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