From the capital city of Seoul, we joined another tour company to take us around South Korea heading south for a total of five days. There were sixteen people in the tour bus including us. Some were from New Zealand, Australia and a single lady from Mexico. The tour bus was meticulously clean and very comfortable. Justin Choi was our tour guide and he spoke perfect English unlike our guide in the city whose heavy accent made it extremely difficult to follow whatever she was telling us.
The first day was cold and raining and fortunately we were prepared for this kind of weather. We drove to Gongju for two and a half hours. There we visited the tomb of King Muryeong and walked around the ancient fortress of Gonsangseon. Justin, our guide was very knowledgeable with Korea’s history that you felt transported to the era he was lecturing about.
When we arrived at the ancient fortress of Gonsanseong, several in our group stayed at the lower level when they saw how steep the pathway was going to the center. Gassy, George, Ligaya and me went ahead and followed the group who walked faster as they were much younger than these senior citizens.
Along the way to our final destination for the day, we stopped by to watch two Korean young ladies perform. One gave us a rendition of a traditional Korean vocal and the other played a Korean violin.
Then we had a sumptuous Korean lunch called bibimbap (literary mixed rice). It came with different main ingredients and I opted for the “live” octopus. As always, there were spicy side dishes which can cause heartburn if you’re not used to it!
After the hot and spicy lunch, we went to Jeonju Hanok Village, a quaint and vibrant small town with small stores selling colorful traditional dresses. The clean streets were made of cobblestones and we really enjoyed just people watching and browsing the sidewalk wares.
The following day we drove almost two hours to the historical and very important city of Gwangju. This city is also called the Home of Democracy. On May 18, 1980 a democratic movement started here by a group of college students which led to the massacre of dozens of them. We visited the solemn National Cemetery honoring these students who sacrificed their lives for democracy.
Some interesting signage I encountered:
More photos from the group:
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