigners who live in Samcheok so we were talking with them.  They said there are only about 30 foreigners in the entire city…seems like they all relatively know each other.  They verified that there’s not much to do there, but it is a scenic place to live.  The thought of living there for a year just did not appeal to 

me at all, haha.  I’d rather go there for a vacation any day.  Seoul has it’s crowds and long subway rides, etc, but at least you could never get bored here.

The next day we headed to Hwibangsa cave….our guesthouse owner was gracious enough to chauffeur us all the way over there for a nominal fee.  This cave is the largest limestone cave in all of Asia.  It was so big!!  It’s cool that they had bigger walkways and colored lights here and there to give it a more dramatic effect.  Definitely a must for anyone planning on visiting Samcheok.

The walk up to the cave was a little exhausting, and it was drizzly out.  But the fog and drizzle really set the mood as we were up in the mountains.

Coming back to Seoul, we felt like we got a lot out of the trip.  Sandy relaxing beaches, and then foggy mountains and a huge cave….not bad for just two days and one night.  Like I said, this was my second time visiting Samcheok, but I’ve enjoyed it so much both times that I’m not sure if it will be my last.

It’s the Lunar New Year holiday this weekend, which means I have Monday and Tuesday off (gotta love 4-day weekends)!  Traditionally, Korean people spend this time with their family in the countryside or in their homes.  Things are closed in Seoul and the streets tend to lose their bussle.

Last year for this holiday (yes, it has in fact been a year now that I’ve lived here), being newly arrived, I took advantage of the fact that it wasn’t as crowded and went exploring around the city.  This time though, I wanted to get away.  Originally I thought some friends and I were going somewhere together….but the closer the holiday came, no one had made any plans, and the idea of getting away on my own for a while sounded more and more attractive.

So Sunday morning I left for Asan.  It’s close-by Seoul, just an hour or so south.  I didn’t want to go far because the whole country is traveling on the roads this weekend and I knew traffic would be bad.  Three snowy and scenic hours later, I had arrived in the small city. There’s nothing too special about Asan from what I can tell.  It’s not nestled in the mountains, there’s no real river running along side of it, it’s not village-y looking.

They have an old-looking cathedral that’s nice, an old folk village, and the main reason I went….about 10 minutes away is “Spavis“, one of the biggest spa resorts in Korea.  I checked into a motel near the bus terminal right away, dropped off my bags and headed out with my camera.  The receptionist lady called after me, “Adjosshi!  Adjosshi!”.  I just kept walking.  The word “adjosshi” in Korean is typically used in reference to an old man, of at least his 40’s.  Turns out she was in fact talking to ME!  Thanks to our miming techniques I figured out she was asking if I wouldn’t rather just get some sleep at the motel first.  I explained that I wasn’t tired and wanted to walk around….heck, it was noon anyway!

This city could be a dump for all I know, but in the fresh snow everything just looked so pretty.  There were, of course, the slushy parts….and since I didn’t bring any snow boots I couldn’t wander off too far.  But it was nice to venture through the small streets and take photos again, it had been a while and I was in a creative mood.

I had some sundubu-jigae (spicy tofu stew, one of my favs) and then took a taxi over to Spavis.  Wow, this place was pretty big, certainly bigger than any jim-jil-bang I had ever been to.  It has its own water park and community pools for men and women, as well as the separate saunas.  I headed straight for the sauna.  I can’t tell you how much I love the sauna aspect of Korea….and this place knew how to do it right.

There were so many different kinds of baths.  Salt baths, green tea, mountain berry, red wine, herbal mint, bamboo, rice wine, medicinal, etc.  They had a bunch indoors, and when I felt like I was about to pass out from all the heat, I stepped outside on the patio (in the snow) and then dipped into a couple of the outdoor baths surrounded by bamboo.

I dried off and treated myself to a full-body massage and then foot massage afterwards.  Then visited the Dr. Fish spa they had as well.  I can tell you, this is the kind of relaxing and refreshing thing that stays with you for a while.  I headed back to the city later in the evening and just relaxed in my motel room and read a book.

Sometimes it’s nice to get away by yourself and have some time alone.  I think the major thing was that I just wanted to get away!  But I am back in the big city feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, and ready for my Birthday weekend (next weekend) in which much fun will be had out on the town, my friends are going to make sure of it.

Thanks to the advice of my co-worker (Ben), I took a trip to Sobaeksan National Park today.  Ben visited this place soon after he arrived in Korea, and I remember him telling me about how beautiful it was.  Riding the train through mountains that remind him of the Alps, he got off the train at a stop called Huibangsa, and spoke so highly of it that I knew I had to check it out some day.  Ben has traveled everywhere it seems, so if he tells you a certain place is amazing, you don’t do much questioning.

What better time to visit these mountains than fall, right?  Well thanks to a couple articles in the Korean Times newspaper, I was prepared and knew exactly which dates the autumn foliage would be at its peak and where.  I had to go at it alone this time, since everyone was busy this weekend or trying to save money.  Actually I enjoy traveling by myself a lot, so I was glad to get away and have some “me time”.

The bus ride took about two and a half hours from Seoul (not bad at all, especially considering I’ve taken 16-hour bus rides in the past), and I arrived around 10am.  I decided only to spend the day here and not overnight it, because I have lots of stuff going on tomorrow in Seoul and I needed to be back.  I immediately headed for the Gosu Cave.  Lonely Planet Korea had a rave review of this cave (noted as the best in Korea), so I decided to check it out first.

It wasn’t until I was descending into the darkness of Gosu, that I realized I hadn’t really been to a cave since I was a little boy.  I remember going with my family to some cave around Tennessee or Virginia, but I think that had been my only legit “cave experience”.  This only added to my excitement of course.  At first it was a long series of tubes with tiny and unimpressive stalactites and stalagmites around each corner.  But after about a 5-minute walk I heard the group of Koreans ahead of me gasping and saying “Waaa!”  (Their version of ‘wow’)

I looked up to see what all the fuss was about, and there was an enormous crevasse with mist of water shooting down.  It seemed to go up forever, and looking below the stairwell beneath me….I couldn’t see it end!  So as I continued to climb the stairs and squeeze through tiny pathways, I quickly realized what an amazing natural feature these things are.  Just how many millions of years old are these formations, who else has seen them before me?  I had a deep moment there in that cave I must tell you….but soon I was exhausted from hiking around it in the humid air, and it was a relief to break out into the cold daylight again.

Alright, it was time to check out the hailed Huibangsa.  I will admit it, I was a little tired, and only having the day there made me a little less patient than I normally would be.  I was waiting on the bus to come, and after about 10 minutes I decided to just take a taxi instead.  The ride was fantastic, swerving around the mountains…and after about 20 minutes (and 15,000 won!) I had arrived.

A huge sigh of relief struck me as we drove past the parking lot and I noticed it was practically empty.  That’s another reason I was so excited about coming here, because Ben had said that it wasn’t too touristy and you would really be able to enjoy the nature.  Well…he was right!  I’m not sure why this place isn’t packed with tourists, it certainly has all the attributes you could hope for in a peaceful and serene valley in the mountains.

I payed the $3 entrance fee and started making my way up the small mountain.  I just have to say, that I really love this time of year.  It may very well be because I never got to experience it much growing up in Florida, but it just seems electric with all of the bright colors surrounding you, the sound of crunching leaves underneath your feet, a slight bit of cold.  It’s all so temporary that you are really forced to be in the moment.

In any case, I eventually reached the temple near the top.  There were speakers softly playing Buddhist chants, which of course added to the effect.  I had one of those “Wow, holy crap I’m in Asia!” moments, haha.  It’s strange because just looking around I felt like this could easily be North Carolina, or somewhere in the Smokies.  Then listening to the ceremonial chants I realized I was in fact on the other side of the world….in a completely different culture.  It’s weird how those occasions just sneak up on you, but it does put things into perspective.

The temple area was pretty cool, but if you’re a regular reader of my blog then you know I’m kind of over the whole ‘temple’ thing.  Much like the cathedrals in Europe, they begin to look the same after a while.  The setting of this one was what made me stop and pause though.  It had so much more character sitting on the top of this mountain surrounded by yellow, orange, and red trees.

As much as I enjoyed just sitting there, soon I started to get hungry, and so I headed back into the city of Danyang…..by none other than taxi again (I don’t know why I was so lazy today, maybe it was all the walking).  This cab driver tried to speak to me…usually they just resign to the fact that neither you nor they can speak the other’s language, but every now and then you’ll get a cab driver who is determined to carry on a conversation with you.  Such was my case on the way back to Danyang.

From what I was able to gather, he had been given nine speeding tickets from the city police, he enjoys traveling behind big trucks because he likes watching them blow the leaves up as they whiz by, and he gave me two giant chestnuts, which when I proceeded to thank him for and attempt to crack open, he raised his voice a little and showed me they were only for swirling around in your hand.  All kidding aside, the guy was very nice, we each ate a banana (his treat) as we were curving down the mountain.

I didn’t do anything else too exciting other than walking along the river and stumbling across a park.  I was famished by this point because I hadn’t eaten since early morning, so I stopped inside a kimbap restaurant (a very casual Korean food chain) and ordered Sundubu Jigae, boiling spicy stew of tofu and clams, with the usual side dishes of course.  I only recently started eating Sundubu Jigae, but I really like it.  I never thought I would actually crave tofu, until I started eating more of it here….now I love it!

Before I knew it I was back on the bus returning to Seoul.  A short trip this Saturday, but it was well-spent for sure.  I wish fall lasted longer….it always seems to come and go too soon, before you can really enjoy it.  This year I made sure that did not happen.

3-day weekends are always a perfect excuse to take trips around Korea for me.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to go to Baengnyeongdo Island as I planned, but I still had a good time nonetheless.  I went with me friend Nate who lives out in Incheon.

Seoraksan draws in over 3 million visitors each year according to statistics, and let me tell you….being there this past weekend over te holiday, I believed it!!  There were sooo many people in the park.  It’s located on the east coast of the Korean pensinsula and the bus ride which normally would have taken about 4 hours ended up taking us almost 7 hours to get there!  We spent the night in Sokcho Friday, and first thing Saturday morning we headed out into the park.

It was so stunning to be surrounded by mountains again, and such beautiful ones at that!  We ventured through the pathways, maneuvering the crowds of Koreans.  Korean people seems to really enjoy hiking, they go all out with gear, poles, special clothing, backpacks….you name it, they come prepared for hikes.  I always see people on subways or buses who are wearing hiking gear….so it seems like a popular hobby.  Why we didn’t assume it would be insanely crowded this weekend is beyond me, haha.

We quickly started getting annoyed, because what should have been a peaceful and enjoyable experience out in nature was quickly turning into a battle to make our way along the paths.  We decided to sneak off the main walkway and make our own pathway (not exactly legal, there were signs prohibiting it….but we knew we could play the ignorant foreigner card if need be).

It was SO nice to get out in the nature and walk along the rocky rivers.  We didn’t actually hike UP any of the mountains since it looked like it was going to rain any minute (which is eventually did right before we left).

I know I’ve said it many times in this blog after I get back from a quick trip somewhere in Korea, but Nate and I were left sitting there on a giant rock overlooking a big area of the park and we said it again, “Wow.  It is SO nice to get out of Seoul for a bit.  This really does a person good!”  I can’t stress it enough though.

Well, there was also a cable car that takes you up to the top of a mountain that is close to the big Mount Seorak.  I ended up doing this on Sunday morning, but it was raining and my pictures just didn’t come out well at all.  It looked pretty though and I’m sure would be gorgeous if you can actually see the area below the mountain.  So, after hiking along our own pathway along the moutain, accidentally sliding down a ways after I lost my footing on some small rocks (have a small gash on my rear end from that little slip-up, haha), we made our way down to another river and just sat soaking our feet in the cold water.

Why did I never really appreciate nature this much when I was growing up?  My parents took my brother and I on plenty of trips when we were young, to the Rockies, Yellowstone, etc.  I just never remember loving it as much as I do here.  Ah well…we had worked ourselves up a healthy appetite, so we headed back down toward the entrance of the park to grab something to eat.  I guess this area of Korea (Sokcho) has this certain specialty dish, because we had it at a few different places during our trip.  It’s like a stuffed grilled squid.  Not exactly sure what it’s stuffed with, but whatever it is, it’s really delicious.  So much so that I forgot to take a picture of it when it was served, but instead just dug right in!  We also had a tasty seafood pancake, which is one of my favorites.

Well, Nate ended up heading back to Seoul Saturday afternoon….there is a great Latin America Art Exhibit going on in Seoul right now and he was anxious to get back and check it out.  I, on the other hand, rented a room at a “minbak” (a guesthouse kind of like a bed and breakfast) and stayed an extra night.  I explored the park a little more, but sent most of my time in the coastal city of Sokcho, which I’ll write more about next time.  I have to cut this entry short, and I didn’t post at all last week because I had spilled a little Coke on my computer and now my “h’s” and “m’s” don’t work on my keyboard….I’m having to copy/paste them, wich is a pain, haha.  I’m going to the Apple Store soon to have it looked at though.

In the meantime, here are some pictures.

Well, our weekend trip plans were at the mercy of Chuseok.  With almost the entire country on the roads during these few days, we ended up NOT taking a trip to Cheongpyeong as intended, but we visited the lovely (not far from Cheongpyeong) island of Namiseom instead.

When I say “island” I’m talking about a very small stretch of land in the middle of a river.  This place was recently formed as a result of the Cheongpyeong Dam which was built upstream.  After it was completed, the water subsided and this crescent-shaped piece of earth arose out of the middle.  It was a waste land for the immediate years following, with trash and overgrown agriculture that was not-so-pleasing to look at.

A man by the name of Min Byungdo bought the island in the 1960’s and has since helped transform it into a place where art, culture, and nature all collide together.  This fusion is a really interesting one, and while walking around you can really feel the attention to environment that has been put into this place.  Min Byungdo was evidently so proud of his accomplishment in resurrecting this ‘once overlooked stretch of land’, that he named it Namiseom, and declared its independence from the Republic of Korea!

I’m still unsure whether or not it’s considered it’s own country, but nonetheless they do have an “immigration desk” that you pass by before you get on the ferry to the island (by immigration desk, I mean a photo op….at no point are you required to show your passport or any ID, haha).  You can buy Namiseom currency, passports, and flags at a gift shop on the island even!  So if we’re being technical here, I traveled “outside of” Korea today…woohoo!  Another country to add to the list, haha!

All kidding aside, we had a great time at Namiseom.  We took a stroll up from the small port down the center of the islet…there were all sorts of exhibitions along the way and a lot of artwork out in the open to see, which was cool.  We sat and listened to a stage performance by a band from Ecuador that played Incan music (in of all places, Korea…right?).  They were so good that we started nodding off, shouldn’t have stayed up so late watching cheesy TV shows in our hotel room I guess!  Seriously though, they were really good…and it was funny to hear the crowd ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhh’ when the lead singer/player started speaking Korean between songs!  I gasped right along with everyone else honestly, haha.

We rented bicycles and ventured around this small nature haven for an hour.  It was picturesque, and left me wishing (which has been the case in my travels around Korea lately) I had more time to spend here.  There were plenty of things to do, water-skiing, camping, archery, fishing, paddle-boating…heck, I would have been happy just sitting in the grass under a tree.  But it was nice nonetheless to get away from the city again and be surrounded by beautiful nature.  Maybe I’m beginning to favor the countryside in lieu of the city…could it be?!?

One of the things I thought was interesting was this little garden of rocks that I saw.  There were large rocks on the ground….but one by one, smaller rocks stacked up on top of them.  I was intrigued because I’d never really seen anything like that before.  There were even rocks stacked into the trees wherever a new branch was shooting off.  I asked my Korean friend what they signified…and he explained that Koreans have this sort of superstition/belief.  You can make a wish and carefully place a stone on top of another stack.  If you can do it without knocking over the other rocks, then your wish will come true.  If they all tumble down….well, let’s just say it’s not a good thing!

Well, I’ll be back to visit Namiseom again sometime I’m sure.  It’s only an hour from Seoul, which means I could easily go on a weekday, before work even!  I miss the nature trails and river banks already, but alas I am back in the city now…preparing for a week of balancing work and Jesse’s visit from the states.  Where will the time go….?

Unfortunately we only had about half a day to hang out in Boseong and the green tea fields, but what a relaxing half day it was!  We arrived in this small town around 1pm or so and were dropped off at a tiny, run-down bus station.  It was furnished with very old Korean men and women sitting around who had the faces of tea farm workers.  They had big hats, darker skin, deep wrinkles, and some of the women could not walk upright.  A lifetime of working in the fields had given them a completely bent figure, with the upper half of their bodies always parallel to the ground beneath them.  It was neither sad nor strange to me really, but definitely fascinating to see such a contrasted Korean from the Seoulites who walk around in heels and are constantly checking themselves in the mirror or any other reflecting object that is close to them.

I just felt warmth standing there at that bus station surrounded by all these strangers.  Countryside people are generally simple and kind, I suppose that’s almost a given anywhere in the world (America included).  It was almost enough to make me want to move out to this rural stretch of Korea, and I talked about that actually, how nice it would be to live out in the countryside for a while.  We all promptly agreed that a year would probably be too long to commit to, haha.  Some foreigners do it though….you would walk away having a COMPLETELY different experience than if you had lived in Seoul!

After about half an hour, a local bus headed for the tea fields came and we got on board.  We were surrounded by these workers with their giant bags of tea leaves and other food they’d been harvesting.  They had so many of these bags with them!  It was cute though when the bus came to our stop.  We were all sitting in the back, and everyone turned around and started yelling at us and pointing for the door.  It couldn’t have been more obvious to them why we had come and what we wanted to see, haha.

So we made our way off the road and into this park.  Evidently Boseong has the cleanest air in all of Korea, and just walking around and breathing would make you a believer.  I don’t know how many times we commented on how wonderful the air was and how good it smelled!  We headed through tall rows of pine trees, around nice little sitting areas where you can enjoy nature, and then you can see the rows of green tea plants just stacked one on top of another.

I don’t know, for me it’s one of those stunning features of Asia that I had always imagined (partly out of shamed ignorance) before I came to this part of the world.  Asia is the Great Wall, temples, koi, and green tea fields….right?  Of course there is so much more, (don’t forget bamboo! haha) but it was nice to finally see this in person because I don’t think pictures really do it justice.  You have to be there to see the enormity of it, and smell it.  So, we hiked up a few of the hills and made futile attempts to capture some of the beauty on film.  It wasn’t too crowded there either, which was nice.  It’s strange to be in Korea at a tourist destination and NOT be fighting the crowds.  That being said, this was the weekend before the big Chuseok holiday (Korean Thanksgiving), so people are preparing for that all over the country and will be traveling in droves then.

We marched back down the hill and enjoyed a late lunch of bibimbap made with green tea rice.  Ok, bibimbap is one of my all-time favorite Korean dishes.  It translates to “mixed vegetables and rice”, and that’s exactly what it is….nothing weird.  It’s sooo good (and very healthy for you), and you can add in some spicy red bean paste and mix it all together.  I had never had the green tea rice kind, but it was yummy also.

Feeling quite content, it was time to check out the little shops.  I picked up some….*drumroll*……yep, you guessed it, green tea!!  I prefer iced green tea so I got some packets for that, but also picked up some green tea latte mix which I’d never had, and a bag of some green tea snacks (for my favorite class because I promised them I would bring them back a present, haha).  And before I knew it, we were on our way back to the big city where the crowds and streets would soon bring me back to a much faster tempo.  It’s so nice to get out and slow down once in a while…this week at work has been far more enjoyable so far because of it.  I’m heading off to Cheongpyeong on Friday with Woon Ha, just staying one night there.  And on Monday my friend Jesse comes to visit me for a week!!  Of course we’ll be doing some super touristy things, around Seoul mostly, so I’ll try to bring the camera and observant mind along with me.

The problem with taking 2-day weekend trips is that you can only spend one night in these places you visit.  As you know, I’ve committed myself to getting out of Seoul and seeing more of Korea on the weekends now.  This weekend was no exception!  I brought along my friends Molly, Kristin, Nate, and Courntey for a trip down to Damyang, and Sunday we went to Boseong to see the green tea plantations (blog entry about that to come).

It’s easy to get down there.  Just get on a bus to Gwangju from the Express Bus Terminal (they leave every 20 minutes or so), enjoy the comfy recliners with ridiculous amounts of leg room for 3 and half hours, then hop off in Gwangju and onto a slightly less comfortable bus to Damyang for a little over an hour.  You can walk to the bamboo forest, but it may be easier to just take a taxi (as we did).  Also, we stayed at the Green Park Motel for 35,000 won a night per room.  It had comfy beds, nice shower and modern decor, plus a huge flat screen plasma with cable TV!  It wasn’t the cheesy “love motel” that you come to expect in Korea, so that was nice, haha.

Anyway, off to the bamboo park.  You pay a nominal fee of around $1 and then beyond the entrance you’re immediately surrounded by bamboo.  Walking through the trails was so nice because it’s cooler under the canopy of trees, and the fresh green smell everywhere was enough to make us Seoulites quite happy!  Clean air is very nice indeed, hehe.  Throughout the forest there are little benches to stop and relax, pagodas to hang out in if you’re getting tired.  They also have a couple shops, a restaurant, and one pathway leading towards a “Bamboo cultural experience” features old-timy Korea houses which are always neat to see.  There were even women dressed in the traditional hanbuks in one area who were dancing to some music and pulling in unsuspecting foreigners to dance with them (myself included).

Once you tire of the bamboo (and it is beautiful, but once you’ve seen bamboo I mean it really is just bamboo) you can stop for lunch just outside of the park entrance and try out the bamboo-infused rice with pine nuts, plums, and garlic….served in a giant bamboo shoot.  This meal was awesome, and as expected they served us a wide variety of other food, including grilled fish, spicy beef with bamboo shoots, and the assumable array of smaller traditional side dishes (kimchi of course being one of them).

I believe this meal set us back about 9,000 won each ($9.00), so that’s not bad.  One of the great things about traveling around Korea is that you meet Koreans who are non-Seoulites.  They tend to be more excited and curious about meeting foreigners, so all-in-all they’re more helpful and engaging.  The adjosshi (meaning older Korean man) sitting at the table next to us offered to bring us some coffee when we were finished with our meal.  He had been eyeing us throughout to make sure we were doing ok.

The park is located along a tiny river which looks to be manmade, but it’s nice nonetheless.  We went for a stroll to walk off our meal as the sun was setting.  You can’t help but have these “I love Korea” moments.  I’ve talked before about people who are miserable here, and how they can’t find anything good to say about Korea….and we were all discussing that as we were walking.  You almost feel sorry for people who come here for a year, go back home, and never really experience what this place has to offer.

Ah well….that’s enough of that.  Damyang did NOT dissapoint, although I got the feeling there was more to this sleepy little town that we were missing in our brief encounter with it.  I’ll definitely go back in the future and spend more time there…we were in a bit of a rush to get to Boseong the next day and see those green tea fields (coming-soon).  I have lots of pictures from Damyang, but here are some thumbnail links of my favorites!

I had a 3-day weekend!  Friday was Korea’s 60th birthday as an independent country from Japan (back in August of 1948).  I had big plans Friday with friends to do things around the city…unfortunately the weather didn’t allow it so that was a bit of a bummer.  Ah well, we beat the rain by just staying inside and making the best of it.

So, much to my dismay, I haven’t been traveling around Korea as much as I should.  It’s so easy to hop on a train or bus and see some of the countryside….and there are so many different things to see here.  Finally I hopped on that bandwagon yesterday with a friend and we headed out to a coastal city called Samcheok.  It was so beautiful!  Unfortunately though, haha, we got rained on a bit there too…but I managed to take a few pics when it WAS clear.

It was really pretty, and nice to be near the water again!  Sooo, we just hung out in the small town and had a nice time.  It was cool to see a different aspect of Korean people, they’re friendlier in the countryside I think (at least they were more open to trying to talk to me).  It’s not all that common to have people coming up and talking to you in Seoul (same with any big city in the world, people are busier doing their own thing).  I came back to Seoul inspired to get out into the country more on the weekends….so I’m already planning another small trip.  This city of Samcheok is on the other side of the Korean peninsula, but it was only 4 hours by bus, and a nice/cheap bus at that.

Alright, well in the meantime it’s back to work for me tomorrow.  Three more days of summer camp…woohoo!  Oh geez, do I have enough powerpoint games and stickers to last?  I think so!!