I finally made it!
Having been a member of the photography community at the company for close to a year and never going for the field trips was taking its toll on me! I was beginning to wonder the whole point of paying money every month without participating! The master of excuses that I can be many a time, I would find convenient excuses not to join the group- "busy" is the easiest! The fact that I am the only non-Korean member as of now made it overwhelming with all sorts of images of my being uncomfortable!
I had heard of the Garden of Morning Calm a few times over the last 5 years here. Chiefly, the fact that the name is inspired by the great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore, kept feeding my curiousity for the place. A private garden opened to the public as a small beginning and growing to over 30,000 sq. m. is quite an achievement. Professor Sang Kyung Han of the Sahmyook University,Seoul conceived this idea of a garden representing Korean traditions.
We left near the company by 9:30 am. Lunch was on the way. I was impressed to see an almost-everything-on-table being vegan. That quite made my day! I made a mental note of SsamBaap(쌈밥) restaurants for future reference. I am quite tired of looking at BibimBaap as a primary vegan option in Korea...
After a sumptuous lunch, it was a short trip to the Garden. Being spring these days the theme was tulips! There are various gardens and quite large to walk the whole place in about 2 hours that I was there.I have never seen tulips in so many colours and hues before.
Peace-listening my camera "click". After ages, I went somewhere with the sole purpose of clicking pictures. How therapeutical! How alive I felt! I am sure to join in for more picture taking trips now after the first step!
As an aside, I tried searching for the poem by Tagore mentioning "Land of Morning Calm". All I could find were lines from "Lamp of the East"(1929) associating Tagore with Korea. Looks like middle school students get to study this poem in Korea.
In the golden age of Asia
Korea was one of its lamp-bearers
And that lamp is waiting to be lighted once again
For the illumination in the East.
Korea was one of its lamp-bearers
And that lamp is waiting to be lighted once again
For the illumination in the East.
Website: http://morningcalm.co.kr
Location:
Gyeonggi-do
Gapyeong-gun
Sang-myeon
Hanghyeon-ri San-255
Getting There: http://morningcalm.co.kr/eng/sub2_02.htm
