Just back from climbing Mount Jiri. This one was totally different from the Mount Halla hike. First of all it was a two day trip and then it was also much more demanding. Mount Jiri is more a formation of several mountains with several peaks which are connected with each other. So you are basically walking along ridges and peaks. The trip started at Seongsamjae and ended about 30Km later at Cheonwangbon which is the highest peak at 1915m. I made it in 2 days which almost killed me but then again experienced hikers supposedly do it 1 day and I [View Full Entry]

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So now I am back on the mainland in Gurye, a small county in the heart of Jeollanamdo province (southwest corner of Korea). The province gets abundant rainfall and is also home to the warmest weather on the peninsula. This helps to produce large amounts of agricultural produce, mainly rice, wheat, barley, pulses and potatoes. Vegetables, cotton and fruits are also grown in the province. This, I have to admit, I copied striaght from Wikipedia but it's totally true, I am in the Korean heartland of farming. I left Jeju on Thursday with the original intent of taking a ferry but [View Full Entry]

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Pictures only [View Full Entry]

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This is my last night on Jeju. I will have spent 2 weeks on this island which unfortunately is not anything close to Hawaii with regard to the weather. It rained 50% of the time with 2 or 3 sunny days :-( But who am I to complain? It's a great island nevertheless. I will leave for Gurye (southern part of the country, near mount Jiri) tomorrow taking the ferry to Wando and the bus via Gwangwon. I have to do a bit of a catch up on what I have been doing the past days. Quick summary. I loaded 450 [View Full Entry]

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I landed Wednesday afternoon May 21st on Jeju International airport and was greeted by sub tropic temperatures and palm trees. Jeju Island the southern most island of Korea really seemed to live up to its nae "Hawaii of Korea". This was the first time for me to be on this favorite vacation spot among Korean honeymooners as I would usually spend my time in Seoul on business trips. Jeju is of volcanic origin with a massive volcanic mountain, Mount Halla, dominating the centre of the island. Mount Halla, Korea's highest mountain with just under 2000m altitude is accompanied by over 350 [View Full Entry]

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So finally, 2.5 weeks after having left Germany on May 14th I am writing my first blog entry. First stop after taking off in Frankfurt was Seoul. I spend a week staying at my "older brother" Seung-Hun's house (he's not a real brother but we are pretty close, as he has known me since I was little and we actually shared an apartment for a while in Hamburg, Germany) in Ichon. Nothing exciting really happened except that I stocked up on hiking and camping equipment, bought a digital camera and got screwed while haggling for a cheaper price on a MP3 [View Full Entry]

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