Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Chuseok Adventure in Jeollanam-do : Day 2 (Part 2/2) - Suncheonman Bay Ecological Park (Field of Reeds)

To continue the last post we had, our next location is Suncheonman Bay Ecological Park. This park is thickly covered with reeds taller than a full-grown man. It has been said that this field has the biggest colony of reeds in South Korea. It also serves as a home to many plants that thrive in damp conditions, like the common reed and the star-wort. Among all of the world's wetlands, Suncheonman Bay is widely known for attracting the largest number of rare birds. And since it was open to the public as a park, it also attracts numbers of visitors everyday from locals to foreigners. It started to get famous, as one of South Korea's must-need-to-go tourist spot.

At exactly 3:30 pm we started to prepare our things. Packed all the necessary stuffs and we rushed to the bus station to catch the bus travelling for Suncheonman Bay. According to a korean website, it is recommended to take bus #67 to reach Suncheonman. So, following what was written in the website, we've waited for bus #67 at the bus station which was happened to be near Comodo Motel. The bus stop is located adjacent to Palmaro St., right across the street of  a Police Station. Unfortunately, we didn't expect that the interval of the bus will took so long, more than what was written in the website (we needed to wait for 65 minutes, that was what the LCD screen shows that day). Maybe, it was holiday that day. Our patience was running out as we were already behind our schedule, so we decided to check the the map (specifically, Daum Map) in our smartphone to check for any option to get us in Suncheonman Bay. By the way, pocket wifi such as Olleh egg is working in Suncheon City so do bring it with you. You may ask, why Daum Map? It is because it is much easier to find a route/way in this map, and a user friendly app as well. You just need to study how to read Korean alphabet/characters, and you're good to go. Or, you can visit these two websites explaining how to use Daum Map (Liz in TranslationChangwonderful)If you cannot read Korean character, you can still ask somebody for help or just use google map. 

Back to our story. We were lucky to find an alternative route going to Suncheonman Bay by taking the bus #66. The interval of this bus is much better compared to bus #67, though it will take a slightly longer ride. No other options indeed, we took bus #66. You can catch this bus at Jungang chodeung Hakgyo bus stop  (중앙초등 학교), which is just across the street of #67's bus stop. With just few minutes of waiting, the bus arrived, tap our transportation cards* and good to go.
*Transporation cards are accepted in Suncheon buses for easy commuting. Also credit cards with transportation feature are welcome (just like what we had used).

Courtesy of Daum Map
It took us 45 minutes ride to reach Suncheonman Bay. Be mindful not to confuse with Suncheon Bay Garden (순천만 정원), which we had encountered approximately 5~7 stops from our departure point. Station name should be Suncheonman (순천만), 3rd or 4th from the last station of this bus route. Suncheonman Park has parking space in front of its entrance gate, which we noticed easily upon getting off the bus. We knew that we need to hike going to Yongsan Observatory, so we bought ourselves with water.

We started to walk towards the ticketing booth, where we needed to pay 5,000 won each for the admission fee. For the children, admission fee is 2,000 won. For groups visiting the bay, there will be a discount as well as  for military personnel and teens. There are many things to do in the bay area, there are museum and exhibition halls, hiking, etc. Boat riding is also available, where it will take you a trip to the bay itself (separate payment is required). We didn't have ample time to visit all the spots due to limited hour. (For any inquiry regarding the facilities, you may visit, www.suncheonbay.go.kr.)

As we passed by the entrance gate, we immediately look for the sign board to direct us to Yongsan Observatory. Our aim that afternoon was to capture the moment of the calm bay with the beautiful sunset. So we needed to be on the observatory before the sun began to set. Clothes were already sweat wet and felt like we were racing with time. After walking on flat wooden platform and ascending the hill/mountain (for almost 2  km in total), we arrived in the first observation deck.





Audience Observatory (보조전망대)

Here, we stayed for a couple of minutes to rest and catch our breath. Later, we proceeded to our main spot, the Yongsan Observatory

We felt grateful when we arrived at Yongsan Observatory. Only a few visitors that time and not even a single photography enthusiast was on the observatory (maybe, we were just early). We tried a couple of shots to check the preferred location and good framing. As we were checking, the observatory started to fill up by visitors and photography enthusiasts. We decided to fixed our tripod where we preferred it to be. It was already 5:15 pm that time but the sun was still high and the moon started to rise at the opposite side. The water rose gradually and the curvy mudflats of the bay started to vanish. We were unlucky. We didn't had the chance to see the mudflats' curve. However, the clouds that afternoon was very beautiful which gave us a sense of challenge to work on.

As the sun started to set, more and more people rush-in into the observatory to see and catch the wonderful sunset. Shutter clicks continuously all over the deck, from camera phone to professional cameras. We also started to take our shots one by one. Reviewing and re-framing after one shot to another until we found the best one. When the sun was almost hiding behind the mountain and clouds, the sky changes its color from blue to orange and reddish tone. We took several shots of the vibrant sunset.

It was a stunningly beautiful yet a magical sunset experience. Here is the shot taken from the observatory.

Suncheonman Bay

Nearly before 7:00 pm, we packed our things and few minutes later we started to descend from the hill/mountain. Going down wasn't that hard compare as we were going up. We did a faster pace since it was getting dark and felt that it might be hard to walk without a flashlight. Speaking of flashlight, it's one thing that you shouldn't forget, especially if you want a night time experience. Though we are not sure how the place looks like.

After a few minutes, we stepped on the wooden platform and continued to walk finding our way out. As we went out the gate, we looked back on the Park, and still clueless of it's night appearance.

We bought some refreshment and wait at the bus stop for our way back home.

Timetable at the bus stop
While on the bus, we decided to have a dinner at Mc Donalds which is a few stops before the bus stop near Comodo Motel. So, we went down to the nearest bus stop after we saw the "M" sign. After a long and tiring day, we treated ourselves with a very nice meal, which we had missed for several days. There was a promo that time, so, crossed finger and hoping to win anything from it. Good news was the starving was suppressed, while the bad news was we won nothing. Better luck next time...

Dinner for the night
Stomach full indeed, so we decided to walk towards Comodo Motel to burn out some calories we gained. We reached our room by 9:00 pm. We laid our things, rest for a while then cleaned up. After a while, we talked and reviewed some shots taken earlier and planned for tomorrow's quest. Finally, lights off and sleep peacefully...zzzzzz

Our third day will also be interesting as we will drive you to Boseong green tea plantation and Suncheon's open film set. So be sure to follow our Chuseok adventure in Jeollanam-do.

Reminder: There are very nice places and photo spots on wooden platform to take photos from. We suggest you to come early before going to Yongsan Observatory.


Comments, suggestions and questions in this write up are welcome, don't hesitate. We'll try to respond on your concern to soonest time we can.


For our photo galleries, visit us in one of the following:

Restie: http://restieteano.500px.com/
            https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_trex/
            http://www.pashadelic.com/en/users/30704-restieteano
            https://plus.google.com/+RestieTeano

Rhie:   https://500px.com/rhiecudanin
            http://www.pashadelic.com/en/users/31204-rhiecudanin
            https://plus.google.com/+JosephCudanin
            https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhie_cudanin/


References:
Visit Korea
Daum Map
Liz in Translation
Changwonderful

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Chuseok Adventure in Jeollanam-do : Day 2 (Part 1/2) - Hwasun County

After we explored Damyang County, the journey continues down to suncheon city where we spent the rest of our vacation. We left Gwangju Express bus terminal at around 6:30 pm on the same day. The tickets were purchased on the station which costs us 6,900 won each.  Approximately after 2 hours, we arrived in Suncheon Bus Terminal. From the bus terminal, we looked around to pin point where exactly the suncheon KTX station is located. Since we are new to the place, one of us used GPS to make sure which way to go. We opted to walk (instead of bus/taxi) for about 10-15 minutes to reach the accommodation  which we were reserved from (accommodation name is "Comodo Motel"). It is located just across the street of Suncheon KTX Station. See the map below.


Courtesy of Google Map

Suncheon Bus Terminal to Comodo

Comodo Motel was seemed to have the cheapest price with a good quality amongst the accommodations we have researched. Starting from 35,000 won you can get a descent room for two people, where we chose an Ondol Room type. For more detail, check their website here. Note that not all accommodations around suncheon has website, only few of them have and most of them are kind of  expensive for a backpacker like us. Also, better to seek help from korean friend/colleague once you decide to reserve a room (via phone call) as many of them don't speak English well.


We arrived at the motel around 9:00 pm and meet the motel keeper to say hi and claim our room key. We just laid our things and went out to look for some place to eat dinner. Luckily, the area has lot of  Korean Restaurant around the motel which remained open for the whole period of Chuseok (others are 24 hours open, good to mention). The menu/dishes they served has pictures, so it helped us to figure out what food to eat. After our dinner, we roam around the motel for a couple of minutes to check whether the area has any interesting subject for photography before we went back to our room and took rest.

First stop for the day is Hwasun County. Hwasun County can be described as a small county contributing to Jeolla Province. The county has a famous spot and was known for its ethereal mist and reflections of colorful blossom and autumn leaves. It invites many photography enthusiasts ranging from professional, hobbyist down to amateur photographers. It was once made by men to trap water coming from the mountains to serve as a reservoir for the farm around the area. The lake was built in 1969 and named as Seryang-je.

Started our second day at early call time of 5:00 o'clock in the morning. The reason is to have an allowance time to account any inconvenience that we may encounter along the way and taking necessary preparation for the whole day of trip. We left the motel at around 6:30 am and rushed towards Suncheon Bus Terminal for several minutes. There, we asked a lady in the ticket counter to give us tickets for Hwasun. Unfortunately, she informed that there are no buses travelling directly from Suncheon going to Hwasun. So she advised instead to take the longer route (good thing she speak english a little), that means we should go to Gwangju first then take a bus going to Hwasun from there. Having no choice, we followed her advise and purchased the tickets (6,900 won each) for Gwangju. It took us around 2 hours to be in Hwasun Bus Terminal (1 hour 15 mins. going to Gwangju and another 45 mins. going to Hwasun for 2,000 won).

As written in other blogs that we read and according to the experiences of some of our photographer friends, riding taxi is the best option to Seryang-je from the Hwasun bus terminal. Anyway, taxi drivers are just sitting next to the terminal, so we asked one of them to drive for us to Seryang-je. The drivers talked to each other and select who's the lucky one to drive for us. Then they select Mr. Cho. It seems that he didn't know well the directions to the lake, since he has hesitations at first. He asked his fellow drivers about the direction cause it seems that the other guys pretty know the direction to the lake. We left the bus terminal around 9:15 am in the morning and we knew that the mist we are longing to see might not be visible anymore. But since we are there already, we pushed our luck.

We're confident enough that driver already knew the route to the lake, so we sat back and relaxed. We asked for his contact number and asked him also to pick us after the shoot. Kind enough, he gave us his calling/contact card.


Call him Mr. Cho

It's quite a long ride, which took us about 20 minutes before going off road leading to Seryang-je. Upon passing the tunnel, there is a small sign board written in Korean, which we think is a guide direction to the lake. But Mr. Cho seems confused that moment, ignoring the sign board and followed his instinct instead. He took the right turn instead of the left which is the correct way going to the lake. We started climbing the unpaved road, while had this feeling that we took the wrong turn. The taxi kept on ascending the mountain for minutes, until we realized that we are overlooking already the lake on the left side. The driver kept going and looking for the place we supposed to be. We tried to explain to him for a couple of minutes that the lake is already on our left side and we need to go back. Finally, he listen to us and decided to maneuver the car on a narrow road with a cliff on one side. One of us (restie) decided to go down and helped the driver for a successful maneuver. But our problem didn't end here. As we head back down, a van was going up the road, which we think made a wrong turn as well. The problem now is the road is narrow for two vehicles. Once again, one of us (restie) went down the car and and walked to the cliff to check the hard portions so we wouldn't fall to the cliff; while the other one (rhie) gave signal to the driver whether to go straight, turn left or right. We felt relieved after arriving in the lake safely at almost 10:00 am and paid around 20,000 won (which normally this should cost around 16,000~17,000 won),  Quickly after that, we took out our gear to take the pictures. Unfortunately, the mist were gone already (sad). The time we visited this place was not yet autumn, so the leaves are still green.

Anyway, here are some shots of the lake and the fisherman happened to be there catching small fishes (or Haeumang 해우망) through an improvised fishing device.


Tranquility

Calm

The Lone Fisherman

Here are some photos of this place taken on last year's autumn season (2013). Special thanks to our friend Mr. Bryant Ilagan for these beautiful photos.

Seryang-je

Autumn Reflections
And we are still alive...




We finished the shoot after 2 hours (that's 12 noon), and decided to call Mr. Cho to pick us in Seryang-je while we were packing up our things*. We arrived at Hwasun terminal around 12:30 pm, then bought bus tickets bound for Gwangju. Below are the timetables posted in the terminal.
*If ever you couldn't catch Mr. Cho, be sure take the number of the taxi driver that will bring you to the lake. Transportation in this place is kind of difficult. Also, bring cash with you as taxi here are on a cash basis.






We arrived in Gwangju Express Bus Terminal after 45 mins and took our lunch here instead of having it in Suncheon (starving..). Soon after we finished our lunch, we bought bus tickets back Suncheon (so that's another 6,900 won each). We reached Comodo Motel by 3:00 pm and took some rest, unload unnecessary things before we head to our next stop, which is Part 2/2 - Suncheon Bay (or Suncheon man).

Thanks for reading and be sure to follow our next story.

Comments, suggestions and questions in this write up are welcome, don't hesitate. We'll try to respond on your concern to soonest time we can.


For our photo galleries, visit us in one of the following:


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Chuseok Adventure in Jeollanam-do : Day 1 - Damyang County

At first, what really Chuseok means? Chuseok is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. It is the beginning of the traditional harvest season during which farmers would reap the fruits of their year-long efforts. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food.

For the year 2014, the holiday falls on September 8 to 10 (monday to wednesday), where September 6-7 happened to be Saturday and Sunday, so it's time for adventure. As a non-koreans, we spend the holiday season by exploring one of South Korea's Province - Jeollanam-do. Jeollanam-do is a province in the southwest of South Korea. It was formed in 1896 from the Southern half of the former Jeolla province, remained a province of Korea until the country's division in 1945, then became part of South Korea. Gwangju was the capital of the province, until the provincial office moved to the southern village of Namak, Muan County in 2005. Jeollanam-do is comprised of several counties, one of which is Damyang. Damyang County is well-known for producing bamboo goods and strawberries. Tourist spots such as Metasequoia lined road and Bamboo Park (or more locally known as Juknokwon) are also located herein.

We (restie and rhie) had a two weeks preparation (research and discussion) to finalize the itinerary for this travel, ending up with Damyang as our first spot to visit. Unfortunately, we're not able to secure our slot for KTX ride, tickets were already sold out the time we finalized everything. Leaving us no other choice but to take bus, which is more cheaper actually. We chose the Honam Line and purchased our tickets through online (ticketing website: www.hticket.co.kr). If you know how to read and understand Hangeul, then you will be just fine. If not, better to ask for help from your Korean friends. For the rest of the tickets, all of  it were purchased at the bus terminal stations at each county that we've been. Most of the personnel at the terminal cannot speak English, so our advise is to have at least a basic knowledge in Korean Language (hangeul). Another suggestion, is to bring korean map or smartphone translator for those who cannot speak and understand Korean language. For those who can, it will be a piece of cake.

To start the adventure, we head to Central City Bus Terminal and looked for Honam Line. How to go there: From your location take any of these subway trains, Line 9, Line 3 or Line 7. And, take the exit 7 of Seoul Express Bus Terminal Station. You can buy tickets at the station through ticketing booths or ticket dispenser machines, in case you're not able to secure the tickets online.

Photo Courtesy of visitkorea.or.kr
We left Seoul (Via Honam Line in Express Bus terminal) around 6:00 am and arrived at Gwangju around 11:30 am. Maybe, you will ask why we don't go straight  to Damyang? The frequency of buses going to Damyang are not so often, pushed us to choose Gwangju for our stop. Also, please take note that if you managed to secure tickets for train, you still have to go out in Gwangju since there is no direct train to Damyang. After arriving to Gwangju Express Bus Terminal, we went straight to the bus station to catch the buses travelling to Damyang County. The bus station is just outsite the terminal, just follow the sign boards that will lead you there. There are several intercity buses travelling from Gwangju to Damyang, the numbers are 301, 303, 311 and 312. Buses run daily from 6:00am to 10:30pm, with every 10 minutes of interval. If you will not stay in Damyang and you will just visit some tourist spots and if it happened that you have many bags to carry, you can try to use the paid lockers in Gwangju Express Bus Terminal. It will cost you from 2000 won to 5000 won for each lockers depending on the size  you desired to and save yourself from the burden of carrying all those heavy bags. Unfortunately, we didn't find any vacant lockers that's why we have to carry all our things (we stayed in Jeollanam-do for several days that's why we carried several bags). As far as I remember we rode bus no. 311 and took us about 20min to reach Damyang Bus Terminal from Gwangju. We still have our bags with us, we decided to look for any lockers but we cannot find even one in Damyang Bus Terminal, the terminal is so small compared to Gwangju. We have to keep our bags with us until we can find a place to  secure it. We walked several meters around the station, but failed to find a place. Since it was almost lunch time and we are starving, we look for some place to eat first and planned to ask the owner for any place we can keep our things.

Here is the restaurant we ended up with; it was Chuseok so there are few open places to eat.
Photo Courtesy of map.naver.com
Laid our things on floor and stare at the menu, carefully selecting for the food we will eat. Menu is written in hangeul as usual and don't have an idea what the actual food looks like and the amount of food to be served. Anyway, we chose this set of food and sorry to forget the name. It's a bit pricey but tastes really good. Here is the photo of our lunch.


Our Lunch 
After taking our lunch, we asked the owner where can we leave our things. He told us that there is a near jjimjilbang (찜질방) or spa in the area. He told us just to take the taxi and tell the driver jjimjilbang. As instructed, we did what the Owner told us. The taxi drove us to the nearest jjimjilbang (Daenamu is building name). There is a friendly information and front desk personnel who can speak English a bit. So communication wouldn't be a problem that much. The price of using the spa costs us 7000 won per person, with a privilege of using the locker for securing our belongings. After keeping our things inside the locker, we were asked by the personnel to leave the keys in the front desk and remind us to claim it when we get back.
Daenamu (Photo Courtesy of map.naver.com)
Immediately after  that, we left the premises and head to Metasequoia lined road. We walked towards the main road to catch a taxi, but the taxi seldom passed by that area. So our option is to ask the personnel to call for taxi and wait a little longer or walk towards the roundabout where the taxi terminal is located. Since we're on the rush so we chose to walk towards the roundabout then took the taxi. The driver was so kind and advised us to explore the metasequoia lined road first then the bamboo park due to transportation issue. He said that it is more difficult to ride a taxi in metasequoia lined road compared to the bamboo park. Following his advise so we visit the Metasequoia lined road first (But if your plan is to visit the Bamboo park alone, there are buses that can bring you there from Damyang Bus terminal or Gwanju Express Bus Terminal). Admission fee for the lined road costs us 1000 won each. The road is a pretty short walk, so just take your time to feel the beauty of nature. If you are a photographer, it is better to go to this area early to avoid rush of people visiting the area. Since we didn't have the luxury of going early, we still took our chances. Here are some photos taken from the area.
Meta-Rush of People (Photo by Restie)
Meta-Selfie (Photo by Restie)

Meta-Jump (Photo by Restie)
Metasequoia Road (Photo by Restie)
Restie (Left) and Rhie (Right)
Done shooting the Metasequoia lined road, packed our gadgets and immediately left the area for Bamboo Park. We were told by the taxi driver that we need walk for several minutes to reach Bamboo Park. There is road just across the entrance of Metasequoia lined road that leads to Bamboo Park. We did what was told us and reached the Bamboo Park (or locally known as Juknokwon) by foot at approximately 10~15 minutes of walking. The trail is about 1km of walk, and in case you want a bike, there are bikes for rent at the start of the trail. Thankfully, the trail wasn't so hot as it was covered by tree's branches and leaves.
Resting Area (Photo by Restie)
There are also several resting areas along the way. At the end of the trail, we saw the river adjacent to the bamboo park as shown in the map.
Damyang River (Photo by Restie)
We crossed the bridge and lined up to the entrance gate of the park. We paid 2000 won each for the admission fee. The park is huge, having a map would be a a great help especially if you are visiting with friends. The bamboo park is located at the side on the hill. Slight effort is needed to visit all the spots inside the park. At the heart of the park is a store selling several goodies, ice creams and memorabilia's. We passed several spots inside the park, one of the serene place is this area. You can check this photo in Google Views: In The Midst
In the Midst (Photo by Restie)
There are several carvings visible on the bamboo stalks just like this...

Love Promises (Photo by Restie)
Also stair that seems going to somewhere.

Inside Juknokwon (Photo by Rhie)
And when you look up...
Bamboo Forest (Photo by Rhie)
Around 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon, we decided to leave the park and planned to take a bus to Damyang bus terminal which is located few meters from the park's entrance. However, we're  not able to catch the bus, and need to wait for 30 mins more for the next one. As per our itinerary we are one hour behind our schedule, so we decided to take a taxi. We asked for help from a store keeper at near the park's entrance to for a taxi. We were very lucky that the person there is kind enough to help us and speak English a bit. We rode the taxi back to jjimjilbang to pick up and pack our things. As noted earlier, we asked the front desk personnel for the locker keys. After getting all our things and surrendered the keys; the lady from front desk asked us if we want to stay for the night. We told her that we have to be in Suncheon that night, because that is where we are going to stay for several days. We forgot to ask how much is the price to stay overnight there. After leaving the jjimjilbang, we head on to the Damyang Bus Terminal. After several minutes, we were again in Gwangju Bus Terminal. Then purchased our tickets going to Suncheon and spend the rest of our vacation.

Please be noted that pocket wifi (olleh egg) won't work in Damyang. Bring a map or download an offline map. Also, have a cash with you as some places don't accept credit or debit card. At Damyang Bus Terminal, you could find pamphlets/guide map showing other locations in Damyang where you might be interested with.

If you like our first day, be sure to follow us as we will take you to Hwasun's "Seryang-je" and Suncheon's "Suncheon man". Have a great day! Thanks for reading :)



Comments, suggestions and questions in this write up are welcome, don't hesitate. We'll try to respond on your concern to soonest time we can.


For our photo galleries, visit us in one of the following:

Restie: http://restieteano.500px.com/
            https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_trex/
            http://www.pashadelic.com/en/users/30704-restieteano
            https://plus.google.com/+RestieTeano

Rhie:   https://500px.com/rhiecudanin
            http://www.pashadelic.com/en/users/31204-rhiecudanin
            https://plus.google.com/+JosephCudanin
            https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhie_cudanin/


References:
korea.net
Wikipedia
visitkorea.or.kr
hticket.co.kr
english.visitkorea.or.kr

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Garden of Memories

I joined my friends last 15th of December 2013 to photograph a place in Seoul - The Seoul National Cemetery. We went there early in the morning, it was so cold with below 0 degree celcius temperature. It was still dark that time and we could't almost see the extent of the place. Our flashlights were so small that it only reaches a few meters away. Being in that dark cold place, something came up in my mind, "The Walking Dead". Well, anyways, in that early morning there were several oldies? walking around the area.

After a while, I decided to separate from them and start looking for any interesting place. We all got separated from each other.

There is not much in it because everything seems to be the same. Everywhere you look at, right, left, front and back. All have the same rectangular stones. But of course the character written on it are not. I kept walking and walking until I reached the end of it, and still have the same looks. That moment, I'm starting to realize that the picture I will be taking will be a challenge. How will I frame it? How will I get the shot? So many questions in my mind. But, I have to take all the possible views and take that opportunity to present this place in a nice way.

Thus, it made me realize that life is so short. Each stone standing still commensurate a life served once. We may not know each of its story. But, we can be sure that each of those stone left a memory to be cherished.

Camera: Nikon D5100
Lens: Tamron f2.8 17-50 Non-VC
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/400
f-stop: f8
Software: Photoshop Cs6/Nik Silver Efex Pro 2


Seoul National Cemetery