Day 3 Korea

On my third day in Korea, I took a walk around the "block" to take in the local sights. In this photo I am standing in front of a rice field. The landscape in this area is interesting. They have these huge fields spotted with clusters of modern skyscraper apartment buildings.

This is a map, one of several posted around the fields, that shows what I mean. It's interesting that any spare land not being used for buildings is being used as a garden. I don't think the people who are gardening there own the land, they just use it.

Part of the fields is a lotus park. They have these pools of water set up for the lotus to grow. I took some photos of them. It was hard to get close to them, so this was one of those times I would like to have had a telescope lens.

This photo is of a roadside flower. There are many of these growing around the area in different colors.

Here is a close up of the apartment buildings that are scattered over the area. You don't see much else. It seems like there was a population boom and people decided to build these modern skyscrapers in the middle of the village. There really isn't any "suburb" to speak of.

One of the differences an American will notice quickly is that there are no dumpsters for garbage here. This is the tree in front of the apartment I am staying at and is where residents leave their garbage. This is common all over the place. Sometimes you will see a trash bag tied to a tree. Garbage men pick it up in the morning hours every few days.

One thing I don't have a photo of from my walk was an encounter with some school children. I was taking a look at the elementary school and a little, possibly 10 year old, girl gave me a huge bow when she saw me. I was taken by surprise and didn't know how to react, so I gave a head nod and continued on my walk.