Happy birthday Budda! My adventures in Jeolla Nam Do

Last friday was Budda's birthday and since there are many buddists in South Korea, it was a holiday. This was the first long weekend since I have been here so I decided to take advantage of the extra day off and do some travelling. My friend Kristina and I booked seats on a 3 day tour to Jeolla Nam Do, which is one of Korea's southern provinces.
The tour was scheduled to leave from Seoul at 11:30pm on thursday evening. After school on thursday I raced home, grabbed my pack and my sleeping bag and hiked over to Daejeon station to catch a train to Seoul. It seemed that everyone in Daejeon had the same plan to get out of town because the train station was insane. Fortunately we had the foresight to prebook our train tickets, so while others were scrambling to find rides and waiting in massive lineups, we were sitting on an air conditioned KTX train. We arrived in Seoul at 8:30 and since we still had 3 hours we caught the subway over to Itaewan for a send off Mexican meal. Itaewan is a strange area of Seoul because it is so packed with foreigners that you don't even feel like your in South Korea. At 11:30 we met the other 43 people on our tour (mostly other teachers from various parts of Korea) and by midnight we were on our way.
After driving all night we arrived at 6am at our first destination, Hyang - Iram. We were supposed to be there at 4:30am in time to see the sunrise but traffic prevented that. It was a long and sometimes scary bus ride. There were a few times when I was convinced that the bus driver was falling asleep as the bus seemed to swerve on the road quite frequently but we made it alive.
Hyang - Iram is a small temple and monastery perched high on a cliff on the southern tip of Dolsando Island. We disembarked from the bus and started to make the trek up to the temple - and what a trek it was. First we walked up a steep hill to reach the bottom of the stairs. From there is was 350 steps up to the temple. The steps wound through the mountain and at times it was just a narrow passageway through the rock. Given that it was Budda's bithday the entire trail was lined with decorations and lanterns and all the way up you could hear the chanting of the monks. Despite the hard climb it was very peaceful and serene and the views from the top made it well worth the effort. Upon reaching the temple you could look down over the harbour below and the views were spectacular. After appreciating the views Kristina and I pulled out our sleeping bags and had a little nap until it was time to leave.

After leaving the temple we headed to Yeosu harbour for a 2 hour boat cruise. Once again we were rewarded with spectacular views of the water and the rocky cliffs on the shore. The breeze from the boat were much appreciated as it was turning out to be the hottest day I have seen here yet. Thank God I had packed some sunscreen or I am sure I would have been burnt to a crisp.

After the boat cruise we headed out in search of some lunch. We were given two choices, a place that sells raw crab or the food court of a local department store. Since I am not a big fan of raw seafood I opted for the chicken burger at the Lotteria.

Our departure from there found us going to Odongdo Island. This island is basically a large park or botanical garden, with fountains that move to the music and trails through the woods. At this point we were all exhausted from the bus ride and heat so we didn't explore the island too much but instead found a shady spot to wait until it was time to leave.

Our last destination of the day was to a place called Sun Cheon Bay, which is an ecological park surrounded by rice fields. This park has a 2km hike up to the observatory where we had planned to view the sunset. We headed out on the trail to the observatory and then saw the thousands of people headed on the same path. We could barely move the path was so packed with people so we decided that it wasn't worth it. We instead walked along another trail that ran alongside some rice fields. We realized as we were walking that we would get spectacular views of the sunset right where we were so parked our butts and decided to wait. We were not disappointed.

Finally we headed to our destination for the night outside the Nagan Folk Village. We occupied 3 guest houses and I shared a room with 4 others. The rooms were Korean style which basically means no beds and just a mat on the floor. At this point we were so exhausted that none of us cared. I woke up earlier than the others and decided to explore around the folk village.

Nagan folk village is one of the best preserved fortress towns in South Korea. It is a village consisting of tradition Korean houses surrounded by a stone wall. Originally this wall was built as protection against Japanese pirates. The houses are still used. Some of them are restaurants and gift shops, others can be rented to stay in and others are lived in by families. You can walk along the tops of the walls and get glorious views of the village below.

Eventually my friends joined me. It had started to rain so Kristina and I bought straw hats to keep the rain off. We ended up being the envy of everyone else on the trip and my hat is now hanging on my wall as a souvenir.

After the folk village we went to an organice green tea making farm where we would learn the art of making green tea. First we were sent out into the fields to pick the green tea leaves. Armed with our baskets, hats on head, we ventured into the pouring rain to gather our leaves. It was so wet that we ended up soaked to the skin but it was worth it for the experience. After we picked enough leaves we headed inside where we were served hot green tea and were taught the proper way to drink it.

Then the fun began. We were divided into groups, given special aprons and gloves to wear and began making green tea. First we had to cook the leaves in a big pot. You don't want them to burn so 2 people have to constantly be turning the leaves with their hands. After about 10 minutes the leaves are taken from pot and laid on a special mat where they have to be rolled and pressed inorder to get the waxy film off the outside. From here they are again cooked and then again rolled. This process is repeated numerous times. It was hard work and I have great respect for those who do it daily.

Our stop for that night was at a beachside condo but it was raining so hard that we couldn't appreciate either the beach or the views. However, there was a sauna in the basement that we made use of. The sauna was fabulous and contained a green tea bath which felt so good after being in the rain all day. Once again the rooms were Korean style which meant we slept on the floor, but that was ok.

In the morning we woke early, paid another visit to the sauna and then headed to the Boseong Daeha Dawa Green Tea Hills. For me this was the highlight of the trip. When we arrived it was green tea hills everywhere you looked. Since it had been raining it was very misty out and you couldn't see the tops of the hills through the fog. The only way I can describe it is breath taking.

We wandered around the green tea hills for a while and then headed over to the Juk Nok Won bamboo forest. This was essentially a bamboo forest with various trails that you can follow through the bamboo. It was rather busy there but it was still beautiful.

After the bamboo forest it was time to head back to Seoul. At this point Kristina and I started scheming about ways to get the driver to drop us off in Daejeon, since we were going by there anyway and it seemed silly to go all the way into Seoul and then come back. We eventually stopped at a roadside stop near Suwon, south of Seoul where we decided to leave the group. The traffic into Seoul was bad and this way we could get a taxi to the subway, which we could take to the Suwon train station where we would catch a train to Daejeon. There were 5 of us that opted for this. However taxi's would not come to the rest stop as it was on a toll road so we had to find a way to get across the freeway to a gas station that had a back road leading to it. We hiked along the side of the road, in the rain, for about a km to an overpass that we could see in the distance. We thought we could climb up it and walk across. I am sure we were the talk at many dinner tables that night. You won't believe what we saw while we were driving on the freeway - some crazy white people walking in the rain. The overpass turned out to be a railway crossing so we headed back to the start but along the way found a path to a tunnel that led under the freeway. We made our way to the gas station somehow got the attendant to understand that we needed a taxi and were on our way home. We got back to Daejeon 2 hours earlier than we would have, had we travelled into Seoul.

It was an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable weekend.