Autumn in Naminara Republic!

I was supposed to share the last two places we visited in South Korea back in 2019 on October but my good husband left my hard drive in Cebu City while we were in Oslob so, I was unable to upload photos and I usually write my blogs when the photos are already uploaded. I can't write my thoughts very well without photos especially since this trip happened almost three years ago.

Anyway, this is one of the highlights of our trip to South Korea, we visited Nami Island without a paid tour, this was a purely DIY trip. Looking back at how we made it, I guess it was all God's grace that we reached the place at the earliest time.

Nami Island was truly one of the places that every tourist include in their itinerary because why not, the photos online of the island are just enticing, especially those photos showing how the island looks in different seasons.

Since this trip happened on 2019, I had to rely on my Google Sheet file to remember how we arrived here however, I only have two notes there, one was that we have to be ready by five in the morning as it takes one and half hours to reach Gapyeong Station and the next one is that we should take a taxi if we reach there before nine in the morning as there are no buses going to the wharf.

Using the Naver navigation application, it is easy to follow on what bus would take us to the ferry station. I am glad we were not lost in the process because we have to take quiet a few train transfers aside from taking a bus. I only have one photo to show how we look at five in the morning!

Does it look like I was the only one excited for this trip? Well, my husband had coffee the night before so he wasn't able to sleep very well. Anyway, after two hours, we reached the Gapyeong wharf and were actually early for the first trip at 7:30 AM. I forgot how much was the tickets but based on today's fare rate, it's at 13,000 won, this already include the visa and the ferry ticket.

Actually, it's name is Namiseom and was re-named to Naminara Republic after declaring its cultural independence on 2006. By this, it means that it now has its own passport, currency, stamps and even its own telephone card! This is definitely an interesting thing getting your Naminara Republic Visa. With this, you can get free entrance as well as a round trip ferry. It's just cool to think that you are just inside a country but there's a separate visa for a certain island. Anyway, the weather was quiet nice when we arrived at the wharf.

The view at the wharf, it's really serene, I love the mountains at the distance and the calm waters. The sun was just rising so the golden hour was very nice here.

After getting our tickets and visa, we saw many other tourists arriving, most of them were on a bus, most probably they were in a group tour. We saw the ferry coming a few minutes before 7:30 AM. This was the first trip schedule, trips were available every 20-30 minutes as traveling to Nami Island would only take less than ten minutes!

If you are the adventurous kind, you can try the zip line option too! It would certainly be fun being able to slide above the sailing boat!

It was the tailend of autumn so the atmosphere was cold, my husband and I were not really fond of winter, especially him that he had traveled to Sweden on a winter and he dislikes it. But unfortunately, we have to endure the cold weather, make sure that we were warm so we could survive that trip. However, Nami Island had this different cold type of atmosphere, it was really cold! Brr, thinking about it I am getting cold too now.

Yes, coffee helps and that was the reason why my husband got a headache that morning, he drank a lot of coffee the day before and even the night before this trip. Anyway, the naps in between our DIY train and bus rides helped a bit and we ended up also buying coffee going to the island and even while in the island.

It was funny that when we arrived at the island being the first visitors that day, we didn't go directly to the famous Metasequoia Lane but we didn't do it so by the time we reached that area, there were too many tourists around and it was hard to take a photo without strangers at the back. We did manage to get some clean photos though after many tries and crops.

Reaching the island, we were greeted by this huge pile of books! While other tourists headed to one direction, my husband and I turned to the opposite and reached this spot with no one around but us. We got this picnic table all by ourselves. My husband bought a vintage lens the day before this trip around Myeongdong and tried it here. He was educating me with how each lens have their personalities with this lens giving out this flares and swirly bokeh.

He took a few shots and I got impatient because that's a manual lens, it's quite challenging to get your subject to be sharp right away. I am not a fan of manual lens myself so I told him he must change back to the automatic focusing lens so we could move on.

Unfortunately, my husband lost his gloves so he had to put his hands in his jacket pockets each single time except when he has to take photos.

We reached the scenic pathway surrounded with pine trees, there were still a few people around so it was easy to take this shot. We did a timelapse to get this photo, that's one of the tricks in taking photos as a couple during our travels. We can do a timer too but it was better to take timelapse so we could have different poses while the camera is just taking a photo, setting it to a longer time interval helps to keep the camera from taking too many images. We usually set it to 3-5 seconds interval.

There are many things to do at Nami Island, visitors can roam around in a bike, it's certainly nice to do that in a summer or spring but we decided not to because it was very cold, my husband can't expose his hand that long. We just walked and stop whenever we see any spot that is nice for photo taking.

While we enjoyed strolling, we were glad that there were fire pits in the island, I guess we passed by three on our way going to the famous Metasequoia Lane. I remember stopping by for about five minutes just so my husband could heat up his hands, he was really happy each time! I am glad that the gloves that we were wearing were touch sensitive so I can take photos while wearing them and touch the camera screen or the phoone.

After a few more walks, we reached the Measequioa Lane with lots of people around. We decided to have coffee first and let the husband go to the fire pit, it was surrounded too with other tourists. Boy, it was really cold, my husband was even able to make conversations with other tourists while there as I waited for our coffee and snacks.

Tourists come and go especially those who were in a group tour so when the crowd thins out, we take photos, tried blurring out the background as much as possible to get the focus on the subject but it was hard to really et a photo of us together, we looked somewhere else and found a better spot in the Ginkgo Tree lane instead.

This spot is certainly gorgeous with the tree lane! I can't count the number of pictures we took. It's hard not to take photos of each corner because it is just beautiful especially that there were certain times when the leaves fall and I felt like it's a scene in a Korean drama.

These Metasequioa trees are really huge when you get near them. We took photos next to the trees and see the difference! I swear these trees are hundreds of years old! It's just amazing and we can't get enough of them!

They are just so pretty I can't help but post here a our narcissistic shots. But don't worry, we are almost done here. Teehee

I bet you already know that the famous Kdrama Winter Sonata was shot here and I guess that film really helped making this island well known. So there's a statue dedicated for that film. It is just nearby the Metasequioa tree lane.

Did I mention too that upon paying for the visa, they'll provide you with a map of the island as well? It is handy especially if you want to tour around the island.

The rest of the time, we were just exploring the island. We stopped by this interesting statue, a baby breastfeeding. The sun was up already so we tried taking sunstar photos with a wide lens. Just look at the pretty trees at the back of this pond!!

We spotted other tourists had rented bikes! Then we decided to go check out the pond near the Winter Sonata statue.

There are still so manny things to do at Nami. With a proper plan, anyone can truly immerse themselves with the history, beauty, and activities even the culinary in the island. There are many restaurants, even accommodations too! And of course, it is undoubtedly, a must visit when you travel to South Korea.