Memories from South Korea Book 1: This picture book is the first of 5 which cover some touring - mostly unguided - of South Korea. For Europeans, South Korea is going to have some distinctly different experiences, although maybe not so for Americans. It is about as culturally distinct as one can get, except for a visit to the its northern neighbour (although there isn’t much neighbourly behaviours between the two). It could be a real challenge except that it is a place with a great deal of foreign influence, especially in the bigger cities. In the countryside you feel totally odd, as you can be the only European, or even non-Korean in sight. A relative was working in the country and so this was the impetus for the visit: it probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise, but we were glad at the end that it did. The country has some very old paces. The five books cover two separate visits: one in early Spring, the other in early Autumn. This book covers the visit in early Spring and is mainly about the far mid-south of the country. We landed in Incheon and then went on to Daegu. This was the closest city to our final destination (Geochang) we could fly into. We walked around part of Daegu while we waited for transport onwards. Typically, it was very, very clean and the people were very polite. Very few leaves on trees of course, but there were parks with lots of vegetation. Geochang was a town by comparison, but with much more evidence of its rural affiliations. It is in a mountainous region and we were able to drive to national parks, out of the way temples and experience some of the non-city lifestyles. Our visits included national treasures, or ‘Cultural material’: houses built before 1592! These old buildings are totally different from Western styles and given their construction, it is truly amazing they are still around. Also odd were the burial sites scattered about on hillsides. A very worthwhile trip to a ‘strange’ culture, but one which is straddling Western and Eastern rather well. There are 104 still images and accompanying pages of minimal description. The file size limit of the eBook format is the reason for 5 books. The original photographs (taken by the author, an amateur, with amateur equipment) are very large and so need compressing to fit in the file limit. If you have wondered what such a trip might be like, have a read. If you just would like see an amateur view of some parts of South Korea (some a little remote), have a read. If you wondered what this part of the world might be like to see, have a read. Ideally, have a read and get as much enjoyment as the author did in being able to collect these ‘Memories from South Korea’.