We spent Friday night at Nicole and Ross’ apartment…. It’s huge! I’d say it was EASILY 8 or 9 times the size of my apartment, so I was slightly green with envy. The good news was that all 7 of us could sleep comfortably and prepare for our next day of adventures.
Saturday morning was an early wakeup at 6:30am. We got ourselves ready and were at the train station at 7:30 to catch our train. Nicole had generously researched and organized transportation to Gwangju and had discovered that there was a train that went there. Things got a little frazzled when we realized that the station in Gwangju had the same name as one in Busan and that the train we had tickets for actually went back to Busan. We were able to return our tickets and then made our way to the bus station to catch a bus instead.
The ride was a little over 3 hours but I was able to sleep for most of it…. Fairly unexciting.
Gwangju isn’t known for being terribly exciting, but we planned on going to a town called Damyang where there is a famous bamboo forest. I read some articles on it and it sounded amazing.
When we arrived in Gwangju it was time to board yet another bus to Damyang. Oddly enough, Dorrial ran into her friend from College so there was a very happy reunion in the bus station and then we set out for our last ride to reach our final destination.
By the time we arrived in Damyang, everyone was pretty hungry. We had been told that the specialty in this region is rice cooked in bamboo and DdakGalbi. There were several restaurants that were suggested to us, but when we sat down at one, we learned that lunch would be around fifty dollars a person! (This is very expensive considering most meals cost between 3-5 bucks).
As everyone’s moods were getting edgier due to the hunger pains, we went from place to place trying to find somewhere to eat.
Finally we found a restaurant that suited everyone’s tastes (and wallets) and we enjoyed a nice meal together. The thing about traditional Korean meals is that they come with many, many side dishes. Some things are totally weird, but others are quite delicious.
After lunch we walked to the bamboo forest and were surprised by the amount of people around. In all of the pictures I’d seen, it was this quiet oasis… I guess the popularity of the place has really caught on.
We walked around for a couple of hours and it was so nice to be able to soak in some natural sights (Busan is beautiful, but it doesn’t have much green at all). I was surprised to feel how smooth bamboo is. Also it was much cooler in the forest than it was outside of it…. Very surprising considering the fact that bamboo trees don’t have many leaves etc… they’re mainly long sticks.
After returning back to the city from the bamboo forest we needed to find two things: food and accommodation. We decided on finding a love motel first because then we could drop our bags off. I wasn’t too sure how this would play out because I’ve never used a love motel before.
For those of you who don’t know, love motels are used by Koreans to hook up (mainly because they live with their parents until they get married, and the houses are so small it’s hard to find privacy). For foreigners however, they’re a very affordable place to sleep rather than splurging for a hotel.
As we were walking down the street looking at the various love motels, a man started chasing after us and saying things in Korean. We eventually followed him back to his motel and he showed us the ‘large size room’. It was perfect for us… clean, spacious and perfect to fit five of us. We were all pleased with our accommodation and thoroughly enjoyed our dinner before drifting off to sleep.
Sunday was perhaps my favourite day of the weekend. It started out as a slightly negative situation when we arrived at the bus terminal. Our plan was to go see a temple that had many Buddhas and pagodas. It was apparently a beautiful sight to see. When we arrived at the bus terminal, we went to the information desk, told the woman where we wanted to go and she directed us to the bus stop where we should wait for our bus. Well we waited outside for an HOUR and the bus didn’t come.
By this point we were all slightly frustrated and agitated by the situation, so we returned inside the terminal and looked at some tourist information. This is where we found the information for an Ecological park just outside of the city. We returned to the information woman who had given us crappy information before (there was no other option) and we hoped that her directions would be better this time. They were!
We had to take two city busses to reach our end destination. The city busses are always overcrowded (see picture) and it feels more like a rollercoaster than a mode of transportation. Anyways, after a good hour and a bit of driving, we finally arrived at the Eco Park.
Walking inside reminded me of how much I missed the nature and greenery back home. The park was situation on the edge of a lake and there were boardwalks all along the edge where you could look out at the water and be surrounded by beautiful trees and ferns. The weather was absolutely beautiful and matched the feel of the park perfectly. I felt like I was a million miles away from city life! There were different things throughout the park; areas with different bushes and flowers. There were signs saying things at different areas but they were all in Korean—I’m sure they talked about the different plants etc. but I just soaked them up visually. 
The park took about two hours to walk through and at the end we walked up a dirt road to get back on our bus. The bus rides were quite the experience. As I mentioned before they are jam packed, but on the way back I also realized that the speedometer didn’t work. So, not only are we zooming around these crazy bends in the mountains; I also learn that the busses themselves aren’t fully functional… so comforting!
We arrived back at the bus terminal in one piece, ate some dinner and then got ready to board our bus for the 3 1/2 hour ride back to Busan. I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time on a bus, but it was totally worth it… so nice to get away. And the busses that go long distances are much more luxurious than the city busses.
One of the nicest things about Korea is how cheap it is to travel. Taking a bus in the city is only about a dollar and to get from Busan to Gwangju was only $14.50. You’d never get that back home!
All in all, it was a great weekend!
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