Seoul Mate

A sweet little surprise today! I was selected to be one of the Global Seoul Mates with a medal for my blog :)

I am so looking forward to getting to meet new people and exploring the city even more! Yay!

Spring Flowers in Seoul

Spring has brought in an explosion of color, sweet scents, and the long missed warmth of the sun. It is just glorious to see the leafless trees bring forth buds and suddenly, all you see is flowers all around!

Another leafless pink!

Cherry Pinks on the floor

Pinks all around!

Can't get enough of cherry blossoms? More pretty cherry blossoms here.

Just the white buds

And now, lo and behold! just white flowers

Oh pink buds looking sooo pretty!

With the just emerging green to contrast with the pink

Just a splash of yellow!

Cactus buds

Azaleas

Tulips

Reds, yellows and a mix

White tops and pure whites!

Bonsai tree flowers

Bonsai tree flowers, who knew?

More pink beauties!

Hairy leaflets

Cactus buds

Budding cactus

Interesting buds of cactus

It's Cherry Blossom time!

Cherry Blossoms most delicately and bewitchingly herald the onset of Spring in Korea. These gossamer flowers are at their zenith only for three days in a year. An entire road overlooking the Yeouido park, adjoining the National Assembly building of Seoul has around 1400 cherry blossom trees. The entire street is closed for vehicular traffic and is in a festive mood for the Cherry Blossom festival which runs for five days. It is tradition for the couples to walk along the flowery lane, which they feel will strengthen their love and happiness. Today was the last day of the Cherry Blossom festival in Yeouido. More pictures of the next stage of the cherry blossom here.

Entrance of the Cherry Blossom lane at Yeouido

1641 Cherry blossom trees ahead!

Oh! So Beautiful!

Pretty Pretty flowers!

Cherry Blossom trees in full bloom!

What an interesting way to get the perfect shot of the delicate flowers!

Top view

Overlooking the Seoul Boat club

Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day :)

Perfect day for a science experiment. And pretty things to photograph too!

Sketch artists are a standard sight at any and every festival!

Cherry Blossom themed shows :)

Yeouido park overlooking the Han river

To get to the lane with the perfect cherry blossom trees, take the National Assembly station (914) in line 9, exit 1 or 6. Walk for a few minutes along to get to the street over looking the Han River and Yeouido park.

Skywatch Friday

Golden Buddha at the Sanbangsan Mountain

Jeju island, located in the South of South Korea itself was formed due to a volcanic activity. The Sanbangsan Mountain, located in the South West corner of the island, was formed some 800,000 years ago with the cooling down of viscous lava from the volcanic eruption. I loved the unique, almost flaky texture and interesting patterns in the mountain.

Mount Sanbangsan

Having had an eyeful of the beautiful natural formations, we head up a few steps to the two Buddhist temples- the Sangbangsan Temple, which houses the huge  golden Buddha and the Bomunsa Temple which houses the Buddhist relics. There is also a grotto which houses another beautiful Buddha statue called the Sanbanggulsa grotto which is located even higher into the mountain than the other temples. There is no fee to visit the temples but there is a few thousand wons entrance fee for the trek up the grotto. This place was just perfect with very less crowd when we visited in late March and was just perfectly situated to gaze at the sea from atop the mountain with a rich surrounding.

Bomunsa Temple

The Gong in the temple

The Smiling Buddha

Golden Buddha of the Sanbangsan temple

The Golden Buddha

Golden Prayer Wheels

So many greenish Buddha statues

Beautiful scenery while driving towards the temple

Thursday Challenge -"RICH" (Money, Gold, Wealth, Expensive Things,...) :Golden Buddha