Thursday, April 25, 2013

Seoul Mate

A sweet little surprise today! I was selected to be one of the Global Seoul Mates with a medal for my blog :)

bronze medal global seoul mate medal
I am so looking forward to getting to meet new people and exploring the city even more! Yay!

certificate of global seoul mate

Me being selected for the Global Seoul Mate

Monday, April 22, 2013

Spring Flowers in Seoul

Spring has brought in an explosion of color, sweet scents, and the long missed warmth of the sun. It is just glorious to see the leafless trees bring forth buds and suddenly, all you see is flowers all around!


Just pink flowers
Another leafless pink!

Cherry blossoms on the floor
Cherry Pinks on the floor

The cherry blossom road
Pinks all around!
Can't get enough of cherry blossoms? More pretty cherry blossoms here.

White buds blossoming
Just the white buds

Just white flowers.
And now, lo and behold! just white flowers

Couldnt get enough of these pink flowers
Oh pink buds looking sooo pretty!

Pink buds
With the just emerging green to contrast with the pink

Yellow flowers
Just a splash of yellow!

budding cactus
Cactus buds

Azaleas

Red and yellow tulips
Tulips

Reds, yellows and a mix



White tulips and red tulips with white tops
White tops and pure whites!

Bonsai tree flowers

Bonsai flowers
Bonsai tree flowers, who knew?

another pretty pink flower set
More pink beauties!

hairy leaf
Hairy leaflets

cactus buds
Cactus buds
Budding cactus
Budding cactus

White cactus buds
Interesting buds of cactus


Thursday, April 18, 2013

It's Cherry Blossom time!

Cherry Blossoms most delicately and bewitchingly herald the onset of Spring in Korea. These gossamer flowers are at their zenith only for three days in a year. An entire road overlooking the Yeouido park, adjoining the National Assembly building of Seoul has around 1400 cherry blossom trees. The entire street is closed for vehicular traffic and is in a festive mood for the Cherry Blossom festival which runs for five days. It is tradition for the couples to walk along the flowery lane, which they feel will strengthen their love and happiness. Today was the last day of the Cherry Blossom festival in Yeouido. More pictures of the next stage of the cherry blossom here.

Korea in Flowers
Entrance of the Cherry Blossom lane at Yeouido

Cherry blossom lane
1641 Cherry blossom trees ahead!

Close up of cherry blossoms
Oh! So Beautiful!
Pretty Pretty Cherry Blossoms!
Pretty Pretty flowers!

The row of cherry blossoms
Cherry Blossom trees in full bloom!

Perfect day for Cherry blossom views

Cherry Blossom trees through and through!

What an interesting way to get the shots of Cherry blossom
What an interesting way to get the perfect shot of the delicate flowers!


Top view
Top view

Marina and boat club overlooking the Han river.
Overlooking the Seoul Boat club

Blue skies, perfect day!
Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day :)

Perfect day for a science experiment and gorgeous cherry blossoms to click
Perfect day for a science experiment. And pretty things to photograph too!
sketch artist at the Cherry blossom festival in Yeouido
Sketch artists are a standard sight at any and every festival!

Cherry Blossom themed shows :)
Cherry Blossom themed shows :)

Yeouido park overlooking the Han river
Yeouido park overlooking the Han river

To get to the lane with the perfect cherry blossom trees, take the National Assembly station (914) in line 9, exit 1 or 6. Walk for a few minutes along to get to the street over looking the Han River and Yeouido park.

Skywatch Friday

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Golden Buddha at the Sanbangsan Mountain

Jeju island, located in the South of South Korea itself was formed due to a volcanic activity. The Sanbangsan Mountain, located in the South West corner of the island, was formed some 800,000 years ago with the cooling down of viscous lava from the volcanic eruption. I loved the unique, almost flaky texture and interesting patterns in the mountain.

Sanbangsan mountain in jeju do, South korea
Mount Sanbangsan
close up of the Sanbangsan mountainHaving had an eyeful of the beautiful natural formations, we head up a few steps to the two Buddhist temples- the Sangbangsan Temple, which houses the huge  golden Buddha and the Bomunsa Temple which houses the Buddhist relics. There is also a grotto which houses another beautiful Buddha statue called the Sanbanggulsa grotto which is located even higher into the mountain than the other temples. There is no fee to visit the temples but there is a few thousand wons entrance fee for the trek up the grotto. This place was just perfect with very less crowd when we visited in late March and was just perfectly situated to gaze at the sea from atop the mountain with a rich surrounding.
Bomunsa temple in Jeju do
Bomunsa Temple

Gong at the Sanbangsan temple, jeju
The Gong in the temple

The beautiful smiling Buddha statue at the Bomunsa Temple
The Smiling Buddha

The Golden Buddha of the Sanbangsan Tempe
Golden Buddha of the Sanbangsan temple

The Golden Buddha
The Golden Buddha
Golden prayer wheels at the Sanbangsan temple
Golden Prayer Wheels

Relics of greenish blue Buddhas
So many greenish Buddha statues
Beautiful scenery while driving towards the temple
Thursday Challenge -"RICH" (Money, Gold, Wealth, Expensive Things,...) :Golden Buddha

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