Jeollanam-do Province; Muan White Lotus Festival & Doripo Beach
Saturday morning I got up with my alarm clock late (still having the alarm problem here, I wouldn't figure out the why to it until yesterday), I had to dress, grab my bag, and run for my taxi to the subway. I arrived at the right subways station and out the right exit pretty much on the dot for when the bus would be at that station. My guide I'm used to was there, which was comforting and, for something new and different, I bumped into my coworker's husband who was also on the trip.
The traffic was not as bad for this trip as it was the previous weekend for the Mt Taebaek Hiking and Cool Cinema Festival. There was a little traffic, making us maybe half an hour off schedule only. As this was my sixth trip with Adventure Korea, it's getting to be really amusing to be taken care of at lunch. I know no longer am alone in telling people in Korean about my food preferences, but my guide does now, too. I'm leaning toward wanting to pack more food with me though in the future. We'll see with Gyeongju. But on to the weekend!
Warnings for many, many pictures below the cut.
After arriving in South Jeollanam-do province, we drove straight to the Muan White Lotus festival. Our fee for the weekend included many different group activities. We would make Lotus leaf wrapped rice cakes, onion kimchi, take a very long walk through the lotus leaf pond area, enjoy the museum of plants, have a tea drinking lesson/ceremony, and ride in paddle boats in the pond.
The walkway at the beginning
Interesting foliage designs.
Making onion kimchi, my only picture since I forgot to take the camera off before I was gooey.
Making the lotus dish.
Say hello to my newest friend from Jeju. This is the hat of awesome which protects me.
They had carved statues like this all over the festival grounds area's.
Given that this was a Lotus festival, there are *many* many different kinds of lotus shots.
Lotus (lily?) pads as far as the eye could see on the long walk
Another walk painting
I have always liked lily's and lotus's but never so much as this weekend. Before now, even in Korea, they were something rather pristine and untouchable in pictures. But seeing them before me in all their various states -- buds bursting, newly opened flowers, fully opened ones, ones with missing petals and broken stalks -- there is so much life and realism to it now. So much more beautiful the realism and the tides of its cycles.
They love silver buildings hiding in their middles, don't they?
New fangled umbrella shade! And, wow, were the stalks prickly.
And a crazy cactus I fell in love with, in the indoor building
The tea ceremony. I fell in love with the huge lotus in the tea bowl.
Lotus were the theme of the place after all
One of the water displays
Another indoor water feature, there were four waterfalls in the center
Amazing drummers, and we got to try the drums too
Finally we arrived at the boats! Saving your browser, there are dozens in here, too.
After the boats, we were given two hours of free time to enjoy the festival on our own. I wandered around, picked up what was beginning to be at that point in the day pieces for an Earth altar, and gifts for friends back in the states. Plus, I acquired for myself some smaller things of lotus focus that I fell in love with.
There was a dinosaur garden.
Working really hard at an amazing print I was making, which looked like --
This! And sadly was stolen on the bus over night. I was so heartbroken.
After this we headed off to our dinner, which was a nice, but not very fulfilled meal, at a Lotus Brewery. Then we were off to our accommodation, but it was dark at the time so there are pictures of it just yet. That night there was a beach party, with a glowing Frisbee game, fireworks, a bonfire, and discovery big spiders and wee baby crabs out in the edges of the beach right off where we were staying. I stayed out a few hours and then turned in early, after writing my Goddess Journal work for the night. It seems to be a theme for me, but it works so well for me.
In the morning I got up early and standing on the porch of our room decided to try perfecting more the panoramic of my big camera finally. I did get one shot I was insanely pleased with.
The porch of our room in the pension.
Window stairways in the morning inside
Our pension from the front near the road (and the bus)
Another stairway down
More panoramic play.
In the early morning the tide was in, which in Jeollanam-do is different from everywhere else I've been. All the images you'll see, like the island, changed within thirty minutes. The island was then part of a land mass, the beach continued to dry and elongate as we sat watching. It was magical and breath taking.
Thirty minutes later *here*
After the morning spent on the beach, in the pool and downstairs eating breakfast, we all piled into the bus to head to a spot on the West Sea that I never managed to catch the name of. We had to get waders and life jackets before heading out on our boats to a large island where we would do clam digging and net fishing, followed by getting to taste test our fish raw right after catching and to attempt eating live octopus. This was another place where the tide was amazing.
The clam fields were huge when we arrived and yet by the time we left the clam fields were totally submerged, and our stuff was on a tiny island that would be claimed by the ocean without thirty minutes or our leaving. It's so hard to explain how amazing it was watching this, and realizing how much water and how much land and how fast everything happened, little by little, minute by minute, while you weren't looking until there was nothing left.
Waders! And one of my awesome skirts, which were perfect for the day, too
Learning/playing with the zoom more. A very far from the boat shot. Birds!
Clam digging fields!(And clam digging fields submerged pictured *here*!)
I seem to have missed out on remembering to picture the net fishing. Oh, well.
Trying raw fish just after it was sliced. (and after my hat was eaten by the mudded clam field D:)
Also, here's finally a shot of my new lotus necklace.
The raw fish was amazing. While I'm not sure I want to put a live octopus in my mouth again (...I think I have some issues with thinking about the idea that my teeth were killing a creature in my mouth, instead of it being dead previous to being put there...) I really did love the taste. I love octopus and squid here. I had so much of the fish.
After a boat ride to the beach and the loss of our waders and life jackets, some quick rinse showers, we were back on the bus headed to Seoul to come home from our weekend.
Yay! I've now finsihed all impending write-ups! This is such a freeing feeling! Off to work with me, to see the bright, shinging faces of all my children!
Galleries Created & Updated
Traveling in South Korea
Muan White Lotus Festival & Doripo Beach
The traffic was not as bad for this trip as it was the previous weekend for the Mt Taebaek Hiking and Cool Cinema Festival. There was a little traffic, making us maybe half an hour off schedule only. As this was my sixth trip with Adventure Korea, it's getting to be really amusing to be taken care of at lunch. I know no longer am alone in telling people in Korean about my food preferences, but my guide does now, too. I'm leaning toward wanting to pack more food with me though in the future. We'll see with Gyeongju. But on to the weekend!
Warnings for many, many pictures below the cut.
After arriving in South Jeollanam-do province, we drove straight to the Muan White Lotus festival. Our fee for the weekend included many different group activities. We would make Lotus leaf wrapped rice cakes, onion kimchi, take a very long walk through the lotus leaf pond area, enjoy the museum of plants, have a tea drinking lesson/ceremony, and ride in paddle boats in the pond.
The walkway at the beginning
Interesting foliage designs.
Making onion kimchi, my only picture since I forgot to take the camera off before I was gooey.
Making the lotus dish.
Say hello to my newest friend from Jeju. This is the hat of awesome which protects me.
They had carved statues like this all over the festival grounds area's.
Given that this was a Lotus festival, there are *many* many different kinds of lotus shots.
Lotus (lily?) pads as far as the eye could see on the long walk
Another walk painting
I have always liked lily's and lotus's but never so much as this weekend. Before now, even in Korea, they were something rather pristine and untouchable in pictures. But seeing them before me in all their various states -- buds bursting, newly opened flowers, fully opened ones, ones with missing petals and broken stalks -- there is so much life and realism to it now. So much more beautiful the realism and the tides of its cycles.
They love silver buildings hiding in their middles, don't they?
New fangled umbrella shade! And, wow, were the stalks prickly.
And a crazy cactus I fell in love with, in the indoor building
The tea ceremony. I fell in love with the huge lotus in the tea bowl.
Lotus were the theme of the place after all
One of the water displays
Another indoor water feature, there were four waterfalls in the center
Amazing drummers, and we got to try the drums too
Finally we arrived at the boats! Saving your browser, there are dozens in here, too.
After the boats, we were given two hours of free time to enjoy the festival on our own. I wandered around, picked up what was beginning to be at that point in the day pieces for an Earth altar, and gifts for friends back in the states. Plus, I acquired for myself some smaller things of lotus focus that I fell in love with.
There was a dinosaur garden.
Working really hard at an amazing print I was making, which looked like --
This! And sadly was stolen on the bus over night. I was so heartbroken.
After this we headed off to our dinner, which was a nice, but not very fulfilled meal, at a Lotus Brewery. Then we were off to our accommodation, but it was dark at the time so there are pictures of it just yet. That night there was a beach party, with a glowing Frisbee game, fireworks, a bonfire, and discovery big spiders and wee baby crabs out in the edges of the beach right off where we were staying. I stayed out a few hours and then turned in early, after writing my Goddess Journal work for the night. It seems to be a theme for me, but it works so well for me.
In the morning I got up early and standing on the porch of our room decided to try perfecting more the panoramic of my big camera finally. I did get one shot I was insanely pleased with.
The porch of our room in the pension.
Window stairways in the morning inside
Our pension from the front near the road (and the bus)
Another stairway down
More panoramic play.
In the early morning the tide was in, which in Jeollanam-do is different from everywhere else I've been. All the images you'll see, like the island, changed within thirty minutes. The island was then part of a land mass, the beach continued to dry and elongate as we sat watching. It was magical and breath taking.
Thirty minutes later *here*
After the morning spent on the beach, in the pool and downstairs eating breakfast, we all piled into the bus to head to a spot on the West Sea that I never managed to catch the name of. We had to get waders and life jackets before heading out on our boats to a large island where we would do clam digging and net fishing, followed by getting to taste test our fish raw right after catching and to attempt eating live octopus. This was another place where the tide was amazing.
The clam fields were huge when we arrived and yet by the time we left the clam fields were totally submerged, and our stuff was on a tiny island that would be claimed by the ocean without thirty minutes or our leaving. It's so hard to explain how amazing it was watching this, and realizing how much water and how much land and how fast everything happened, little by little, minute by minute, while you weren't looking until there was nothing left.
Waders! And one of my awesome skirts, which were perfect for the day, too
Learning/playing with the zoom more. A very far from the boat shot. Birds!
Clam digging fields!(And clam digging fields submerged pictured *here*!)
I seem to have missed out on remembering to picture the net fishing. Oh, well.
Trying raw fish just after it was sliced. (and after my hat was eaten by the mudded clam field D:)
Also, here's finally a shot of my new lotus necklace.
The raw fish was amazing. While I'm not sure I want to put a live octopus in my mouth again (...I think I have some issues with thinking about the idea that my teeth were killing a creature in my mouth, instead of it being dead previous to being put there...) I really did love the taste. I love octopus and squid here. I had so much of the fish.
After a boat ride to the beach and the loss of our waders and life jackets, some quick rinse showers, we were back on the bus headed to Seoul to come home from our weekend.
Yay! I've now finsihed all impending write-ups! This is such a freeing feeling! Off to work with me, to see the bright, shinging faces of all my children!
Galleries Created & Updated
Traveling in South Korea
Muan White Lotus Festival & Doripo Beach