The real last weekend (party at my place)

There was lots of dancing


sleeping and drinking

Dillon just being sleepy
A few moments of drunken behaviour from Mick


Some dodgy 4 string guitar playing.

Stealing jackets????


making candles

playing on the balcony

Til we were told we were too noisy and had to go back inside.

Phil, Dillon, Cheryl, David, Chris, Kara, Mick (hidden) and Martyn at my place.

Jack and Steve chillin on the balcony
Cheryl and Sunny
Eating meat from a stick
or just playing with it

From dusk til dawn

Me, Mick, Jack, Cheryl and Martyn

The last weekend (but one)

We originally thought that this would be my last weekend in Geochang and it also coincided with Chris's birthday. So we thought we would have a singsong at a norrybang.

Obviously we had to give Chris the bumps.
Phil sang his heart out.
And Micheal danced away his.

In the bars we tried bamboo shots.
While the girls chatted away.



Megan came back from Daegu to join us and reunite with her brother.

I'm not sure if we were having a staring competition or not.
Lauren, Dillon and Chris
Goodbye to J & B. hope to see you again one day.


Sally, Sunny and Micheal

A big group of westerners drinking is enough to scare any korean.
Martyn and Sunny still looking good together.


I'm pretty sure they have no idea whats going on... ever.

Steve likes to share his crisps.
David and Jack wondering why they came out!
Hyun Joo serving us all drinks

The cake and
THE HAT. Another Sunny in the background
Smoky Phil and Kara

I forgot the night started with a nice bbq meal, Here is Sally, cheryl and David enjoying it.
blurry pictures of blurry people.. and Dillon aka Superman

Buddha's birthday

We were in Good ol Geochang for Buddha's birthday and saw a few temples and places of worship. These two were very nice and invited us in for watermelon
This is a statue by where the live and meet other buddhists, it's so old scientists are arguing over a 100o years as to when it was made
They also made us write down wishes and hang them to lanterns

Here are some of the temples in a small town

Deokgung palace and a shrine (nuff said)

big palace
hello king (and conky)
a procession of peps

Some spectacular waterfalls.

main building was closed for reconstruction while were there.
I had an amusing thought.

Interesting place to have a shrine and make gifts.

Should have mentioned this is all in Seoul FYI

Just have a graze around, see where sacrifices were made, etc. Normal day.

Insadong, a very famous shopping and tea place.

This tea is called jujube and it tastes a little like cinnamon and fruit. you gotta try these things while in Korea.

Adults spend a lot of the day playing board games in parks.

Seoul palace no.3

This is a cool palace in Seoul used by the most recent kings and their concubines... so I took my conky to have a look. That door you can see leads to a huge beautiful and supposedly secret garden but we'll get to that later.
I just wanted a pic of what is was like walking down the halls.
These animals represent those that defend the palace and are on all of the outer buildings.
The passage in the background between the two buildings is what seperates the kings and queens rooms. It wasn't mentioned but I'm guessing although relations are impolite in korea this passage was a front for "the booty call".
Before he died the king left some furniture in his room.

It's an absolutely huge place that takes an hour and half to walk around quickly.

Ok so we went through the gate and saw lots of cool stuff... suitable for a king (me) nonetheless.

This pond is filled with lily's and well hidden from view.
This is in the centre of the secret garden. It used to be a library but I'm guessing the king loved going here for a break from the queen and his concubines.

Those shots were all of the same place.

Walking around the gardens is fun but unfortnately you have to be part of a guided tour to do it as the grounds are protected like a nature reserve.
The concrete gate you can see apparently gives eternal youth to anyone who passes through it. At least thats what the inscription claims. i got a bad back rushing through.

all in all wondering around this palace is a great way to spend time in Seoul.

In the summer though you just gotta hide in the shade.

Maisan

These stupid pictures are out of order and should be with my temple pics you'll see in a bit (temple is painted gold - but not real gold - it looks a bit tacky up close but you can't tell on these photos)

This was a pleasant mountain range we visited. It's called horse ear mountain - try and guess why.

I tried to get a few distant shots from a moving bus.

It actually has a few names dependant upon the season, it's other popular one is the sail boat (spring)

Being the only officially recognised male / female mountain in the world its a hotspot for the buddhists. Here is the only gold temple I have seen in korea and it's based at the foot of the twin peaks.


Even the bus station has things to look at.

This was made by a buddhist believer who apparantly mastered heaven, earth, fire and water and found balance. He then put these rocks together without any cement and they stood for a long time.

Just so you know I looked and would guess that the rocks have been given some support since though you are not allowed to actually touch them still in case they fall over.

not bad for a foot of a mountain. His image (not buddha's) is actually prayed to by the locals presumably asking for knowledge.

I think the statues were added afterwards!!!

Looks impressive from the top looking down too.

This is the first peak you see from the base. It's the male one and is rounded (flat) and shorter than the female one.
It's an interesting walk up though until 2012 you can only go half way up the female one and to the raised adjoining sections of the two. It's still enough to get me out of breath.

They love their dragon images here.

It's a beautiful park you have to hike through to get there.
This is the highest we could get and I took a pic of the mountain as a marker.

That's the way down.

In the mountain as you get up there are natural caves. If you drink water in this one it will help you become pregnant with a boy. I didn't try it.

these fresh water items are all over korea though not always coming out of animals mouths.

I bought a present for my mom. Just to prove I had to hike up a mountain to buy it off some buddhists I took the picture.

This has nothing to do with Maisan but I just wanted to show the korean craze for putting potato on pizza. It's the number one selling topping.