Seoul is a wonderful city, but Luke and I are both excited to see more of the country. After some time reading through his guide book of South Korea, we agree on a route down to the south, heading to Jeju island and stopping in a few cities on the way.

We also decide to hitchhike out of Seoul, so we take the subway and then walk to a toll station. We haven’t picked the perfect day to do it, because it’s starting to rain.. plus, when we get to the place, the lady working there tells us that we are not allowed to hitchhike! That could be worrying, but let’s not forget we’re in Korea: after a few minutes, that same lady starts asking people driving by if they can take us! We have to wait for quite a while but end up in two young guys’ car. They are super cool, although we can’t communicate with them. The trip is going to be a silent one. Such as almost every other (yep, we’re going to hitchhike a lot in this country!). The car is packed, so we’re a bit squashed!

They have a nice car and are driving very fast. The crazy part is that, when they stop to get coffee and pastries, they leave us alone, with the keys inside! And they come back with coffee and pastries for us too. How awesome is that?! 🙂
They’re not going where we are, so after driving several times around a big city, trying to find the place where we want them to drop us off (Korean generosity is infinite), we end up hitchhiking again, this time in a very bad place, just at a highway exit. A nice couple stops after a few minutes.

That’s how we arrive in a nice little town called Danyang, surrounded by an amazing scenery.

We ask a man if he knows of a cheap place to stay at, and not only does he know, but he drives us there. That particular place is closed but we end up in a nice motel where the owner agrees to give us a good price.

A few kilometers from there, there are several caves. They are 500 million-years old! It’s absolutely fascinating to visit them. (You musn’t be claustrophobic.)

We walk a long time from one cave to another, and when we think we’ve gone too far and start hitchhiking back, the driver turns his car round and goes back a few kilometers just to drop us off right in front of the place, which was further than we expected. As I said, Korean generosity.. 🙂

After a few days, we go and visit Guinsa, a famous temple of the region, a 45-minute bus ride away from there. It is incredible, and we spend a lovely afternoon contemplating its beautiful architecture and views around it, and meditating a bit.

Although we are having a great time, I don’t feel so good. My health is still weak, and I almost go to the hospital again. But we have a very lazy day, where we barely go out of the room, and it helps. I think it’s important to allow ourselves days like these, especially since we both have been travelling for several months…

But at the end of a long day, it’s always important to enjoy a nice traditional meal! 🙂

That’s all for Danyang! We’ll soon be heading to Gongju!