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About a week ago I got back from my trip to Korea. Here are the photos from the trip. It was an awesome experience and my first time in Asia and a good chance to reconnect with my old friend Joel Clemens. Also have to give a big thanks to my uncle John, his wife Rina, and baby Ian for being such great hosts. The highlights of the 7 days included:

1. A visit to the Demilitarized Zone and the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea. Very strange place, the tension is high. You can’t wear jeans, or point with your finger. Yet they still sell North Korean products at the souvenir shop in the Observation center.

2. Staying overnight at a Buddist Temple (The International Lotus Lantern Meditation Center) . We got to live with the monks for 24 hours. This means we went to temple, chanted, meditated, ate, and even did chores like weeding the garden. Highly recommended!

3. We happened to be in Korea during the week leading up to The Buddah’s birthday. This meant lots of special celebrations including an amazing parade through the heard of Seoul. The floats were great, here is an example of a couple exceptional ones:

4. All the great food we ate! Korean food most often is served up with many many appetizers so it’s sorta like going for tapas. And the variety of street food! Also we had alcohol made from rice which you add sprite too, and you end up with a refreshing beer like drink ;-).

If you want to see more of the trip there are some interesting pics of all the temples I visited and the Ancient city of Gyong-ju in the photo album link at the top of this post.

This trip has definitely sparked my interest in Asia, so I expect more Asia trips will follow ;-).