Category Archives: Pictures - Page 4

Solo Day 2: Gangneung

Posted by mstrum on September 17, 2010 No comments

Go strait to day 1 (Buckwheat Festival), 2 (Gangneung) or 3 (Sokcho).

You can see a picture below of the Jjimjilbang that I stayed in. After waking up and cleaning up I headed out towards Gyeongpodae beach. I was a little surprised when I encountered a barbed wire fence along the beach, which I found out protected a section of a beach where people aren’t allowed in. I guess it’s all part of keeping out spies and such. You can see some pics I took there, along with a pill box which may be from the Korean war. After stopping off at some tourist places I had lunch, Soondooboo, at a 400 year-old house. Then I stopped by Seongyojang, a country house, and Ojukheon, birth place of Yulgok which is named after the black bamboo which you can find there. Once I was finished walking around, totally for at least 7k, I took an express bus up to Sokcho to stay for the night. I did walk around and take some picks but I’ll include those on the day three pics …

Solo Day 1: Bongpyeong Hyeoseok Buckwheat Festival

Posted by mstrum on September 16, 2010 1 comment

Go strait to day 1 (Buckwheat Festival), 2 (Gangneung) or 3 (Sokcho).

I took a trip, solo style, last weekend for two nights and three days in Gangwon province. The first day, Friday, I took an express bus from the Dong Seoul Express Bus Terminal to Bongpyeong. They were having a Buckwheat Festival built around Hyoseok, a famous writer who used the town for his novels. The buckwheat fields were great, albeit the atmosphere was a little down since it was pouring rain. Still, I just took the rain as giving the quaint village a little character. I tried some of the local flavors: buckwheat noodles, buckwheat sikhe, buckwheat bread, and yes, even buckwheat drunken rice (makgoli).

After the festival ended I headed back to the bus terminal and set off for Gangneung. Once I arrived there, I realized it was too dark and too rainy to do anything so I decided to go to the biggest Jimjilbang near the beach so I could easily walk to all my destinations the next day. The baths used water from the ocean, so I didn’t feel entirely gypped. I was able to get some great rest and then see some beautiful and interesting places the next day. Stay tuned for my walk around Gangneung and arrival in Sokcho.

Day 8 of 8: Korean Folk Village and Misuda

Posted by mstrum on September 13, 2010 No comments

Check out day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 of my trip with my parents!

In the morning we headed out to the Korean Folk Village located out in Suwon. We went through some old houses and various village locations before heading to the performance area. We got to see a traditional farmers dance, tightrope walker, horse riders, and a marriage ceremony. We had to book it out of there after all that though in order to go back to Seoul. I brought my parents to a PC Bang where I was able to show them the episode of Misuda (new Saturday night version, #14) I appeared on.

We woke up early the next day and took a limousine bus to the airport where my parents ended the trip. It was a really great trip which I will always cherish~

Day 7 of 8: Templestay and back to Seoul

Posted by mstrum on September 13, 2010 No comments

Check out day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 of my trip with my parents!

After waking up at 4 AM we headed over to the temple where we would meditate and perform the 108 bows. We also did a lighter Seonmudo session which is meant more to wake up and get the body ready for the day. One of the things that struck me the most during this whole experience was just how much Buddhism doesn’t seem like a religion at all. Yes, you have Buddha, the chants, etc., but really everything is extremely obviously 100% geared towards improving oneself. As an Atheist who used to be a Christian, I gained a much bigger respect for Buddhism through doing this templestay experience and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn a little more about Buddhism and live like a monk for a day. On our way out we stopped by the tea house and got some delicious ginseng tea and green tea.

On our way to Gyeongju, we decided to go to Bulguksa Temple which turned out to be a nice detour. We stuck around for an hour or so to enjoy the sights. After taking the train back to Seoul we found a little motel next to Seoul Station (not easy, a nice Korean man helped me find a good and cheap place. Thanks random awesome dude!).

Day 6 of 8: Gyeongju and Golguksa Templestay

Posted by mstrum on September 8, 2010 2 comments

Check out day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 of my trip with my parents!

After waking up we checked out of our hotel and headed towards the tombs. Our whole tour of Gwangju was done on foot. It’s not a huge city so it’s very doable. Bikes would also be a great help. There was one which you could go in and see how they were built. Since it was way freakin’ hot we got some drinks and tried the local specialties of Gyeongju and Chobbori bread. I personally liked Chobbori bread the best and would love to buy more if I can get my hands on it. Anyways, we headed south towards a famous observatory which has some beautiful scenery around it. Continuing on we visited by favorite place in Gyeongju, Anapji pond. It’s a site where a palace was built a long time ago, with only three re-built buildings next to a pond. Before heading to the Gyeongju museum we passed some beautiful locus flowers which I had to get pictures of.

After running through the museum very quickly we took a taxi back to the express bus terminal where we picked up our luggage and took the 150 bus to Golguksa temple where we would live like a monk for 24 hours. They gave us some clothes and showed us to the room we would be sleeping in. It was very different compared to what I was expecting. The facilities were very modern, with air conditioning, outlets, nice bathroom, and a refrigerator. We had some dinner and headed up for some martial arts practice. Seonmudo, the type of martial arts taught at this temple, has been around for a long time and definitely kicked my pants. It was a pretty hard workout. I haven’t been that exhausted when I went to sleep in a long time. Meditation and bows the next morning started at 4:30 so I knew I wouldn’t get getting very much sleep …