Journey To The Land of S(e)oul (Part VI) : Flower

April 12, 2020

Journey To The Land of S(e)oul (Part VI) : Flower

The first K-drama that I watched was Winter Sonata. I remembered it being played by TV3 channel and I was ten and considered myself too young to notice that it had been dubbed in Mandarin. Also, I wasn't really watching. I watched my mom and dad watching. They seemed to be really absorbed. Even when the series ended, they kept talking about it.

One weekend during my mid-semester break, my aunt came to our home and asked our family if we had watched Winter Sonata. My mom and dad said they watched it but missed some scenes and episodes because they needed to manage our dinners and night tuition classes. I said I didn't watch it. She told us to watch it together and lent the DVD set to us. My mom and dad got us to binge watch. I was sceptical at first but after five minutes into the first episode, we were all hooked. That was my best semester break ever.

Fast forward to the next 17 years, I stepped foot on Nami Island, the place with perfectly lined trees that I had watched in Winter Sonata. The air was crisp and cool. The ITX-bus-ferry journey was memorable. I made a mental note to tick this off my travel bucket list. "Finally, I'm here," I heard myself said.

One of the road on the island

The story of how Nami Island was founded

The trees were mostly red, orange or yellow. Everything was ready to be shed off in preparation for winter. I walked through the trees and once in a while stopped for picture opportunities, trying to get my best shot amidst all the tourists of Namiseom. As I tried burst shot to selective focus to pro mode, I couldn't help but wonder how it would look like in spring. Well, the map did show Tulip Tree Lane, Cheollipo Magnolia Garden and Cherry Blossom Lane, but none of them were there because it was autumn, for God's sake.

The most flowery experience I had during spring was at Texas Arboretum in the USA when I was a student there. I never had experienced spring in other country. So I whipped my phone out of my jacket and Googled "nami island spring". A lot of images popped out. The line of yellow trees where I stood in between, were pink in the image. Oh my God! Do I need to come here again in spring? Definitely!

But to get there the soonest? If there was anything else I am rather good at was letting my mind took me anywhere and everywhere around the world. So, I entered the realm of fantasy and fused the image I saw with the reality that I was in. And it was Nami Island spring, full of vibrant colours from the flowers. I couldn't be there for long because I needed to get back to where I was and made a move. Somebody else wanted the spot for photo opportunity!

On my journey from Nami Island back to Hongdae, I wondered how Korea would look like in spring. I never saw one in K-drama or I might not have paid enough attention to that. I knew I needed to come back and see it for myself. Maybe I can pack dosirak and have a little picnic in a garden full of yellow rapeseed flowers.

And perhaps a little trip to Namiseom during winter too?