Dumo Village

After the two unscheduled pit stops that we had (1st pit stop & 2nd pit stop), we finally arrived at the location that is actually on our itinerary, Dumo Village (두모마을). This place was my favorite location during our road trip. Apart from being a little bit cloudy, the weather was perfect, and with a view like this, how could anybody complain, really. The canola field was really beautiful and everything was in full bloom. You can see rows and rows of this beautiful flower growing on the terraced paddy field.

Up to this point, I've had my fair share of traveling, moving around, living in different cities, and meeting lots of people from all over the world. I can say for sure that the best and most memorable experiences I've had were usually because of the people whom I shared those moments with. The people factor can really make or break an experience. It might sounds cliché, but it's true and finding the right people is something that is not easy to do. Having friends who have similar interests, passions, life principles with you AND with whom you can connect and be real with is like winning the lottery. And at that moment, I felt like I've won three. Plus, we actually got a chance to travel together and shoot together. That's just a big bonus. 

We didn't do anything particularly special at the village, but just the fact that I could share this experience with these three amazing individuals—having fun shooting together, talking and being inspired—was really something that I'm grateful for. This trip is one of my favorite moments during my stay in South Korea and I gotta say, I probably wouldn't enjoyed the view as much as I did without these guys—Hannah, Noah, and Ken. 

(Also, check out Ken's snaps and post on the trip here.)

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Cafe The Yellow

If you wanna try a not-so-classic burger, Cafe The Yellow (더엘로우) located in Yeonnam-dong (연남동) is apparently a pretty popular joint amongst the locals. Why I called their burger 'not-so-classic burger' you might ask? It's because of the runny sauce that they pour on top of the beef patty that makes the burger tastes (and looks) so much different than the American classic burger that I'm used to eating. And since it's pretty popular amongst the locals, I'm guessing that that's how they like they burgers. The portion is pretty fulfilling and they have good fries. If you are up for trying something new, this place is worth going I guess. But for me, I still prefer the classic burger over this ;)

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Making Memories

After our stop at the tulips field, we passed by a small charming cafe on the way and decided to take another pit stop to check out the place. As we entered the cafe, we noticed that there were lots of wooden decorations all over the room. After we ordered our drinks and talked to the owner for a bit, we found out that the place is owned by a husband and wife team. The husband carves wood sculpture for a living and the wife paints (she painted the purple trees mural pictured below). Pretty awesome really. As we took a look around the cafe, we noticed that there were lots of post-it notes pinned onto the wooden pillars of the cafe. People who happened to stopped by this place wrote down short notes commemorating their visit to this place and stuck them to the pillars. So then we thought we should too, since we were on our first road trip together as a group. Ken and Hannah wrote two different piece of notes and pinned them up. Maybe someday we'll come back to this place, see those notes and once again reminded of the memories we made during this trip. 

(p.s: thank you to the husband owner of the cafe who took our group picture)

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Field of Tulips at Namhae

The next day after our Boseong (보성) & Damyang (담양) visits, our next destination is Namhae (남해), also known as Korea's treasure island. Ken (@seoul_stateofmind) joined us for this trip and after we picked him up, we resumed our road trip. So, kickin' off the first series of Namhae adventure, our first (unofficial) stop was this field of tulips that we just happened to pass by on the way. The tulips were just so pretty so we decided to stop for a bit and chek it out. The weather was really nice, lots of families were around, and ahjummas & ahjussis were taking pictures of the tulips and endless selfies, of course. That day was apparently the festival day, thus the crowd and they also have tents and booths set up on the other side of the road. Definitely glad we stopped by this place.

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Damyang Bamboo Forest

First time I read about Damyang Bamboo Forest (담양대나무숲) was from a chapter in Yonsei KLI reading textbook about the Damyang Bamboo Festival and it sounded like a pretty cool place. On the continuation of my road trip with Hannah & Noah (see part 1 & part 2 here), we stopped by this place to check out the forest. I gotta say it didn't live to my expectations, or maybe I was just imagining too much stuff when I read that article on the textbook. Plus, we went there not during the festival week, so it's a pretty regular day with nothing much going on. It's still pretty tho. 

One thing that I found weird was they have these non-realistic-looking plastic pandas scattered around the forest. I mean, why? Really, why?? I certainly think that it's not necessary to have those pandas in the forest. But oh well. If you want to go check out this place, go during the festival week cos it looks like there are much more actions going on in the forest according to this article. 

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