Korea and Guilin: Type 1

Joshua Kim
Oct 12, 2019
4 min read

Updated: Oct 15, 2019

It's been about two years since I've gone out to Korea.

I'd like to visit more often, but 14 hours on a plane is pretty rough, and as always, it's always great to be back.

This time it was two and a half weeks in Korea and a week in China, so it was a decent length trip.

We got a lot to cover, so I won't waste your time with introductions.

Lets Time Travel

So what's the hardest part about traveling? With the case of this trip, the jet lag :p

Korea is far but always familiar. Old friends, new places, old foods, new adventures.

The thought of Korea is always mixed with excitement and a slight tingle of butterflies.

Even with a long month spent in Korea, you always leave with a feeling of sorrow.

So here's the song for this post, Can I love? - Cosmic Boy (2019)

The first morning was welcomed with, oh my, clear clear skies with fine clouds.

Did I mention how much I love clouds?!

As much as I enjoy exploring the new and rising places of Seoul, it's always good to go back and find the older and aging places. They're always a lot more fun~

So we took a visit to the older, traditional market places that are still tucked away in the growing city.

Rows and rows of food, good food I mean, and shops in alley ways that go on and on. By the end of the day, you've realized that you've only been digging through one of the alleys, with the other hundreds still unexplored.

One thing I always look forward to is the FOOD.

Especially at night, when your night and day are still flipped, delivery food is the best.

For those of you who have not yet experienced the magic of the Korean delivery system, please, you don't know what convenience means.

Now, as much as I talked about the wonders of Korea~ my works for Korea end here :(

But the trip must move on! Next stop, Guilin China

The first place that we visited was Guilin, a city in the Southern region. Most famous for the Li River and the rows and rows of beautiful mountains, so we decided to go see for ourselves.

We've been to several cities in China before, but let me tell you now, this was my favorite of all places.

Now, what is a trip to China without seeing the market places?

I've said this a thousand times before, but this City Boy is not impressed with big cities or flashy buildings. Meh, I've seen enough for a lifetime.

I'm interested in the parts of the world that still live simple lives, human to human contact.

People are still roaming the markets day and night, carrying on with their ways of life even while everything around them is changing.

Adapting to the changing environment but still sticking to traditional methods and ways, don't you love it?

Now the best part about all of this was how low-priced everything was. I could continue through the entire night, walking along the market and picking out gifts.

We had bigger plans for then next day so it was time to head back, but the night is still young for this market.

The next morning we got up and it was quite early in the morning but the city had already started to move with locals taking their morning jogs and a few fisherman already sitting by the river.

After exploring the area a bit, our next move was to Yangshuo, a small town about 50 miles South from Guilin.

The way to Yangshuo isn't too far on land but we took a boat that cruises along the Li River towards Yangshuo. It was a 5 hour trip but 5 hours weren't enough to take in all that was there to see.

I'm telling you now that I worked pretty hard this trip trying to capture everything. But even with all of these sunburns and after hours sitting on the upper deck, these pictures are lacking,

The ride began with pictures taken with the even slightest sight of a mountain. We soon realized that this entire journey would be filled and filled with mountains, each greater than the last one, with no two that look the same.

I ended up getting rid of the pictures of all the small 'cute' mountains from the beginning of the ride.

I've never seen anything like it.

Rows and rows of these gigantic structures that go on as far as the clouds allow you.

It soon became time for lunch and the crew below began serving us our meal.

This city boy was too fascinated to leave, filling my stomach came second to taking in everything that my camera missed.

Along the river were locals, doing their fishing, waving as the tourists boats cruising by, children playing, and farmers herding their water buffalo.

Hi there :)

So on the reverse side of the Chinese 20 Yuan Note, shows the Li River and its mountains.

I heard that this part of this route included that scene, so from the moment the boat started moving, I was waving that piece of paper around in the air trying to find a match.

And finally, I found the same location where this scene was painted so long ago.

Now the boat ride was slowly coming to an end and we began to dock at our next destination, Yangshuo, a much smaller town than those we've visited before.

The drive to the hotel was quite amazing as well.

The entire city was surrounded and grew around the enormous mountains.