Day 4 - Dobongsan!

At the night of day 3, I had a chance to meet a traveller that just got back to the hostel from a day hike from Dobongsan and he also showed me some nice photos taken during the hike. There after I chatted with Mr Choi, the hostel keeper, and ask him for recommendation, and if Nami Island nice? his comments about the island was convincing enough that I decide to venture a mountain than an island. So that's what I did...

Breakfast at Ti-amo cafe across Backpackers hostel

Train to Dobongsan station

Trekking gear shopping at the foot hill

It was a weekday, but how come the crowd? there were groups and groups of them, all gear up nicely for their hike, it seems I was the one that's not well prepared.

tailing uncle and aunties into the foot hill

I was excited to see this first patch of beautiful autumn colours

The hill behind this structure is what I'm up to that morning

Since I hike alone, was depending on these direction boards around the hill

How beautiful these are...

stretches of steep rocky ascending is making my leg ache - wasn't dress for the hike

Arrived at one of the pit stop, overlooking the breathtaking views of skyline, standing there looking into the view makes me float...

After resting for about 15mins, I continue to hike, having a mission to reach the top you see :-)

More rocky climb

Another pit stop before peak

Scenery on my way up the peak

The steep way up, those steel rods were cold and smells rusty

Almost there

Tada! am up at the peak of Dobongsan (740m). The crowd at the peak - lots of ahjuma and ahjushi

It was only a small area at the peak so a bit too pack to hang around, it was  quite chilly anyway

Look who's there!

Only stayed at the peak for probably 20 mins, then I descend from the hill top. Bye Dobongsan, you are so handsome !

This hike was absolutely one of my favourite thing done during my 2 weeks in South Korea, perhaps one day I might return... Nepal or perhaps Tibet is to go first :-)

Seoul!

After watching more than half a dozen of korean dramas, I finally made it to S Korea! boarded the mid night flight from AA X, the ride was easy and nice, since it is a mid night flight, and I was able to sleep throughout almost the whole journey.

Upon arrival, with the notes that I wrote down in my notebook, I have no problem getting to the right bus stop for the right bus to down town Seoul city.

Korean transport system is known to be very good, but often I heard about the huge language barrier and people getting lost in direction. I get to experience this quite immediately upon my arrival... it all started with me leaving my camera bag in the bus that I boarded from the airport, yes I left my bag which has all my belongings! chasing after the bus the moment I realize it, in the middle of Seoul city - what a drama! I should have taken a shot right there! Well, I was so exhausted from the chasing, howe would I care to take a picture.. I wonder if the Korean friend at bus stop did...

Story continues, it was drizzling that morning, I was having a great deal finding the hostel exact location, I was so wrong to wirte down 'Family Mart' as the landmark to the hostel. There are just too many 'Family Mart' in Hapjeong/Hongik University area. But one thing no doubt with Korean, they are really friendly and would try their best to help you, there was this young student whom I met at one of the family mart while asking for direction from a shop keeper, she was spending more than 5 min trying to navigate the hostel location for me using her smart phone. Although it doesn't help, but I do appreciate her try. After about an hour of navigating roads after roads, I finally arrives at the hostel, then only realize it was still too early, people are all still asleep. Hostel keeper were still sleeping, think from a drunken night before (he likes to drink soju).

I then get to know this elderly long term traveller (Keith) in the hostel, he kindly offered to show me around the hostel surrounding after I told him about my 'adventures'. Since I can't check into my room, I then agreen to follow Keith out for a walk to the Yonsei University, think the walk took us more than an hour, I was quite hungry at the time as I have not eaten my breakfast and it is close to lunch time. I could have join Keith for lunch but was a little worried about getting too close with him as I don't feel safe when he ask for my contact details so in the end I told him that I would find my own way back to the hostel to find food. That was how I ended up in this with my first meal in Seoul - Bimbimbap!

I paid KW5,000 for this bimbimbap. Living standard in S Korea is definitely higher than KL, average cost of a meal would be around KW5,000 (RM15). Keith walks 20 mins from the hostel to Hongik University most of the day to eat his lunch, he pays KW3,000 which explains why he don't mind walking 20 mins for it.

Views I got from the walk to and from Yonsei University to Backpackers hostel.

the park in Yonsei University

Autumn leafs

Some deco at the Bimbimbap restaurant

The Hongik University area is known to be an area with many young university students, the street will be filled with students at all time, especially during eve of weekend, many would be out here drinking till early next morning.

The debris left over after a party night, this street is right across Backpackers hostel, MRT station is right at the end of this street

a very nice cafe

After getting back to the hostel, I went to bed early and that night I had a very good sleep, the next day got up early and was ready for my 2nd adventure! My mission that morning was to get to Gangnam finding Seoul Sarang Community church! The same, I drew a brief map in my diary and it brought me a great deal! serious morning walk for more than 1.5 hours. Gangnam is an area filled with high rise buildings, roads are huge and buidling are all very tall!

The walk was like no end, my leg were aching, I was alerady sweating like a pig, just right at the time when I wanted to give up, and already say a quick prayer, God show me the way to the church, unbelievable! why didn't I spot the direction when I arrive at the MRT station earlier... it was a map at the entrance of the MRT station, direction on that map is way better than the one I doddle in my notebook.

Finally! Sarang Community Church, Seoul

This building can be a landmark to the Church

Next agenda of day 2 in Seoul, meeting up with my dear friend Sangyoon and Cheryl for lunch. I knew Sangyoon through an island hopping trip at Krabi, Thailand few years back. After a quick lunch together, we went to Insadong - largest market for antiques and artworks in Korea.

Grafitti at Ssmaize Market

There after Insadong, we walked to nearby area and we ended up at the Gwanghwamun square, where Sangyoon was explaining some Korean history to me - only that day I realize Sangyoon actually read alot.

Admiral Yi Sun-Shin - a Korean hero standing tall at the square

King Sejong - an important scholar in Korea

It was really awesome to have meet up with Sangyoon and Cheryl, things were finally more calm and I can now have the rest of my trip flow in freely, at the end of day 2 in Seoul, I was left without plan what I was going to do the next day.

It was a let's see....

Volunteering at Elephant Nature Park

It was a last minute decision that I made to join the 1-week volunteering work at the Elephant Natural Park in Chiangmai,  booking was done only a week prior to my departure date. The volunteering programe is a full package where accommodation and meals at the park during the 1-week are all inclusive.

At the airport, I was picked up by the park's guide,we first go to their office in the Chiangmai town centre as I would need to paid up the remaining cost balance and also to meet up with a few other volunteer who too need a ride into the park which is located approximately 1.5 hours away city centre.

After quire a long and hilly van ride, we finally reached the park; just in time for lunch, after some wait, we were introduced to our own roomate and given our room keys respectively. My 1-week partner was Pam who is from Canada, she has been on the move for the past 1 year!

our little bamboo hut on stilt under the fig tree, those fruit were dropping non stop during the first and second night, need to watched our step carefully so that we don't step on them as those fruit will be collected for the elephant to eat.

Oh I must mention about how delicious the food here was, they are absolutely the most beautiful vegetarian meals I ever had, I wasn't even interested to take any of the meat meal here. Each lunch & dinner, they serve more than 15 different dishes, I missed the variety now...

This is the kitchen that cooked up those fantastic meals!

Since there was not much left for the day, we weren't given specific task bust was only asked to help out with feeding the elephant at the pier and also to shower the elephant later in the evening, well later everyone in the group was also being showered.

It was fun splashing water to one another

Volunteer briefing in the evening, there were 2 groups of us and my group's first task the next morning is shovering elephant poop group!

Park's staff created their own little fun before dinner time

Meet Duke, my dinner mate that evening

Besides those giant elephant, the park has also rescued more than 70 dogs and 30 cats, dogs can be seen at every corner but cats are hard to be seen as they have plenty of hide out places in the park.

The next morning, I got up quite early since we slept pretty early at about 9pm. Here's the first and only sunrise I saw at the park, I then did not see the rest of the mornings sun rise, as I was too busy snoozing in my hut, some of the work given were really wearing us all out.

We started out first job - cleaning up all the elephant huts in the park by about 9 that morning. Shovel elephant poo! we were each given a tool, either a broom or shovel so that we can gather elephant poo onto the truck. Guess what, these poo gathered are then being processed and made into art paper which are available for sale at the park's souvenir shop.

work started fairly quickly

Tri-colour kitty hidding on a stilt hut

My roomie, Pam walks in style with her shovel :)

Dino, who taught us how to shovel elephant poo professionally!

Ahaks, there were even a herd of buffalo in the park during the the mid morning.

Animals in the park all have story of their own, here I have Stick who is a dog that always keeps a stick in his mouth, he is said to have been bitten up and force to bite a stick and ever since he's rescued, he wouldn't let go of a stick in his mouth. Looking at his body, it looks like he has been poured hot water on. Heart breaking story :( In the one week stay, I also notice Stick likes to sit on people's lap, whenever he sees a lap that he can lye down on, he would, and he would purr like a cat does! Sweet hey.

Meet Stick

View while shovering poops

The group of dog that had fun playing hide and seek

After we are done with the poo shovelling, we went back to the park shelter and another group of them were making banana balls for the elderly elephants. Elephants too gets tooth decay,only if they wears denture.

Every corner you go, you would be accompanied by at least a dog, they are generally people orientated.

Last poo cleaning - the river bank. While we were picking up elephant poo by the river bank and dropping them into the running water, these 2 handsome boy swam in and pick those poo back onto the river bank! Hilarious!

Since my group finishes our morning duty quite quickly, our group lead Dino therefore gave us another 'mini' project - digging hole for the elephant gym! it was the first time I heard about elephant too likes to play gym. Anyway, I think all of us were quite excited to be part of it. The dig started with trying to get the perfect measurement, outlining the hole shape and size - this wasn't too bad hey.



the measuring and marking

Now the real hard work starts here. Those earth were dry and hard like rocks! our hands were all blistered, but I'm really impressed with how everyone are as enthusiast as each other to dig in little by little - this I consider one of the top 3 hardest task we did during the 1-week volunteer work.



hard at work

While we are using all our strength to dig out 2 of the holes, next to us, the other group where scopping out access water gathered in the mud pool. It got quite messy when one tried to splash mud water to each other.

the mud fight

We were so exhausted and sweaty and went for a much needed short break, while resting we were discussing on how to make the dig earsier or more bearable, Dino suggested to pour some water into the hole, hopefully it'll help soften the earth. So we did...

On the way to fetch water from the river for the hole, I spotted alot of butterflies!

 While lettting the water soaking into the earth slowly, we went separately to chill around the park waiting for our lunch to be served.

Lenny's new to the park, we were told not to touch her as they have yet to learn about her character.

This elephant's eye catches my attention, these eyes are as sensitive as ours, and can see that this is definitely one healthy eye.

Michelle, an Australian who works in the park, she's in charge of the elephant kitchen and the black giant is his pet Ken, imported from home.

A short introduction session by the park's founder Lek, we watched a few videos which some of the scene makes me tears :'( 

by passing the elephant kitchen after our video session

So, we didn't forget about our hole for the elephant gym! and we went back to complete our task, the aim was to finish the dig by the end of that evening. Let's see how much does the water helps?

The boys digging in the soften earth - only manage to soften alittle

It didn't stop us from working on it, here's Pam in the hole scooping out earth shovel by the team

While all of us were so tired digging out the hole, Reena was trying to entertain us.

And the dog never left us but chilling at the coolest spot near us

Hard work

Finish product after more than an hour of hard work

Now that we are done with the 2 holes, everyone then went into the water for a dip to cool down, the dogs were most happy - see below pictures as proof!

Finally end of all activities for the day, and head to sit at the pier after a good shower, drinking my coffee... waiting for dinner to be serve. Ahhh awesome way to end the day.

View while drinking coffee

smoke form by public burning across the river

Day 3 was a slower day, the morning started with us gathering at the elephants' kitchen - is elephant food preparation day. While waiting, we saw Michelle feeding new pupp Tamarind his antibiotics.

Feeding antibiotics down Tamarind's

Pumpkins and watermelon are being soak with water & a certain medicine said to neuturalize the fruits before being cut to feed the elephants. Our job was to brush these fruits briefly then gather them in basket, Michelle will do the cutting as she has a long sharp sickle knife to do that real quickly.

First pumpkins

Then watermelon

A big cat hanging around in the elephant kitchen

Yanny who were given some squid snack

While some of us cleaning up the fruits, few others were busy making banana ball!

Once all the food are cut and distributed into basket, the mahout will then come collect their busket for their own elephant. Some of the more tame giant are brought to the pier for visitors to feed.

Feeding at the pier

The daily elephant bathing time. To elephant, muds are sunscreen. You might have thought elephant skins already so thick no need protection right?

This is how they would use their gym - can you see the happy face

The herd of family with 2 baby elephat bathing at the river

Hope (the only elephant who wears a bell around his neck), is an elephant that Lek kept since he was about a year old, Hope belongs to one of the Chiangmai karen tribe family, they contacted Lek when they realize Hope was sick. Lek spent a long time taking care of the baby giant, and develope a very special relationship with Hope, she then works very hard to buy this elephant over from the tribe people.

Hope has 2 mahouts compare to others, it was because he's too strong and active to be kept up with. Every day he does some simple tricks to entertain visitors, elephants can be trained, however needs to be done correctly.

Hope with his few entertainment tricks

one of the baby rubbing off his belly :D

Lek taking her time everyday to talk to her park's visitors creating awareness about the park and elephant to the public.

The daily photography session with Lek

Other than working, the park also arranged an elephant park walk for us, it is so that we can understand the park and animals in it. Our walk was lead by Dino.

Elephant poops spotted at the walk

There is a rescued bear up on this tree, he is somewhere, we were too far to spot him

Loving all the big trees in the park

We were climbing up onto one of the platform built around one of those big tree, the few dogs that follow us, were up on the half broken platform too... seems can't get their eyes off us.

they are literally watch dogs!

That was the end of day 3, Dino said he don't want to wear us out today as we have a long day tomorrow - Project Bring the Elephant Home! So, this was indeed a very relaxing day, the day then ended with us speculating what's in store for us the next day :)