Camping at Mt. Yumyeongsan Korea

My husband did a video of our campsite at the Mt. Yumyeongsan (Yu-myeong-san) Recreational Forest. It's not great quality but you can get an idea of American's camping in Korea!

Seoul Summer

Sorry for those of you who read the blog. I've completely abandoned it. But here's to recap the summer. HOT and HUMID. Coming from the Southwest, I never really experienced humidity or a monsoon season like here. The cure: constant showering! I hate those days when I shower in the morning and the first step outside requires yet another shower. It's an endless vicious cycle.

Here's what I've been up to this summer:

We've been camping twice. It was rather difficult to find any information online regarding camping in Korea, in English. But we did manage to go twice. Once to Mt. Yumyeongsan* for Memorial Day weekend. The park was about 2hrs away from Seoul. We tried finding somewhere we can go camping similar to the States. Well we found this Recreational Forest which has a camp ground with platforms to pitch a tent at. They also had cabins which many Koreans use to "camp" but it's more like a lodge.


We also went to Incheon for Fourth of July and camped by the beach. We had found a spot near Eurwang-ni Beach, Incheon*. We expected to be able to swim, but we were mistaken! We were supposed to head out early Friday morning but were delayed due to the monsoon rains. By the time we got to our spot the rain began and we were in a rush to pitch a tent and tie the tarps above. The next morning the tide was in, we explored along the beach and found some interesting little critters. By lunch time, the tide has receded about a mile out. That's when we realized this is not a swimming beach. The water was dirty, muddy and poles were sticking up about 50 meters in. However we spotted several people with buckets going clamming. We did try and walk in, it was very muddy and there were several jellyfish. If it weren't for my husband I would have stepped right on it.

This is our campsite was on a hill. They also had platforms you could rent cheaply for a day or hourly.

Fifi decided she'd go looking for clams and got stuck in the mud. As a result she ended up with "boots."

It's not Fourth of July if you don't have fireworks!

These are the posts I was talking about. When the tide was in there were invisible. Word of advice, be careful when you go swimming out at Incheon where there isn't a marked "swimming beach."

We also went to the COEX mall Aquarium*. It took us about an hour to get through, it didn't seem as small as it really was and it has lots of interesting fish displays. I was surprised their shark tanks were opened. You really could just stick your hand in with the sharks and many other fish tanks.

Fish in the toilet display.

They have over 40,000 fish!

After being in Korea for about 6 months, we finally made our way up to Seoul Tower*! We arrived via cable car which you can catch off Myeong-dong. Although it's quite a hike up to the cable car, it's nothing compared to how hard it would have been to actually hike all the way up to the tower. The 360 views are amazing. You can see for miles out. We were even able to spot our apartment from the tower as well as other landmarks. They've got places to eat, shop and relax. Once the cable car drops you off on top, you still need to walk up a few stairs. Okay, there were a millions stairs before you get to the tower. It was tough hike on a humid day to say the least. I plan on going again sometime in the fall, when the weather is nicer! Once on top, you can wander around and check out the views from the deck area, sit and have some lunch under a gazebo or take a break from all those stairs!

Here's one view looking at Myeong-dong area.

Have your heard of locking your love? Well At Seoul Tower you can purchase a lock that you can write on and lock onto one of these "metal trees." This is very popular during Valentine's Day.

Our last summer adventure was to Seoul Forest*. It's a large park made of several smaller parks or areas. You can access the park via subway as well and it's free to enter. Many people go to the Forest to have a picnic, ride a bike or walk around. We didn't really know what to expect. We were hoping to rent a tandem bike which we never found the place to rent one. So we walked the park. We went through the kids area, which has two big slides. Not meant for anyone over the age of 10. I found that out the hard way when I couldn't slide down because, one I was too heavy, and two I was just too old. But I tried anyways because I just couldn't resist the slide! We walk down to the deer are. You can purchase deer food from a nearby vending machine. You can also walk down to the Seoul Forest Han-gang park.

Here's the fun looking slide meant for only children. Doesn't it look fun though?

There were several deer. Their habitat was actually quite large.

*I have linked all the places of interest to a English site where you can find more information on the location, pricing, how to get there, etc.