Bamboo forest in Damyang

This weekend my boyfriend and I went to visit a bamboo forest in Damyang. I just love bamboo trees because they look so cute ^^ And probably also because there are no bamboo trees back in my country (Slovenia).

It took us about an hour and a half to get there from Jeonju. We could probably get there faster if we went straight toward Damyang, but we decided to take the highway to Gwangju first, because of the highway rest areas. I will write a special post just about that later, but anyway, we always like to stop at those rest areas for a while.

We finally arrived to Damyang in the early afternoon. Even though there were so many people (it was a Sunday and the weather was great) there were enough parking spaces and they were all free. After parking we crossed the river over some cute rocks and got to the main entrance of the bamboo forest. You have to buy a ticket that cost 2000krw per person (2$). Which is not a lot, but we later found a way to get in the forest for free. I'll let you know how.

The forest is really nice and cool because of the shade. And even though there were quite a lot of people, the forest is wide enough, so you can always find a place to sit and rest, a nice spot to take photos etc.

There is also a shop in the forest that sells bamboo ice-cream! We didn't try it though and bought raspberry instead. It just didn't sound yummy and I just kind of assumed it would taste something like green tea flavored ice-cream. But I really have no idea.

 

Other than ice-cream, there was also some type of bamboo bread, bamboo tea and LOTS of items made of bamboo, like cutlery, cups, bows, swords, fans, accessories etc. They looked really nice but were somewhat pricey so we didn't buy any. We just looked around a bit. (Sorry, I forgot to take a photo...)

After walking for a while and taking photos, we got to this special rest area with traditional Korean houses. It was possible to go inside (after taking off your shoes, of course) and there were massaging chairs available to use for free. ^^ There was an old couple sitting on the chairs, enjoying a massage, but we decided to wait and try it out. After about 5 minutes they got up and we got to use them. Ahhh it felt really nice! Although it was a bit rough on the lower back area so it almost hurt a bit. My boyfriend said the same thing. Anyway, you can enjoy a 15minute free massage, but we were only using it for about 5~10minutes, because there were other people waiting to try it.

I have no idea how much time we spent in the forest, but it was probably quite a while. We pretty much took all the paths available and walked really slowly. The weather was so nice. It is already October but the weather is still warm here. Many people walked around in short sleeves, but we had light sweaters on. It can get a bit chilly in the shade or when it gets a bit windy. Also, there are still tons of mosquitos flying around, so make sure to use some type of repellent. We finally remembered to use our 'off' spray, so I only got 1 mosquito bite this time ^^

This is a map of the bamboo forest. There are different colored paths and the main entrance is at the beginning of the blue path. But we got out of the forest using the orange path at the far right of the map. There is absolutely NO ONE there to check if you have a ticket or not, so you could get in the forest using that path for free. But I guess, when people first visit the place, they don't know about it and just visit the main entrance like we did. You have to walk for about 5-10minutes more, but you don't need to pay for the tickets if you do :) We'll try that out when we visit next time.

After leaving the forest we went to eat some special noodle soup that is supposed to be very tasty in Damyang. My boyfriend seemed really excited about the soup and he kept talking about it all day until we finally sat down and ordered it lol It was a nice restaurant too. You get to sit outside and enjoy the view of the river. It is not too expensive either. And yes, the soup IS really yummy! I got the non-spicy warm soup and my boyfriend got the spicy cold noodles. They both tasted really good!

After that we bought some tangerines. They were selling them outside and they were really cheap. First the price was 3000krw for a bag of tangerines and later in the evening it was 5000krw for 4bags of tangerines. So we bought some, sat down on a bench by the river and ate a bag. Yummy ^^

It was a really nice day and I definitely recommend Damyang's bamboo forest if you like nature. However... later in the evening I had a terrible stomach ache and I couldn't really sleep much because of it. My boyfriend also didn't feel so well in the morning. I'm guessing it must have been something we ate, but I have no idea... was it the ice-cream? The soup? Tangerines? Chinese black noodles at the rest area? Snacks? ... o_O But other than that, it was a really really nice weekend. ^^

Oh there was one thing I didn't like thought. All the tree trunks by the paths had people's names or initials carved in with a knife or something. Now I am no expert, but I'm sure it can't be very good for the trees. And it doesn't look nice either! ... I don't get it... why do people have to do that? o_O