Author archive
24 June 2011
Despite the wet weather, I made the trip to Mt Soerak National Park by bus and walked/climbed 4.3km to Ulsan Bawi, a granite outcrop at 873m. It took over two hours going up and an hour to come back down. I was drenched … raincoats don’t really work … if it protects you from the […]
23 June 2011
I travelled up the coast further today by bus (changing at Gangneung). The weather clouded over then started to spit. It is miserable and wet … but at least it isn’t cold or windy … maybe not yet. Sokcho is in the north-east corner of South Korea. There used to be ferries from here to […]
22 June 2011
I’m headed North and chose to break the journey in Samcheok to avoid a long day on the bus. There isn’t much that I wanted to do around here … it has some great caves but I’ve seen some cavernous ones in recent times. So I chose to visit Haesindang … it is a garden […]
21 June 2011
I headed out to the Jagalchi Fish Market early today, thinking that it may be like Tokyo’s where it is best caught early. The streets near the market were lined with live fish and other seafood, plus surprisingly frozen fish being thawed out! I then found the actual Jagalchi Fish Market which is an impressive […]
20 June 2011
Arriving in Busan It was a very quick intercity bus ride from Gyeongju to Busan taking only 50 minutes. The metro ride from Busan’s bus terminal to Indy House hostel, on the other hand, took about an hour. Busan is a big city of about 4 million spread over several valleys and it must take […]
19 June 2011
Sights in and around Gyeongju Gyeongju is referred to as a museum without walls because it is home to more temples, pagodas, Buddhas and other historical artefacts, compared to anywhere else in Korea. I started by visiting two that are out of town … firstly it was Bulguksa, a temple originating from the 700s which […]
18 June 2011
Above: Tumuli Park (burial mounds) by night at Gyeongju. I flew to Daegu today at 1530, flying with Asiana Airlines again. Upon arrival an hour later, I took a taxi to its city centre for an hour-long bus ride to neighbouring Gyeongju. Gyeongju is referred to as a museum without walls because it is home […]
17 June 2011
In the high level plan made many months ago, I allowed a day in Jeju for swimming at the beach and/or diving. The weather is hardly conducive … it is cool and drizzly. I didn’t feel the urge to go to the city centre (it will be like any other Korean town) or to the […]
16 June 2011
Lava Tube Cave It was drizzly in Jeju city. I was unfazed and took the bus (and walked 2.5km) to Manjanggul, a lava-tube cave … that’s a caved formed through hot molten lava flowing through the rock. BTW, Jeju island is very volcanic … there’s lots of black rock everywhere. Back to the lava tube […]
15 June 2011
Changdeokgung Palace My hostel was across the road to one of Seoul’s palaces … Changdeokgung … it was the most recommended one. While the palace was first built in the 1400s, what we see today was rebuilt in the 1600s (due to fire) and some bits were added in the 1800s. It was interesting to […]