Apr 7, 2013
Mar 22, 2013
Yeombulsa Temple
Long time no post.
Spring has com here in Korea.
Warm wind, blue sky, blooming flowers.... I can't help falling love with spring season. :-)
Today, I am going to write about Yeombulsa Temple which is located in Anyang city that I live in, near Seoul. I usaully go for a walk there with my mother. Most people who travel in Korea whether locals or foreigners don't know much about this simple but beautiful temple.
The temple is halfway up the mt.Samseongsan. Actually, it takes only 20-25min by walk from the beginning, so It is quite easy to go there. I can strongly say that this place is my best place and I am so happy to know this temple exists around my place. I could relieve myself whenever I am there.
Since many people hike up this mountain on the weekend, there are many restaurant around Anyang art park.
This restaurant is on the way to Yeombulsa temple. When you see this resaurant in the picture, it means you are nearly the temple. :-)
My mom is on the way to the temple ♥
Ok, here we are. :-)
There stands big fine trees and rock benches at the temple. Whenever I arrive the temple, I sit on the rock and take a long breath in fresh air.
By the way, Can you see small stones which is piled up in the picture? It is superstitions and we, Korean believe it will bring us luck.
The temple is simple and beautiful.
Especailly, there is the great view from this temple.
The picuture on the left you can see wooden stairs. I strongly recommnad you to go up there and look at the view from up there. It is spectacular(for me).
Also, there is a stone statue of buddha up there.
People used to pray their wishes in there including me. :-)
And this is the view I can see by walking up the stairs.
Since Yeombulsa temple is in downtown Anyang city, I can feel calm and peaceful in my heart when i am at the temple, getting out of busy city life.
I do not normally recommand this temple because I wanna keep here as my secret place.
However, Hope you can visit and see this beautiful temple when you have a plan to visit Korea. You will fall in love with here same like me. :-)
I took these picuture in February. So there are still snow in these pictures but it is not now. Everytime the weather change, it has its own beauty. I will post the temple with spring season one day. :-)
**
If you have a plan to visit Yeombulsa temple :
Take the subway line number 1 (or dark blue line), get off Gwanak station (also it is called Anyang Art Park) and Take exit 2 of the station.
Go to the Anyang art park and then follow the sign to go to Sammaksa temple. Then, you can find the Yeombulsa temple on the way to Sammaksa temple.
Actaully Sammaksa temple is much more popular than Yeombulsa temple because It was built in 677, Silla dynasty and founded by Wonhyo who is revered monk and other monks.
Visit Sammaksa temple too if you have enough time. :-)
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=819919
Since I have only been there from my home, I don't know how to explain going there from Gwanak station exactly.
Feel free to contact me if you have a plan or any question.
I will be more than happy to help you to find the temple. :-)
♥
Feb 6, 2013
Jeju Island : Last day
Mmmmmmm..
I couldn't believe that 3 days were already passed.
Mmmmmmm.. we back to Seoul at noon.
Before we went to the airport, we wanted to see how Jeju marketplace looks like.
So, we planned to visit Dongmun market.
I liked Jeju a lot that I could see the ocean whenever I want.
I took this picture in front of our accommodation we stayed last night.
They looked like a family and looked so free and happy. :-D
And then, we took a taxi and the taxi drove us to Dongmun marekt along the blue ocean..
Dongmun market was not big different with Seoul's ordinary market.
But the different thing is that they sell many different kinds of mandarins. 
Fish market in Dongmun market. :-)
We dropped by here for buying souvenir.
We bought Jeju chocolate set and crunchy set. It has differnet kinds of taste like a mandarin, greentea, a Hallabong and a cactus. It was cheap price for giving someone. Each of them was 10.000 won and sure they have more expensive and good quality one and cheaper one but not good quality. :-)
After we had a brunch we dropped by here for eating something like pancake with sliced radish inside, and we met old cute ladies who ate fish cake sitting on the chair side by side. :-) They looked like close friends. We talked together when we are getting old, when we will be a cute grand child's grandmama, Let's enjoy our time simply and happily by eating fish cake together same like these old ladies. :-)
and we headed toward Jeju international airport and we were back to Seoul.
Back to be my normal and happy life again.
Honey in Jeju Island with Minmin and Kyungpa♥
** 15.01.2013-18.01.2013
Jeju Island : Day 3
The morning of the second day was coming.
We got ready to go out and packed our things for checkout.
Because tomorrow is the day we go back to Seoul, so we decided to stay near the airport.
We stayed this room at "Sheelddi" guest house.
There are 2 rooms, 1 living room and bathroom in the house with the blue roof.
We talked all night in our room. It was very cozy and warm. :-)
Anyway, on thired day, our schedule was like this:
To hike Mt. Hallasan - to visit famous cafe' Cacadew - Love land.
Check below for our traces. :-)
After we packing, we had a breakfast at the guest house's cafe.
Like yesterday, we ate toast with jam and coffee. Also, the owner of the guest house "Sheelddi" provided his special mandarin juice he made himself. He said this juice is named "Fresh ding-ding juice". :-)
We talked a lot with him. He recommended us to visit Mt.Hallasan through course Seongpanak because the course is a gentle slope so it is good for inexperienced climbers.
He was very kind guy. He gave us Jeju mandarins a lot to eat during climbing. :-)
I stongly recommened this guest house if you have any plan to visit Jeju island. It was cozy, comfortable and people who stayed here as a staff or traveler were nice too. Above all things, they gave us great memories we never forget in our lives. :-)
Plus+ "Nari" which is the dog is awesomely cute! *_*
** Jeju Sheelddi guest house : http://cafe.naver.com/jejusheelddi
They have English and Japanese information on this site.
Feel free to contact with them. :-)
Feel free to contact with them. :-)
Before we took a bus to Seogwipo, we dropped by a small store to buy a sour jelly we liked.
This store looks like 80's and early 90's old style store. We wallowed in nostalgia for a moments.
Then, we took a bus and got off the last stop "Seogwipo bus terminal" (NB. I am not sure about exact name of the last stop.) and then we changed to another bus(5.16 line) to Mt.Hallasan. We fell asleep in the bus............
It took around 1 and half hour and when we got off Mt.Hallasan, we got into a panic. It snowed heavily in contrast with the town.
We didn't prepare any mountain-climbing equipment. Also, It was late to hike up to the top of the moutain when we arrived.
It seemed to be dangerous to hike without crampon and waterproof clothes. We were between the ways.
"To hike or not to hike, that is the question."
So, we made a conclustion to hike just a bit.
Let's hike just 5 min more, then go to the city center and eat something hot for keeping our body warm.
Yey! Here is Mt.Hallasan!! We are here! SO COLD!! YEY!! *_*
I felt strongly I need to visit Jeju again whenever I have enought time for this mountain that I've never been to the top. :-)
Just took a walk 5 min, we went back the bus stop.
We were freezing in 5 min at the mountain. We looked like snowman. :-)
Anyway, we took a bus to Jeju city and got off "Jeju bus terminal" after an hour. We looked for some food which could make our body warm, so we chose one restraurant and ordered this food called Gogi guksu(pork noodles) which is the native dish of Jeju island.
It puts noodles in a pork's leg bone broth. :-)
After lunch, we moved to cafe' Cacadew for having dessert. :-)
Yes, we were here for eating this huge dessert.
This is called Nokcha bingsoo(greentea ice flakes with syrup) which is a popular shaved ice dessert in Korea, especially during summer season. it is topped with ice-cream, sweetened condesned milk, small pieces of tteok(rice cake), nuts, cereal flakes and so on.
+Also, we have Pat binsoo (adzuki beans). it is also based on same like what Nokcha bingsoo has.
Normally, Cafe' where bingsoo is sold used to put ice-cream 1 or 2 scoops.
However, Cafe' Cacadew was different. Look at the picture. Can you see how high is ice-cream in the bowl?? How generous the owener of the cafe!
It was yummy but we coudn't eat all up. It was too much for us and made us cold again..
We needed something, somewhere make our body warm again. Somewhere we could relax and be lolling around on a warm floor.
So, we booked an accommodation that mets our requirements.
We were so lucky girls that we could stay this good quality rooms a cheap price.
Above of all, the room was so warm...... We were in this room for 2 hours by relaxing, watching TV and eating mandarins which a guest house's owner gave us. And then, we moved to Love land A.K.A the only sexual theme park in Korea. Loveland is a place where sexually oriented art and eroticism meet.
There are many sexual sculpture outside. Just post one of pictures I took.
If you are interested in here : http://www.jejuloveland.com/
Visit this site or google it :-D
After that, we had a dinner near our accommodation and then bought beer, drinks and some snacks at the supermarket.
The picture above is Jeju milk that I took at the supermarket. It looked different with Seoul's one so I took it. :-)
Also, left one in the picture is printed with a Mt. Hallasan and right one is with Dol hareubang. (You can check information about Dol hareubang on my post: Jeju island : Day 2.)
Cheers :-D
We say cheers "GUNBAE" in Korean.
We talked a lot during the last night and fell asleep well under warm blankets on the warm floor.
Honey in Jeju Island with Minmin and Kyungpa♥
** 15.01.2013-18.01.2013
Feb 3, 2013
Jeju island : Day 2
Second day broke in Jeju Island.
Our schedule was like that :
Visit O'sulloc tea museum - Ripley's Believe it or Not museum - Jungmun beach (Hikiking olle course 7) - Seosokkak Estuary
Check below for our trace. :-)
I slept very well because of walking up Seongsan Ilchulbong(Sunrise peak) yesterday.
Also, I got a muscle pain at a price. :-(
Anyway, we dressed up and got ready to go out for today.
After that we were at the cafe of the guest house which is a meeting place and had a breacfast. It was simple, just bread, strawberry jam, mandarin jam and black coffee. But the mandarin jam was really great!! It was made of Jeju mandarin from the guest house's farm.
Mandarin farm of Sheelddi house
You can experience picking mandarin and eat as much as you want in winter season.
In my case, I am crazy about mandarin, I ate as full as I could hold. Yay!
The price is 20.000won per day, included breakfast, towel, a hair drier and so on.
They have 3 houses. Blue one is for lady's room, Green one is for lady and guy's and Red one is a cafe, a.k.a meeting place. :-) We stayed at the blue one for 2 nights.
She is Sheelddi's mascot, "Nari". She was so cute and smart.
She liked eating mandarin and good at giving her hands to guest who visit Sheelddi.
She is Jindo-dog which is Korean natural monument No.53. Jindo-dog is very royal to his master and very brave.
After brackfast, We headed to O'sulloc tea museum.
There was no bus to O'sulloc so we tried to walk to get there first, but we took a taxi at the end.
The reason why we went this tea museum was that we wanted to try green tea icecream and saw vast greeny green tea farm. We succeeded eating REAL green tea icecream but couldn't see grenny farm...mmmm
After eating icecream, we moved to Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.
Ripley's "Believe it or not" are great discoveries and amazing collections. Many interesting things were in there.
And then, we walked to Jungmun beach. Just walk down from Ripley's museum, you can see the blue ocean. Sky was very cloudy but the ocean was still beautiful.
The best thing I was in Jeju is that I could see the ocean whenever i want. I hope I live near the ocean in the future. On that time I could see ocean everyday, will I be sick and tired of seeing the ocean? :-)
Originally, we planed to hike Olle course 7 but we failed.
(Basically, It takes 4-5 hourse to walk per Olle course.)
We just walked from the end of the course 7 to the biggining of the course 8. And just enjoyed watching the beautiful view, took pictures a lot with the view and made great memories together.
This statue is called Dol hareubang(or harubang), the symbol of Jeju.
It is commonly said that if woman touch his nose, she can have a baby boy when she is pregnant. :-)
**Dol hareuhbang:
The name dol hareubang derives from the Korean word for "stone" (dol), plus the Jeju dialect word hareubang, meaning "grandfather". The dol hareubangs are carved from basalt and the hat is commonly referred to as phallic or mushroom-like. (wikipedia)
Enjoyed watching this Jungmun beach and made great memories, and then we moved to Seosokkak estuary.
Actually, we didn't have any plan to visit Seosokkak but we changed our schedule because the bus we took is going to Seosokkak. We decided to drop by there and have a lunch+dinner around there.
The bus from Jungmun to Seosokkak took around 1 hour. We got off the bus and walked maybe about 15 min?, then we could see this beautiful view again. check below. :-)
Seosokkak is where the fresh water meets the sea.
Here is famous for taking a transparent kayak. In our case, it was late to take it so we chose having a dinner instead.
We ate "Galchi jorim(Steamed Hairtail)" for our dinner. Jeju's hairtail is known for its size and taste. The restaurant we visited was served this food for 3 size, small, medium and large. We took large size with 3 bowl of rice and it cost 39.000 won. It was really yummy and side dishes too!! *_*
After filling our tummies with Galchi jorim, we were thinking about what are we going to do. So, as a smart phone users, we searched where is a great place to chill out. And we found it. One of the famous cafe + restaurant was around Seosokkak. Two more stop by bus, we could get there. The name is "Nanayone".
Just 4 tables in Nanayone.
We grabbed a beer.
Warm lights, a stove, a glass of cold beer and friends.
It made me warm and peaceful. :-)
Second day in Jeju also passed joyfully. :-)Good night Jeju.
Honey in Jeju Island with Minmin and Kyungpa♥
** 15.01.2013-18.01.2013
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