At this moment, Lotus flowers are now blooming all over Korea, and while the Korean Tourism Organization only mentions a few places where there are lotus flowers, and not to mention most of the areas they recommend are at least 2 hours away from Taean. Hence, I decided to search locally and discovered the Taean Lotus Festival. The Taean Lotus Festival takes place every year in Cheongsan Arboretum (청산수목원), just 15 minutes south from downtown Taean in early July. My friend David and I took the 10:10 bus which goes to Nammyeon and got off at Shinjang-ri (신장리). After getting off, it is around a 10 minute walk before you arrive at Cheongsan Arboretum. We were lucky since there weren't a lot of people when we arrived. There are 24 species of Lotus flowers at the arboretum and the view is quite spectacular. If you happen to be in Taean during the summer, please do visit the place.
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Today, my friends and I went to tackle course 5 of Haebyeongil, which starts at the fishing port of Baeksajang and ends at the scenic beach of Kkotji. This section of trail, which takes around 4 hours to complete. runs through one of the most scenic coastlines in Taean. Some areas of the coastline only reveal themselves during low tide and we were lucky enough to see it. This section of trail is also significant due to the fact that after this section of trail, I can proudly say that I have completed all 100 kilometers and seven sections of Haebyeongil. Now all I have to do is do it all over again.
I've always passed Noryangjin fish market on the way to the airport and I've always wanted to go there but never had the chance. Since my friend who came Hong Kong was in Seoul and wanted to get seafood, I decided that we should head down to Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market. Meeting up at City Hall station, we took line 1 down to Noryangjin station. We didn't realize how big the fish market was until we arrived. It seems as though we were in seafood paradise with what seems to be endless stalls selling all different kinds of seafood you can imagine. Being a bit overwhelmed, we walked around the market and after discussing on what to eat, we went to one stall and bought a spider crab, five prawns, four sea urchins and a live octopus. Then we went to a nearby restaurant which asked us on how we would like our seafood prepared and patiently waited for the food to arrive. I cannot stress how good it was. If you happen to be in Seoul and are craving seafood, Noryangjin fish market is the place to go, but be warned you might end up buying a lot of seafood than you can eat!
During the beginning of this week, I've been planning on tackling one of the last two courses of Haebyeongil. It is course number 5, which stretches from Mongsanpo to Baeksajang. According to my weather app. it appeared that Saturday was going to be a clear day with a scattered clouds which was perfect for trekking. Taking the 0650 bus heading to Namyeon, Dylan, Kevin and I headed off. After around a 20 minute bus ride, we arrived at our starting point; Mongsanpo Beach. The trail starts off along the boardwalk and then heads into the woodlands. From there on, we also passed through rice paddies, a weland and a salt farm. Unlike the other sections of Haebyeongil, this section was relatively level which made it easier on our feet. After 4 hours of walking, we arrived at the strait which separated the peninsula of Taean from the island of Anmyeondo.
Waiting at the airport can be boring at time after the tenth time you walked around the departure area. Since I had around 4 hours to kill at Incheon Airport, I thought to myself, "what the heck, I'll just take photos of random stuff and see what I can do with it." I did end up with some interesting photos. It's a mash up of both colour and black and white photos, but then again, I did enjoy myself in the process.
Just FYI, all the photos were taken with the Nikon 50mm f/1.2 The weather hasn't been the best in Korea with all the dust, pollen and whatever is floating in the air making everything hazy. Then I had an idea when I was browsing through my photos; why not do double exposures? I did experiment with this idea briefly 2 years ago when I was at work and I was pretty happy with the results. Today I decided to try it again at work and I'm pretty happy with the results. I call this set "The Children of Uihang." Enjoy.
I picked up this little gem in a camera shop near Chungmuro station in Seoul two weeks ago and I have been testing it out since. All I got to say is that if you are comfortable with manual focusing, you'll defiantly enjoy the 50mm f/1.2. I love the build quality of the it, which is all metal and the bokeh is really dreamy at f/1.2. However, once you stop it down to f/2, this lens outperforms the 1.4 in sharpness from f/2 to f/5.6, and did I mention that the bokeh is amazing? Enough chit chat. Here are some of the photos I took over the past two weeks.
The first time I learned about urban renewal was when I was taking an urban studies course when back in university. It involves the relocation of the local population and businesses. It also involves demolishing the original buildings and replacing them high density structures. Many neighbourhoods in Seoul have already gone through this process and you can tell by the concrete residential towers which are a common sight in the city's skyline. There are a few original neighbourhoods that are currently going through urban renewal and today I had the chance to visit one of them. This particular neighbourhood is mostly empty with a few remaining residents who refuse to move. The area is slated to be demolished and replaced with the same residential towers which surround the area. It was weird walking through a place where the previous residential buildings are just now hallow shells waiting to be torn down. It looked like something out of an apocalyptic scene and it set a stark contrast with the new apartment towers which were sitting across the street. The neighbourhood itself is quite big and due to the lack of time, I could only explore a portion of it and had to leave. Hopefully, I'll be able to visit the place before the whole place gets torn down.
Today was teacher's day in Korea and I was fortunate enough to have the day off therefore my friend Dylan and I decided to go hiking. The trail we took started from Manripo to Shinduri. The weather started out cold and wet when our bus left the terminal at 0630 but one we arrived at Manripo, the weather started clearing up. It was nice seeing the surroundings all lush green and the butterflies flying about finding flowers to feed on. Although it wasn't too warm, we both did get sunburns. I guess it's time to start putting on sunscreen before hiking. The whole trek took approximately 5 hours and that included time wandering about taking photos.
While I was on the bus on to the starting point of my trek along the coastline, an abandoned site caught my eye. Once I got off the bus, I headed towards the site and I realized it was an abandoned school. From what I could find, the school was constructed in the early 70s and later turned into a folk art museum before closing down. Although the field is overgrown with vegetation, there was a garden in the back so I'm assuming the locals come here from time to time. Unfortunately the windows and the doors were locked so I couldn't go check inside. The interior shots were taken through the windows.
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