Friday 8th July - Seoraksan. This is a mountain in a national park and is said to be the most beautiful one in Korea. There are several treks you can do in the area so we started easy and headed to a waterfall first. The walk took us along a river for about half an hour before you reached the waterfall. It was very pretty and, because the Koreans haven't just put concrete stairs everywhere like the Chinese, we got to scrabble over rocks which made it a bit more fun.

We then got the cable car to one of the peaks. The views up there were spectacular! You could see for miles and look over Sokcho. The peak had a mini mountain you could climb to get even higher, which Chris did. It was very windy up there at times though, and as we were just on sheer rock with no barriers of anything, it was a little scary! But we made it back down safe and sound.

Saturday 9th July - around Sokcho. Another grey and rainy day meant it wasn't worth getting the bus back to the mountain as we wouldn't have been able to see anything at the top. So we wandered around the town instead. We went up a lighthouse, got a boat across a narrow bit of water to a smattering of buildings where a famous Korean soap used to be filmed, walked around a lake, and that was it! There isn't much to do in Sokcho.

Sunday 10th July - bus to Samcheok and Haesingdang Park. We got here just after lunch so we headed straight out to a tourist attraction - Haesingdang Park aka 'Penis Park'. Yes, you read that right! According to local legend, a young virgin girl died out at sea and after that the fishermen couldn't catch any fish. Then one fisherman happened to, erm, answer a call of nature whilst facing the sea and went on to catch lots of fish. So now, in order to appease the ghost of the girl, they have built lots of penis-related statues. Even the lighthouse has been built to resemble a penis! Very bizarre.

Monday 11th July - Hwaseongul. These are the largest limestone caves in Asia apparently. They certainly are vast! The 1.6km of slippery metal walkways take you deep into these cavernous caves, along fast flowing rivers and across waterfalls. Neither of us had ever been in such massive caves before. Icy cold water dripped down from the cave roof way up above us.

Tuesday 12th July - bus to Gyeongju. On the way we got chatting to a young Korean man all dressed up in navy whites. He was on leave from his national service and heading back home for a few days. He was only 19 and on active service after only two months training on a ship patrolling the waters off east coast of South Korea. We had a lovely chat with him and eventually got onto the subject of North Korea. He believes that reunification is only a couple of years away, which doesn't seem likely. It seems Koreans are taking the approaching death of the current North Korean leader as an opportunity for the two Koreas to finally reunite.

Wednesday 13th July - Bulkugsa Temple, Daeneungwon Tombs and the Astronomical Observatory. One of the most famous temples in Korea, Bulguksa is situated up a mountain so the walk to it takes you through beautiful woodland. Woodland that is populated with chipmunks! We saw loads of the cute critters! The temple itself is pleasant, though perhaps not one of the most impressive ones we've seen. Up behind the temple is a grotto containing stone Bhudda. the weather was beginning to turn at this point and by the time we got to the grotto a thick mist had descended. Fortunately the Bhudda was housed in a stone shrine inside a grass hillock with a wooden building at its entrance. The shrine itself is behind glass, so we were still able to see it. The grounds outside the shrine we covered in a lanterns in a rainbow of colours.

When we got back to town we went for a walk to some nearby sights: the Daeneungwon Tombs and the Astronomical Observatory. Dating back several hundred years, the tombs are large hills with kings buried deep within them. They create a slightly surreal landscape as they are grass-covered, manmade domes in well-manicured gardens. There's something very Tellytubby-esque about them. Happily running up and down the trees around the tombs were several squirrels and chipmunks. A little further down the road is the Observatory. This turned out just to be a small brick tower.

For dinner we tried the local delicacy ssambap. This consists of several small side dishes with some rice and lettuce leaves. Unfortunately, most of the dishes were pickled and vinegary - not very nice!

Thursday 14th July - Namsan mountain. This huge national park is just a couple of minutes bus ride away so we decided to make the most of the nice weather and head there. When we got there we discovered that it wasn't so much a park as a big foresty mountain that you can clamber up. There was no ticket office, no information desk, and the entrance was little more than a dirt track leading away from the road and disappearing into the trees. It was a wonderful walk. The sun was shining but we were shaded by thick forest. Every now and then we'd come to a clearing on a rocky outcrop and soak up the sun for a moment before retreating back into the cool woodland. We hiked to the top of one of the peaks, scrambling up rocks and passing Bhuddas carved into the rock face. The views from the top were amazing, we could see for miles. At the top we got chatting to a Korean man. He had travelled all over the world and was keen to practice his English. He even offered to let us stay with him for free if we would teach him English! It was a tempting offer...

Instead of heading back the way we came we headed down a different route, one that had us abseiling down rock faces clinging to a knotted rope! At the bottom the path followed a cool, crystal-clear river and we jumped at the opportunity to whip our shoes off and soak our feet. It was blissful! Soon a little shoal of fish had gathered to nibble our feet. It was so tickly! You'd pay a lot of money for the same thing in a beauty salon, and we got it for free sitting in the sunshine of a beautiful forest. Eventually we had to leave and finish the walk. It had gotten quite a lot hotter by this point and we were struggling a bit. So you can imagine our delight when we reached the bottom and walked through a village only to have a little old lady give us slices of watermelon for absolutely nothing! That was the tastiest melon we have ever eaten! We offered to give her money but she was having none of it. What a lovely little lady!

Friday 15th July - around Gyeongju. It is scorchingly hot today! Too hot to do anything much and too much chance of sunburn. Eventually, when the hottest part of the day had passed we went for a walk. Gyeongju is lovely to walk around because just outside of town they have set aside great chunks of land for wildflowers, woodland and lotus flower ponds. It's very pretty. As we were sitting by the lotus ponds, a photography club showed up. The area is very picturesque so it wasn't surprising. However, it wasn't long before they turned their attention elsewhere. To us. Whilst we were well used to this happening in China, no-one in Korea so far has taken the slightest bit of interest in us. We were sitting on a bench under a rainbow-coloured umbrella which we were using to keep the sun off, so maybe this made for a pretty photo. With our blessing there was soon a small gang of them photographing us. Then taking pictures of each other with us. They did ask for our email address so they could send us the pictures afterwards, which was nice.

After this we went to Anapji Pond, which used to be a palace with exquisite gardens, a pond and all manner of wildlife. Now all that remains are replicas of a couple of the buildings and the pond set in lovely grounds. It made for a nice stroll and we got to play a couple of games of 'how close can you get to the squirrel/chipmunk'.

Tomorrow we're off to Busan, Korea's second capital. After the quaint fishing towns and peaceful Gyeonjgu, city life could be a bit of a shock!

Bye!
Lindsay and Chris