Maddogstobbe
Mad & Jeff Joined: September 23rd 2008
Logged in: May 31st 2010
Logged in: May 31st 2010
Travel Blog Posts
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Over the long weekend in early May we decided to spend our time island hopping in Chungcheongnam-do province. We started our trek on Anmyeondo, the largest of the islands. One of my students had written a journal about a beautiful flower festival that was happening on the island so we decided to check it out. "Floritopia 2009" turned out to be a collection of different flower displays and a few showcases of flowers from around the world. All in all, Flowertopia was just like strolling through a public park back in Canada. Only with a few thousand of our closest friends. As evening approached we decided to head down onto the beach to scope out a potential camping site. I like to think I was a great sport about camping, but Jeff might tell a different ... read more
MS275320
Here are the long overdue pictures from our trip to Jeju Island in January. After the most terrifying flight of my life (which consisted of 3 attempts to land in a snowstorm, and an uncountable number of filled barf bags) we finally landed in Jeju-si, the capital of Jeju. After we rented our Matiz (a cute teeny Korean car) we spent the first day driving around Jeju-si. We visited Samseonghyeol, the birthplace of the people of Jeju. Samseonghyeol consists of 3 holes in the ground which legend says, 3 brothers crawled out of and founded the Tamna kingdom. We learned all about Jeju's history from an interesting anime film with no English subtitles. After Samseonghyeol, we headed to Jeju Loveland, an erotic sculpture park created by artists from Hongik University in Seoul. Interestingly enough, it is ... read more
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We arrived in Fulong in early afternoon and found our way to the beginning of the Caoling Historical Trail (after a close call with a guard dog guarding an abandoned house). The hike took a few hours and we travelled through a thick forest and ended on a grassy cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately we arrived at the cliff before it got dark, although our hike down into the town of Dali was a bit frightening in the pitch black. This trail was built in 1807 to connect two cities (Danshui and Ilan) and the section that remains today is one of the few historical roads that remains in Taiwan today. Once in Dali, we took a train back to Taipei then the High-Speed Rail train (which can reach speeds of 330 km/h) down the ... read more
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We awoke early on the second day and caught a train down the East coast of Taiwan to Hualien. Once there we found a scooter to rent, filled up with gas and headed to Toroko Gorge National Park about 20 kms away. Taroko gorge was once home to the Atayal people who were known for weaving, facial tattoos, and headhunting. The majority of the Atayal people have moved out of the gorge, but some still remain working at hotels, resorts, and selling woven and leather products. The gorge itself is filled with marble-walled canyons and gigantic cliffs. The road through the gorge connects with the cross-central highway, but we went only as far as Tienhsiang. The road winds through canyons and at times is so narrow only one car can fit through. There were many tour ... read more
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For our Christmas vacation this year we decided to check out Taiwan. We had 5 days so we needed to cram in as much as we possibly could. We started off in Taipei where we spent the first day parusing through temples as well as paying a visit to Taipei 101. There is a bit of controversy surrounding it's rank among the highest buildings in the world, but accoring to our Lonely Planet guide, it is the tallest. It also claims to have the worlds fastest elevator that rises 1010m per minute as well as a massive damper that counteracts movements from strong winds and earthquakes. All in all it was a pretty amazing building. Next we visited the Confucius Temple and the Bao-an Temple (Taoist). Both were beautiful and had incredible architecture. Once it got ... read more
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Weekend trip to Seoul on the second weekend in November. Changdeokgung Palace is a World Heritage site and definitley the most amazing Palace I have seen since being here. Most noteworthy was the Secret Garden which was filled with stunning fall colours. Changgyeonggung Palace was another pretty palace, although not as nice as the previous and definitely had way too many gs.... read more
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Weekend excursion to Suwon to see the Korean Folk Village, Hwaseong Fortress, and the lovely Heather Mullett!... read more
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Our school had a holiday, so we hiked this mountain in Daejeon. Daejeon is surrounded by mountains and this one is located south-east of where we live.... read more
Photo 4
A hodge-podge of photos from our second month in Daejeon. Early in the month we went to watch a Hapkido (Korean martial art) tournament where we saw some of the craziest Korean children yet. Jeff's Hapkido school was competing so we saw some familiar faces as well as the only white person in the whole tournament take a roundhouse to the head (Note: He later was admitted to the hospital where he underwent surgery to attach metal plates to his jaw which was fractured in three separate places). Later in the month we had a belated housewarming party to welcome us to the country. Korean, Canadian, and American friends all came for a night of friendship, laughter, and salsa dancing. There are also pictures of my only student that dressed up for Halloween as well as ... read more
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On the first weekend in October we hopped a bus and headed down to Busan to spend the long weekend on a beach. After a couple setbacks in Daejeon (wrong bus terminal, missed bus) we finally ended up at our destination just in time to catch the last few rays on Haeundae beach as well as a beautiful sunset. The boys went for a quick dip while I opted for beachcombing. After we got some dinner at a local restaurant we grabbed a couple bottles of wine and headed back to the beach for a relaxing night of drinking on the beach. Thomas and I attempted to find a motel to sleep in but since there was an international film festival in town, there were absolutely NO hotel/motel rooms to be found anywhere. We returned to ... read more
We have trevelled 
We have lived 
