korean buddhist temples

another hidden gem to my BFF seoraksan national park. she's got buddhist temples hidden in her forests!

the detail and craftsmanship are so beautiful!! and it's not too often that you get to see temples with these colors. :)

"Welcome to heaven."

so apparently seoraksan national park only has ridiculous/crazy/outacontrol hikes. i braved the hoards of koreans this weekend and went up to the mountain again. i picked a new hike and holy moly. it was the most terrifying hike of my life. but what great adventures aren't terrifying? all the good ones are if you ask me.

i know you're probably thinking: "terrifying you say? oh kylie, what a drama queen. it couldn't be that bad. did it have hula hoops of fire that you had to jump through? wild rabid wolves that were eating hikers left and right? did it have hidden patches of quicksand? well, if the answer is no, then it couldn't have been that TERRIFYING. get over yourself."

well now that i have explained your side of the story, here's mine:

a) the craziest wind of my life. literally my hair is a giant wad of knots as i type and i even found a leaf in it on the bus ride home.
b) the before mentioned wind threatened to push me off the mountain. at least 6 times.
c) significant parts of the trails were stairs so so so steep, i used my hands on the upcoming steps to pull myself up. sounds surprisingly like a ladder, and yes, it was essentially a ladder with handrails.
d) the left and right sides of this ladder/stair contraption were often accompanied by cliffs. cliffs that were lined with sharp, pointy rocks.

the only redeeming factors are as follows:
1) after two hours of nutty uphill climbing, i met this foreigner man with a mustache to kill for (giant, white, and with curls on each side) who welcomed me to heaven, arms spread wide, mustache wiggling in the wind. it was quite majestic.
2) mustache man wasn't lying. it was uhmazing. i would be 100% okay if i went to heaven and it looked like this. :)
3) the adrenaline pumping at the peak (a 6 foot square space surrounded by rails) made the view even more spectacular.

Below is documentation that i am not a liar:

staircase one. admit it. pretty damn steep.

staircase two: EVEN STEEPER!

crahzee wind. proof.

this was a money shot. both my arms and legs were wrapped around a railing as to not get blown off the mountain in 95 mph winds. 

majestic.

whoop whoop! i made it to the top! please note the hair and the flag. nice breeze going on. 

remember:

in the morning when the ocean and sky blend into one giant grey blue expanse.
the edge of the world is lined with rainbow colored roofs and jimjibangs. 

seoraksan national park.

(i can't stay away)

if there was one place that i would take you in korea, it would be this mountain. everything so fresh, and so breathtaking. it's easy to make this my favorite korean keepsake. 

omg.

just noticed that my elevator has a video camera.
was super embarrassed when i realized that every freaky dance sesh, every ridiculous face made into the mirror, every gilly fashion show has most likely been seen by that creepy old man that sits in the security box.

probably not going to stop.
reasons?
1. i will most likely forget about the camera. :)
2. my elevator sessions are too. much. fun.

this little lady went to the market.

went to the grocery store today and walked like this all the way home. i could just imagine what i looked like and could. not. stop. laughing. which I'm sure made me look like even more of a nut.

jimjibangs. my new love.

i'm a horrible person. 

 you know that nightmare that people have about going to school, or work or wherever naked? they're walking around wondering why everyone else is acting so weird and staring straight at them? and then, BAM. they realize they're naked. and freak out? well, I'm not immune to this cultural mores. i've had that dream before and wasn't particularly interested in getting naked in front of other people.

but korea has changed me. it's a mental game you have to play with yourself. forcing yourself to realize, okay, this is a real life reenactment of that nightmare, but everyone else is naked too! it's not so terrifying!
now, I'm not self conscious about my body, only that i am a shameless people watcher. ahhhh, i am constantly keeping that little habit of mine in check at the jimjibangs. :)

i love how comfortable the women in the bathhouses are. they are usually with friends or family, and it's just a relaxing experience for them. I've tried to take their examples to heart and holy moly, one ajuma even asked if i was korean. she said i looked so comfortable there that it must be true.
badass point +1.

(this photo is not typical of the jimjibang experience exactly. sure, you see people sleeping in the community sleeping rooms, but these lil ladies were dozing off in the lobby. so weird i didn't even feel bad about taking a photo. )

i have way too much fun. :)

got a little crazy at the "trick eye museum" in seoul. and thanks to miss haley, it was well documented. 

                                                         

he's very cutie guy!

hey hey!! hey hey hey!!!

screw katy perry, this is the REAL teenage girl's dream. AKA: korean heart throbs

so i was taking a walk yesterday in sokcho and in the distance could hear what sounded like some sort of a sports game. a crowd of at least 300 people were cheering. i guessed soccer. so i started walking in that direction. and to my surprise, i didn't find a stadium packed with sports fans, but a boys only high school. the place was crawling with them. NOTE: please look at the boys hanging out of the windows? what is this? some sort of ghetto high school musical? i vote yes.

I'm just going to point out that this boy has a zac efron haircut. just sayin.

Andong Mask Festival

when traveling alone you have a special kind of adventure. it's a lot of thinking and observing and experiencing. it's the most liberating kind of exploring i can think of.

traveling in groups is a whole different story. it's louder, has more laughs and risk-taking. 

andong was definitely a group trip. my cronies and i started off at the andong mask festival. korean festival officials noticed our giant blob of whiteys and asked us to be in the parade/dance performance. i 

like to think that they could sense my dancing skills and wanted me to introduce gilly dancing to the dance depraved korean audiences. regardless of their motives, we agreed. when one is offered a captive audience of 600 people, it's best to accept and just start dancing. 

we danced our booties off and our dance mob evolved from a bunch of foreigners gilly dancing to include korean business men, army guys carrying automatic weapons and old lady ajumas. no lie. 

the koreans loved our dancing so much they offered us a free dinner. it was delicious. 

the night then developed into korea's better version of rock paper scissors where we wagered silk worm larvae shots. also no lie. 

ajumas!!!! i love em!

susan's henna tattoo

another ajuma. :)

during the dance party.

my hell, another ajuma picture? I'm sorry.