Korea and Kyoto

[cos]

On Tuesday I'm going to Korea for two weeks, with a 2.5-day trip to Kyoto in there. Visiting estheruth who lives in the far south of Korea, and my cousin Hadas is joining me from Israel for Kyoto and about half the Korea time. May get to see japlady in Seoul as well. Korea will include Seoul, Mokpo, Jeju, and probably some other place (Gwangju maybe?). Got any tips about Kyoto or Korea, or favorite things in either place, or people you know who I might want to meet? Or people I know and don't realize are there?

Comments

[pinkrhino.livejournal.com]

Jeju is amazing! Budget for a lot of time there. Loveland is a bizarre and hilarious outdoor sex museum. Tamna Mok Sok Won is a quirky outdoor exhibit of gnarled trees that look like human figures, with stories and descriptions of what it looks like the figures are doing. Manjanggul Lava Tubes is an excellent example of underground caves formed by rivers of lava a long time ago. And of course there are tons of places to enjoy nature - Halla Mountain (Halla-san), Oedolgae rock formations, and the Yongmeori coast.

I lived in Gwangju for a year, and I can say that while it's a fine city, as a tourist you would be (probably) much better served by Jeonju: http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/a-south-korean-city-full-of-food-history-and-bargains/?src=rechp (http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/a-south-korean-city-full-of-food-history-and-bargains/?src=rechp). If you do go to Gwangju, try visiting the Damyang Bamboo Forest, and perhaps compare it to the bamboo forest in Kyoto.

See if there's a festival that you can attend in Korea. Even if it's on the other side of the country, you can probably get there in 5 hours or less. Korea is full of festivals, and they are often entertaining and enlightening slices of culture. I think Jinju has a lantern festival around this time for 10 days that's pretty great.

[pinkrhino.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm Anna (since I don't think I've commented here before). *wave*

[cos]

Thank you for your comment, it's super-helpful. We're catching the ferry from Mokpo to Jeju tomorrow morning, and estheruth gave us a bunch of tips, but she'd never been to Manjanggul. Once we take a cab there, do you know if it's easy to find a cab to return?

BTW, we went to Gwangju for the weekend with estheruth, and met her friend Ana. The next day, still in Gwangju, we met her friend Anna. Neither of them were you. Also when Esther mentioned Anna to Ana, she said "no, the other Anna", meaning Ana knows at least one other Anna in Gwangju. I'm noticing a pattern! :)

[pinkrhino.livejournal.com]

Yay, glad you're having a good time and seeing cool things and people!

Yes, generally cabs are easy to find. I think I took a bus coming back from Manjanggul.

Go visit a jjimjilbang (Korean bathhouse with lots of amenities) for me - they were one of my favorite parts of living in Korea :) http://pilgrimwithapassport.blogspot.com/2013/06/spa-land-koreas-best-jjimjilbang.html (http://pilgrimwithapassport.blogspot.com/2013/06/spa-land-koreas-best-jjimjilbang.html) (that's a particularly fancy one, so they won't all look quite that extravagant!)