Thank You Korea!!

The past year was one of my best and I owe it all to a beautiful country, good friends,  loving family and kids that filled my life with laughs and memories.  Thank you for following my blog and I hope you've enjoyed the journey with me (virtually anyways). 
     I've since gone to Bangkok and arrived in Cambodia yesterday.  I'll continue posting as much as I can over the next 2 months in Southeast Asia but until I can get my pictures off my camera, here are a few of my students at Langcon English.

My Top 10 Experiences in Korea - Part 2

It's crazy to think that my time in Korea is quickly coming to an end.  Time goes so fast and I am truly grateful to have had this opportunity.  Here are the final 5 things that have made the past year an extremely memorable one.
6. Goryeosan Azalea Festival
     I've since realized that Korea has a lot of azalea festivals but this one was easy enough to get to and a nice day trip from Seoul.  It's located in north Incheon and was breathtaking.  It looked like God threw up azaleas on the side of the mountain because it was completely covered and absolutely beautiful.

7. Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival
     Like the azalea festival, Korea has hundreds of cherry blossom festivals.  Honestly, you don't really have to go anywhere to see cherry blossoms because they are everywhere.  But, we figured that if we'd visit a cherry blossom festival, it might as well be the biggest in Korea down in Jinhae.  It rained on us the first day and unfortunately, a lot of the cherry blossoms had fallen off the trees, but there were still enough left to show why this was the biggest and most popular in Korea.

8. Jeju Island

     We did a lot of fun things in Jeju and I could probably do a top 10 of Jeju itself.  Jeju was amazing and was the last trip we took to make our journey around Korea complete.  Even in January/February, the weather was surprisingly warm.  We hiked the tallest mountain in Korea, saw some lava tubes, women divers, lava cliffs, waterfalls, rode in a submarine and went to Love Land.  I see why Jeju surpassed Hawaii this year with it's number of visiting tourists.  I can only imagine how beautiful the island is in the spring, summer and fall!

9. Gyeongju

     The old capital of Korea during the Silla dynasty and full of history.  It's too bad that I only had a few hours there before I had to leave, but I heard the hiking around the area has a bunch of stone carved buddhas and nice views of the city.  I did get to do a temple stay at a Buddhist Temple for Korean Martial Arts which was pretty cool but I could've spent another day visiting the area.

10. Gwangju/Damyang

     I'm sure there is a lot more to see in Gwangju than I was able to see but the fact that I was able to see the city where my dad's family came from was priceless.  What made it better was that I went with my dad!  I saw my grandfather's and great grandparents grave sites and the city where my dad was born.  It was a special moment while in Korea and was one of my main reasons for coming.

My Top 10 Experiences in Korea - Part 1

Korea has a lot of amazing things to do, see and experience.  If you've been following my blog, you've gotten to see a lot of what we've done since coming over here but I thought I'd share a list of my 10 favorite adventures while in Korea. (It was pretty hard to rank my favorite experiences so these are in no particular order).  
Enjoy 5 now and the last 5 next week!

1. Garden of Morning Calm

     Situated about 70km northeast of Seoul, you can get here relatively easily by the high speed ITX train that leaves from Yongsan (west Seoul) and Cheongnyangni (east Seoul).  The ITX is only 7,000won and the trip is only about 30-40min or you can take the subway which takes a bit longer.

2. Boseong Green Tea Festival
     Whether or not you like green tea, this festival is well worth the trip.  It usually takes place in the spring and is an easy 3-4hr bus ride away from Seoul.  You have to take the bus to Suncheon first, and then a commuter train over to Boseong (3,000won and about 45min).  The green tea fields are amazing and you can pick your own tea leaves if you want!
     Before leaving Boseong, there is an amazing restaurant that has green tea infused pork. (I'm not sure if the pigs were only fed green tea leaves or if they marinated it in green tea, but either way, some of the best food I've had in Korea).

3. Naganeupseong Folk Village

     While you're down in Suncheon, you have to stop by this folk village.  It's one of the only folk villages in Korea that still has people living and working in it.  If you want a glimpse into the past and see how Korea use to look 50+ years ago, this folk village should be on your list of places to visit.  

4. Seoraksan National Park

     One of Korea's most beautiful and popular places to visit has to be Seoraksan.  You can do a day hike to one of the many waterfalls or smaller peaks or tackle a more strenuous path on a multi-day hike.  An additional perk of visiting Seoraksan is that the closest city, and where you'll probably stay the night, is a beach town (Sokcho) which has nice sand, clear water and great seafood.  We didn't get to go to Seoraksan in the fall but that's the best time to visit.  

5. Haedong Yonggungsa

     This is just one of the temples in Busan that I'm going to recommend, but because it's on the east side of the city, you probably would not visit this and the other one I'll recommend in one trip...unless you were there for a few days.  This is probably one of the most unique Buddhist temples I visited in Korea.  It's situated right on the water and aside from the large crowds, it is extremely serene and peaceful.

5. Seokbulsa

     Another temple in Busan that are well worth the visit.  When people talk about temples in Busan, Beomeosa and Haedong Yonggungsa are probably the one that will be mentioned, however, I think that visiting Seokbulsa is an even more surreal and memorable experience.  It's off the beaten path a bit but I was happy to have made the trek.

Hiking Korea's Tallest Peaks: #3 - Hallasan

Jeju-do, the pink island on the map

     As I'm sure you've been waiting for...the last and tallest peak of Korea, Hallasan!  Going to Jeju Island was kind of a last minute decision but since we didn't have anything else going on during our winter vacation, we booked a flight to leave on New Years Day for 4 amazing nights in Jeju-do.  Flights from Seoul's Gimpo Airport were only about $120 round trip so we figured might as well see what Jeju has to offer (not bad for booking them 3 days before we left).
     Jeju-do is a self governing province and Korea's largest island.  It's about 130km south of the mainland and was formed entirely by volcanic eruptions some time ago.  It's a very popular destination for Chinese and Korean tourists alike and believe it or not, in 2013 Jeju-do surpassed Bali, Hawaii and Okinawa as a tourist destination with about 10 million visitors!
Hallasan National Park (elevation 1,950m or 6,398ft)
     We did a lot of awesome things in Jeju before taking the trek up Hallasan.  Manjanggul Lava Tube, the Deep Diving Women, Seongsan Illchulbong (aka sunrise peak), Jeongbang Waterfall, Seogwipo Submarine tour, Jusangjeolli Cliffs, Olle Walking trails, Cheonjiyeon Falls and Love Land are some must sees on the island, but the main reason we headed south was to conquer Hallasan!

Without these, we wouldn't have
made it past the visitors center

     Like Jirisan, we woke up around 5am to catch a taxi to the Seongpanak Trail entrance which only took about 20-30 minutes from Jeju City Hall.  After an inexpensive taxi ride (only 12,000won), we made it to the visitors center where we made the best decision of the trip, buying some spikes for the climb up the mountain.  With our headlamps, spikes and layers of clothes ready to go, we started our trek up to Dongneung Peak (동능정상).
     I've grown to really enjoy hiking early in the morning and watching the sun come up.  It's peaceful, beautiful and just gives you so much appreciation for being outdoors.  Because it was the beginning of January, the trail was completely covered with snow.  Honestly, I think it made the hike easier because it was a gradual incline for the majority of the hike, instead of climbing hundreds of stairs.  Eventually we made it to SaraOreum.  Unfortunately, the lake was frozen over but it was kind of cool being able to walk across a lake on top of a volcano.

     After the short detour to see SaraOreum and the sunrise, it was only another 2 hours to make it to the peak.  A perk of climbing Hallasan in the winter was that we were the only ones on the trail.  Sure, we passed a person or two every now and again, but we pretty much had the trail to ourselves!  As expected, by the time we got to the top, it was frigid to say the least.  I've never seen trees covered with so much snow and ice before and Hallasan had enough of them for a lifetime's worth of memories.  Unlike Seoraksan and Jirisan, when we reached this peak, it was deserted.  Aside from two or three other hikers, Sarah and I were the only ones up there.  It was refreshing to say the least, but cold enough to keep our time at Dongneung Peak limited.  Another treat atop Hallasan is Baengnokdam Lake Summit (백록담), also known as crater lake.  Like SaraOreum, it was frozen over too, but was majestic to say the least.

 

      We decided to take a different trail down the mountain (Gwaneumsa) since this trail was rumored to have some of the best views of the mountain, but be a bit more difficult.  Both rumors proved to be true and we were grateful to have taken the Seongpanak trail up the mountain, not Gwaneumsa.  The entire trip was only about 9.6 and we finished the hike in about 8 hours round trip.  One little issue at the Gwaneumsa trail entrance, was that transportation back to Jeju City was limited to taxis.  They were all charging 15,000won but after waiting for about 15minutes, we talked a taxi down to 12,000won.

To give you an idea of the amount of snow,
here is the summit marker without snow... 

Snow covered fern trees

Views from the Gwaneumsa Trail

Helpful trail markers up and down the mountain

Like Seoraksan and Jirisan, Hallasan has these shelters on the mountain.  Some
sell food and others just provide a place to rest before continuing on your hike

In case you brought your sled along on the hike