From 상남 -> 순천: The Suncheon Reed Festival

From 상남 ➡️ 순천: The Suncheon Reed Festival

November 3, 2017 - November 5, 2017

Ever since us 19th generation TaLK scholars moved to our respective homes in Korea, my friends and I are constantly talking about when to visit who and when to see each other throughout the time we are living in South Korea.

My friend has been telling me about the Reed festival non-stop every time we are on a call… and when the official date for the festival arrived, I knew I had no excuse but to go visit the festival myself.

Fast forward 2 and a half months later, I am on 5 hours express bus to visit my friend in Suncheon! Yes, I know, 5 hours… and Yes, you read that right… but I am technically traveling from the North to the South hehe!

Right after school, I dashed my way to the bus stop and took an intercity bus to Hongcheon bus terminal. From Hongcheon, I took an express bus direct for Suncheon (₩31,200). The bus itself is very spacious and the seats can even recline + have leg rests! I think maybe it’s because it’s long distance… that’s why the buses are so comfortable :P Also, you might ask “are there toilets on the bus?” The answer is no… But, the bus driver does stop at a rest stop so you can solve your business plus get some food! The bus driver would announce the amount of time he is stopping (in Korean) and you just have to ensure that you are back on the bus before he leaves! For my particular bus, the bus driver stopped at a rest stop in Cheonju for 15 minutes (15분 bun) before continuing driving towards Suncheon

I think maybe it was because of the rest stop and the traffic along the way, I was supposed to arrive at the bus terminal at 10:40pm but instead, I arrived close to 11pm. 

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After spending the night talking (which I deeply regret because we went to sleep at 5am and had to wake up at 9am), we got ready in the morning to leave for the Suncheon Bay Ecological Park. 

The ticket to the garden itself is ₩8,000. Please remember to keep the ticket as you will need it to enter the Reeds Bay later on.

The park is situated a couple of kilometers from the Suncheon garden so my friends and I had to go through the garden to reach the sky cube that can take us to the actual reeds bay.

Sky cube costs ₩8,000 for an adult roundtrip! It’s worth it, trust me because it is so beautiful. It’s just a bit awkward because they try to fit 8 people into a tiny tram-like car.

And Finally, we have arrived at the Suncheon Reeds Bay! It houses a long boardwalk towards the actual reeds bay and from there you can conquer Mt. Yongsan where you can oversee the Ecological Park from the observatory.

As you keep walking towards the Marsh of Reeds, there are several Korean Houses that are actual museums that you can visit! As well, these houses make good pictures for Instagram and Tumblr :P

Ignore my Attire, It was so cold in the morning!

Keep walking and you will pass by a ton of picture spots! Remember to take pictures here! Now that I’m in Korea, I basically live by: Let’s just do it, Don’t want to regret it later on!

After walking for about half an hour, we have reached the Marsh of Reed! It is absolutely stunning! Minus the amount of people that was there of course

Following the crowd of people, we have reached the starting point for the hike up to Mt. Yongsan! I wouldn’t call this a hike though, and I seriously recommend it! Don’t regret not going up!

When you reach this sigh, you are given 2 choices as to how you want to reach the observatory: the road of meditation is slopes and the hard road consists of stairs (My friends made me do the Hard road - My legs are still sore from walking up the stairs ㅠㅠ)

Once you reach the top: the view is even more stunning! You can see the entire bay and with the sun shining and the water glistening.. I didn’t want to leave

And this wraps up my trip to Suncheon! I will visit again now that I know it’s easy to get here :P I grabbed a brochure and saw that theres a few hikes and two temples that I want to visit hehe!

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Update: There is just too many places in Korea that I have yet to visit... So I might not even be able to come back to Suncheon ㅠ.ㅠ