More Than Just a Beach: Spending a Week in Wando County
By Isaiah Winters Before the last of this year’s summer weather left us, I spent a week in Wando County poking around in search of sites other than the well-known … Read More
Category: Travel
Kota Kinabalu: I Flew to Borneo Last July and Boy Are My Arms Tired Kota Kinabalu
As a young man in Canada, nothing was more riveting, nothing was more important than the first season of the TV show Survivor. It was a cultural phenomenon, uniting people around the globe in their desire to see who would emerge victorious after the final tribal council. One of the fondest memories of my youth was huddling around the television with about ten other people one summer evening to watch Richard Hatch claim the million-dollar grand prize.
A Tale of Two Valleys: Swimming Deep in the Mountains of Gokseong
Fed up with the two-hour drive to half-decent beaches only to swim under the punishing gaze of killjoy lifeguards guarding me from life, I’ve retreated deep into the mountains of Gokseong County to swim in peace. In this edition of “Lost,” I’ll bring you along to two of Gokseong’s beautiful valleys terraced with swimmable pools of pure mountain spring water, each with nary a lifeguard in sight. One valley is perfect for the crowd-loving extroverts among our readership, while the other is fit for the misanthropic troglodytes among us who truly believe that three’s a crowd. So, without further ado, let’s jump in.
Three Lazy Hikes Along the West Sea
By Isaiah Winters I hate the West Sea. It’s shallow and muddy with a color palette usually ranging from some metallic sludge to full-on dirty dishwater. In last year’s August … Read More
Peeling Through the Past
By Isaiah Winters I never cared about wallpaper – until now. That’s because on a recent revisit to one of Gwangju’s oldest abandoned hanok houses, a friend showed me just … Read More
Yeongsanpo’s Steady Erasure
By Isaiah Winters Yeongsanpo in Naju harbors a lot of history. The former river port is linked to Joseon-era tax collection, Japanese-era origins of industry and Christianity, plus the modern-era … Read More
A Return to the Past: Penguin Village, Yangnim-dong
2023, 2013, 1980, 1970… As soon as you enter Penguin Village, the clock begins to turn backwards. From the beginning to the end of your visit, it feels that the present and the past blend together. If you have ever dreamed of having a time machine, you can always come here. Although there is no time machine, all you need is a camera for fun photos. Penguin Village in Yangnim-dong, Gwangju, is a lovely and amusing place to visit for all ages, with friends, family, or alone.
The Shortcut to Knife Rock
Located about an hour and change southeast of Gwangju, Obong-san (literally “five-peak mountain”) has left me smitten for its topographical variety, bucolic bayside views, and one of the most unique rock formations I’ve ever seen: Knife Rock (칼바위). In this edition of “Lost,” I’ll carve out a few paragraphs on what puts this mountain in my top 10.