Transportation Guide

Reaching the various Silla Historical monuments and sites  at Gyeongju region can be easily done via KTX train to Singyeongju Station. There are many blogs that only suggest ways of  reaching the attractions via Gyeongju station. But everybody, you can now do so by alighting at the fairly newly-built Singyeongju station.
There is also a tourist information counter at Singyeongju station, so fear not if you have any queries.

So after reaching Singyeongju station, there is a bus stop right outside. From there take bus no. 700 which brings you to almost all the major attractions in Gyeongju from Anapji Pond, to the Bomunho Lake and the Bulguksa Temple.

Anapji Pond is located nearby other attractions like Cheomseongdae Observatory, Gyerim Forest etc. and can be easily accessible on foot.

Jinhae's cherry blossom festival is well known for it's beautiful blooms and scenery.

I have been longing to go to Jinhae for years and I finally did it this time round. I don't think any of my girl friends will be interested to travel so far and long to get to this place, so I decided to do it on my own. :)

Getting to Jinhae was definitely not easy. There are so many blogs write-ups with so many ways to get there but eventually I came up with my own way. Because I stayed in Daegu, 

I traveled from Dongdaegu station----> Masan Station ---> Jinhae station, via Mugunhwa train with my KTX PASS, as previously mentioned. 

(* actually I would recommend staying in Busan instead of Daegu, I will explain in a later post*)

Anyway, the total journey took about 2hrs.

In fact I took very long to research on the best routes to Jinhae and made many amendments before finally settling on this route. You can also choose to reach Jinhae from Changwon station too.

Jinhae station is the location where all the happenings for the festival was. However, because I was there only on the last day, there wasn't much of a crowd and all the exciting happenings have already died down. The stalls were still around but not as lively as it would be. Of course, I would recommend you to be there on the first few days of the festival where the blooms are the prettiest and filled with navel performances and military performances.

 The festival lasted from 1st to 10th April this year and I believed the dates vary slightly every year. It was also really hard to plan and fly there for the festival as the exact dates were only announced very much later around March...

This is the official website for this year: http://gunhang.changwon.go.kr/2013/main.jsp

with all the information for performances, firework displays etc.

So after such tedious traveling, I have finally reached Jinhae and I am so glad that along the way I met a Philippine friend who happened to work in Singapore but is now in Korea for her research studies. I shall not named my friend here for privacy. ^^

It was really wonderful to travel with a new-found friend......

From the windows of the train approaching Jinhae

 Walking towards the main festival food zone

 cute lanterns with sailors on them

We first went to Mt Jehwang, an observatory is located right at the top of 365 stairs and you can easily have a clear overview of Jinhae.

Even elderly climed on gamely. This is a common sight in Korea where the seniors go out and about hiking .
There was also  a monorail on the side for a 'smoother' ride up.
We can't possibly lose out to the seniors and take the monorail right?

Here's the monorail.

Finally the view up there! breezy and ccooooolllllllllddddd.......... too chilly to stay long.....

Climbing down

Next moving on...... to Yeojwacheon.....

Blossoms~~~

 We wrote on the memorial book, penned some wishes and were offered tea and snacks....

We saw a movie carriage and took photos with it... very kindly offered by the owner., FOC....

Many blossoms trees along the way... but the blossoms were not longer in full big blooms due to heavy rain few days ago. There were still some left, but small ones.... :( :(

Regardless, we finally reached the famous Yeojwacheon!!

 Zooming in, you can see white blossoms actually

 Petals on the rock beds

Girls violin orchestra performance

Unfortunately many blossoms have been swept away due to heavy rain few days before the 10th, which was the day I arrived at.
 so.... :( 

With patience, we found some trees with cheery blossoms still in bloom~~~
Really gorgeous.

 Cherry Blossoms on my hand... pretty pretty~~~

 Full blooms still hanging on.... thank god!!! ^___^

Spotted this cute child and took a photo with him, he was so polite. and even talked to us... ^^

We didn't catch the train at the Gyeoghwa station as the next one would only be there 1 hour later and we have a train to catch back to Masan. We left about 5 plus back to Jinhae station. If we were to miss this train, we would have to wait till night at about 7/8pm.... it was a pity we couldn't see the train at the Gyeohwa station but we were still happy to be at Jinhae...

Be prepared for plenty of walking :)

To go back to the Jinhae station, you can take their internal shuttle buses and fees can be paid with T-money card.

Ending the post with a photo of me in the snack bar cabin on the train back....

CCoooolllldddddd ( that's why my hands are always in my pockets... hahah)

till then...I will be posting more photos...... BYE!

P.S: quoted from KTO's FB comments, how to spot the difference between Maehwa and Cherry Blossoms:

- Maehwa tend to be round, whereas cherry blossoms are oval, and tend to have a little indentation at the top of the petals. Cherry blossoms are connected by a long stem to the branch. Maehwa are usually (but not always) stuck right on the branch.

-  Maehwa's anthers are yellow and longer whereas cherry blossoms' anthers are deep pink and shorter.

hope this helps....!! ^^