Jeongju, Cheongup and Gwangju Trip

I haven't blogged for a long while because I had lots of projects and homework to catch up with.

Anyway, Liwei, Gary and I decided to make a short getaway from Seoul during last weekend to the abovementioned areas which were mainly the South South part of South Korea. Actually, our main purpose was to check out the maple leaves in Naechangshan but we decided to explore the other places since they were nearby.

Departure from Express Bus terminal. It took approximately 3 hrs to get there or maybe longer. We were easily the youngest people on board the bus.

We arrived there only to discover that Jeongju was...quite rural. The streets were pretty quiet. And we were walking around to look for a decent restaurant to have our lunch. (We didnt plan too much for our trip, maybe only one night of itinerary planning, so everything was pretty impromptu and extremely 'bagpackish').

The restaurants that we stepped into all had a weird smell. We were wondering if they were serving dog meat..because the smell was really fetid and vomit inducing. (I apologise if I am being culturally insensitive but I really couldn't take the smell there :| ). Finally we settled for a shop that didn't smell so awful and we ordered Jeongju Bibimbab which was their local specialty dish.

Our bibimbab, which tasted fairly ordinary. They served us 8 side dishes! but none of them tasted good :(((. And they had a special 'sidedish' which looked like flattened beans. They turned out to be silkworm larvae. Apparently they believe that these larva are nutritious and high in protein. Liwei was so disgusted by the sight of it that he wanted to leave the shop. Only Gary made the bold attempt to sample it but he nearly vomitted. Lol.

After our lunch, we headed out to their traditional village area which was their main cultural attraction.

We went in to their medicine store and went to sniff around the medicine and poked at the herb soap that they were making. There was a middle aged woman who spoke to us in rather fluent english and we were stunned when she explained to us the herbs and process involved in making the soap.

An art and craft shop. Their papercraft is amazing. I think Korean's paper technique is more superior than China's even though Chinese were the pioneers in paper making. Kick ass.

My abject sexual fantasy. Hahaa

Xiao Ao Jiang Hu.

Liwei taking a quick relief. The traditional way.
So now we know the secret behind kimchi making. Hehe.

I love their traditional woodcraft and sculpture. So inspiring! Sensual and artistic.

Playing traditional games at the village with some locals.
Some old folks playing chess. The Korean version allows elephants to swim across the river. Maybe Korean waterways are more shallow.

We left our scribbles on a guestbook at some Revolution Museum. Gary wrote that he was looking for a Korean girlfriend. And I just wrote, me too. Haha.

Nice lily made of paper. And nice balls. Extremely artistic piece.

If your chinese is good enough, you'll understand the first picture. Its a tortoise btw.
Gary playing with a football at their gate which was a tourist attraction. We weren't supposed to enter in the first place. Lol. Much less play around with a ball.

We had noodles at some famous noodle restaurant in Gyeongju. Yes. I am a sucker for noodles. I guess I inherited my father's genes.

In the evening, we took a bus to Cheongup so that we could get up early the next day to head for the mountain to admire the leaves.

Upon arriving, we walked around to try to look for reasonable accommodation to spend the night. We settled for an average motel which cost us 40,000 won (thats around 64 dollars) for 3 persons.

Our program when we turned on the TV. Well..thats the standard channel for all motels in Korea, irregardless of Seoul or anywhere else. Motels are meant for couples to have a fun night out/ husbands to cheat on their wives /wives to cheat on their husbands. Hoho.

We just sat there transfixed to the screen. Even though we keep complaining that the sex was unnatural with lots of feigned moaning and they didnt even reveal the nether regions.

It was pretty funny.Imagine 3 guys silently watching porn and all refusing to take their shower.
Haha.

I'll continue the rest on another day. The dorm is cutting the internet supply now. Grr.