As this blog approaches a pretty significant milestone of 1 million views, I became inspired to blog about my writing process. Here are a few principles I follow in almost every single article. Read more
Location: Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, Philippines
Visited: Jan 10, 2020
Site Type: Cultural
Inscribed: 1999
Background and Opinion:
Before talking about Vigan directly, we need to go back, all the way back to 1521. If you are a fan of the Civilization series of games, Read more
Finishing a road trip across the Korean peninsula was something I wanted to do for years. For the most part, everything went according to plan. I zig zagged back and forth, hit both coasts, and visited all the main places I wanted to visit. One thing you should keep in mind is that the goal here wasn’t to hit all of the highlights in Korea. I’ve lived here for 8 years and have visited pretty much everywhere of note in that time. If you’re interested in the best things to do in Seoul or best things to do outside of Seoul, hit those links! This trip, instead, was to visit those secondary, ‘off the beaten path’ spots that travelers usually skip because of time constraints.
This page is a navigating resource of that 3000km road trip. Click on whatever day you want to read about and look at the map below to see where it is. If you have any questions, by all means, feel free to ask!
The Trip
Day 0 – Intro
Day 1 – Kyodong Island
Day 2 – Ganghwa Dolmen Sites (UNESCO WHS)
Day 3 – Oeam Folk Village (UNESCO WHS Tentative List)
Day 4 – Taeanhaean National Park
Day 5 – Mountain Fortresses (UNESCO WHS Tentative List)
Day 6 – Gangneung
Day 7 – Gangneung pt.2 – Coffee
Day 8 – Ulleungdo Squid Festival
Day 9 – Ullengdo Sea Road
Day 10 – Ulleungdo Taeha Village
Day 11 – NOTHING HAPPENED pt.1
I SAID NOTHING HAPPENED!
Day 12 – Chuam Beach in Donghae
Day 13 – Museom Folk Village
Day 14 – Confucian Seowon (UNESCO WHS)
Day 15 – Gaya Tumili (UNESCO WHS Tentative List)
Day 16 – NOTHING HAPPENED pt.2
I SAID NOTHING HAPPENED
Day 17 – Jeju Geumneung Beach
Day 18 – Jeju Puzzle Museum
Day 19 – Jeju Hallasan National Park (UNESCO WHS)
Day 20 – Jeju Seopseom SCUBA Diving
Day 21 – Geoje Island
Day 22 – Bijindo Twin Islands
Day 23 – Naganeupseong Walled Town in Suncheon (UNESCO WHS Tentative List)
Day 24 – Gangjin Celadon Kiln Sites (UNESCO WHS Tentative List)
Day 25 – The Master and Apprentice
The Map
Legend
Yellow Arrows are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Red Stickers are UNESCO Sites on the Tentative List.
Green Stickers “N” are National Parks.
Green Stickers with just a number are just places I was interested in visiting.
You may already know this, but although I am writing the final day of this road trip sometime in February, this entire trip happened over July and August of last year. I stopped posting real time posts during the road trip when I made it to Jeju around day 16 and simply didn’t have the motivation to do it as I traveled longer and longer distances. Nonetheless, my excitement for this, the last day of the trip was so great that I did write up a long post about it on my Instagram. This more or less will be an extended version of that post. It is fitting that this day stats in Jeonju as this story starts here too, way back in May, 2019 during the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF).
Sit down…this is going to be a VERY long post Read more
Gangjin Celadon
Ever since I read the historical fiction, A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, I’ve been fascinated by Goryo era celadon. The book is about a poor orphan boy who dreams of becoming a potter and gets apprenticed by a local master. It is connected to the mystery of the 1000 crane vase, which is a Korean national treasure, but I won’t spoil it in case you want to read it. Read more