Kapjagi Korea: January 2016

This week, Trevor and I experienced one of the most quirky tourist attractions I've ever encountered. There is this place called the amethyst caves that used to be a mining area for well...amethyst of course. The caves are set up as a mini labyrinth museum. And by museum I mean a completely random conglomeration of garbely gook. Seriously though there was no thought process whatsoever as to the displays in this cave. There were animatronic dinosaurs, artifacts from Egypt, a Buddha exhibit, art gallery, skulls from Africa, and amethysts of course.

Also as part of the cave experience, there is a group of acrobatic performers from the Philippines who put on a show every few hours or so. Luckily one of the shows was just about to start when we got there so we got to see the full performance. They were silly and goofy and made the kids laugh (ok, and me too) but they did do some pretty cool tricks. I'll post a few videos and pics of our time below with captions to explain everything.

Aside from the bizarre randomness of the caves, the only other thing to report about our time there was that after we got out of the caves it was SO COLD! It wasn't cold enough to be snowing but it was raining and the rain was FREEZING! There was a little sign that said there was a zoo at the top of the hill and Trevor begged me to go (you know our fetish for zoos) but for me it was absolutely out of the picture. I'm sure it would have been a prairie dog, a fox, and maybe a peacock or something. For me it was time to go home.

The cave had all sorts of different lighting effects

Cool tunnel

Random water fountain

There were animatronic dinosaurs here there and everywhere throughout the caves

Awesome dragon cave mural

Getting ready for the performance

So talented!

It's kind of hard to tell but her feet are on those raised platforms and she is picking up money with her mouth on the table

Enter the tiny realm of ancient Egypt

Part of a cave mural. I call it Creepersaurus Rex

Random Christmas light hall??

Amethyst display. Couldn't tell if real or fake.....

Super creepy life-size figurines of miners

Now we all know the reason behind the famous painting.

Hallway to Buddha

Of course he wanted a pic by the snake painting ;)

Whole view from on top of the hill

So cold in the rain!

This old man was contributing to the beat of the music by playing these things that look like scissors. In the mean time, he was also cutting up these candy things to sell to audience members. "Hey what's your instrument of choice?" "Oh, you know, I usually play the scissors"

Philippine Acrobat crew

First Seoulfie!

The word "Seoulfie" of course means a selfie taken in Seoul! Which means you can guess where Trevor and I went last week ;). A lot of people say that going to any big city you'll have basically the same experience and that you should go to small towns that have more character. While I agree with this to an extent, there were some things that Seoul offered us that we couldn't get elsewhere.

One of these being the LDS temple. I think the best part about going to the temple especially outside of the US is that the church is the same everywhere. The principles and values and truths are perfectly aligned no matter where you go. There are no discrepancies in teachings even in the slightest. Also replicated, the members at the temple showed the same love and welcoming as any LDS temple you can go to. Trevor and I arrived at the temple on a Thursday in the afternoon and we can suffice it to say that the members kept us there as long as possible which helped me to get my priorities in order. I will admit that I was anxious to explore the grand city of Seoul but I am so grateful to those at the temple who very persuasively asked us to stay longer than I had anticipated. Looking back, I realize it was the best way to spend our vacation.

Thursday night I forced my ever loving husband to take me to On the Border (for those who don't know, it's a chain restaurant featuring Tex-Mex flavors). You see, Mexican food is somewhat of a rarity in South Korea which is so sad because Mexican is my all time favorite cuisine. Although much more expensive than what you can get in the states, On the Border definitely did not disappoint. MMMmmmmmMMMmmmmmm!

After sufficiently stuffing ourselves to the point we could barely move, we walked around the streets where there was plenty of street vendors and fun things to see. So much in fact, we went back to that area of Seoul for dinner the next night as well. Friday night consisted of Istanbul kebabs (not shishkabobs but Istanbul's take on something like a taco) and guys, you have to try these! YUM! We also got street churros, waffles, meat kabobs (yes this time the shishkabob kind), and bubble tea. Bubble tea is basically a milkshake with this squishy bubble things (ya things isn't the most descriptive word but they are hard to describe). Once again, we could barely move due to sudden influx of food intake.

Oh! I forgot to tell you about Friday during the day! We went to an old palace where previous kings used to live. They are similar to some of the Buddhist temples we have posted on here before as far as design and coloration but this palace had secular artifacts instead of just religious ones. Plus, since it was for the kings, it was all grand and large and intricate. In a word, beauty. I'll let the pictures and their captions say the rest about this part of our vacation. We also went to a zoo (like we always do, it's tradition) but I won't get into that because it just makes Trevor mad ;).

The rest of our trip basically consisted of various shopping/window shopping spurts, eating more food, and spending time getting around on the subway. It really was such a fun weekend and the best part about it was that I got to have fun with my best friend!

*Stay tuned at the bottom for some great videos! :D