GIC Events
GIC Tour to Haenam Review by Ashlyn
- Name
- GIC
- Date
- 2015-04-15
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- 1308 회
Hello everyone! GIC Tour went to Haenam last month!
Ashlyn Winter is from South Africa and teaches English in Gwangju.
She would like to tell you about how amazing this GIC Tour was!
On Saturday, March 28th, I went on my fourth GIC Culture Tour. GIC Tour led us to Haenam, the furthest point in the Korean mainland, to experience the small town culture, incredible sights and delicious food. We all gathered at the GIC early in the morning, ready for a full day with many experiences ranging from eating raw chicken to riding the longest cable car in Korea.
To start the day, we headed to the bus and it was about a 1.5 hour journey to Haenam. Our first stop was the Uhangri Dinosaur Museum and Track Site. We walked along the pathways, looking at very well-preserved dinosaur footprints enclosed in elegant wood buildings that fit seamlessly into the landscape.
Our guide, Warren Parsons, explained in great detail about the different dinosaurs and their prints. We had free time to explore the dinosaur museum at our leisure and headed back to the bus.
Next, it was lunch time. I had heard we were going to be served raw chicken as part of the first course at a countryside restaurant, but I was very skeptical. In my country, South Africa, eating raw chicken is unheard of.
The dish was indeed served and while I did not try it, other people on the tour did, and they stated that they really enjoyed it. It was a relief to know that the chicken was so fresh that it could be eaten raw, because nothing has been added to the meat and there has been no time for bacteria to grow. The next course was a whole chicken served and shared with four people and to finish the delicious meal, we had a chicken porridge.
Before heading off to the cable car, we went to Nokudang, which is the historic home site of Gosan Yoon Seon-do, who is famous for writing poetry in vernacular Korean rather than the standard Chinese of the day, much as Shakespeare was famous for writing in English. Nokudang, where the Yoon family still resides, is a beautiful forest area where we took lots of pictures.
Lastly, we headed off to our final destination for the day, Duryun Mountain, to take the second longest cable car in Korea. It takes about eight minutes to travel up the mountain by cable car, with the beautiful view of the mountain unfolding beneath you. At the end of the cable car, the many stairs to the summit was worth the effort, as the views were incredible!
On a clear day, it is said that one can see Mt. Halla on Jeju Island, but sadly, this was not the case for us. It was a little cloudy and overcast, but we saw the many islands surrounding the end of the peninsula lit up by the sun’s rays through the clouds, and the undulating mountains and changing colors and textures ranging from bare trees to spring blossoms.
It was the best way to end the day before heading down the mountain, back to the bus and back home to Gwangju.
Pictures by Jeongmin Lee
Review by Ashlyn Winter
