After about an hour and a half bus ride from Ajlun, I based myself in the university town of Irbid to the north. Irbid is a very busy and bustling city, the second largest in Jordan, and it never seems to stop. There’s very little here to interest the tourists, but it makes for a great base to explore some more Roman ruins here in the northern part of the country. I’ve noticed that most of the tourists seem to…
A short bus ride to the northwest takes me to the village of Ajlun, nestled in some hills surrounded by pine and olive groves. Beautiful! Ajlun really has only one attraction, a huge castle on the highest hilltop, Mt Auf. It was built in the 12th century to defend against Christian crusaders and apparently saw a lot of action. You can see everything from up there. It’s definitely one of the better castles I’ve been to in my travels. And…
Time just seems to fly by because another three month work assignment has ended and I’m already back to wandering the globe. This time I decided to explore some of the middle east, beginning in the capitol city of the kingdom of Jordan. It was called Philadelphia for much of it’s history and in the bible it’s referred to as Rabbath, but nowadays it’s Amman. It’s been a prominent hub of trade for thousands of years and consequently, conquered and…
My departure from Jeju Island is yet another example of the awesomeness that is Korean public transport. An early bus from Seogwipo to the airport in Jeju City, a plane from there to Gwangju, a taxi across town from the airport to the Gwangju bus station, then a bus to Gochang, then another bus to Seonunsan Provincial Park. Once again it sounds very confusing, but once again, it was super easy. Before I talk about Seonunsan, though, here’s a picture…
A very quick one hour bus ride from Gyeongju and I’m now in the southeastern corner of South Korea in it’s second largest city, Busan. I was surprised to learn just a few days ago that South Korea had it’s own professional baseball league. There are ten teams scattered around the country, three of which are in Seoul, but one of them happens to be in Busan, so I decided to take in a game on my first night. I…
Only two buses after leaving Juwangsan National Park and I’m now back in a big city, Gyeongju. Before the Josean dynasty, Korea was in what was known as the three kingdoms period because the peninsula was divided between (any guesses?) three kingdoms, the Baekje, Silla and Goguryeo. The Silla was founded in 57BCE when six small towns decided to unite under one king and started violently taking over other towns until the kingdom spanned the entire southeastern part of the…
After leaving Seoul I began a rapid fire visitation of three major sites in beautiful, mountainous Gyeongsangbuk Province, so I’m devoting a whole post to the lot as I was moving too quickly to post at every stop. That and there was no wifi at any of these remote stops. Holy Crap… I’m at Jikji-sa Temple!!! I left Seoul on an 8am train to the town of Gimcheon. Easy. From there I was able to sort through the Korean signs…
Greetings from the Land of the Morning Calm! That’s right, I am officially a Seoul man (couldn’t resist) and my Korean adventure has begun. Seoul has been the capitol of this peninsula for pretty much it’s entire history going all the way back to about 4000BCE. Several dynasties followed over it’s history, the most influential being the Josean dynasty from 1392 until about 1910. They’ve been conquered by Mongolia, China, Japan twice, there was a very famous modern war that…
Greetings again from the land of the thunder dragon! We made the looooong drive west from Wangdue Phodrang into Paro where the airport is. This is where they take you last in Bhutan so they can get rid of you quick. Haha! My hotel is even right next to the runway of the tiny airport. Anyway, Paro is a cool little town. It’s basically just two or three streets and the airport. It is home to the Paro Dzong (fort)…
From Thimphu, we drive through the beautiful Dochu La pass to the Punakha Valley. It seems that not too long ago, Bhutan took in hundreds of refugees from nearby Assam in India. When India demanded they be deported back, Bhutan reluctantly complied, but regretted it. Now Dochu La pass is covered in hundreds of small stupas that they built as a self imposed penance. It’s a really beautiful, if not somber place. After the pass we arrive at my hotel…