Category: DESTINATIONS

That’s when I discovered we hadn’t even started the trail yet and I knew we were in for a climb to Gatbawi. Then we saw the them… the infamous rock stairs. There are literally thousands of them carved into the 3 hr hike up an 80 degree mountain face of Palgonsan Mountain. You can take the stairs or you can take a much longer, much less strenuous winding trail up to the top.

South Korea is much than its big cities –much more than Daegu, Busan or Seoul. And in my humble opinion, you may find the seat of power, the mighty infrastructure and the cogs of industry in the big city, but the soul of the country lies in the mountanous terrain of its much smaller cities, villages and towns. It’s in the celebrations, rice paddies, green tea terraces and traditional hanoks that we are lucky enough to experience firsthand.

The shopping is amazing if you’re a size 6 or smaller, wear less than an 8-8 1/2 shoe, don’t possess hips, thighs, booty or cleavage. But even if it fits, it may not be complementary because black girls (white and latina girls) and Korean girls don’t exactly have the same shapes. They zig where we zag, actually they don’t zig or zag, lol.

With Gamcheon Village’s population shrinking, the residents got creative and decided to build larger, more permanent homes and attract the new tourist trade. They decided to paint the exteriors of their shops and homes bright colors and turn the village into a cultural center with the installation of tiled art, sculpture and museums as random as early history and dolls.

2016 has been a banner year in travel for the Peters’ family. We found ourselves out of our element, out of comfort zone and way out on a limb– or zipline. Read the 2016 in Review about this past year which took us to Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand three times.

The temple is always in a state of maintenance and construction. The artist wants Wat Rung Khun to have pilgrimagers that return to Chiang Mai not unlike those who return to Spain’s Sagrada Família or India’s Taj Mahal. And not unlike Antoni Gaudí and Shah Jahan, Ajarn Chalermchai does not expect to see his great work completed as its expected to take approximately 60 and 90 years to complete.