Exploring Jeollanam-do

 Boys at Jindo being fierce.

 Eating whale.

 Parting of the Sea.

 Starfish.

 CDI picnic

 Wolchusan- under the bridge

 On the bridge.

 Finally at the peak of Wolchusan

 We climbed all of that and more!

 Steep stairs- not my friend.

As Spring starts to show itself, the weather has finally been allowing for some great weekend trips. I’ve had some great experiences in the last few weekends, exploring the Jeollanam-do province of Korea. 

First, a few weekends ago was the Parting of the Sea Miracle Festival down in Jindo. Jindo is a small island in the South Western part of Korea. About twice a year, the sea of Jindo miraculously parts. The tides part and there is a long pathway connecting the coast of Jindo to an Island about 2km away. Jindo hosts a fun festival on this weekend, celebrating this phenomenon. We took a bus down to Jindo: a bus full of foreigners. The bus driver actually stopped the bus along the way to tell us to be quiet. Cultural norm: Stay relatively quiet on buses- Noted. We walked around the festival, enjoying the food and people watching. We got lunch, where my friends ate whale! They were not impressed, at all. Around 5, the tides began to part and the Earth began to rise. We bought the irresistibly sexy orange thigh-high boots to walk out in the water, and away we went. There were hundreds of people amongst us. The Korean older women immediately began collecting the seashells from the ground. We walked and walked, as the path grew longer and wider. It was a strange feeling, walking out into the middle of the Sea. We found all sorts of sea life along the way, mostly starfish. All the seaweed was really amazing as well. However, after a while, the seashells and rough rocks under our feet become uncomfortable and we made our way back to land. It was a great Korean cultural experience to be apart of, and conveniently holy on Easter Sunday.

Two weekends ago our employers treated us to a company picnic. It was a nice, sunny day in April and the weather was perfect. We all loaded up the bus and were whisked away to a nice park about an hour away. The park had an interesting lake, with a pagoda in the middle and two, barely functioning bridges connecting the land to the pagoda. Our employers and Korean co-workers cooked up a nice meal for us and we all enjoyed a picnic together.

On Saturday this week, four of us decided to brave the infamous Wolchusan, a beautiful mountain here in Southern Korea. If you open most Korean guidebooks, you’ll most likely see a picture of the bridge at Wolchusan. The mountain is the biggest national park here in Korea. Dusty, Sean, Jessi and I left Saturday morning and took a bus down to Yeongam and then a taxi to the base of the mountain. The mountain is absolutely beautiful. We started by hiking up the most rigorous part to the infamous orange bridge. The whole mountain in general was extremely steep. The mountain also offered quite a variety of terrain to climb: stairs, boulders, gravel, and more rocks. The mountain was extremely up and down, but mostly up. While I was struggling quite a bit, my fellow Korean hikers seemed to be flying down the mountain past me. At one point going down some big boulders, I slipped and a Korean woman stepped on my fingers. She felt so bad that she grabbed a hold of me and wouldn’t let go for about 10 minutes as she brought me down the mountain. Along the mountain, there were a lot of ropes to help you up or down. I was scrambling up the mountain using my hands to help me more often than anticipated. On the way down, my legs were so tired that I had to go rather slow. I even sat on my butt and slid down some of the big boulders. However, there’s a great thing about hiking: You just keep going and eventually you are successful. It’s not easy, but quitting is not an option. So we made it up to the peak and felt very accomplished. The park was filled with so much beautiful nature, including bamboo, waterfalls, and caves. Wolchusan is in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places in Korea. It was definitely worth the struggle and sore post-hike muscles. Enjoy the pictures.

And the countdown ‘til my departure is officially underway! I’ll be departing Korea on May 30^th. Then I’m off to Cambodia to check out Angkor Wat and then visiting, Thailand. And then, finally, home sweet home on June 9^th!

Thanks for following the blog; I’ll post again before I leave Korea.

Until next time…