Cheongup, Naechangsan aka Maple Story

Cheongup, early in the morning.

After our night in the motel, we grabbed some mandus (dumplings) for breakfast and squeezed our way up an awfully packed bus all eager to head for Naechangshan.

"Eh, nabei cheebye la, chao gina heng lui la!!"
"Ok uncle, relac la"

The best place to head to admire maple leaves in Korea was Mt Seorak but we had missed the period as we were having our mid terms. Therefore we decided to settle for the second best: -Naechangshan where lots of Koreans from different parts of Seoul flock here just to admire the maple leaves.

Its such a big event in Korea that They even had helicopters from SBS and KBS (Korean Tv companies) to cover this. We tried to wave but they think we must have appeared pretty idiotic. But it turns out that, the rest of the people saw us and stared up to the sky to wave to them, Lol.

Makeshift Roadside stalls selling food, snacks : persimmons, grapes, corn, candies, honey products, dong dong ju (another traditional rice wine). Check out the huge pig on the grill.

They even sell birds. I have no idea what species they belong to but they sure don't look like chicken, judging from the size. Two poor birds with their legs spread-eagle. I bet they were caught while they were mating.

Along the way the trees were tinged with brightly coloured leaves.

At the entrance to the park, we were discussing and figuring out the price of the admission fee, when we were approached by this Korean girl who asked us, " 你们是中国人吗？"
To which, we vehemently answered 'No' and proudly replied that we were Singaporean, Taiwanese and Hong Konger. Her face lit up and asked us to follow her. It was a warm feeling, having people bringing you around, especially if you are a stranger in this foreign place, haha.
She and two of her friends were studying Chinese in Jingang University and she was the most proficient in Chinese, having studied the language for 3 years.

The bunch of us walked and talked, engaging in halting Korean and Chinese dialogue and occasionally posing for pictures and taking snapshots.

Canopy turning brilliant crimson with the autumn leaves.
Lovely.

Oh fall. Thats what I came Korea for.

Ok I think I'll skip the comments.

After having a great time admiring the autumn tintage, we decided to head to Gwangju. It was already 9 plus when we reached there. We had this crazy idea of buying a bottle of Dong Dong Ju (a different version of rice wine) and spend our night on the streets drinking it to keep us warm.

However, our innate need to find a proper shelter was so strong that we decided to scout for a decent accommodation. Slightly tipsy and weary from an entire day of walking, we walked along the streets and stumbled into a sleazy part...which happens to part of Gwangju's red light district. And there were pretty looking girls tugging our sleeves and calling us 'Oppa', they were saying that they will throw in 'service', Lol. Due to our budget constraints and moral conscience, but more of the former, we didn't manage to experience that bit of Korea. Aww.

We finally found our lodging.
Yet another motel.

VHS collection somemore. Haha. So retro.