Getting There There are many ways to reach Seoul Forest. It’s a sprawling spread of green cover that can be accessed by Seoul Forest Subway Station (Bundang Line/Yellow Line) and Ttukseom Station (Line 7). Ttukseom Station may be a better bet if you don’t want to walk the entire length of the forest and prefer…
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Getting There Sanbangsan (Mountain) is situated on the southern tip of Jeju Island. There are many buses that connect Jeju-si (north) to Seogwipo-si (south). We took Bus No. 600 from Jeju International Airport and got off at Changcheon-ri bus stop. In hindsight, it was a mistake to get off at that bus stop. We had…
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The View from Hotel Bayview, Xincheng Township, Hualien We reached Hotel Bayview in the afternoon. It had been a long ride from Qingjing Farm to Qixingtan Beach in Hualien. The hotel staff were kind enough to allow us to check-in before time. We were hungry and hadn’t eaten lunch yet. But those views from the…
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Road Map It’s difficult to find transportation from Qingjing (Cingjing) Farm to Hualien. Tourism buses or trains don’t connect these two points — located on either side of Taroko National Park. Taxi drivers (from Cingjing) don’t like the journey because of constant road blocks, unpredictable weather, and empty rides back to Cingjing. The manager of…
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Getting There We checked out immediately after our morning cycling tour of Sun Moon Lake. There aren’t any direct buses from Sun Moon Lake to Qingjing (Cingjing) Farm. So, we bought our ticket to Puli Bus Terminal (at the Shuishe Visitor Centre), and at Puli (above), we bought tickets to Qingjing Farm. We had to…
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I’ve always been a dreamer — living in a world of my own creation. As a child, it didn’t matter what I’d be when I grew up. I discovered multiple worlds through books, imagination, and playacting. In my teens, the stars called out to me and I spent the next couple of years trying to…
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Getting There Taipei to Taichung There are multiple ways to reach Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County. Many popular tour companies offer day trips from Taipei. Alternatively, you can take a local shuttle bus or just hire a cab. We took the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) from Taipei to Taichung. It’s faster and roughly…
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“War does not determine who is right — only who is left.” ― Anonymous I’ve never been a fan of War Tourism. I don’t handle conflict zones very well and tend to get easily overwhelmed by stories of pain and separation. Quite naturally, the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), in South Korea, was never high on my traveller radar…
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Graharu Boutique Hotel Our boutique hotel, in Borobudur, was pretty charming in daylight. It had looked very different on the previous night and the wee hours of the morning — before our sunrise visit to Borobudur Temple. The manager was disappointed that we were rushing to Yogyakarta after spending only a couple hours in the hotel.…
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The first week of April marks the return of cherry blossoms to Seoul. After weeks of grey skies, bad air, and bare trees; it was time to get high on pink. This year, I decided to join the herds of cherry blossom chasers across the city. I’d have to become a tourist for that and willingly…
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