S.E. Asia...

Here we come!!!

...

In a few hours we'll be traveling to Thailand and eventually Cambodia for several days. Unfortunately, we can't locate any clues to existing letterboxes in either of those countries (although there are quite a few letterboxes in neighboring countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam); we'll have to resort to cacheboxing again. So, we'll blaze the way and change that poor letterbox 'statistic' for Thailand and Cambodia--hoping future letterboxers will add new boxes to the region when/if they visit.
...

As for our letterbox 'themes': sort of went with the 'cliched' images for the area--a Thai-ger for Thailand and an elephant for Cambodia. Ran out of time to finish the peacock feather at the bottom of the picture before we depart but I'll work on that on the road. Bringing along tracing paper, pencils, carving medium and my trusty speedball gouge for any other 'inspiration' that hits along the way. Hey, this is probably my 2nd or 3rd time carving on the orange PZ-Kut and it worked well. DMS can't blame me for taking his Grade A, White PZ-Kut last week--at least as far as this photo's concerned (& the fact that I've been out of the country for the past 3 weeks may help my alibi, too!) ;)

...

See you on the flip side.

Forts, trenches & blue pin boxes?

After yesterday's mammoth hike (as least as far as children are concerned) we decided to take it a bit easier today. We knew we needed to get back out on the trails again to stretch out our muscles so opted to hunt for a cachebox on a mountain near the Gwanak Subway Station--further southwest in Seoul's suburbs (if Seoul even has suburbs). It turned out this little mountain was the perfect elixir for us. As we headed out of the apartment to begin this hike a very threatening rainstorm hit but we decided to forge on and continue with our plans and dodge the raindrops just because it's so rare for Trekkie to get free time for hiking. As it turned out it was a great decision--by the time we reached the intended station the rain had stopped and the clouds were starting to clear. The rain had a 'purging' effect for all the hikers that are usually out and about Seoul on the weekends. Somehow the people were still on the metro and not on the trails as we've never been so crammed into the subway cars as we were on our various connections today. But that trend fizzled out once we reached the trail. The mountain we climbed was completely deserted! Awesome!

The ascent started out gradually--nice, smooth trails with a decent incline. This area reminded me a little of the Northeast US. The trees were sporadic and there was a hint of underbrush. What really caught my eye was the glittering pink & gold granite rocks all around.

It was sooo pink I had to snap a photo of it. We even collected some samples of the rocks--they're quite glittery.

Here's one of the views from near the summit. This mountain turned out to be a little respite of nature in the thick of the metropolis. We were surrounded on all sides by factories, highways, skyscraper apartment buildings--you name it. But the mountain itself was lush and green and seemed to be deserted until we discovered:

Defensive positions and trenches all around. This was our first discovery. The trenches were about 5-6' deep.

Here's a view of one of the abandoned guard stations we came across. This area explains why the mountain was so deserted! It had been a military installation for quite sometime. Perhaps even recently because I noticed communication wires strung all about.

Here's another defensive position we found. It, too, was about 6' deep but had this giant mound of grass-covered stones and rocks. I presume this had been an anti-aircraft gun position at sometime. Not sure if the mound is covering an old gun mount or if they just added it for 'fun' after they abandoned the site.

As we approached the cachebox we actually had completely crossed over the summit. On this tip of the mountain I saw dozens of magpies soaring in the strong winds that lingered after the storm had passed. You can barely make out one of the magpies just above the boulder to the left of the center of the shot (to the right of the evergreen). There were others but rnrB & trkr scared them off in the time it took me to retrieve my camera and before I could snap the shot.

Here's the reason we were in the area to begin with.

The Blue 001 GC was planted about a month and a half ago. We haven't a clue why it's named Blue 001--except maybe because the lid is blue/green? We rescued another TB--which is really bizarre. It was launched by a family who resides near Portland, OR--not terribly far from where we hail at the moment. What's even more bizarre is that the TB had been in a few parks by which we'd driven not too long ago. Somehow, we cross paths with it not even 2 months later some 5,000+ miles away from there. Small world, eh?

...

Well, we completed the Blue GC around 4:oopm and decided to push our luck and try for one more cachebox in the city. It was not terribly far from this spot as the magpie flies but the way the metro lines are arranged it was quite far thanks to connections and parallel lines that never seemed to connect. If our metro transfers worked out well we might have a chance of finding it--if not, we'd at least learn our way to the spot and go from there on a future visit. Anyway, we managed to reach the origin for the next 'hunt' with plenty of sunlight left to spare and had to hop on a city bus (something we'd never before done in Seoul). That was interesting--we had to use the GPS during the bus ride to figure out where we were supposed to begin our hike. Odd but it worked. What caught my attention on the bus is that the seats are really, really narrow. I can't imagine many Americans (even average sized people) being able to fit in those seats. rnrB & trkr barely fit on the seats by themselves--much less Trekkie or I.

This is a view of the nearby mountains from Pin Box 2.

Turns out our next hunt is on the campus of Seoul National University. It made a very great impression on me. It was absolutely gorgeous! All this time I'd been in Seoul I had no idea this beautiful area existed. Well, I knew the university was here but had no idea it was so gorgeous. There were large lush green grass fields all around, an expansive amphitheater, hiking trails all around, exercise stations, water parks, fountains, picnic areas and even an area that seemed to be a science museum for families with what appeared to be an outdoor waterslide/water feature park and an observatory. Really beautiful spot! If we were going to be here longer I'd consider planting a letterbox there--especially in light of the fact that there's a large foreign contingent who attends the university (and perhaps knows about letterboxing?). We eventually reach our 'destination' and secure our treasure. This time we find a Singapore GeoCoin-- a first for us--finding an international geocoin. Up til now we've only found a wooden California Geocoin. So, that was interesting.

Here's the loot from this cachebox that bears the name Pin Box 2. Again absolutely no clue how these things are named! I'm thinking the original box may have actually been a 'pin' box and perhaps that's why it was named that but who knows? There wasn't anything associated with pins anywhere remotely near it. That coin with the red rectangle in the bottom is the GeoCoin. Upon returning home we looked into how expensive these things are and they run about $8 a pop--that's if you buy them in bulk! Not very cheap for some geo-fun. I'm amazed that folks go to those lengths for this hobby. The guy who planted this geocoin recently planted about a dozen of these coins with instructions to transport them to exotic places such as Thailand, Singapore, China & Russia. I'm even more amazed that those TravelBug dogtags run about $6 a pop, too! Who knew? You do get 2 of the TB dogtags for that price and a personal webpage to track its travels courtesy of geocaching.com. The hobby has definitely taken many twists, turns and deviations away from its 'mother-hobby of inspiration' in letterboxing.

...

Well, after leaving our cachebox impression we still have some daylight to spare and opt to forego the busride back to the station and walk the 2 miles instead. It was an excellent decision because we were able to better study the surroundings. It was a lovely evening and a great opportunity to just be together. By the time we reached the apartment turns out we'd logged another 6+ miles of walking again--and this was supposed to be our 'easy' day. ;)

Gotta love it!

Gwanaksan Misadventure

22 Apr 06

...
Always the letterboxers-errant we are! Somehow we manage to turn what should be a relatively quick outing into something SOOOO MUCH MORE than that...

...

Today, we headed back up to Gwanaksan--one of the higher mountain ranges that exists within the greater city limits of Seoul. We were looking for a nice, long-ish hike and thought the Gwanaksan area would be perfect. The weather was much nicer than it had been the past several weeks and we really wanted to take advantage of it. First, we wanted to check on the 2 letterboxes we planted there back in Nov 04 and then we were looking for any & all geocaches we could possibly nab in the area. Little did we know what was in store for us!!!

We start our ascent and figure we'll be heading out on a 4 mile hike or so. The terrain is familiar to us as this is the same route our Monkey & Cloud letterbox clues lead folks on. It reminds me slightly of Northern California--specifically the Whiskeytown Lake area near Redding. The dirt is gravelly & sandy--with hints of pink, mauve, beige and white. Every so often the boulders have a little of that 'black' moss on them--the kind if you pour a little water on it it'll instantly turn forest green.

We quickly find the Monkey Letterbox and it's safe and sound tucked gently behind this boulder not terribly far from the trail (in fact the boulder abuts the trail) so the letterbox is about 2.5' beyond the trail.

We continue up to summit several smaller peaks, following the ridgelines most of the way. The ascent is quick, though, as much of the trail is quite steep--requiring large steps up and quite a bit of rock scrambling. We often find defensive positions near the intermediate summits of these mini-mountains along the way. More evidence that this country is ever-prepared to defend itself.

rnrB happens to be in 'one of those moods' for a moment when we snap this photo. She enjoys hiking steep, rough terrain and trkr's holding her back.

It's interesting where we find some of the flowers along the hike. Here's a pink azalea that's growing in a crevice of a cliff. This is about 20' high. Soon thereafter we find our Cloud Letterbox alive and well--still no visitors which isn't terribly shocking.

The kids ascend one of the more difficult stretches of the trail. This spot required quite a bit of rock climbing skills--securing good foot and handholds along the way.

Here's a view of the ridgeline--the hill in the middle of the picture is one of the lower intermediate 'summits' along the way.

This picture will give you a feel for the route we're taking. We're following the ridge line and eventually make it up to the communication 'geodesic' dome on the right and then the large KBS broadcast tower on the left. The trail just prior to the dome and then again toward the large transmission tower got extremely tricky at points.

Here's a view of Trekkie as he descends one of the steeper bits along the way toward the dome. You can just barely make out the rope that one must use to negotiate the terrain. Scary to put your life into the trust of a well-worn rope that's tied (as in repaired with simple knots) in at least three different spots beyond where it's tethered to the rock.

This photo will give you a feel for just how steep some of the spots were. Had we known this is what was in store for us (especially in light of having 2 young children with us) we probably would have taken a different route. If you study the photo you can see Trekkie, trkr & rnrB in the foreground. Then look up in the shot and you'll see 'necklaces' of people holding on to a rope or chain for dear life that's tethered to the sheer-cliff face of the mountain. These tethers seem to jut back and forth across the face of the tall cliff. This part was rather scary to negotiate--after having been on our feet for some 4 miles of mostly uphill ascent already. There were a few other 'scary' sections of the hike but some were so 'tight' that I dared not even bring out my camera. In two spots we had to 'straddle' the ridgeline with sheer drop-offs on either side. Eventually, however, we reach the summit and enjoy it for a few moments. Just beyond the summit we find a more level area and dozens and dozens and dozens of folks who are picnicking at it. Odd--we hadn't seen that many folks on the trail WE took up to the summit! Turns out there's a much milder trail through the valley with a long steep set of stairs to the summit that most everybody else has taken. Yes, we somehow managed to find the most difficult route up to the summit.

This little 'rope-exercise' was what we faced on the 'easy' side of the summit heading down to the picnic area not too far from a Buddhist Temple which turns out to be the other draw for folks lingering in the area.

Here's a view of a temple just South of the geodesic dome. At some point in the hike we were about 40' away from this temple. This photo of the higher temple was actually taken not far from this temple that we found at a lower elevation. They, too, were all decked out for Buddha's big birthday.

...

...

However, we didn't have time to spare. We were on a mission for some geocaches, or so we thought. Turns out the geocaches we originally sought out were on another ridge along the way--too far away for us to seek now as we were rapidly losing daylight. We opt instead to run a 'waypoint' search in the GPS and hunt down whichever proves to be closest. We eventually find one and follow its lead. Boring GC hunting stuff ensues but it turns out to be a mystery cache that requires multi-stages and somehow I end up bushwhacking my way straight up a cliff to get within 200' of the thing. Who knew? At some point along the way, we descend 1/4 of the summit to reach the first stage where we find our coordinates for the 'actual' cache tucked away in a tiny 35mm film canister and quickly learn we must resummit the mountain-at least to the point where the temple is to get 'credit' for finding the cache. So, with our GC vanity at stake, we reclimb the mountain and soon find the cache. Inside we find the typical McHappyMeal toys loot. But this cache boasts something we've never before found in a cache! DMS would be pretty excited to learn that it contained 5ml of Chivas Regal!!! Oh, that's what I used to take my cachebox impression, too! Figured I'd never see another trade item like that in the future...

...

What we soon realize, though, is that we still must descend this mountain in one piece--with children in tow--with the sun quickly setting and so we make the command decision to leave the liquor for the next cachebox locator to consume. ;)

Once we finish with the Mission Geocaching GC, we continue our descent down the mountain along a different ridgeline and make every effort to find another GC that's in the area. We have no idea if this cache (Kwanaksan 2) is still intact because it hadn't been located in over a year. We forge ahead, though, because we see that it had a TB in it and wanted to verify if it indeed was missing. Now, the sun is quickly setting and it's quite close to 7pm on the mountain. We still have half the elevation of this summit to descend in order to make our way back to the metro station. Somehow, though, we locate the cache and quickly stamp in. We secure the TB that's been stranded in the GC for the past 13 months. Odd--it was a TB with a mission to race to a location in Massachusetts. It was launched from VA and somehow took a bizarre detour to Seoul, Korea, instead of making it to MA and got 'hung up' in some crusty cache for over a year.

This shot was snapped just prior to finding the second part of the multi-stage cache. I just love the terrain. It has this smooth yet rugged sense about it. The pine trees jutting out from the nooks and crannies are really neat, too. It still reminds me of the Redding, CA area. Only here the trees have this more Zen-like feeling to them--as if they've been intentionally trimmed down to their current shapes as if they were larger Bonsai trees. I can definitely see from where the inspiration for Asian gardens springs. We're surrounded by it on this hike!

...

Eventually we make it back to the subway station. We realize we'd taken the children on a 7+ mile hike along some excrutiatingly difficult terrain. Our elevation change for this hike was at least 1,300 meters! By the time we make it off the trail and back on the street heading toward the station it is almost 8:45pm and nearly pitch black out. We stop for some of those incredibly awesome Korean melon popsicles at a kiosk just before the metro and savor them for as long as possible. The hike turned out to be exactly what we were looking for. Great workout, breathtaking views and a little bit of the 'mental' challenge, too, in trying to locate some GCs along the way.

We eventually make it the 12 metro stops back to 'our' neck of the woods and trkr finds another 'bizarre' thing in Korea. It's a telephone AND coffee and can vending machine. The phone just happens to be at trkr's level.

...

All in all, another great outing--despite its misadventured beginning.

Whirlwinds...

Talk about a whirlwind of bizarre occurrences today! The most bizarre thing happened to us today--but I won't bore you with it until you first read about our temple visit.

...

Struck out on an adventure to the 'high-rent' district of Seoul today. We returned to the COEX area which is known as the 'Wall Street' of Seoul. The World Trade Center is located in this district as are many of the headquarters for major Korean conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai and other well known brand names. As we walked around this part of the city we were in awe of the number of Mercedes and Lexus vehicles we saw driving around.

...

We weren't visiting this area for shopping or investment purposes, but rather just to explore one of its 1,200 year old temples that's literally in the shadow of the World Trade Center:

Bongeunsa.

...

Bongeunsa is located on the slope of Sudo mountain in Samsung-dong, South of Seoul. It's one of Korea's most traditional Buddhist temples.

...

We're not of the Buddhist faith but it's still interesting to explore these temples. They're vibrant yet peaceful spots that often seem to be located smack dab in the middle of these major hustling and bustling sections of the city. It's so bizarre to one minute be caught up in the rush and hubbub of the city streets and the next minute to be quietly meditating in a small park surrounded by meticulous and lush gardens, gorgeous artwork and quiet!

As you enter the temple grounds, you are first greeted by Four Devas known as the Sacheonwang. They are considered the four heavenly kings who look over Buddhist lands and are situated on the four points of the compass rose. What's unique about these fellows in particular is that they have very gentle and friendly expressions on their faces; quite a contrast to the expressions that these fellows typically don at other temples around the region.

When we first entered the grounds we could sense the excitement of some looming celebration. There were colorful lanterns strewn about, ribbons, giant flower arrangements as far as your eye could see, neon light signs with Buddhist images just waiting for the sun to set so they can put on their amazing light displays. We weren't quite sure what was happening but it was definitely a change from what we'd seen on previous visits to temples in Korea.

Here's the belfry and drum tower on the grounds. It looked like it had been completely restored recently--fresh paint, new wood and gorgeous decorations all around. These structures are complete wood peg construction--no nails anywhere so it's always amazing to study their architecture. If anything these temples are simply works of arts unto themselves--the graphic art that decorate them is superb!

Here's a pagoda in one of the plazas. Notice the banner behind it? Apparently it's Buddha's 2550th birthday this year and the two month long celebration starts tonight! Talk about impeccable timing for us! Who knew? ;) We certainly had no clue!

One of the temples on the grounds here at Bongeunsa. There must have been at least a dozen of these structures scattered all around the 20+ acre grounds. What's interesting is the 'reverse' swastika symbol that is found on the temples. Nope, it doesn't represent more sinister things--it's rotating in the opposite direction of that one and is a common graphic element found on Buddhist temples around here.

Every so often we noticed these tiny stones that had been painted with these delicate lotus blossoms tucked amid the crevices of the boulders and landscaping about the hillside. Cute! We also noticed quite a few little Buddha statuettes and every so often these abalone shells that were about 5" across--in them were often Won coins I believe are offerings--that were tucked in these nooks and crannies, too.

rnrB's showing off the large courtyard that's currently covered with thousands of strawberry lanterns that I presume will be lit later on in the evening. Not sure what the strawberry represents (perhaps Spring?) in Buddhism. Each one seemed to have a prayer note attached to it. This picture really doesn't do the arrangement justice--this courtyard was gigantic and there were strawberry lanterns as far your eye could see!

One of the temples higher up on the slope. We really were on the grounds to attempt to rescue a GC that was on the verge of being archived. We got within 128' (yes, we broke down and secured a GPS again) of it but were prevented from actually securing it because they had erected bob-war :) around the walking paths in efforts to prevent the homeless from building fires in the woods at night and thus jeopardizing the ancient wooden temples on the grounds.

Here's a brilliant dragon we found cooped up in the belfry.

Loved the chrysanthemums! In fact, I used a graphic similar to this to create the stamp for our Chrysanthemum Letterbox here in Seoul.

rnrB demonstrating the harmonics of the drum in the drum tower. We tapped it a bit and it had this incredible sound to it--low yet powerful.

...

So that was our tour of Bongeunsa Temple today. The most bizarre thing actually happened on our way home.

...

We took the long way back to the metro--shunning the stop that originally took us to Bongeunsa in favor of a longer walk to the next metro stop we'd find just by heading north. The neat thing about Seoul and its metro system is that usually if you just start walking in any direction you'll eventually find another subway stop. So we set out to just go where the paths would take us. Eventually we found the next line over and wound our way via the subterranean habit-trail back toward the apartment. Instead of taking our usual station to head home we opted to return to Namdaemun Market. I was on a mission to find some really nice Korean postcards as I'm embarrassingly overdue in sending out postcards for our trip. I also am on a mission to find uniquely Korean chocolates for a certain turtle friend (not the green variety) and took the opportunity to sample the myriad bizarre flavors of chocolate that are found in Korea. We sampled our way through the Korean world of chocolate--sweet potato chocolate, Columbin chestnut chocolate, Chejudo tangerine chocolate, hot red pepper chocolate, ginseng chocolate with both milk and white chocolate, some even with ginseng rice crispies and finally kimchi chocolate. I'm embarrassed to admit this but after having known about kimchi chocolate for over a year now--I finally tasted it! OOOOOHHHHHH WEEEEEEE it's hot! It's interesting and something I'm sure I could get used to but oh so different than anything I'd ever tasted before. I did find that I really like the sweet potato and chestnut chocolate and the hot red pepper chocolate was good, too. The kimchi chocolate, however, was so overbearing that once we sampled it we'd 'burned' our tastebuds for the day and couldn't taste anything else besides the spicy blazin' hot kimchi flavor. Well, this gastronomical trip through the world of Korean chocolate wasn't the bizarre thing that happened to us. That happened as we departed the chocolate section of the market.

...

We were wandering along the streets, bartering with the concessionaires (as usual) and studying all the new and unique things we seem to see at the markets. Today it was the way they displayed the octopus for sale at the fish stands. They folded the octopus in this tiny package of a gelatinous blob with tentacles exposed (looked sort of like a baseball with suction cups). I'd never seen that before. Then, we happened upon this (candy?) stand where this man was wrapping what I think was spun rice flour (it looked a bit like white cotton candy or even moreso like silk from silk cocoons) around little spoonfuls of what I think was a mix of brown and black sesame seeds with perhaps some sugar. We were mesmerized by the process of how he constructed these cocoon candies and were reminded of some similar candy we'd tasted like this in China last year. As we were watching this display, some elderly gentleman comes up and grabs my hand--and won't let go. He says something in Korean about cake house and insists that we follow him through the markets toward some cake house.

...

So, the kids and I follow this man as we wander along. Occasionally, he stops at kiosks to ask about the prices of various items--and storms away insisting the vendors are asking way too much for their items. I'm sure he's convinced this area is a tourist trap--because it is! He stops at a kiosk where a lady is making these fried pancakes and purchases a couple of them for us. They turn out to be fried cakes with cinnamon, sugar and walnuts in the middle but the batter has some vegetables interspersed (peas, carrots, turnips)--it's an odd combination but it tasted really good. Then, the gentleman asks us if we like Korean food. When I answer him with a resounding yes he inquires about whether rnrB & trkr will eat Korean food too. Another resounding yes--which is probably something he's not terribly used to hearing from tourists (especially American children). So, he asks the kids what kinds of Korean foods they like and when he hears Mandoo (potstickers) he insists on taking us to a Chinese restaurant. Yes, a Chinese restaurant in Korea!

...

So, we find ourselves in a tiny Chinese restaurant chowing down on Gogimandoo (Pork potstickers) and saeseongmandoo (fish potstickers) with jasmin tea. It's a great meal and the gentleman insists on footing the bill. How nice!

...

Then we continue along the way and he's still searching for a cake house. We make our way past the Chinese Embassy and find ourselves in Myeongdong (a fashionable yet high rent shopping district in Seoul). He asks around and soon finds a 'cake house' which turns out to be a Paris Baguette french bakery along the strip across the street from Starbucks. He gives the kids individual trays with tongs and insist that they fill their trays with whatever they like. True children in a candy store!!! They each select a handful of orange donut holes, apple turnover, a chocolate croissant, these long sugar-dipped crunchy pastry twists. We get to the register and again he insists on paying! He yields a credit card (which I rarely, if ever, see Koreans use in this country--as cash seems to be the norm) and the lady says it must be over a certain amount in order to use the credit card. So, he insists I order something else--so green tea smoothie for me. Well, we spend the next hour or so just sitting at the bakery. The kids are making googly eyes with all the young Korean university students in the cafe and they are being showered with treats in return--candies, chewing gum, lollipops, you name it. The gentleman asks a few questions about us but nothing too probing. We ask questions of him and he just says he lives in Seoul but is soon headed on a 3-month trip to Europe and the US, that he has a brother in New York and children attending university in Oklahoma. It was an interesting outing--something I've never before experienced and yet sort of weird.

...

I've heard of stories where Americans in Korea are 'hired' to help teach English to Korean citizens. Sometimes these arrangements aren't just to teach English in the typical student-teacher-desk arrangment but rather to play golf with folks for a few hours each week and to just talk. So, I was wondering if that was what this gentleman had in mind? It's not like he found a drop dead gorgeous woman and two extremely well-behaved children just walking along the streets (our little chaotic cabal is quite the opposite of that description!)--so his motives couldn't have been anything beyond just wanting to spend time with people. It was just an odd experience. As the evening wound to a close he insisted on meeting up with our family again--that was really weird, too--because it didn't seem like he was enjoying it all that much as he never changed his facial expression throughout the evening until the point when we took this photo.

But all in all it was a very nice gesture and something we know we truly didn't deserve. I think he might have spent about $50 on us this evening! A very nice memory from a whirlwind evening in Seoul.

Animal Grandeur

A Grand View at Seoul's Grand Park.

...

After being secluded in the apartment for 60 hours straight, we finally got a chance to head back outside. Yes, we were stuck indoors for 4 straight days & 5 nights due to the massive Yellow Dust storm that hit Asia this week. The dust was so bad that we could barely see Seoul Tower most of that time. We took the opportunity to catch up on homeschooling studies, reading but were raring to go the minute we awoke to 'other than yellow skies'!!!

I've lived in Korea for almost 2 years (in chunks of multi-month stints over the past 9 years) and have never seen the Yellow Dust as bad as we've experienced it this year. Hmmm...
...

Our first day of freedom took us to Seoul Grand Park just Southwest of the Seoul City Limits. It's one of these massive 'monster' parks that includes multiple giant lakes with walking paths, a large zoo, a separate children's zoo, yet another petting zoo, a giant herb garden park, a large amusement park a la Disneyland, the Metropolitan Museum of Contemporary Art and Forest Bath Resort plus much, much more if you just wander around. They even offer a 'sky lift' to ferry folks from one end of the zoo to another with the option to continue on to the beginning of the park near the parking area and metro station. In addition, you can also ride the 'elephant' bus that ferries folks around the giant lake from the parking area to the zoo entrance, or amusement park entrance or art museum entrance, for that matter. There's definitely a lot to do at Seoul Grand Park and even after 3 visits to just the 'big' zoo alone we haven't yet seen or done everything there let alone even attempted anything beyond the 'big' zoo. It's amazing!

...

What's even more amazing is that I paid a whopping $5 admission for the zoo! $3 for adults and $1 per child! I think our last trip to a zoo in the US cost about $30 for a family of four!


Being a 'dolphin' letterboxer, I just had to snap this photo by my relative. This was a cool water fountain we found during our visit.


The night before our zoo visit we saw the movie "Weeping Camel" about a camel herding family who rescues a young camel colt who, at birth, fails to bond with its mother. It was a really interesting 'docu-drama' that seemed to vividly capture life in Mongolia with a little glimpse into how modern technology has intermingled with traditional Mongolian life. It was only natural that we snap a shot of this Bactrian camel that we found in Seoul the next day. A few months ago we researched trying to make a trip to Mongolia during our 'vacation' while in Korea but realized that our Spring 'timing' for a trip was off--Mongolia isn't really the place to visit in the Spring-time due to the sand storms. Now that we've suffered the recent Yellow Dust onslaught the past couple of weeks, we're quite thankful that we decided to postpone a trip to Mongolia until a less 'sandy' time of the year. ;)

An interesting thing occurred as we passed the giant lion display. This area must be several acres large! We heard the pride of lions in this photo roaring quite loudly. Then off in the distance was a giant cage with a male and female lion pair--they were roaring, growling, & rolling all around together. What seemed to be happening though was that the two separate groups of lions were communicating with eachother. A very interesting experience! It was almost surreal!


On a whim we went looking for a 'cachebox' that was supposedly in the area. We found this cool stone staircase to the summit of an evergreen flanked hill along the way. The geocache had been placed over 9 months ago and had yet to have any finders. Quite unheard of in the geocaching world--as geocaches are usually 'found' as soon as or often before their clues are published online. We had no idea if it even still existed but we hunted it out nonetheless (just because we were there). Imagine our surprise when we actually found it--alive & well!!! Bizarre--we were FTF (something that geocachers seem to really relish--but we would rather read the logbook that includes other folks' impressions of the area). Our first FTF ever and even more bizarre was that it was for a 9 month old GC!

Here's a beautiful view of the mountains off in the distance. The cherry trees are blooming in full-force now. If you study the mountains closely you'll see military defenses all along the ridgeline. Something that just comes with the territory on the Korean Peninsula. After awhile you just get used to it!


Here's a pretty view we found while taking the path less travelled. This zoo is almost as known for its less crowded walking paths than it is for its animals. In a city as large as Seoul it's always welcoming to find a spot where you can just roam and get away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds. This was just the place today! Of course, the fact that it was 'Chicago' windy and brisk probably helped quite a bit.

rnrB displaying one of the 'chestnut' hedgehogs we found along the way. Nope, it wasn't a 'true' hedgehog like the ones that lived in our yard in Germany when I was a kid but rather just the spiny outer shell of a chestnut that we found along the trail. It just really looked like a hedgehog--one of my most favorite animals! We also found lots of Redwood cones around here, too! Looks like Seoul Grand Park is also an arboretum of sorts--there are trees from all over lining the trails of the park. In fact, if you ever visit this park--you'll need to know your trees to locate our letterbox that we planted here last year. By the way, it's still alive & well with nary a visitor, yet.

Another interesting view at the park. There's a giant creek that runs through the grounds of the zoo, too. What's neat is that they've created all these 'zen-like' crossings of the creek where you can hop across stones, boulders, giant bricks, bouncy bridges, you name it at various points along the creek. It just another unique feature in the park.

trkr's showing the world that he's summited the turtle king!

How fitting that rnrB found the vertebrae at the park--that's what she studied in her Anatomy class for science the day before our visit--now is she standing between the Atlas or the Axis vertebra of the T-Rex skeleton? ;)


Every so often we'll come across reminders of our friends back on the 'mainland'. We found not one, but 2, very trail-worn Green Tortugae today. This dude's so tired from completing the Appalachian Trail that his toes were literally cracking. Let's give him a high 4 for completing the trek, though! It takes one tough turtle to accomplish something as amazing as that!!!

Finally, after 3 visits, we secured tickets for the Dolgorae Show--i.e. the dolphin show. Get this--tix were only $3 for all of us! This just blows me away! Anyway, a dolphin's just got to see her relatives in action. Man, do I have a lot to learn!!! The show was fun--it started out with seals that were very talented. They danced, balanced balls/rings and even played instruments. Who knew they were that talented! What was so incredible was that they could balance these balls on their noses while doing all sorts of odd contortions of their bodies. Amazing! The entire time I was trying to figure out how they would use these skills in the wild--I guess they just get so focused on their next meal that these 'laser-focus-&-balance skills' are quite developed.

Finally, here's a shot of 4 dolphins flexing their abs. ;) This dolphin's been working on her abs, too--but I'm nowhere near the point in my exercise regime that I can do this yet. ;) Maybe I should change my diet to predominantly krill and fish? Yeah, that might do the trick!

...

All in all our outing to the zoo served as the perfect way to venture back outside after being cooped up inside for so many days. Nothing like being stuck indoors in a foreign country with little to do, two antsy kids who resorted to climbing the walls just to burn some energy and a monster appetite to get out and explore. Thank goodness for access to the internet & books! It probably saved this dolphin's sanity! ;)