Beautiful flowers

Flowers are all around you this summer, stop for a while if you see some! You will certainly can't resist its prettiness. Especially try to smell the wild roses.

Share with you some taken by my hp.

Sun is bright...

The redness of rose is shining

This pink flower is shining under the sun too...

White is also as shining as other colors...

Do you also find the color of flowers you like this season?

Summer is here!

I didn't write anything in my blog since I am concentrating on... my pregnancy. I didn't take much photos like last time, but still thanks to the good handphone which I have now that I can take down some memorable photos.

The weather now is so hot... but the sky is blue and the trees are green. I like it very  much.

Share with you some photos

and hope you enjoy the weather change too...

Let's go out to enjoy the sunshine (not sun burnt instead).

27th Apr 2010

Look up to the sky and I saw this wonderful tree!

27th May 2010

The clearest sky we had in May after cloudy days

1st June 2010

Hot summer arrives on the first day of June

Summer = sun!

sun = shadow!

Look down on the floor also brings amazing view!

The shadows of the trees and leaves

I even found one love-shaped shadow when I walked from my house to welfare center.

Last but not the least, green is the main color of summer!

I like green!

Mount Hallasan National Park, Jeju Island

Mount Hallasan National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage.

Height: 1,950 meter.

This mountain stands tall in the middle of Jeju Island. It is also called Mt. Yeongjusan, meaning a mountain high enough to pull the galaxy. It is designated as a National Park in 1970, surrounded 368 parasitic mountains (called Ohruem "peaks").

Over 1,800 kinds of plants and 4,000 species of animals (3,300 species of insects) are known to exist here. The climbing courses are well-developed and you can carefully observe the surroundings.
The climbing course is short and less than 10km in length, up and down in one day. But the weather conditions often change and there is a lot of wind, so you must be well prepared before going up the mountain.



From the photo above, you can see the hiking courses available:
- Seongpanak trail: 9.6km to Baengnokdam (4 hours 30 mins for 1-way)
- Gwaneumsa trail: 8.7km to Baengnokdam (5 hours for 1-way)
- Eorimok trail: 4.7km to Wiseoreum (2 hours for 1-way)
- Yeongsil trail: 3.7km to Wiseoreum  (1 hour 30 min for 1-way)

The ascending and descending time is different for different seasons. Please refer to here for more information (other facilities and local transportation).
In summer, for the course we took - Eorimok trail: ascent 5am - 2pm, descent 4pm

Admission: Free

Geologic Evolution of Jeju Island
Jeju Island was produced by volcanic activity from about 1.8 million years ago with eruptions continuing until historic times. The early volcanism of Jeju Island began underwater on the bed of the Yellow Sea continental shelf. This hydrovolcanism continued for more than a million years forming the Seoguipo Formation in the subsurface, which is composed of numerous hydropmagmatic volcanoes and marine sedimentary strata. Lava effusion became dominant after about 600,000 years ago, forming the lava plateau and shield, and numerious volcanic cones (oreums). Construction of the 1,950m - high peak of Mt. Halla was completed by the Holocene Epoch less than 10,000 years ago. About five to seven thousand years ago the Seongsan Ilchulbong tuff cone and the Songaksan tuff ring were produces by hydrovolcanic eruptions along the seashore, also resulting in deposition of the Sinyangri and Hamori formations.

In Aug 2008, we had a chance to climb this mountain through Eorimok trail. So, I will show you some photos and amazing experiences.

 start from the bottom

What you first need to do is climb up the staircases! Every mountains start with staircases - it's tiring! So better be prepared and have breakfast before you climb up the mountain. Do not give up although people pass over you when you climb up the mountain. Let their passion be your motivation: They can do it, I can do it too!



After finished the staircases, the clear blue sky welcomes you! Do not forget about the hot sun too! So please put on sun cream or sunblock before climbing. Anyway, when you see this view, you will feel better as you can see the mountains around and you know how far you're going to reach.


long way to go!


Enjoy the scenery:


 helicopter up and down

 peaks everywhere

 rocks on the floor (beautiful creation)

 butterflies everywhere

 beautiful flowers along the way





 also wild deers! Capture them before they ran away!

When we reached the Wiseoreum, we were so excited! It's tough yet a meaningful trip!
First, enjoy the view of the tall Mt Halla - it's just in front of you but... not yet there!


 rest place - only sells choco chips and instant noodle!

 the instant noodle was so delicious!


There are a lot of black drongos.

After we took enough rest, it's time for us to go down again. Do not forget to take some photos before you walk down. It will be faster to walk down than climb up.


Hope you will enjoy the Mt Hallasan climbing course!

Jeju Trip - beach

Go to jeju island must go to the beach!
Since we stayed at 애월 aewol area, we went to the nearest beach - 곽지 해수욕장.
Address: 제주특별자치도 제주시 애월읍 곽지리
Visitor information 관광안내: 064-710-3222

Although the beach here does not have coconut trees like my hometown, Malaysia, it has its own uniqueness. You can view the clear blue sky widely!

You also can jump up and down to take such superactive photos too! Because the beach is so long and nobody will notice about what yo do!

The sand is very nice too! You can make sand man or sand mermaid easily - but don't forget to save him or her out as the sun is very hot! His or her face will be sunburnt but not his/her body!

Even you can see the see grass (look like sea weed) easily too!

For this beach which we went, guakji beach, is about 350m wide. Special of this beach is - hot and make you sun burnt straightaway - you have to walk quite a long way to the water. Anyway, it has 용천수 cold water straightaway coming from the land. Even inside the beach water you can feel the coldness of the water! There is a open shower room to clean yourself with the water! Beware! It's very cool!

Even mum wants to bring her baby to enjoy the beautiful nature! See the statue at the back of this photo? There are some sea lady statues in this beach.

Anyway, just want to show you that the baby in the previous photo (taken in 2007) grows up to be beautiful kid now! She touched the sand and played with the water herself this year!

Another special of the beach is that it has this kind of rocks along the way (different from southeast asian beaches).

Prepare your own tubes for yourself or your kids! Even other facilities that you want to play, if not you also can rent for the big tubes (not quite expensive). Also, you must rent a seat at the beach (with big umbrella, chair and table) - those are not free to sit.

The Koreans take care of their public facilities very well. This little spring was made in 2008 and the public car park was also organized better since 2008.

In 2008, the kids were still scared to play with the water themselves, but this year, they rushed to it and played under the water before entering the beach. Do not miss this part if you visit this beach! Let your kids enjoy the exciting moment!

Ok... why do I show this photo?

Food delivery are possible in the beach too! (Koreans zzang!)

Anyway, I still remembered we visited another beach in 2008 but I didn't know about the name. The view is very nice and there were also a lot of visitors!

When you see your kids yawning, it's time to go home! Or else, your kids will end up like the photo below:

Summer activity for kids (at home)

Because of kindergarten's summer vacation, I had a chance to babysit two kids of my church family. I stayed with them for 7 months when I first arrived at Korea. Thus, I know them very well and I grow up with them too. This year I only took care of them two days and since the weather was very hot outside, I had to think of some indoor activities to make sure these 2 kids could stay in the house.

Other than toys, books and food, we went outside for the first day for bicycle time - since the weather was not so hot. They enjoyed the time.

For the second day, the sun was so bright that I did not dare to go out. Thus, when we read the book, we found a good activity that is very educated and exciting too!

Use the food we eat!

First, use the skin of grapes!

Korean grape is available in the market in summer.

After eating the grapes, do not throw away the skin straightaway but use it as a natural colors for drawing.

Process - collect the skins (just a bunch of grapes is enough), punch it with rolling pin (rod type), and then the the juice with come out from the skin - purplish! Then, separate the juice and the skin with a chinoise (sometimes chinois), add very little of water if you think the color is too thick. Lastly put the color in a bowl (separate to two if you have two kids) that they can color by themselves.

Paint like a color painter.

Since I could not find a paint brush in the house, we used the drinking straw to paint. By using the straw, the kids blew the color out too. Since it is directly made from the food, it is safe to play around with the colors.

Prepare the blank sketching paper on the floor or table first, ask the kids to use their creativity to paint it.

Let's see how the kids' paint? Doesn't it look nice?

Children are always very creative!

They still do not find enough to play with the colors!

Play with the painting colors then! Don't use the paintbrush this time - use the food!

I found 3 foods we can use in the house - potato, corn and pepper.

Prepare the colors on a place that they can stamp the food on.

Don't you also attracted by their artwork?

Hope you also will enjoy this with your kids too! Or have some fun time with other kids like me.

On the road

On the road to Seoul, what can you see? Since I'm not a driver now (but in my hometown), I can see the views all along the trip by car.

The view of Han river is always the best spot!

How about other views that may make your day?

Share with you some of the instant photos taken by handphone that opens my eyes.

On the road of Seoul, there are a lot of flower planted besides the road though spaces are limited. They do not only plant the colorful flowers but also add in some decorations to symbolize the special meaning of that exact place. This photo was taken when I took the bus home from Dong Seoul to Doekso, passed by a junction from Guri. There is also another beautiful spot like this in front of the Gwangjin Sports Center.

Big Foot! It is rarely to see in Seoul... also because the road here is not so bad, right? Anyway, long time no see!

These two photos were taken in the early morning of 5.45am on the Gangbyeon highway. The first one was the raining day, while the second one was the day in the raining season. Summer has the sun rises earlier. Even I walk to the bus station as early as 5.05am today, the day is getting brighter and when I arrived Seoul at 5.45am the day had already started! Thus, the day ends later, 8pm. I like summer!

Summer should enjoys the blue sky and beautiful cloud combination! Enjoy the sky!

On Gangbyeon highway again...