Backpacking southeast Asia

Ya I know, I really never did a good job updating this blog.  My bad, but anywho, my time in Korea is rapidly drawing to a close.  My last day teaching is this Friday, the 28th, and I fly out of Korea on October 1st.  I am truly amazed at the experience I have had here, and Korea will always be a very special place for me, along with all the people I have met.  While I'm saddened to say goodbye to my friends and the children I teach, I'm excited for the next step.  I'm going to be backpacking through Southeast Asia, and this time I'm really really really going to try to update on this blog as often as I possibly can!  No more long, lengthy posts, just quick hellos and a quick recap of whatever I'm up to at the moment I'm blogging.

I'll be with friends during the whole trip, so I'll be safe and sound always (Uncle Rich, I'm not dating any of them, and I'm not bringing any of them back home!).  At the end of the trip, I will finally be back in the USA, where I cannot wait to see all of you!

Here's a breakdown of my itinerary, which isn't necessarily set in stone.

October 1-16: Philippines, including Boracay, Palawan Island, and the rice terraces of Banaue and Batad

Oct. 16-18: Singapore

Oct. 18- November 6: Indonesia, including Bali area and Java

Nov. 6-12: Malaysia

Nov. 12-26: Thailand

Nov. 26- December 1: Laos

Dec. 1-5: Cambodia

Dec 6-18: Viet Nam

Finally, on December 19th at 630am, I will be picked up by my parents at the Detroit Airport!!! (I'm assuming this, I'm sure they've considered leaving me and continuing to enjoy there currently peaceful home) :)


Here's a few quick picture to leave you with, some of the cooler stuff I've been able to see/do this summer.

Jeju Do's sunrise peak

Jeju is a large island off Korea's southern coast.  The water was beautiful..

Bucheon (my city) has an International Film Festival in July, and this musical bike/car/something was out promoting a movie. Sounded really cool

at the War Memorial in Korea, this memorial (Brothers in Arms or something I think is the name) pictured is dedicated to the hopes of reunification between North and South Korea one day.  The one solider is intentionally shorter, and is of course the North Korean soldier.  Due to food shortages and malnutrition, the North Korean people are drastically shorter than their South Korean counterparts.

Dorasan Station, the last Station in South Korea before North Korea.  No trains use it today, obviously

The bridge to the DMZ and North Korea....has a couple of roadblocks here and there....

By far the coolest this I have done in Korea was to take a tour of this area, the JSA (Joint Security Area).  This is as close as you can get to North Korea,.  The North Korean guards weren't out that day, but the South Koren guards were there for our protection.  Awesome.  The blue buildings you see are United Nations buildings, the others you can see in this picture are all North Korea.  This is where North Korea and South Korea hold negotiations and speak with each other on a variety of topics.  The area is suppose to be a truce, but nonetheless, kidnappings and murders have happened here over the years.  The big building in the back is North Korea's peace pavilion, and to my back is South Korea peace pavilion as well. (South Korea's looks cooler, no worries). We weren't allowed to take pictures of the south Korean building, though.  You can see the line in between the two buildings,  that is the line that seperates North and South Korea.

If you look closely you'll see the Korean guard looking at us in the doorway through his binoculars.  The window to the left of him has a camera that takes all of our pictures..SMILE!  One girl smartly asked our Marine guide what happens if she tried to go cross the line.  He politely explained that while they would attempt to stop her, South Korea is a free country, and she can do as she chooses. He couldn't vouch for her safety in North Korea, but told her to enjoy her 2 bowls of rice a month, and oh yea, you'll be officially an enemy of the United States of America.

Inside the blue building where all negotiating happens between North and South Korea.  The Americam Marine was our tour guide, the South Korean marine was our protection.  The South Korean soldiers are purposely and strictly selected for being assigned at the JSA.  The are masters in at least two martial arts, must be a certain height, and must have a certain look to them. South Korea only wants the North to see beautiful people ha.  He's standing in the ROK ready pose, so he can swiftly move into combat at a moments notice. He has no guns, as the North and South agreed to have no guns in this area years ago.  South Korea still abides to this agreement, North Korea blatantly does not.

So if you go to the far end of the building, guess what? ...... HI MOM!!!! I'M IN NORTH KOREA!!!!!!!

So yes, I will blog my travels much more regularly.  And this time, I will not break this promise.  Cannot wait to see all of you in the future....!

corey1gallagher@gmail.com

I'm backkkkkkkk.  Long time, no update.  Almost 6 months!  Korea has become a home away from home.  Lately, with the return of warm weather, I've had the pleasure that comes from random sights and smells that take me back to my first few months here in Korea, when everything was new and exotic.  I want to say I haven't done much at all since December, but I'd obviously be lying!  Time continues to fly here, and I finally have an official last day of work. September 28th, 2012, will be my final day at school here in Korea.  Following that will be a few months of travel (more on that later) and I will arrive back in the USA some time just before the holiday season!  Of course, I'm excited to see everyone, I constantly think about home and all the things happening and the people that I miss dearly.  So what have I been up to over the past 6 months?  Here's some pictures and videos to give you an idea of it all!

SPORTS

In April and May, the weather has started getting much nicer in Korea.  Bucheon is sandwiched between Seoul and Incheon, which is a former suburb of Seoul and now a major city in it's own right, as it will be host of the 2014 Asian Games.  So being only a few blocks from the Incheon city border, I can say I'm a proud Incheon sports fan.  Baseball, I'm all about the SK Wyverans.  They are in Korea's Major League, SK is the team sponsor (a mobile phone company) and Wyverans is some sort of mythical creature from Korean folklore.  The stadiums are evenly split between home and away (small country, easy to travel for away fans I suppose?).  The pictures are from a game where the away side did not show up so much, but the video is form opening day, and the house was packed.  My friend Kieran and I ended up sitting in an aisle basically for that game, standing room only.  The great part of these games is how much effort the crowd puts into cheering! The entire time your team is up to bat, the crowd is doing various cheers, think European soccer matches!  

click on the pictures to see bigger images!

 Earlier in the year, I made my way to an Incheon United game.  Here is a video below of a little of the action from that game.  The team doesn't have quite a following, and I think only a few of the big teams in Korea have strong attendance at the games.  Apparently when rival teams show up, the stadium can get pretty full.  Not as fun as the baseball games, put fun to be close to the pitch.

                                       

Best part of the sports thus far in Korea? 

Major League soccer - about 12 bucks.  

Major League Baseball - 9 bucks

cost of food n booze at the games?  No worries here, you can bring in anything you'd like.  I recommend buying pizza and 2 liter jugs of beer at your local carry out just outside the stadium. Gotta love that policy..

Seoraksan National Park

Located on the east side of the country, on the shores of the East Sea (NOT Sea of Japan!!!), is the city of Sokcho and Seoraksan National Park, home to beautiful mountain ranges only a few miles inland from the shore.  I spent a weekend here at the beginning of May with friends and hiked up to Ulsanbawi rock, one of the more famous peaks in the mountain.  It was not easy! Incredibly steep stairs and several areas that if you chose to act like an idiot at, you would be dead pretty quickly.  Anyways, enjoy these pictures!

Sokcho Beach

Cool Sunset

Ulsanbawi rock inside Seoraksan National Park

they were raising money for temple renovation, 10 bucks for a message on a tile for the roof

myself in front of the temple area.  Side note, I now have prescription sunglasses, so no more double glasses usage!

A better view of the mountainous valley the temple is located in

giant Buddha statue

about halfway up the hiking trail is a temple located in the rocks.  This cliff wall next to it was covered with Buddhist sayings, which being so old are written in Chinese (Korea's hangul writing was invented only about 600 years ago(i think)))

amazing views!

a daring couple...

the rock covered peaks!

There were many trails here, we only did one.  I may try and make it back during the fall just before my departure from Korea in order to see the colors of the foliage take over the mountain sides..

Templestay

Back in March I had the unique opportunity of staying in Geumsansa Temple in the central area of Korea. It's the head of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.  My thoughts? Don't do a temple stay for the food!  It was a great experience.  We spent most of the day Saturday there and stayed the night, leaving early Sunday afternoon.  Things I did:

-We got to ring the bell!  You know the giant bells you see at old temples in Asia? Yep, got a chance to ring it. Kind of thought these were never rung, but it's the call to prayer always. 

-We made Lotus Flower Lanterns. We used these lanterns on our night prayer walk through the temple grounds. The lotus flower grows out of the mud, so you can see how they work nicely from a religious viewpoint.

Here's some more photos of the temple...

the main temple with a three story high Buddha statue. This is where I did 108 bows, one for each bead that I placed on my prayer bracelet.  It was intense, and got pretty damn cold..

the temple hall at 4am!

Our monastic meal was on Sunday morning at 530am.  You can see below how there are four bowls: one for dish water, one for rice, one for soup, and one for sides (radish/kimchi stuff).  You MUST eat all the food, no wasting food!!!!!!  To top it off, cleaning the bowls involved swishing water around each bowl, scrubbing them each with a radish.  Then, you must drink the water and eat the radish...yucky.  Oh well, it was an experience!

Randoms.....

Here are some random photos and things I have done!

Here is a video of a wedding I went to. Unfortunately my camera died right after this. This is when the moms of the bride and groom light the candles.  Just to give you an idea. Weddings aren't taken as seriously as we take the ceremonies in the West.  While the wedding looks really nice (and is), but this hall is one of several on the top floor of a department store.  Every ceremony is the same, and you can see these two girls in the video kind of leading the crowd in applause and such. Really cookie cutter like.  No party afterwards, just a really good buffet right after.  Best part? During the ceremony, the best man gives a challenge to the bridge and groom.  His challenge to the groom? To give a piggy back ride to the brides mother, running up and down this runway you can see, and then shouted "tonight I'm making babies!".  I was pretty surprised, but this is normal tradition!

Some electric car presenting a bride and groom to the lobby area.  It made a tiny lap then was parked again. Interesting right?? This bride and groom wore tradition Korean clothing.  By the way, most Koreans I gathered don't necessarily enjoy going to weddings, most want to get in and out.  There are kids constantly chatting and running around at the ceremony, and general conversation can be heard in the crowd.... 

Grace, the bride, with some of the girls.  The bride sits in this room on a throne like chair, receiving guest before the wedding??  She seemed thrilledddddddd to do it.

Cool buildings in Gangnum, a kinda rich area of Seoul.  Finally cool to see some interesting architecture here!

Seoul tower. Beautiful views of Seoul!

Lockets for lovers locked to the fences around Seoul tower.

Earth Hour at a big subway station, we noticed all these dominoes set up, to be released at the hour.

I sent birthday cards to my mom made by my students in a kindergarten class.  These kids are about 6 years old, and come for all English kindergarten! Awesome! Here are the kids making the cards!

Miss you all!! Going to Jeju Island this weekend, the "Hawaii" of Korea. It's also a 4 day weekend, thanks to Buddha's birthday. So I will have some incredible pictures, and I will try posting about my adventures more often!