Jeju for the Summer!

After much deliberating we finally decided to got to Jeju island for a few days over the summer vacation. This was quite a tough decision as we've been trying to save as much money as possible since we're going on the Trans-mongolian train in October and that's going to cost us a packet. But weeks of of spending our summer days in air-conditioned rooms made me decide we HAD TO get out ad at least try to spend some time outdoors and see the sun - in a place where we would at least be able to swim to cool down. Plus just getting out of Sangju for a few days would do us a world of good! We were also really lucky in that out friends, James and Barbara, who live and teach on Jeju, offered us their flat for the 4-5 days we were there - this was the final thing which made us decide to go.

Jeju is the largest Korean island - it is the NUMBER ONE holiday destination for almost every Korean person. Most Koreans would probbaly rather visit Jeju than an international destination - it has some 'nicknames' e.g. "The Hawaii of Korea" etc which demonstrate its popularity. It is indeed a beautiful island - but to be fair, one cannot really compare it to Hawaii or other tropical island paradises. It is more tropical than the mainland, has milder winters and a very green and pretty landscape. Jeju has grown into a veritable 'Tourist island' for Koreans - I would hazard a guess that about 80% of the islands' revenue comes from tourism: it is littered with hotels, guesthouses and tourist attractions: some natural but mostly man-made and uniquely suited to Korean tourists: Museums, shows, museums, parks, museums, art galleries, museums, etc etc. You get the idea - the 'places to visit and things to do' list one could make for Jeju would make a fat book.

Jules and I avoided all those commercialised not-so-relaxing options and just CHILLED. The weather helped a lot - we had 3 almost solid days of rain and drizzle which meant we stayed holed up in James and Barbara's apartment reading, watching movies and just chilling. The rainy-beach-holiday kind of vibe that is so good for the soul. We had really hoped to do some diving on Jeju, but alas, the weather was awful and the sea in no state for us to immerse ourselves in it.

We did, however climb Mount Halla - South Korea's highest mountain and an ancient volcanic crater. Climbing Mount Halla (Hallasan in Korean) is a bit of a pilgrimage for most Koreans - living in such a mountainous country, Koreans have a strong, often spiritual, connection to mountains. Mt. Baekdu is the highest mountain in the Korean peninsula but is now pretty much inaccessible to all South Koreans as it is in North Korea, and so they all want to climb Mount Halla - which comes a measly second. It isn't very high at all (1950m) - compared to the 2744 m of Baekdusan, and is easily climbed in a day, as long as one is moderately fit. So, we climbed with with hundreds of other people! The climb up and down took us about 9 hours - it is quite steep, and is about 19km in total. Almost a third of the climb is on boardwalks or stairs which makes it much easier than it would be otherwise. It's an interesting mountain to climb - it has 4 distinct vegetation strata and the geology is very different to all the other mountains we've climbed on the mainland. I really enjoyed the climb - it was quite misty at the top so we couldn't see the sea which one usually can but nonetheless the view was pretty awesome - there is a beautiful clear crater lake in the top of the mountain and the base of the crater is so green!

On our other 'sun-day' we went to a Herb Farm - Jeju Herb Dongsa (yup, one 'tourist' trap which caught us!) where we ate giant plate-sized hamburgers (actually just a giant round ham sandwich) and enjoyed walking around the pretty gardens and taking pictures. In the afternoon we headed down to Pyoseon beach - I was really keen to swim, and I did take a dip, but the lifeguards were overbearing and I was just not ready to srum it in the tiny 'safe swimming' zone into which everyone was jammed so we just lay on the grassy banks above the beach and relaxed.

We also managed to meet up with some friends from the mainland (Joe, Clint and Natalie) and had a meal of traditional Jeju island black pork together - turns out it wasn't 100% good pork as 3 out of 5 of us had an awful bout of food poisoning within 48 hours of consuming the damn pig! Below are some photos of our Jeju holiday. I'm so glad we went - it really was relaxing and great to just have a change of scenery and be on holiday!

We travelled the cheap way to Jeju - by train from Sangju to Mokpo which took about 6 hours, and then another 5 hours by ferry from Mokpo to Jeju. A bit tiring but we had time on our side so it wasn't too bad.

We travelled 'stowage class' on the ferry - all in a big room together!

On the way there we were in a slightly smaller room - 30 people.

The port city of Mokpo

Fish trays in Mokpo

Boats in the afternoon - Mokpo city.

Cicadas in the garden at the herb farm - wow, there were so many of them, and also so many beautiful butterflies!

Chair swing! So Romaaaantic - typical Jeju!

Our black pig dinner...

Seogwipo Harbour on Jeju.

Kids playing, yes, really PLAYING, in a small tidal pool in Seogwipo.

We weren't the only ones hiking to the top of Mount Halla!

The crater lake on Hallasan. So pretty!

Hallasan!

Some mossy forest - this bit was very moist with water oozing out of the ground.

Drier pine forests lower down the mountain.

Our route up the mountain - as everything in Korea is - very controlled and orderly. No alternate routes, just straight to the top!

Strange conifers near the top of the mountain.

Broad-leaf forest similar to that which we see a lot of on the Korean mainland.

On the way down.

Hallasan Nabi!
(Nabi=Butterfly in Korean)

The sky above and green all around

I've just returned home from one of the nicer walks I've had in a while. Sangju is surrounded by mountains, but alas we seem to take this for granted, and don't spend nearly enough time exploring the forest-clad hills so near to our home.

This afternoon I headed out with the intention of finding a flat-ish portion of the forest and lying down with a book to read.

I found the perfect spot: flat, soft grass and undergrowth and medium-height trees all around. It was just off the path yet also a bit secluded and just beckoned for me to put my blanket down. This I did, and as I lay down on the blanket I realised that I should have done this a long time ago: at eye level I quickly spotted a firefly, a tiny green caterpillar and lots of little orange spider-babies or mites. What a joy!

I feel inspired to re-appreciate nature by the book I am currently reading, it's the German biography of a significant French entomologist, Jean-Henri Faber: "Ich aber erforsche das Leben" (But I will study life). I am so enjoying reading it and the accompanying realisation of how much I, too, love nature and observing it!

I lay on the blanket for about an hour, reading, and looking up at the blue sky, the trees and shrubs all around and just enjoying the stillness of the forest, interrupted only by the odd bird call. If there is a place called heaven, and it is as idyllic as it is made out to be, my section of heaven would be just that: lying on a blanket, reading a book with blue sky above and living nature all around.

An exciting Hike: Lunar New Year, snow, darkness, COLD!

The hike we did on Lunar New Years is high up there with the most exciting and memorable of my experiences in Korea. It is an old Korean belief that if one watches the sun rise from a mountain peak on Lunar New Year, the year will be a lucky one!

Lunar New Year is usually a long weekend in Korea, and one is advised not to travel long distances as the roads and trains are chock-a-block with people travelling home across the country to be with their families. So many Koreans work away from their families, and national holidays are often the only opportunities for them to see each other, especially as most people work weekends as well.

So we decided to plan some 'local fun' for ourselves. There is a National Park near Sangju, Songnisan National Park, which takes just over an hour to get to. We headed over there and spent the night in a fantastic little 'mountain hut' in the park - 'Birosanjang'. It's one of my favourite places in Korea: it's really rustic, with long drops and tiny little Korean style 'ondol' (heated floor, sleep on a mat) rooms and genuine hospitality. One is surrounded by mountains and forests, and the only sounds are birds and the gushing river. We had a hearty Korean dinner and then an early night.

We woke up at 4 am and by 4:30 we were ready to go. It was pitch dark and snowy all around: it was not snowing at the time, which is fortunate, but there had been a good snowfall during the week. The plan was to hike to the top of the nearest mountain peak, from where we'd watch the sunrise. It took us, as planned, just over two hours. Walking up that mountain was so peaceful: the forest was as still as only a forest covered in snow can be, and there was not a soul to be seen. So quiet.

It was, by far, the coldest, darkest hike I've ever done! I'm willing to be the temperatures on the way up were hovering between -3 and -5 degrees celsius. Once we were up on the exposed peak, the temperature dropped dramatically, I think it may even have reached -10 degrees. Incredibly cold! It was so cold, in fact, that we couldn't stay up for the sunset, we saw the sky redden in the east, it was just pink enough to confirm that indeed that day, the sun would rise, and then we were off, down the other side of the mountain. We have been skiing in Korea, but the cold we experienced up there on that mountain was by far the coldest I have been in my life! But it was a thrilling, unforgettable adventure with a great bunch of people!

On our way down again, with a dear friend of mine, Lina, the ice angel! She is an outdoor enthusiast of note, a snowboard instructor and a lovely lady!

I told you it was pink! The sun did rise, we just didn't see it!

'Munjangdae': the peak we scaled.

On top! So wrapped up! So cold! The flecks of snow in the picture were being blown off the peak by the strong, cooold wind.

'Birosanjang': one of my favourite places in Korea

We visited Beopjusa temple before checking into our mountain hut, it looked lovely under snow!

Us on the snow!

Go Team!

Meet The Cambodians

Man and his dogs

This is one of my favourite photos from Cambodia. Rice field, person, dogs, birds, greeen! This is a special kind of rice which they grow in the dry season. It takes three months form planting to harvest, which is very short, and it is very nutritious rice. They can only grow it in the flood plains of large rivers and the Tonle Sap lake where the soil is very fertile.

Bicycle Lady

Bicycles are the predominat form of local transport for Cambodians, they are everywhere! This lady was pushing her bike past one of the temples in the late afternoon. Pity the shadow of the photographer snuck into the bottom right corner of the pic!

"Bag for you, Lady! Only 3 dollars, bag for you lady?"

There are people selling souvenirs and refreshments to tourists everywhere! One of the most amazing things abot Cmabodia is that even though most of the population are desperately poor, there are hardly any beggars. People seem proactive and proud, and so everyone is trying to sell something. Bags, t-shirts, scarves, postcards, cooldrinks, guidebooks etc. One has to learn very quickly to say 'No, thank you!' firmly, but nicely! The hardest is saying no thanks to the cute little kids who've been sent to sell a pack of postcards or 5 bracelets for a dollar. They are almost irresistible. But there is a problem with parents taking their kids out of school to sell things and bring an income into the family so it is something one must try to avoid.

Waiting Game

This lady was selling fresh pineapple outside Preah Kahn temple. How much time these vendors must spend just waiting.... and hoping.

Boys on Bikes

They are riding past Angkor Wat temple. As we did our rounds of the temples I often wondered how the local people who live their daily lives 'in the shadow of Angkor Wat' must feel about it. Do they ever stop and take in it's magnificence? Do they just see it as an income? Do they wonder what all the fuss is about? Do they wish they could get rid of the hordes of tourists....I certainly did! But I was one fo them too.

Everybody loves to watch monkeys!

We were so enjoying watching this troop of monkeys in the grounds of Angkor Wat, and we weren't the only ones either. These boys were on their way somewhere, but stopped their bikes to have a good luck and laugh at the monkeys and their silly antics!

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, diddeliddi...

If Bicycles are the main mode of transport, motorbikes come a close second.
And coconuts are the main staple after rice. A very typical scene.

Chicken 'Indaba'

'Indaba' is a Zulu word for a gathering to discuss important matters. If only I knew the Cambodian equivalent, for this is certainly what was happening here. This was our bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Jules had seen a lady loading in a bunch of live chickens into the bowels of the bus as we left Phnom Penh, and when we stopped at this restaurant for a break, they were all dead! How terrible! We had got a faint whiff of something 'turpentiney' while we were in the bus, and I suppose it must've been much worse in the bottom of the bus and too much for the chickens. Such a tragic story. The owner was understandably irate, but the bus driver was taking no responsibility.

Chicken 'Indaba' Victims

self-explanatory!

Playing and Sleeping.

I love how kids just get on with having fun - often in such an ernest fashion, too!
She was playing in a pile of building sand near the restaurant where our 'chicken' bus stopped. I guess the doggie was just tired.

Studying.

These are the children of Mr Lei, the boat driver and jungle-trek guide at Rainbow Lodge.
The older brother was helping his younger brother to learn how to read - or so it seemed.
Education is one of the biggest challenges in Cambodia: because of high levels of poverty, many children work from a very young age. So many kids are on the streets selling stuff to tourists or helping their parents in the fields or elsewhere. Ensuring decent education for these children is a real challenge. Seeing these two seriously studying a book every afternoon while we were at Rainbow Lodge was heartening.

Boy's Best Friend.

Tagging along with screams of laughter!

I took this photo from our boat from Koh Rong island back to the mainland. These two boys were on their way out fishing when our boat passed them. They couldn't resist the opportunity to hang onto the rope and tag along for a while! They hung on pretty tight but eventually they were both flung off. They were having an absolute ball!

Plodding along.

Water buffalo are such an important asset to Cambodian farmers.

Apsara Beauties.

This was a traditional dance show we watched in Siem Reap - these wowen dancers are known as 'Apsaras' and stone carvings of them are all over the temples of Angkor.
I hadn't realised how many similarities there are between Cambodian and Indian culture. This dancing reminded me quite a bit of tradiitonal hindu danicng I've watched in Greytown!
Hinduism has beenthe state religion of Cambodia - or the Khmer Empire - on and off since about 50 A.D. Angkor Wat is the biggest Hindu temple in the world. In between, Buddhism has also had a big influence on the spirituality of the Cambodian people, and currently Buddhism is recognised as the dominant religion, but there is still a lot of Hindu influence in the culture. Cambodians who speak English sometimes show a hint of the kind of accent one hears from Indian people speaking English as a second language.

The wheels in Cambodia go round and round...

This picture is rather iconic, if I say so myself: magnificent, ancient stone temple in the background, and Cambodians on the top 3 forms of transport in the foreground: Tuk-tuk, bicycle and motorbike.

Floating Market on the Tonle Sap lake.

See previous post for details...

BIG HAT!

MOM and DAD! Do you remember the picture of me wearing Dad's big deerstalker hat?
Here it is all over again...in Cambodia! I think she is just a lot cuter!

Mr Tao

He was out Tuk-tuk driver for the first three days in Siem Reap. What a friendly, kind and humble man. He took us everywhere we wanted to go and was always more than happy to wait for us. We had some interesting chats with him which helped us gain some insights into 'ordinary life' in Cambodia. Bless him. This view of him from behind is so typical of our experience there!

Cambodia: briefly

Deciding to spend the whole two weeks of our vacation in Cambodia was an excellent decision. Some people I chatted to whilst planning the trip had recommended side trips to Laos and/or Thailand, but I am so glad we stuck to our plan of just being in Cambodia. Two weeks was nowhere near enough, and I would've felt we'd cheated ourselves - and Cambodia - if we'd rushed the trip - even more - to see another country as well.

So two weeks on paper, on a calendar, sounds like quite a long time. But when you're in a country with so much depth, so much history, so much beauty and diversity, as Cambodia has to offer, it flies by! So I've titled this blog post "Cambodia: briefly" because I felt we experienced so much, I had so many thoughts, thoughts ad more thoughts going round in my head during our time there, that a single blog post would never suffice to tell about it all. So herewith follows a brief summary of our trip; highlights and some of the recurring thoughts I had whilst on our trip and my pic of the best or most representative photos I took on our trip.

THE tourist attraction in Cambodia is Angkor Wat temple, and the temples in the area around it. Cambodia's history is fascinating: the ancient history from around 800 to 1400 A.D. is one of riches and a huge, powerful empire which at times included vast tracts of Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. The incredible temples still standing, bear witness to this.

But, then, in contrast, the horrific reign of the Khmer Rouge rebels, the civil wars before and after that, unrest and tragedy are recent memories in the minds of many Cambodians. Cambodia was plagued by political unrest from the Vietnam war, right up until the mid 1990s. This recent tragedy, combined with the ancient glory of the temples result in Cambodia's fascinating atmosphere and character: a proud people, bearing scars of the past, but looking forward. There is also an incredible amount if positive work being done in Cmabodia by foreign NGOs to try and help teh Cambodian people re-build their country. At times this worried me as there seems so much foreign influence which could build reliance, but there does seem to be a lot of emphasis on training Cmabodians and providing them with knowledge and skills they can use once the NGOs have left.

the 'compulsory' Angkor Wat photo!

We started our trip in Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a small city which is the 'gateway' to the temples of Angkor. It is built on tourism, and is a very touirst-friendly city. Tuk-tuks - the most favoured transport method for visitors - abound and restaurants serving all sorts of cuisine, from local Cambodian dleights, to Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, and western food. We spent three days in Siem Reap, visiting mostly temples, and just taking in the atmosphere of the place.

We also visited a floating village on the mighty Tonle Sap Lake - the biggest lake in South-East Asia - and the Cambodian Landmine Museum which was an eye-opener of note.

Angkor Wat is the most famous temple in Cambodia and is said to be the biggest religious structure in the world - but we actually enjoyed some of the smaller less popular temples more. Angkor Wat is probably one of the most-visited places in the world: it is overrun with tourists and going there at sunrise or sunset means jostling with crowds and not actualy getting the 'iconic' Angkor Wat photo - or peaseful temple experience - because of the crowds. However, a little foresight and Lonely Planet reading soon revealed 'how to dodge the crowds' and we managed to get quite good at this. I think my two favourite temples besides Angkor Wat were Bayon - with it's famous 'face' towers -and Beang Mealea - the most 'Jungly' temple of the ones we visited. It really has almost been taken
over by the jungle. Wonderful!

at Bayon Temple

Angkor Wat - it is, indeed, a magnificent building!

Beang Mealea - roots, roots, and more roots, all over the ancient structures! A tough one to capture in photographs. Go and see for yourself is all I can say!

My favourite photo of Angkor Wat " a little birds' eye view" - kind of puts things in a different perspective

Village on stilts: there is such a huge change in water levels of the Tonle Sap lake - it is fed by the mighty Mekong River which floods in the monsoon/rainy season - so the people have adjusted to the environment.

Further into the main body of the lake, they just float along and the change in water level doens't bother them much

floating shops...

floating schools...

...floating homes including pot plants and pets!

From Siem Reap we then took a 12-hour overnight bus down to the coast - the beach town of Sihanoukville. It bears all the traces of touristed beach/port towns: lots of opportunistic locals, the usual spread of localised expats making money of the more transient tourists, the feel of easily accessible drugs and sex...and loads of party venues. It DID also have pretty views, beach bungalows and access to offshore islands, diving and snorkeling. So we focused on the later characteristics and had a good time! In any case, for us Sihanoukville was more a jumping off point to the nearby island of Koh Rong.

Serendipity Beach- the part of Sihanoukville we saw most of.

Cloud 9 Bungalows, Sihanoukville. A pretty spot slightly off the main drag.

Sunrise over Serendipity beach - we saw so many beautiful sunrises during our trip - not that lazy after all!
(The little 'house' is a shrine to the gods which almost every home in Cambodia has)

Our next stop was Koh Rong Island. It's a smallish island - one could probably walk around it in one day - off the coast of Sihanoukville in the gulf of Thailand. We spent most of our time on the island diving and chilling. It was so peaceful: there are only 2 tourist lodges on the island and one or two litle local fishing villages. We were there for three days and when someone mentioned that they were looking for a volunteer English teacher the idea of living on a perfect paradise tropical island for a few months was very tempting indeed...

Locals leading their water buffalo along the beach on Koh Rong. Water buffalo are ever-present and an intricate part of the lives of rural farmers in Cambodia.

The view from our bungalow on Koh Rong. Bliss.

A few more photos from Koh Rong.

From Koh Rong island we went back to Sihanoukville for one night, and from there we caught a bus north-west to the border town of Krong Koh Kong. It's on the border with Thailand and is mainly seen by people on their way through. We stayed one night and relaxed and visited the mangrove forests of the Preah Krasaop Wildife Sanctuary. A walkway has been built in this mangrove forest - which is one of the biggest in South-East Asia. We enjoyed the early morning walk through the forest, but were a bit disappointed at the lack of information about the forest and its ecosystem. We had also hoped to do a bit of bird-watching as there were some special mangrove species we could've see but it was very quiet - wondered where all the birds were...

Mangrove forest

From Krong Koh Kong we went to Rainbow Lodge near the Tatai river. It was about a 40 minute tuk-tuk ride from Krong Koh Kong and then a 15 minute long boat ride up-river. Such a beautifully situated lodge. It is a so-called eco-lodge as they run mostly off solar energy and the lodge was built from sustainably harvested materials. It was nestled in the Cardamom Protected Forest and very peaceful indeed: far from the madding crowd as they say. We were there for three days and this was the most relaxing part of our trip. We passed the time swimming in the beautiful clean river, playing scrabble, reading and just chillin'. We also went for a 'Jungle Trek' - more like a nice walk through the forest, but lovely nonetheless.

The experience left me thinking about the definition of the words jungle/tropical jungle/forest/rainforest/tropical jungle etc...The Cardamoms Forest is the largest intact piece of tropical forest/jungle on the South-east asian mainland. However, I don't know how 'intact' it is: there is a lot of poaching and most of the large mammals are no longer easy to spot as their populations numbers are so low. There are supposedly tigers, elephants and the rare siamese crocodile, amongst other lesser known mammals, in these forests, but even wildlife NGOs with camera traps are having very few sightings of them, so sadly even this last mainland jungle 'foothold' is no longer truly pristine. From the deck at Rainbow Lodge we did however hear gibbons calling in the mornings and there was lots of birdsong all around, so we did enjoy the bush! We also got to see giant hornbills which were amazing.

Sadly, the Cambodian government has awarded a contract to an chinese company to build a huge dam on one of the major rivers running through the Cardamom forest, so there goes that one. I must admit, our peaceful nature experience at Rianbow Lodge was strongly tempered by the reality of epxloitation: Cambodia is still a very poor country and so the 'little' people use the forest as a resource, but much more dangerously, the 'big people' like this giant chinese dam construction company are being given free reign on one of the country's most precious natural resources. The people need eletcricity, hence the dam, but the manner in which the business is being conducted is not conducive for a long-term solution to Cambodia's poverty.

Rainbow Lodge at Sunset, so bushy and green. We loved it!

Scrabble! we played again...and again..and again! Jules won more than me, but when I won, it was more convincing. Judge for yourself!

The resident cat at Rainbow Lodge.
Almost every place we stayed in Cambodia had a cat - I loved being with them. Oh how I miss our kitties at home!

"Jungle Trekking" - Jungle Jane?!

Beautiful waterfall on the Tatai river.

From Rainbow Lodge we travelled back up to Siem Reap. Another long 12-hour bus trip, only broken by a transfer into a second bus in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. As it happens, we didn't actually get round to spending any time in Phnom Penh. It is a bit of a pity, as I believe it has character and is a worthwhile place to explore, but we just wanted to see as much nature and countryside as possible. Enough city life for us here in Korea!

We spent the last day of our holiday in Siem Reap again. We hadn't quite had our fill of the temples and it was nice being able to go back and do things at our pace and see the ones we hadn't managed to first time round. Here are some pics of the last bit of temple-hopping we did...

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