South Korea Trip: Jeonju Hanok Village

Jeonju Hanok Village

We started our trip buying street food^^

꼬치 means barbecue sticks. There are various type of BBQ: 

octopus, chicken, beef with different taste: original, spicy, etc.

We tried the spicy octopus BBQ and it was delicious.

The hanok (korean traditional house) could be seen around. 

Some of them are newly renovated.

We could rent hanbok (korean traditional clothes) for $5 per hour and walk on the street to feel the culture. 

Not only for woman but also for man.

Ten mins walking, we found the Jeondong Catholic church.

One of the oldest one in South Korea.

For lunch, we ate bibimbap (mixed rice).

Bibimbap is one of the famous food from this area.

One for $10.

All side dishes are free and we could ask for refill too.

Next destination, Gyeonggijeon shrine, which is not far from restaurant.

To enter, we need to pay $3 per person (adult).

Inside the shrine's museum, there are photos of Korean Kings.

Before leaving, we tried other famous food from Jeonju Hanok village.

호떡 is a Korean pancake originally filled with sugar or honey, peanuts and cinnamon.

So sweet..but tasty

There are also another filling, like cheese and garlic.

We also tried famous homemade dumplings. 

However, we finished them all without taking pics.

So delicious!

We ate almost all kinds of dumplings: meat, meat-shrimps, vegetables, fried dumplings.

PS: Best to my taste is meat-shrimp-filled dumplings.

There are also many other famous food that we didn't try such as: 

*떡갈비 or korean hamburger patty 

(I ate it in other place, the taste is sweeter compare to hamburger patty)

*chocolate pie

*칼국수 or korean noodle soup

*fruit filled sticky rice cake

(we could find it anywhere, but local people said it is famous in this area)

South Korea Trip: Sinsong-ni

Sinsong-ni

This time, we visited Sinsong-ni to see the famous grass field. 

We traveled by car since it was more convenient.

These pics were taken during fall season. The grass leaf was brown in color.

But, it was still beautiful. 

The place was quite organized and cleaned. 

They made paths, add bridges, chairs and small traditional buildings  for visitors to enjoy the views.

Here, we could enjoy both mountains view and estuary view.

If somebody want to visit this place, I suggested to bring your own lunch or eat before coming. It was not easy to find restaurants near here.

Near this place we also saw rice fields^^

Taipei Trip: Here and there

My memories of Taipei

I realized that I still miss many interesting places in Taipei.

 Hope I have another chance to visit ROC again one day.

Here is our last post about the trip in Taipei

 Food that we ate in Taipei: 

In Taipei, we can easily find Japanese food!

shabu-shabu: 

choose the 2 different soups and all you can eat! 

This one is really good! 

Japanese-style donkatsu set and ramen

Taiwanese food

I like this noodle! I found it in the airport's food court.

Free night walking

Taipei 101

It was the highest building in the world previously

Longshan Temple and surroundings

We walked from Longshan Temple to Ximending. Quite far, but we could see the city view in detail. Love it!!

I thought this place must be theater, so many people waiting outside.

We saw Japanese-style old house.

Ximending area

Finally, arrived in downtown area. If you like to shop, then you must come here. 

Near here, there is an old theater (red house).

We visited a temple in Keelung city before going to Yehliu.

Yehliu Geopark lanscape

This park is really beautiful! I recommend it!

Sometimes, you must use your imagination to see the stone.

The stones are changing due to sea abrasion.

Stamps collection

I like to collect free things :D

Found it near information desk in every MRT station for free 

Taipei Trip: Jiufen Village and Surroundings

We traveled to the northeast coast, New Taipei City. It was a part of Taipei but now this new city is independent ;) The place offers the beauty of the mountain and the sea at the same time. We can feel the wind, the sunshine and the sea 'smell'.

Not far away from the sea, we were lucky enough to see the performance in front of the temple. This event was not conducted for us, human, but for God in order to ask for the fishermen safety. People wearing costumes, praying and dancing?

Here, we found interesting yet challenging thing! Some men tried to secure the mountain! The rock can fell down during earthquakes so they need to do it.

We continued our journey to Nanya rock's formation. This place is famous as a place taking pre-wedding pics. Actually, it has several spots with rocky area. However, the yellow-brown colored rock, which has pretty stripped patterns is the most well-known one.

We also saw this rocky place near the Nanya's rock. The color is dark grey. We think this place also beautiful and deserve a visit ;) When we went there the weather is really good, we can feel the warm sunshine.

Next, on the way to Jiufen Village, we stop in 'Gold Waterfall'. It does not mean that the color is gold. It just got the name of gold since near this place there was gold mining a long time ago. Now, they do not have gold anymore in this area. When we look around, we could not see many local people in this area. The buildings looks empty, a bit creepy... but I admit that the waterfall is beautiful.

The Jiufen Village is located in the mountain. Therefore, on the way we could see the a good view of the surrounding mountains, sea and buildings. In addition, the temple gives a bit of 'exotic' Taiwanese style.

The picture below shows the entrance to Jiufen Village. So many shops!! We found restaurants sell local food, souvenirs, etc. So, we were not worry about our stomach haha. Happy stomach, happy life! We also found a shop making and selling pineapple cookies there. The nice things about the food shops here is they gave us 'food sample' to try. So, if we like it, we can buy but if do not we can leave :)

We tried these two local food: fish ball soup and tofu with meat filling and sauce. For me, the taste of fish balls soup is quite nice, not too salty, but lack of 'fish' taste. There was salt, chili sauce and soy sauce bottle on the table for self-modifying the soup. However, we decided not to add it. Tofu? I like this better, it is more rich in flavor, and the sauce is not to spicy.

In the village, we saw many old buildings with its old stuff. Some of it have been used to take a movie. There was also an old tea shop selling tea, making tea with traditional way, selling nice ceramic tea pot sets and show to make the ceramic things but it is too pricey for us :(

Walk along the main road and look what we found. Finally, here it is! The main building in Jiufen! Looks like a bit old Shanghai? From mining village into the tourism spot. Beautiful! They preserve the building so good in detail and very clean.

In the end of this journey, this cat statue smiled to us :) Hope to see you again in the future.