Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 32

I have heard, time and again, that home is not necessarily where you have physical belongings. It's not where you have a roof over your head, or where you happen to be sitting at the moment. Home, at the end of the day, is where your heart is. I've always loved this sentiment. Home doesn't have to be where I am right now, or where I will be tomorrow. Home will always be where the people I love are; where, as much as my wanderlust is a huge part of me, I yearn to be. Home is where my family is... but it's also where my friends are. My friends are just as important to me as my family by blood.... they are the family I chose, after all. While I truly believe that home doesn't ... read more

We took the train from Seoul to Daejeon, we were on the slow train so the journey took about two hours and we arrived around 10. We exited the station and found our tour bus eventually. The tour bus looked brand new and the seats were covered with vinyl. Once everyone had arrived, we set off and we drove through Daejeon for about half an hour to reach our first destination Ppuri Gongwon or in English Root Park. Ppuri Gongwon was opened on 1st November 1997 and is filed with sculptures and pieces of artwork that remind people of their family ties. In Korea, the same family names are very common, with Park, Kim and Lee being the most prominent, I think. Also the family names have ties to different areas or cities, so if your ... read more

A trio of mountains. I have previously hiked Yongmasan, many, many years ago, and when I did that hike, we had wanted to tack Achasan on to it, but couldn't find our way, so had to give up. However, this time I would start at Achasan to make sure I got there. Achsan, Yongmasan and Mangusan were all collectively called Mt. Acha or Achasan until the Joseon dynasty. So hopefully I would be able to tackle all three without too much difficulty. I took the subway to Achasan station. The blogs I had read about getting to the mountain form the subway station made it seem quite difficult, but I think I followed the directions from 10 magazine and it was pretty simple. And if you are there at the weekend, you can just follow the ... read more

Hyundais ready for shipment filled the Port of Incheon as we arrived in South Korea this morning. It was a little chilly when we walked to our bus this morning for our tour but the sun was shining and there was no smog from China. When we arrived at the DMZ area we were surprised to see rides and gift shops near the Freedom Bridge. We used the restroom facility there and then reboarded the bus to go to the DMZ third tunnel. We were warned by our guide to take pictures only from behind this yellow line on the observation deck. The line was four feet from the wall and had view finders that were in the way. After taking our photos we approached the wall and obeyed the rule until a huge group of ... read more

Easter Sunday, April 5th, I visited Lotte shopping mall. This place doesn't compare to anything I've seen in the U.S. It is 12 floors of awesomeness. I took the metro/subway to the mall and exited and Nampo-dong, which fed me into the first floor of the mall. It has tons of seating and so many different places to eat that you cannot choose easily. I kept turning my head from one side to another and was so overwhelmed with the options I decided to get right to shopping for what I needed. Each floor has different items to shop for. For example, one floor has young women's fashions, another floor has men's fashion, home furnishing, and so on. One floor is dedicated to shoes and purses- I almost had a heart attack. I saw so many ... read more