It is amazing how well you can sleep on a marble floor! All the foot-weariness from the previous day's hike gone, we got up and left the jjimjilbang to find a taxi to go to Hanok Village on the outskirts of Jeonju. We had absolutely no sense of where we were so started walking in the direction we thought was correct. We eventually hailed a taxi and found we were going in the wrong direction and were miles from where we wanted to be! Hanok Village is a kind of living museum where all the builings are representative of typical Korean architecture. We spent quite a lot of time looking round what seemed to be a place used by royalty perhaps for meetings or holding religious events. There was an adjacent area with staff quarters and ... read more

The next morning we woke up, packed away the tent, and promptly made good on our promise to swim ourselves clean. We were blessed with a beautiful warm, clear lagoon just in front of us, which was a great way to get going. We decided that instead of waiting for our friendly local bus driver, we'd walk back to the pier and see the island properly. The walk took about two hours, along cliffs above the sea, through the little fishing village, and around several beautiful peninsulas and bays. It seemed like the whole island was asleep, except for a few locals hanging around the grocey store where we found breakfast. Along the sides of the road red chilli peppers were drying out in the sun on mats. Wido is for sure the most beautiful island ... read more

After counting down the sleeps from about 89 (and still getting to 0 on the wrong day) Cathy was finally able to hop on the bus to Incheon airport to go meet her mom, Susan, who was commming to visit. We had already thought of about 4 weeks of things to do, see and eat for the 2 weeks she would be here. So from day 1 we started her on the grand tour. Here's her version of part ofthe trip... {Darrell} On Sunday evening (19th) Darrell, Cath and I set off on the first part of our holiday together. We went into Seoul and looked around an arts and crafts market called Insadong. It extends down a street in Seoul and has masses of shops and street stalls selling typical Korean crafts. Although there is ... read more

Okay, so we haven't posted any blogs in a while. Why is that? No, it's not because we've lost interest in sharing our trips with the back-homies. It's because what we've been spending our money and free time on is (in my opinion) not worth talking about. But hey, for the sake of realism, lets do an update. Guess what we've been doing with our last few long weekends. No, not visiting beaches all over the east... nope, not hanging around the house eating pancakes....no, not even grating each other's eyeballs and dipping them in vinigar. We've been doing....... DENTISTRY!!! AAAaaaaaaaaa........... gulp. Yes friends, my worst fears were realised when a small piece of tooth chipped off as I bit into an apple (a rare pleasure... the apple not the chipped tooth). In a brief moment ... read more

Well, with us having been working and travelling around South Korea for 4 months now, and my birthday looming in the upcomming week, we decided to do something a bit more extreme. This meant setting our alarms for 5am (Yes, 5AM!) on a Monday morning and catching a train into Seoul in time to meet a bunch of friends and pile into a van by 8am. With stomachs slowly waking up to the taste of Kimbap (Korean sushi roll) and coffee, our non-English speaking driver started the 4 hour trip out to the little town of Pyeong-Chang in the middle of the mountainous Gangwon-do province. Upon arrival we were greeted by perfectly trimmed parks and banners proclaiming Yes Pyeong-Chang! . A sad legacy of the recent loss of the town's winter olympic bid to the Russian ... read more