Korea: agriculture area, swim at the beach, Gochang fortress, Hannok village Jeonju (Day 19)

agricultural area on the islands north of Mokpo 

Sunday, 31 May 2015

We started with a visit to Mount Yudalsan in Mokpo, where was a big bell. It's gonna be another very warm day here.

Afterwards we travelled along the islands north of Mokpo where is a lot of agriculture. There are far more rice fields here and we saw many onions that were harvested. Less mountains than in the East and even saw cows. All cows here are kept in the stables. Poor cows. But, we did saw one herd of Frieze pedigree grazing on a tiny meadow.  

graves (a dome of grass covered soil) with a sangsok (an offering table made of stone) are seen everywhere in the fields

Because it was warm we visited a beach and took a swim in the sea. Here at the west coast in a bay the water was nice and not so cold as at the East coast (Sokcho)

Korean way of enjoying the beach. We seldom see Koreans go into the sea, when they do they keep all their clothes on and wet their feet/legs.

low tide 

Before driving to our next accommodation address we visited the stone walled Fortress in Gochang.

An old superstition, dapseong is the act of putting a stone on one's head and walking around the castle wall three times. It was believed that this would prevent one from getting disease and ensure one goes to a better place after death.

We arrived very late at our next accommodation: a traditional Korean Hannok, in the Hannok village of Jeonju. The owner wasn't there and a non-English speaking kind girl helped us to settle into our 'room' (which resembled more a shed). We got some extra futons, but still this didn't look really comfy ......

We decided to go for a bite first and explored the Hannok village. 

traditional Korean BBQ, sitting on the ground

a lot of new Hannok houses/shops