Presidential Election campaigning returns to Korea with a national poll on Dec 19. Nothing exciting and quite dull you may think at first until you notice the return of bizarre street campaigning.Street intersections have once again been taken over by groups of synchronized dancers waving candidate placards and dancing to a medley of bouncy tunes. It all seems baffling watching grown men do this.I was with a korean friend and asked how does this explain a candida...

Its that time of year again when the Christmas season returns and Daegu City has gone all out in decorating the town and sharing some holiday spirit.Celebrating its first year of opening the Hyundai Dept Store downtown by far has the biggest Christmas display I've seen in town. Situated on the basement level by the escalators is a large Christmas display with stacked polar bears dressed as Santa's making a giant Christmas tree. You can also post your Christmas me...

Koreans are not known for having a 'sweet tooth' and many items considered to be 'desserts' are actually quite bland tasting being made from bean paste or rice. There is a nice toffee type fudge I have seen sold on hiking trails near temples which is quite nice. As part of the Gyeongju trip organized by The Daegu Compass we were to spend the afternoon learning how to make Yeot, a traditional Korean candy. Its actually quite an interesting process though not somet...

The final part of our Gyeongju trip took us to Bulguksa Temple, another Unesco listed heritage site in Gyeongju. I'd last been to Bulguksa exactly two years ago and forgotten how interesting it was. By now there was heavy drizzle so we didnt get to explore in a relaxed atmosphere as we would have wanted.There is an outer main gate which leads you past a pond, over a bridge to an inner main gate.The inner gate has two pairs of temple gods on either side to ward of...

Yandong Folk Village in Gyeongju, not to be confused with the Andong Folk Village, is another Unesco listed folk village with its own unique character distinct from other folk villages. I've long known about this seeing it on a map of Gyeongju, but having visited the more famous Andong Hahoe Village twice before, I didnt think it was worth it and would just be a smaller version of the same thing. The Yandong Folk Village however has a character all of its own and...