South Korea 2017 : Gongju - 63rd Baekje Cultural Festival

8:14:00 PM

Hey guys!

Yes yes, trying my best to be more productive here. Imma try to clear out my South Korea trip posts from last year *LOL*.

I made it no secret that i (MUCH) favour Japan than South Korea, i have no idea why but i guess it's a public secret that one that has a strong feeling for one of the country would usually not feel the same about the other (Cheesie from Cheeserland even took it to the next level by saying that Korea is like the more attractive step sister or something and that annoyed her because she loves Japan so much and now Japan seems to be overshadowed by South Korea? We all also know that those who are true blue Japan lovers would not be able to turn their hearts tho) and i've always love Japan to my core since my teenage years so yeah, i do feel meh towards Korea.

But i must also admit that South Korea is starting to grow on me, especially after we spent sometime in Busan, exploring other, smaller, quieter cities. Contrary to how people would most probably judge me by the way i look (and act), i am not a fan of big, metropolitan cities - especially not when i travel. I sort of hate Jakarta, even Tokyo is my least fave city in Japan so far (i loveeee Kyoto and Yokohama!), and Seoul is just not interesting for me. Busan is a much much better match for someone like me who prefers slower pace of life and offers a lot more nature attractions to explore - so yeah, i definitely would not say no to visiting Busan and other cities in South Korea, just... Not Seoul *LOL*.

My South Korea trip post would not be in particular order, and i might not blog too much about the places that i've been and blogged about previously - i think i'm only gonna have around five blog post in total.

CL planned our itinerary as usual and one of my favorite places that we visited is this quiet, vintage little city called Gongju.

Hunny and i having loads of fun at Gongju

We went to Gongju from Seoul by bus and it didn't took too long.

Hello bare face haha, sleepy face drinking uyu in the morning

Saw an advert for (insert biscuit's name here, i don't remember!) coffee at Angel-in-us and i just had to try it! (although i knew it was going to be too sweet and i don't like sweet things *LOL*)

Our bus tickets

Gongju is a very quiet city, we were amazed when we first arrived because it felt very empty :)).

The whole vibe reminded me of rural Taiwan, very old skool and charming. It felt sort of village-y and therefore i kept on joking that we were in Nganjuk (in case you don't know where Nganjuk is, it's a little town in East Java *LOL*, lots of my maids came from there so the name randomly popped into my mind).

The first thing we did was finding an open restaurant for us to have lunch (when you travel with the elderly, it's a little bit like traveling with kids - we can't skip meal time!). I seem to forgot to take photos of the charming little eatery we had lunch at. It was very cheap too, made us excited because meals in Seoul are pretty expensive (and you have to order per person in South Korea, this makes the total bill can come up higher for people like me who loves to share food haha).

We actually went to Gongju because there was a festival there (CL took all the information from our ex tour leader's IG who moved to South Korea to work there haha), so after lunch we walked to the park where the festival was held. Communicating in Korea can be though, especially in a smaller cities like this one (where the population mostly are compiled with elderly) so we got some help from other foreigners actually.

It wasn't too long of a walk, we just had to cross the bridge. Well, it wasn't bad because the weather was nice, i know i would feel miserable if i had to walk that far in tropical countries...

Okay, we can spot the festival already

I stood a bit in the bridge to take photos of the surrounding to show you how the city of Gongju looks like

We saw very old, out of business hotels in the streets leading to the park. I wonder if this city used to get a lot more visitors in the past?

Okay we are here hehe

This scenery reminds me strongly of Hualien! (check out my blog post about Hualien here)

South Koreans takes festivals seriously, let me tell you

Can't even count how many floaties were there

Then hunny randomly found a public fitness centre haha.

I'm not sure if we have these type of things in Indonesia too, it's just that we don't typically go to parks (we live indoor 95% of the time sadly) in Indonesia that these areas really fascinates us. Saw similar things in Vietnam and Taiwan before, am i really that ignorant and that these facilities are actually everywhere? LOL, i truly don't know okay!

Now, i know why the city was so quiet, maybe all of the populations were gathering here haha

I don't even know if it's true, but it seems like Gongju's speciality is chestnuts? There were endless types of chestnut based foods in the festival

My mum almost bought some raw chestnuts *LOL*, thankfully the Ahjummas saw her confusions and steered her to the roasted ones after returning her money *LOLOLOL*, not all Ahjummas as scary as those horror stories about South Korean's hospitality...

Enjoyed the chestnuts that are huge... I prefer Singaporean water chestnuts tho

So, the front area of the festival is free, but if you want to go to the flowers area (which is the interesting part ofc for a IG ho like me) you'd have to buy tickets.

Had to walk further down to get to the area

There were free shows too, my parents decided they were not interested in the photo taking area and chose to stay around here instead

Look at those little boat floaties

Seriously there were probably hundreds of them

Entrance tickets were very affordable

As soon as we stepped in, we found the uber IG worthy sunflowers.

They were seriously huge and tall!

Hunny managed to take some nice pics of me, thankfully. Although i would kill to come back with Olin hahaha

You're getting the raw, unedited version of me in my blog posts because i ish too lazy to edit my blog post photos hahahaha. Anyway, i may look serene in the photos but in reality... Well, i take it you know that i am deadly afraid of bugs? Hunny actually managed to take one pic where i looked super assaulted when i saw a bug flying by. I truly love nature too but i am also an extremely city girl, i was not feeling comfortable being too close to the plants. What is there's worm or something rite???

No idea what flowers were these but i know they are pretty! Haha

Another destination conquered with this one ^^

One very touristy photo. Again, it looks so much like Taiwan! It's a good thing okay, i love Taiwan

Soooo pretty!

Exploring new places that we've never been before : that's my favorite thing in the world. Gotta do it again soon! We've just been a bit too boring and comfortable of the places we visited lately

Okay now these colors are def my aesthetic!

And yes, in case you're wondering : i packed all tutus for my South Korea trip. Tutus are comfortable and they photograph so well!

A tourist gotta do what a tourist gotta do, ya dig?

Twas very hard to try to look cool in a swaying bridge full of people okay hahaha

CL queued for so long for these... chestnut puffs? Then we got to the station and found an empty store selling the same thing *LOLOLOL*

We had to rush back to the bus station after this since our bus was leaving soon. I do wonder what else that we can see in Gongju, i would love to return and maybe stay one night and explore the city. I always find it to be such a shame when you have to go to one place and rush through it because you don't have enough time. I am definitely the type that would take my time and really explore the place. So anyone wanna go explore more smaller cities in Korea with me? I am down!

I will be back (hopefully) soon to blog about our other destinations. Meanwhile, stay happy people!