Since it was our anniversary, we decided to go up the N’Seoul Tower to celebrate.  To get to the base of the tower you take a cable car, which provides you with great views too.  Once inside you take an elevator up to the observation deck with huge windows giving...(read more)

Namdaemun Market, Seoul

We made not one, but 2 trips to Namdaemun Market - it’s that big.  Of course, it’s Korea, so it’s well organized with info booths with English speakers.  They have maps available, with bathrooms and banks clearly marked and all the buildings labeled and what they sell listed. 

There...(read more)

Fruit for sale in Seomun Market, Daegu

From Busan we traveled to Daegu.  From there it was easy to get to Haeinsa Temple by bus.  Daegu also had a huge market - Seomun - which seems to sell a ton of different food, mostly.  It was great for people watching and strolling. 

Socks for...(read more)

Some of the woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana

Daegu is a convenient base to head out to yet another amazing temple - Haeinsa Temple.  There are buses everywhere in Korea, and they all run on time, all the time, and are impeccably clean.  Amazing. The road is windy and steep, and so it...(read more)

A subway station in Busan.

The subway system in Busan is like all the others we used in Korea - fabulous.  The trains run very frequently and the stations are well organized, announced in English (and Korean, and Chinese, and Japanese) and everything is, of course, spotlessly clean.  Naturally.

Notice the...(read more)

From Gyeongju we traveled to Busan, a bustling port in the south of the country with plenty of US sailors everywhere - the USS Reagan had just docked, with 5,000 sailors on shore leave!  Plus there were other USS ships in port at the same time. 

Downtown Busan - shopping in the...(read more)

We stayed at the Goodmorning Haotel Motel, which was possibly the best value hotel we’ve ever gotten of all 51 countries we’ve travelled to. For $30 we got an exceptionally clean room, big tv, nice towels, bathrobes, huge shower with floor to ceiling glass windows to the main room -...(read more)

The outside of the building at Sarangchae Home Stay. The bathroom is at the end.

We stayed at Sarangchae Home Stay. We stayed in a tradiditional ondol-style room - basically this means the small room had a thin mattress on the floor, a fan, and nothing else.  Just a 30 foot...(read more)

From the Wolseong Park we crossed the street and visited the gorgeous lotus flower ponds which are next to the Anapji Pond.  We didn’t actually make it into Anapji, we enjoyed the lotus flowers so much we stayed for quite a while.  There are a group of rectangular ponds, all...(read more)

The Cheomeseongdae Observatory at the Wolseong Park was a little underwhelming.

From Tumuli Park, we crossed the road and checked out Wolseong Park, which was filled with beautiful orange flowers and more tumuli.  There’s also an observatory, which is apparently the oldest in East Asia, but to our untrained eyes seemed...(read more)