My first experience at the Busan Fireworks festival was back in 2011. I remember thinking we had really lucked out with the weather. The temperature was nice during the day and even though it was cloudy, it wasn’t raining. I must have been feeling really optimistic when I left my apartment because I didn’t even bring an umbrella. Continue reading
I have been taking a Korean cooking class for the past few weeks and I love it! Our teacher, Sunok, is so sweet and she’s an amazing cook. I’ve also been having a great time with the other wives that take the class.
A few weeks ago Sunok invited us to her parents house in the countryside for a special class. We were going to learn how to make samgyetang (삼계탕), which is a soup made from chicken and ginseng. Sunok’s parents even supplied chickens for the meal, and many of the ingredients were fresh from their garden. Continue reading
This past weekend Dave and I didn’t have any plans so my Korean tutor recommended we go to a two places: Jusanji (주산지) and Juwangsan (주왕산). She said she goes every autumn and it’s really amazing. She couldn’t have been more right!
We woke up at 3:00am and drove 3 hours to get there. I knew it was up in the mountains so I took a motion sickness pill before we left. During the drive I tried to stay awake as long as possible, but around the halfway mark, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and I slept for the rest of the drive. I felt terribly guilty, but Dave was such a good sport about driving while I snoozed. Continue reading
Namhae is such a great place to escape bustle of the city. Driving along the winding roads wasn’t my favorite thing, but I still really enjoyed the beautiful scenery even though I was a little bit nauseous! If you’re prone to motion sickness like I am, I highly recommend taking some medicine before driving around the island.
We set out to find Darangee Village because they are supposed to be some incredibly beautiful rice terraces there. I learned about the rice terraces from an article by CNN Travel called “50 Beautiful Places to Visit in Korea.” The rice terraces are number 3 on the list and the featured photo is of a group of tourists watching and helping a farmer plant the rice, with the help of a ox. Really cool, right?
We had some difficulty finding the village. Initially, The address listed on the CNN Travel article was missing some information that our navigation system required. Thankfully, there were some signs along the way.
I have a confession to make. We planned a trip to Taipei, Taiwan for the sole purpose of experiencing EVA Air’s Hello Kitty jet. A friend of mine shared an article about it on her Facebook sometime last year and it immediately went onto my bucket list. I can’t say I’m a die hard Hello Kitty fan, but I appreciate cute when I see it and this is cute!
Happy Hangeul Day! October 9th is the day Koreans celebrate their alphabet. It’s one of the best in the world and it’s definitely something to be proud of. Each letter has only one sound so if you really want to learn to read Korean, it only takes a few hours. I learned to read Korean in about 6 months, with practically no studying. I just kind of absorbed it.
I celebrated Hangeul Daywith my awesome Korean tutor. We went to 5 different temples. I learned a lot about the places we visited and a few new Korean words and phrases. One of the highlights of the day was seeing a flock of peacocks at one of the temples. They were so cute and it was such a nice surprise!
After our stay at the Hi Class Pension in Namhae, we had breakfast at the Hilton and then set out for some sightseeing. If we hadn’t been going to the Hilton, we might have never noticed the art village, but we are so glad that we stumbled across it.
Can you spot the Hilton in the background?
Namhae Island is a really rural area full of rice and garlic fields. As we pulled out of the Hilton, we spotted a mural of The Simpsons.
I decided I wanted to explore further so we drove up the narrow street through the village.
I first heard of the Hi Class Pension (now called High Class Pool Villa) through Everyday Korea, a blog that has a section on unique accommodation in Korea (among other things). Dave and I had just come back from Phuket where we stayed in an amazing pool villa and we were craving more. We checked the prices on the Hi Class website and were really shocked by how expensive they were! In fact, at $700 a night (during high season), they were more per night than our Phuket pool villa. I was a bit hesitant about staying at Hi-Class for that price, but Dave decided that we should bite the bullet and do it, just for a night.
Hi Class pool villa
I reached out to my travel blogger friends to see who had been to South Korea and what amazing place or experience they think should be on everyone’s “Korea Bucket List.” I’m really happy with the responses and I think they made a pretty good list.
This information is by Sharon from Where’s Sharon? (and Joshua, Soraya and Isaac), a blog originally about Sharon’s journeys around the world, but now about exploring the world with two little ones in tow – the good, the bad and the (hopefully not too) ugly. You can also find them on Facebook.
Looking across the border to North Korea. The line on the ground between the two blue UN buildings is the border.
This is my entry for the Capture the Colour photo contest run by Travel Supermarket.
Each color will be judged individually and the category winners will get their choice between a 128GB iPad with Retina Display, a Fujifilm digital camera + lens, or £750 to spend with Arc’teryx. And the overall winner receives a £3,000 travel fund!
I thought I’d take my chances and enter some of my favorite travel photos.
If you’re interested in entering, you can find all of the details on the Capture the Colour contest page.
Part of the contest is to nominate 5 other bloggers to participate. My nominees are:
Kimmy from Afterglobe
Nicole from Suitcase Stories
Jessica from A Passion and A Passport
Anna from The Legendary Adventures of Anna
Kathleen from Our Favorite Adventure
*Note: You don’t have to be nominated to participate.
Red – Poppies in Ulsan, South Korea
Yellow – Buddha Statue in Phuket, Thailand
Green – Boseong Green Tea Plantation
Blue – Maiko in Kyoto, Japan
White – Lotus in Gyeongju, South Korea
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