...down with itchy feet: chick trip

Jeollaanam-do, nov. 12-14

Another weekend of travelling was about to come up. This time just Kate and me, as the others spend too much money on partying and therefore had nothing left for travelling or were just to lazy.
Jeolla occupies the southwestern part of of the peninsula. The costline is sculpted with contorted peninsulas and bays while along the eastern border the broadest mountain massifs rise and the western side is covered by agricultural plains. It is considered to be slow in progess and didn't follow the mainstream of Koreas developement of the past few years yet.

Early in the morning, we took the bus to Damyang, Korea's bamboo center and the city of the greatest concentration of Koreans bamboo grows. We walked through the bamboo forest Jungnokwon, where we left our initials, strolled along the trail of endless love and played the Korean "throw a stick into a wooden vessel" game. For lunch we had the regions famous special noodle soup on a wooden patio next to the river and a green tea pancake.
Another busride later we arrived in Gwangju where we stayed in a typical love motel. We enjoyed the jacuzzi tub, had a face mask (that actually is a mask soaked in cream to put onto your face) and found some fun things in the fridge.

Boseong was the next city of our interest, as it houses the oldest and largest tea plantation (nokchabat) in Korea, Daehan Dawon. We startet our tour through the plantation with a greentea ice cream and then strolled up the tea fields that curle up a mountain. Emerged that this was the perfect time for a visit as the bloom of tea plants is from October to November. Those white little flowers were beautiful! Before exploring the informative tea museum where one can learn everthing that's to know about tea and even try two different types of tea for free, we had a quick tea dish lunch. I ate greentea noodles with a potato soy sauce.

My personal highlight of the day was the Haesu Nokchatang in Yulpo, a bathhouse/sauna with greentea and seawater pools.
We joint Korean women every age in the different pools (one greentea very hot, one seawater very hot, one seawater normal temperature, one seawater freezing cold) and after a while we got used to being naked and they got used to us foreigners.
I felt like a teabag in the greentea brown water while watching the sunset. But Koreans are not there for relaxing, it's all about cleaning and washing. Mutually they scrubbed each others bodies with special tatters (everywhere!!!), brushed their teeth, washed their hair and removed their horny skin. It was weird to follow these actions but definately a new experience I wouldn't want to miss.
A friendly employee then gave us a ride to the bus terminal (and Kate did a great job having a conversation in Korean with him) and some English teachers from the US fed us with beer on the busride to Yeosu.

Yeosu is located in the very south of the Korean peninsular, consists of 317 small islands and hosts the Expo 2012. We visited the Jinnamgwan, a wooden pavilion that once was headquarter of Admiral Sunshin and also served as a guesthouse. It has a lengh of 54 meters which makes it the largest wooden hall of Korea.
We stroke it lucky another time when we catched the bus, that runs only 6 times a day to Hyangilam, a temple only for female monks located in between cliffs facing towards the sea. It is the most beautiful temple I saw so far! The whole venue is covered with stone turtles and one can listen to the chanting monks in a pieceful atmosphere.
The place is also known for its special leaf-mustard kimchi and beanbread, delicious!!!
The busride back passing working farmers on their fields, fishing villages and the rough cost was gorgeous.
To finish the sightseeing we explored Odong-do, a small island reachable via a long bridge. It has a bamboo forest, barefoot paths and stunning views from each coastside. We relaxed in the sun next to the dreagonscave and watch the musicfountain before a excursion train took us back.