Around Mandalay

Took a car with Mr. Linn and Felix and Kris around the towns around Mandalay.

First we saw a very famous temple and almost got lost in it. It was called Mahamuni and cost 1000 for a camera fee. It was quite beautiful but easy to get lost in.  I bought an onion (?) paint paining for 2,000 which he made in less than 5 minutes which I think was quite amazing.

Next was more towards Amarapura to where the monks live that we can visit anytime, but lunch is best because most came out and wait. Felt kind of bad, except that people take pictures of me all the time. Some of the monks looked to be five years old.

Next was straight to Sagaing…well if you count the huge traffic jam for the nut festivals last day.

To get to Sagaing we had to cross a bridge and then climb a hill to reach another very famous pagoda with many Burmese tourists who wanted my photo. This temple was larger and just as beautiful. They had rabbit and frog statues too. Also clothes stores at the top which I found odd. A smaller shrine was to the right but that also looked like a care takers house because there were clothes (non monk) hanging to dry. On the way up and down there are many other pagodas and very points.

Next we drove to the boat point for Inwa and had lunch (noodle soup) for 2,000 kayat. Many girls harassed us to buy jewelry. I said I had some and one girl said hers was more beautiful so I acted offended which made her laugh. One looked 4 but was 7 (malnourished?).  The boat was 800 kayat there and back. Once there you need a horse cart for 2000 per person. I liked our guy and horse a lot.

First were ruins which I thought were amazing, but the whole ‘island’ is basically ruins so it loses its special-ness. In this one Buddha’s face had been rubbed off or fallen off.

The monastery was made of teak wood and you can still smell it very strongly. This one is so old it has something’s in it that you don’t see elsewhere because of changed times.

The clock tower was sad because you could no longer go up although it looked like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Next, and last, was another old temple, but this one was white. Great views.

Then we took the boat back but first we saw a girl getting off who wanted nothing more than a handshake and to say thank you. I bought 2 bracelets for 1000 kayat (originally 1 for 2000) and mine were more expensive because of the elephants.

Sunset at U Bein bridge was not too special (maybe because of a cloud) but the bridge was neat and I had my photo taken a ton more. It’s the longest teak bridge in the world. A sign there for locals sounded like a threat to treat tourists nice or else. The boats were beautiful.

We learned that government jobs pay 40,000 kayat a month which is only good for poorly educated people who have no family to support.

Booked the bus for 8:30, pickup at 7:30 for 12000 kayat which is more than De Anne paid…

The truck/taxi was a few minutes late to pick me and some others up but we got to the bus at 8:00 and left shortly after 8:30 making more stops to pick up some locals. Classic rock and strange movies played in the morning and hip hop after our 20 minute lunch stop.

Jagged Ridge Hike

Busan Haps posted an article about the Jagged Ridge Hike, making it sound much easier to get there than it actually is.

You can take a bus from Sasang to Goseong or Tongyeong and catch a boat from there. I’m not sure the times so you will need to have a Korean speaker call the port you want to go to. They leave more often from Goseong than Tongyeong and Goseong is quicker. From either bus station you will need to take a taxi to the port. If you have a large group, like we did, you can hire a bus to take you direct to the port. It was 350,000 won and split with 16 people it worked out cheaper than buses and taxis (we think, including convenience).

The boat from Goseong has a cute whale on the side! At least some of them do, our return one didn’t.

From the boat ride, we saw a lot of fishermen. They set up the buoys with ropes on them to grow clams and the bigger fish come by to try to eat them so fishermen set up shop around the buoys trying to catch them.

Below is our route. We had our bus come over on the boat with us and it drove us along the pink route and we hiked the orange route.

Below are photos of the hike with some descriptions under them.

Rice fields a plenty here

Too many hikers!

Lots of rock formations. Mostly in prayer towers, but there were some cute house like things built.

So steep to climb up! We felt like mountain goats.

Another shot of what we climbed up. If you go to the right you can go around it.

Hope I don’t fall! So steep here we can’t climb up but there are lots of places to sit

Poor tree!

We went around this little village.

Lots of ups and downs.

This guy sold us makgeolli and did a little show with his drum and symbol. Don’t lean on the bridge, but you can set fire to it.

Traffic jam! This and the bridge are new which has lead to a lot more people doing the hike. Many people seemed to be scared to use the steps!

The new bridge! They had to use the ropes to pull it up.

A bit bouncy.The final view of the town, from the other side that we started from.

We finished just after the boat we were supposed to catch and were able to get one two hours later. In our extra time we had our bus go to the ‘beach’ which isn’t great but there were lots of seafood restaurants there as well. It is at another boat port and people RAN to get on it.

Yeongdo Night Hike

The night after a full moon, April 26th, I went on a night hike with Busan Daytrippers. I was supposed to go on two before when I lived in Ireland, but they got rained or snowed out. It was tons of fun and I hope that we do another one here!

We went to Yeongdo (do meaning island) which is where I went before for the taejongdae. We didn’t go that far out, as there are mountains in the middle, called Grandma, Son, and Grandson and those are the ones we hiked.

We took bus to the lion temple.

We then walked along the beach to a mini Buddhist shrine and went up from there.

Never sit on Grandma! It’s a curse!

Son has a little building at the top.

Grandson is where we saw the sunrise, but I think any would be fine for it.

When the sun did come up we got a good view of oryuk islands, or four or five islands.

More Seoul!

Walking around I saw the Institute of Traditional Korean food–I must try this place out next time I come up if they are open on weekends! I saw nearly everything Seoul has to offer and there are only a few places I want to go to again so this is close to the top of my list!

I also found Insa-dong, which was not as exciting as I thought it would be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found Myeong-dong to me much more exciting for shopping (and probably getting robbed as there are so many people–at least there were 2 days before Christmas!)

I also walked past Jongno Tower which is a beautiful display of modern architecture.

Oh hey look–the US embassy has a billion air conditioners and a billion guards.

Outside of the Seoul Museum of History was this display…not sure what it is for but was pretty sad looking.

I walked down Jeongdong-gil, which was a street that was recommended for a stroll.

Seoul set up ice skating in the City Hall area.

There was also a parade of red and green balloons.

The ‘R’ building?

A walk down Cheonggyecheon-ro river is not as beautiful as I expected, forgetting that it is winter.

Another interesting building. I couldn’t decide if it was a letter or not and, if so, if it was an M or N or…

Cheonggye Plaza

Crossing Banpodaegyo Bridge

Spaceship building!

And some more odd buildings in the Lotte Duty Free-COEX-7 Luck Casino area

And, of course, required Dokdo signs.

National Maritime Museum

Came here after the Taejongdae lookout–take the 101 bus and get off when it turns left at a fork in the road and walk down the right fork for a few minutes. I think you can take another bus but I couldn’t find where that one left from. The building is pretty easy to identify once you get near it. The anchors outside help.

At the time there was a display on Tidal flats which was pretty interesting but it didn’t have English on the display.

Then there were some adorable photos of kids playing in mud. I’m pretty sure that these are there all the time.

It was also all decked out for Christmas which was really cute.

There was some art work on display in the basement, but I liked the boats hanging from the ceiling more!

There were some live fish as well, but not too many interesting fish other than the lion fish. Oh, and starfish that you can pick up and play with, and, if you’re the Korean boy below, throw as hard as you can back into the water.

Also some interactive things where you can practice working on a sail boat! If I was a kid or if the line was not so long I would have done this.

The top floor was all about the history of Korea and things Koreans have done in relation to water. The best was this one with the seductive seal.

The view from the top was not great, as the roof extends for awhile.

Taejongdae

Came here for a cool brisk hike on December 8th, the day after it snowed in Busan (which never happens, right?) which was really nice. Clear blue skies with a bit of wind so you need to wear gloves, but there are some more intense walking parts so the hat and scarf might come off. You can take a a train all the way or walk, but why take a train and miss out on some of the cool things or view points? I could see the people on the train looking longingly as I was at the first view point, sad that they were not stopping for it.

It is a beautiful walk as well, even when its cold out with the foliage.

At the lookout where the train stops the first time there is an interesting Western looking man trying to sell you a burger. There is some Korean food and other fast food as well, but the main point is this lookout! You can see the Japanese Island of Tsushima, but that didn’t show up to well in the photos.

But here is the actual lookout with the weird arch thingy.

After walking quite a bit more in the loop around (not going back) there is a monument.

This monument is dedicated in consecration of the old camp site of Young-Do-Group (Oct 1950-Dec 1952), composed of the young anti-communists from three north Eastern-Sea provinces. Equipped in tactics of guerrilla warfare, they were launched deep into the hostile territories, inflicting heavy damage on North Korean army installations and facilities.

Because every forest needs fake tree stumps.