Choco Pie

Baekyeongsa entrance. There were lots of people there because of the fall colors festival. Music echoed up the mountain and people were making traditional rice cakes and snacks for the flocks of hikers coming up and down the trails.

Tiny stone pagodas near Baekyeongsa.

Part of Baekyeongsa temple and the surrounding mountains.

Bunhwangsa Temple was decked out with lanterns since the Korean thanksgiving holiday Chuseok was coming. The pagoda was really cool, but none of my pictures looked any good.

Ssambap is a Korean meal made up of several small dishes instead of a main dish. To be honest I haven’t got a clue what some of it was, but I tasted everything and it was great. There were a few soups such as kimchijgae and another spicy tofu soup. A few different types of fish, including skate. A variety of vegetables and mushrooms with tofu, eggs and bulgogi. Definitely a excellent way to try several Korean dishes at once.

My husband and I took a weekend trip to the ancient capital of Korea, Gyeongju. It was a little rainy, but overall uncrowded and pleasant. The city is full of old burial mounds and archeological sites and museums. It's a very tourist centric city and one of the few places you can find cheap motels that cater to foreign tourists. One of the fun parts of the trip is you can get a stamp book and collect stamps from all the tourist sites from around the area.

Cheomseongdae Observatory A tower built in Gyeongju for studying the stars. It only has two openings: the one on the front and another at the top.

Juifen is a small, former mining town in the mountains not too far from Taipei. It's charming and picturesque until you try to navigate around the masses of people who flock to its narrow streets. Getting a bus home was quite the exercise. I'm glad I went, but in hindsight I would have skipped it. But here was also this bitchin' view.

Taipei 101 We went up to see the sun set but had to stand in line too long and missed it. The building is really cool and looks like ultra modern bamboo. At the top of the building is a giant golden damper they use to counterweight wind and earthquakes. It was pretty cool to see.

A man's home filled with hundreds of ceramic faces he had sculpted and painting. It was creepy and awesome. He asked for less than a dollar to walk around and look and even gave us a nice keepsake ticket. It's up a hill in Juifen, the mountain (tourist trap) mining town that was the inspiration for the town in Spirited Away. This place was definitely the highlight.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

A temple near the Shillin Night Market.

Dalongdong Boan Temple Taipei, Taiwan Back in July I went to Taipei for summer vacation. Taipei's a wonderful city with cool temples, lots of character and excellent food.

First camping trip of the summer.

Spent my Sunday being a lazy slug on Haeundae Beach.

I blew some time in an arcade down town and managed to get both of these cuties out of the claw machine at the same time. I will never be able to do that again.

Gyeongbokgung in the fall. We got a new coworker at school a d took her on the obligatory trip to Seoul. It was fun, but a little sad because we were losing a really fun coworker in a few weeks and she wanted to have one last trip to Seoul. This was my third trip to the palace, and it's looked different every time, but always beautiful.