autumn in the air

   

Fully ripened persimmons & autumn reflection

Time to harvest. A dragonfly sits on a reed.

그 시절

눈에 익은 지난 세월의 빛바랜 흔적은 오랜 친구처럼 반갑다.

세상이 아무리 변했다 하더라도 순박하고 따뜻했던 그 시절의

추억은 늘 소중하게 간직하고 싶다.

Invitation to Surrender 자수권유문 自首勸誘文

You no longer need to be in fear.

Your safety will be guaranteed if you surrender.

Police Commander of Gyeongsan Police Station

North Korean secret agents have acted illegally in South Korea. They were secretly sent from North Korea. Now it is impossible to see this kind of invitation anywhere in Korea. I wonder if the spies have been really rooted out or disappeared. I was so lucky to come across it in the outskirts of Gyeongsan. It was probably written at least 25-30 years ago, maybe longer ago than that.

Buncheon station

Buncheon 분천 on the bank of a beautiful stream is a very small village located to the northeast of Gyeongsan. It takes about 4 hours by train. The railway was primarily constructed to transport the natural resources like coal mined in the northern mountain areas. 

Korean cities have been slowly changing with the onset of economic growth, so it is getting harder to find any buildings older than 30 years in cities. But we can still feel and enjoy the past in remote village like Buncheon, whose station had been crowded with people, and small stores and restaurants on the main street in front of it had prospered when most of the people used public transportation. 

Many commuters got off the train in the morning here and transferred to buses for Uljin 울진, a major city on the eastern coast. But it is now an old tale because private cars have been popularized. Most stores were closed and villagers immigrated to cities. Only once a year, Buncheon is busy with people visiting here to spend their summer holidays. A nearby landscape streaming and valley has attracted tourists during the summer.

Trisuli bazar & Nuwakot

Trisuli Bazar is situated northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal and it takes about four hours by bus. This small town is a central place in remote mountain villages and used to be one of the key posts in ancient trans-Himalayan trade. Trisuli Bazar is on the west bank of Trisuli river. According to the Hindu legend, Lord Shiva made this river by his trident which means Trisul in Nepali. The town name comes from the river "Trisuli." At this peaceful town, you can meet native villagers having sunburned faces. Small shops, cheap lodges, and simple restaurants are also lined along the main street. Some trekkers start their journey to Langtang, Ganesh Himal and Gorkha from here.

It would be a nice and pleasant trip in the foothills of the Himalayas if you trekked along the historic route from Trisuli Bazar to Gorka. Recently it can be dangerous to travel around this area because many Maoist insurgents are active in these areas. But they are usually generous to foreigners and have never attacked them until now.

A historic fortress town, Nuwakot is also situated close to Trisuli Bazar. King Nara Bhupal Shah of Gorkha to the west of Nuwakot captured Trisuli Bazar before his death in 1743, and his son Prithvi Narayan Shah(1769-1775 A.D.), the unifier of modern Nepal, succeeded his father to the throne of Gorkha and held Nuwakot one year later. It has a special importance in the history of Nepal as King Prithivi Narayan Shah planned to invade and conquer Kathmandu, and launched several campaigns to unify Nepal from here.

Nuwakot offers panoramic views of the mountains and the surrounding rural scenery is also beautiful. There are a number of artistic buildings on the hilltop which recall the traditional architecture of the Kathmandu Valley.

southern Gyeongsan

The bridge above shows a section the newly constructed expressway linking Daegu to Busan. The below one is the railway connecting Seoul to Busan. Also, the vineyard is seen in the field. The tiles stacked up are in a Buddhist temple, whose roof has been renovating.