Pink Blossoms Everywhere!

Spring is FINALLY here and it's cherry blossom time in Seoul!  Basically that means that every tenth tree is freshly covered in little pink and white blossoms and everyone is going crazy trying to get out to see them before they fade away!  Even after living here for three years, the cherry blossoms are still a novelty and bring with them the hope of warmer days to come.  This Sunday I joined the commotion surrounding the tiny blooms--thankfully I was on a guided tour organized by a company so my excursion throughout Seoul was expertly choreographed and perfectly timed.  All-in-all, it was an amazing day.  In the interest of time and space, here are the best of my photos from the cherry blossom viewing...

A view of Seoul from Yeouido Park

Beautiful pink and white blooms

A close-up of the tiny blossoms and the teeny buds that have yet to open

Lots of trees and loads of people to enjoy them! 

After pouring rain all day Saturday, the sky was a perfect blue on Sunday!

I heart cherry blossoms!

Sort of mysterious

A close up of me and the trees 

My SFS friend Leslie who went on the tour with me

Just a small stretch of cherry trees in Yeouido Park

Such a perfect day!

Waiting for the others, so I kept snapping photos:)

 After visiting the cherry blossom festival at Yeouido Park, we hopped back on the bus and drove out of Seoul and toward Seoul Land, stopping at the Contemporary Art Museum.  The museum was cool and a nice change from being in the city.  There were also lots of cherry blossoms to be seen!  The art, however, took center stage.

A giant singing man statue...weird, but cool

A tower of visual confusion

Cherry blossoms....of course

Since the traffic up to the museum was so bad, we took the elephant tram back to the bus!

 The final stop on our tour was way over near Everland amusement park at the Ho-Am traditional gardens.  It was very well worth the drive!  The gardens were gorgeous and the hills were covered with trees in bloom!  After wandering around for a bit, we decided to spend our last half hour enjoying a beverage at an outdoor table at the tea room--a wise choice after a long day and lots of walking.  

Traditional village guardian sculptures!

Mom and Dad, I think you need a pair for the backyard!

I think these are some sort of magnolia and I love them.

A truly serene setting.

The hills are alive...with cherry blossoms!

Random roofline

Can you spot the peacock?

One last blossom to end a beautiful day of photo taking.

There's always one more thing to see...

Daniel and I were scheduled to depart from Chiang Mai on Friday night at 11:55pm.  That meant that we essentially had all day Friday to cram in a bit more sightseeing.  We decided to take it easy on Friday morning, get up late, eat breakfast, and pack our suitcases before checking out of the hotel and heading out into the city.  We stayed at a great little boutique hotel and the staff there were so obliging that they allowed us to check out after dinner so we could go off, enjoy the day, and come back to have dinner and a shower before we left for the airport at whatever time we wanted!  What amazing customer service!

We had heard that "you haven't visited Chiang Mai unless you've see Doi Suthep temple", so that's what we did.  We booked our second tour of the week through Untouched Thailand (highly recommend) and left the hotel about 1:30pm to head up the mountainside overlooking the city.  Traffic was a bit bad so it took us longer than expected to drive through the city and up to the temple but our guide, Tao, was very chatty and super sweet and we had a very capable driver to carry on with the navigating as we learned more about our destination.  When we arrived we took a cable car up to the temple, thus skipping the climb up three hundred plus stairs in the heat and made our way around the temple complex.  To be honest, I don't remember much of the history except this:  the temple site is quite significant because a relic was placed on the back of a white elephant and he was sent out on a journey.  Wherever he stopped would be a blessed site.  The site of Doi Suthep was the final resting place of the white elephant and the relic is on the spire of the chedi in the temple.  It is quite stunning, the entire complex and the view overlooking the city is nice too.  You can even see the airport runway!

Giant bells...they say "don't ring" on them but of course that just invites people to be naughty

Details...

Doesn't he look friendly?

It's a bit hard to see the city through the haze, but Chiang Mai is down there!

Airport runway!

We wandered around for quite some time, then entered the temple itself.  We learned the story of the Buddha (fascinating), were sprinkled with holy water by a monk, and received a blessing (Daniel from the monk and me from another non-monk).  It was quite a sight to see the devout leaving offerings and lighting the lamps on the day of their birth to ask for blessings.  After taking lots of photos, we decided it was time to conquer the staircase and head down to the entrance.  Three hundred something stairs later, we were down!

See, I remembered the bit about the white elephant!

The story of Buddha's life

Stunning!

Cheese!

Bells and hearts!

Giant bell and heart!

An interesting perspective

The stairway down from the temple

Lots of tourists!

See, we are good picture takers!

Our driver was amazing and met us at the entrance with cold towels and ice cold water!  We had one more stop to make before heading back into the city.  This was a "hidden temple" and if you didn't know it was there it would indeed have been hidden from us!  We drove down in off the road and arrived at a fully functioning temple where the monks were just finishing a time of prayer.  Near the prayer hall there was a relic supported with scaffolding that had to have been many hundreds of years old.  It was built at the first location the white elephant stopped before moving on to its final resting place at Doi Suthep.  Tao showed us around the temple grounds and we learned more about the life of these forest monks.  The most incredible feature of this temple was its view of Chiang Mai, as it too was built into the side of the mountain.  Just down the hill there was a special place where lady monks could live and train.  What an interesting life that must be.  I have to say, I don't think I'd make it although Daniel was half considering spending a week as a monk:).

An ancient relic trying to be preserved!

I love this photo!

A beautiful view of the city...and such peaceful surroundings.

An interesting perspective

Back at our hotel we enjoyed a shower and a final dinner in the little hotel restaurant.  We absolutely loved the pad thai and dessert there and were sad to say good-bye after such a wonderful week.  I snapped a bunch of photos of the Shewe wana Boutique Resort and Spa in the case that I ever decide to return to Chiang Mai.  

Moving about the hotel was like wandering through a secret garden!

To the breakfast area

Pool!!

To the Suites...one can wish!

After a week, we were sad to say good-bye

We headed off to the airport earlier than necessary with the idea that we'd leave our luggage in a locker and head over to the nearby mall for a little shopping before our flight.  Unfortunately our plan was foiled--no lockers available!  So, we got to sit around the airport for almost 5 hours!  People, this is NOT a big airport.  You can see from one end to the other...almost.  At least they had a Dairy Queen, so we passed the time with a Blizzard and I left Daniel with the luggage and wandered around a bit.  And then we did what we do best...sat around and did nothing!  Wahoo!  Thankfully the international terminal was a bit more happening and our flight was on time.  Before we knew it we were boarding and bound for Seoul.  Overnight flights bite the big one because you don't actually get any sleep and we found ourselves arriving in Seoul totally exhausted at 7:00am.  Daniel had almost twelve hours until his flight back to the States, so I kidnapped him and took him back to my apartment with me.  We both crashed for a couple of hours, showered, and then went out for a nice little brunch at one of Daniel's favorite places in Seoul, La Celtique, a lovely little creperie.  A bit of grocery shopping done and unpacked and it was time for Daniel to catch the subway back to the airport.  Every time I say good-bye to my family in Seoul (okay, so it's only been 3 times) I cry a lot.  So, I delivered Daniel to the subway platform and cried my eyes out as I put him on the train.  There are so many beautiful benefits to living here, like the wonderful holiday in Thailand we just had, but being far away from your family is definitely NOT one of them.  Another spring vacation in the books and eleven weeks until I'm back on a jumbo jet flying across the ocean.