Just another day in Paradise!

To carry on our adventure we took a boat from Koh Samui to Koh Tao, and we had thought Samui was nice!!

We arrived in the morning, ditched our bags and went to explore the island under the clear blue sky and hot sun, we wandered along an idylic beach, with white sands, palm trees and crystal clear water before heading up a hill to take in the views, the climb was tough but we got an amazing vista over the bay, after an even tougher walk down (we seemed to lose the path at some point and ended up pushing our way through the jungle - cue more Indiana Jones music), in the evening we ate and drank under the stars with the sea lapping the shore just a few feet from us.

This morning we awoke to another beautiful day and headed to the beach, swimming in amongst the crabs and fish every few minutes just to keep cool. At lunch time we hired Kayaks and took to the sea, the visibility in the water was unreal and we headed to a smaller island off the coast, there was some tough going and we had tired arms after the 90 minute paddle to another beautiful beach on the island (there is a fee to visit the island and unfortunately we didn't manage to get past the person taking the money, so we only paid it a quick visit before hitting the open water again, and taking a dip in the sea half way home.

It really is a tough life ;o)

Lifes a Beach

After the cold (but fun) times on Jeju we felt we needed some beach and sun, so we spent a day travelling to Bangkok. We arrived at our hostel at a lovely warm 2am but there was a mix up with our booking which meant we couldn't get into our room until 4:30. Simply enjoying the warmth we took a stroll to Koh San road to see the famous street in the middle of the night, we weren't too surprised by the drunk tourists and 'bar girls', had a good Pad Tai and a couple of beers before heading to bed (without any bar girls).

We were aiming for the beach but needed to sort some visas so had a day in Bangkok before going to Koh Samui and a couple of days doing nothing but relaxing in our wooden bungalow, lying on the beach, jumping the waves and eating green curries - heaven!

On our third day we fancied a bit more adventure so hired a beast of a scooter for a tour of the island. We parked the bike up by an Elephant treking centre and climbed a hill to a scenic waterfall, we had the whole place to ourselves and spent a couple of hours lying on the rocks in the sun, dangling our feet into the water to be nibbled by baby catfish (something you had to pay for in town). On leaving the falls, while traversing a particularly strong rapid disaster struck! Vicky's flip flop had come off and been washed away! to the sounds of the Indiana Jones theme tune which mysteriously sounded from somewhere I leapt from rock to rock, over gorges and rapids chasing the errant footwear. I tracked it down to nasty stretch where, I'm almost certain, crocodiles were hunting. With no thought for the danger I was in I leapt into the water and retrieved the flip flop to a thunderous applause from the crowd that had gathered.

After the events at the falls, we headed to a secluded beach to watch the sunset as we bathed in the calm waters, planning to reward ourselves the following day with a quiet day on the beach.

All I can say is "aaaaaah", as I roll over for some more suncream to be applied.

Jejudo Island

Jejudo is known as the honneymoon island of South Korea, it's got palm trees, beautiful beaches and fruitful mandarin orchards everywhere. It's covered in black volcanic rock and has a big mountain, Hallasan, in the center. We've been lucky enough to stop with an American guy, Dan, who has showen us around. We've walked the beaches and even braved it into the water for some snorkling. We hired a scoter for the last couple of days to explore the island. We headed east and got up early to watch the sunrise from Ilchullbong peak which was slightly dissapointing due to the full cloud cover and freezing winds, then got back to the bikes. It was really fun and we took lots of tiny roads through the Korean villages that followed the coast then headed back to Seogwipo. The wind was crazy and pushed the bike all over the place - we were so cold i think we started to freeze in the middle. Oh and we got a bit more karaoke in - good times!!

South South Korea part 2

Jeonju - it's the capital of Jeollabuk-do province and has a beautiful Hanok village that we explored. Hanoks are the traditional one story houses with curvy slate roofs and the autumn leaves makes them look even more attractive. It's the birthplace of Bibimbap (rice, egg vegetables and a hot sauce in a big bowl that has to be mixed with chopsticks then eaten with a spoon- if you get this wrong you get told off by wither the staff or other people in the restaurent as we have now found out a fe times) so we've had plenty of that and we have also tried fried ginsing, appaently it's really good fo you? i'm not sure why they insist on deep fat frying it though.

We have had a couple of hiking day trips too;
1. Daedunsan provincial park, this was beautiful and the climb to the craggy peak included a cable bridge from one peak to the other and a very big ladder. Once we startedheading towards a second peak when thunder and lighting started. The rain was so heavy it was difficult to walk on the stone tracks that were now super slippy from all the wet leaves. It tookus an hour to get down to the cablecar where we were packing in like sardines and wisked to the bottom where we went for a traditional Korean sauna, it was so nice to be warm!!
2.Naejangsan - today was boiling hot and bright blue skies. We climbed up a steep ridge and then spent the day going from peak to peak. The views at the top were really beautiful in every direction. The ridge is in the shape of an amphitheatre with a big temple in the middle so we could often hear the chanting and singing as we went arond.

South South Korea - Jirisan National Park

We packed our bags for a trip around the south of "Sparkling" Korea. We left some clothes and things we didn't need with George (Glens cousin) and borrowed his tent and with our bags we headed to Jirisan national park to ascend the peak.

On arrival it was clear camping was out of the question for three reasons 1. its illegal 2. the paths are relentlessly steep with no clearings and 3. there are wild bears in the area. Still we started lugging our necessities for the next two weeks (including the tent) up the path, the only way i can describe it is by quoting the book "difficulty rating 5, very strenuous'. It felt never ending but after 4.5 hours we had completed the 8km to the shelter where a monk was living at 1475m in literally freezing conditions. We ate noodles and went to bed when the sun went down, it was 5pm and despite the hard floor and minus temperatures we slept well.

The morning brought sunshine, more noodles and coffee then we continued on over one peak to another until we reached Chanwongbong peak 1915m. The forest from the previous day cleared and the views opened out to be spectacular. The descent was just as tough as the climb but it was beautiful to see the colours reappear as the height dropped again and meet people on the way up.

Despite the pain in my legs, back, neck, feet (i could go on)... it was absolutely brilliant and we completely loved it. Luckily there was a bear friendly campsite at the bottom so we managed to use the tent.

Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy Deagu

My cousin, George, is studying in South Korea so we thought while we across this part of the world we would drop in and see him, it just happened that it was also while his mum, my auntie Barbara was also visiting so it was nice to see them.

We arrived in Seoul and took the train straight to Daegu where we stopped at 'Motel Romeo'. we had a good few days in the city, eating traditional Korean Barbeque, the biggest apples I have ever seen, and just wandering around the streets. For a bit of culture we saw Carmen at the Opera House, then just to lower the level again went for another indulgence of Karaoke!

We have left Daegu now and are spending the night in Jinju before heading off to do some camping and treking in Jirisan National park - I think it is going to be very cold. To give us some energy before the trip we have just enjoyed a lunch (sitting on the floor of a cafe) of octopus, clam, crab, tiny fried fish, big fried fish and seaweed.

Now off we head into the wilderness with our tiny Korean map, wish us luck!