Any quick Pinterest search of South Korea brings floods of images of bright green rolling hills filled with perfectly manicured green tea hedges, specifically those belonging to the Daehan Dawon Tea Plantation. That said, upon my arrival in Korea it didn’t take long to hear about the unbelievable tea fields that lay within the sleepy town of Boseong. Once discovering the fields were on the southern edge of Korea, I immediately made it a goal to visit on the first long weekend once the weather got warmer.
During my time spent in Korea I fell in love with taking little weekend getaways to explore all of the nooks and crannies of the country. It was so nice to get away from the city every once in a while and rediscover that I was in fact living in Asia, rather than just in some odd part of the States where nobody seemed to speak my language.
While my love of exploring continued to grow, I can’t say the experience of getting to the final destination ever got any easier. Let’s just say that navigating a foreign country with about a preschool level vocabulary of the spoken language can get quite interesting at times. While I’d been living in Korea for about nine months at this point and had visited numerous small towns, the journey of getting there and back was always an adventure which required the help of dozens of kind locals along with a great deal of luck. However, those weekend adventures brought me to the southern most regions of Korea as well as within swimming distance to the norther border, and I loved nearly every minute of it.
Back to this trip in particular, the journey to find the famous and picturesque tea fields.
After an early 6am start and a bit of traffic, my friend and I finally made it to Boseong by late afternoon.
We walked around the small and snoozy town for a bit to get our bearings and find a place to stay for the night then found a cozy little restaurant for dinner. After managing to order some bibimbap from the Korean menu and enjoying our side dishes we decided to explore the town a bit more before heading in for the night.
The next morning we woke up eager to make our way to the tea fields. After driving through dozens of small rice farms I was expecting to arrive at a small, yet somewhat touristy, tea field. What we actually arrived at was something that seemed like it could have been a small tea-themed park at Disney. The plantation owner definitely capitalized on their land, though I can’t blame them because the fields are truly spectacular. Though the initial welcome is somewhat contrived, once you begin to wander into the actual fields the experience becomes more personal as you take in the incredible scenery that is in front of you.
The park is actually much bigger than I had anticipated and is more than just tea fields. We wandered through fields to find cedar lined trails, water falls, and even some late blooming azaleas. After exploring the grounds we decided it was time for some green tea ice cream.
Just as we were about to head out for the day something caught our eye. A small forest of bamboo trees. Not to discount the tea fields, which were beyond stunning, I actually think that exploring the small section of trees was my favorite part of the day. This area of the park is much more secluded and we were two of just a handful of people who seemed to find it. We got to enjoy the small trail pretty much alone amongst only the noise of some cicadas and a woodpecker hiding in the trees.
Finally, we made our way out of the park and slowly back into the bustling streets of Seoul, happy to have had some moments of quiet and seclusion outside of the city.
The idea of writing this post seems so strange. While I flew out of Incheon airport one week ago, it still doesn’t feel real that I won’t be going right back. At this time last Thursday, I was wrapping up my final classes, grading end of semester tests, and finishing my last report cards painfully trying to ignore the fact that I would be leaving in less than 24 hours.
As a peninsula, Korea has countless beachside towns and cities that offer the perfect escape from the busier areas of Seoul and Incheon. One of my favorites is the city of Busan. Busan is just a quick three hour train ride away and offers the opportunity for the perfect weekend getaway. It still has all of the conveniences of city life with countless cozy cafés and western restaurants, however, it sits right along a beautiful coastline housing various beaches to relax.
This sweet village offers such a juxtaposition to the traditional setting of Korea which is, for the most part, filled with tall office and apartment buildings and generally follows a gray color scheme with hints of green roofs. We couldn’t have been happier to experience this pop of color for a weekend and explore an entirely new part of the city we love in the country that has been home for nearly two years.
Every few weekends or so I find myself wanting to get away from bustling streets of Seoul and Incheon and explore new parts of Korea. That said, the recent start of the warm summer months has really amped-up those feelings and has had me reminiscing of past getaways. One of my favorites from last spring was the day trip some friends and I took to Ganghwado Island in search of azaleas on Goryeosan Mountain.
Once we had made it further inward on the island we realized we were definitely lost and actually traveling away from our destination. At that point, we decided to hop off the bus and trust our luck to catch another bus returning in the direction of the mountain we were so desperate to find. Forty-five minutes, two peeled oranges, one snack sized bag of peanut M&Ms, and a few pictures later we managed to hail a lone taxi that seemed destined to pick us up. After a brief drive we were dropped at an azalea festival which we wandered for a bit before starting our hike up Goryeosan Mountain.
Finally reaching the peak late in the afternoon we were able to take in the sun and the spectacular views of the island. Being from the midwest where even a good sledding hill is rare, seeing the lush mountains that cover Korea is always a breathtaking experience.
Just about a year ago a group of friends and I headed south for a weekend of festivals. We spent Saturday in Jinhae for the 
We woke up Sunday morning in Busan which was incredible enough on its own. Busan is a seaside city and always makes me feel like I’m in California rather Korea. It has a much more laid-back vibe than up north were we live.
Once everyone in our group picked up their color packets we ventured into the mass of people celebrating. Indian music was blasting, people were dancing, and color was everywhere. There were hundreds of people, some tourists, some fellow expats, and many transplants from India who were more than happy to share their culture with us; pulling anyone into the circle that seemed to be drifting away.
bbm travels 