Moving South

We have left Seoul and headed south. We decided we have had enough of people and busyness and wanted to escape the rat race. First stop was was a small town called Buyeo, once capital of Baekje Kingdom for a few hundred years after 50 BC. It is a tiny backwater town with 25,000 people and one roundabout. It has a hill where the old palace and fortress was, a large Buddhist temple and a cliff that 3000 court ladies threw themselves off rather than submit to attacking enemy forces.

Buddhist Temple in Buyeo.

We had visited all the sites within a day and a half and spent the rest of the time eating ho-tuk (fried batter with sugar, cinnamon and sesame seeds inside) and bung-a-pang (red bean paste inside small waffles in the shape of fish).

Making Ho-tuk

Even with so few inhabitants, Buyeo was still too big and populated. So our next stop was Songnisan National Park. National Parks in Korea are small. Mind you, Korea as a country is small. Songnisan Village has one main street, completely covered in restaurant signs. We had picked the wrong day to come to the park. It was the weekend and hiking is a huge tradition in Korea. There were hoards of people, all brightly dressed in technical gear with tramping boots and walking sticks.

This man posed for me so I had to take a photo of him.

Hoards in bright and colourful gear.

Luckly we had decided to stay in the park in an old traditional inn. We were the only ones there. The rooms were small and had underfloor heating, which we desparately needed during the night. We slept on the floor on mats and the heat rose to keep us warm. An old man that lives there by himself and warned us there was no hot water and we could only use the long drop as the pipes for the toilets were still frozen from winter.

The lake was still mostly frozen.

We spent the first day looking around the large temple with a 33m gold-plated Buddha statue. It is huge and impressive. The next day the hoards disappeared as it was Monday and we had most of the trails to ourselves. We walked up the mountain, which took about 2 hours. We even walked through patches of snow and ice at the top. You could walk through the whole park in about 6 hours. As I said national parks here are small.

The 33m gold Buddha.

Cold and bleak Songnisan National Park. The fog came in so we had no view and the trees are so small because it is too cold for them to grow well.

After our dose of no people we came back into civilisation  and we are now in Jeonju. This town is the best place we have been to so far. It has about half a million people, but small and friendly and very few high-rise buildings. It has great coffee, hot chocolate and food. There is even a few small patches of green grass and the cherry blossoms are starting to come out. We like it so much we have extended our stay here.

Beautiful smelling Cherry Blossoms.

Market in Jeonju.

It said take a photo so we did.

First Impressions Of Korea

Well the big day finally arrived and we left NZ. Very early in the morning while still half asleep. It reminded me of getting up for work when I was working in Pukekohe.

King Sejong the Great, who was a reformer and created the Korean alphabet. Police presence due to the US Embassy on the right.

The flight was uneventful and we landed safely in Seoul. The challenge was to find our guest house in Hongdae on a busy Thursday night. Yay for travelling with someone that speaks the language and once briefly lived here. You should understand that Hongdae is where all the night-life of Seoul is. It is busy, bustling, crowded, with lights and traffic everywhere. We found the place and I made my acquaintance with one of my new favourite things in Korea...underfloor heating, known as ondol. Over the next few days I also discovered another new favourite...heated toilet seats!

Subway in Seoul.

The weather is decidedly cold. The highs have been around 5-8 degrees and getting down to -3. We had been planning on going northeast but as it is still snowing there we have decided to go south instead.

Keeping the plants warm during winter.

My first impressions of Seoul: big, always busy, workaholics, tall buildings, clean although with a whiff of sewage every now and then, brilliant subways, friendly, polite, cheap (although not for accommodation), cold, grey, heaps to see and do, never ending, apartments everywhere.

Messages left by lovers.

Managed to find a cool little cafe that had reasonable coffee and hot chocolate, and also gave you free toast. We returned there several times. Been visiting lots of monuments and learning the history. Even visited National Treasure Number 1, which is Namdaemun Gate. It has been burnt and destroyed many times since it was erected in 1398, the most recent in 2008 by a homeless man looking for trouble. While we were there we visited the Namdaemun markets and accidentally bumped into Justin's mum. Out of all the millions of people in Seoul it was very strange to see her. These markets have almost anything you need. Including things to tempt us like cameras and outdoor gear.

Namdaemun market.

Over the last few days in Seoul we also visited Justin's family and I got to meet most of them for the first time. Justin also got to meet his 10 month old nephew for the first time. He is very cute and Justin keeps joking that his English name is Luke as he was born on May the 4th. Hmm maybe that is not actually a joke.

Uncle and nephew checking each other out.

Travelling this way (with someone who speaks the language and knows a bit about Korea) seem a bit strange and I feel I haven't got into travel mode yet. It is also the first time I have really traveled with someone else and it feels very different not having to figure out everything for myself. I almost feel like I'm on a lazy holiday. It seems too easy. I'm sure the difficulties will hit me once we are in China.

 Here are a few other photos to look at:

Deoksugong Palace in the middle of Seoul.

A palace ceiling.

Gyeongbukgong Palace, also in the middle of Seoul.

Signs leading to Jongno.

This is not rude, it is a game all Korean boys learn to play, and it hurts.