Mihintale: Cradle of Buddhism

Mihintale

The birthplace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka can be traced back to Mihintale and Buddhist monk Mahinda. Mihintale means ‘Mahinda’s Hill’ in Sinhalese and is often overshadowed by its larger counterpart Anuradhapura, which is a twenty-minute drive away. Due to the kindness of the head…

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Hi Seoul Festival

Hi Seoul Festival

‘It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Icarus!’ This is exactly how Rainbow Drops held our attention by the hand. Perhaps La Fura dels Baus, the Spanish theatre troupe, interpreted the festival memo as reading ‘high’ Seoul Festival.  This non-verbal performance opened with a white-winged Icarus soaring…

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Jindo Sea Parting Festival

Jindo Sea Parting

When someone tells you they’re going to a sea parting festival, you can’t help but think that perhaps they are taking part in a modern-day re-enactment of Moses’ parting of the Red Sea. For centuries the Jindo Sea Parting Festival was surrounded by mystery, now it’s a…

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Nonsan Strawberry Festival

Nonsan Strawberry Festival

Sleepy eyed I hopped onto a bus to travel for three hours to have delectable strawberries for a late morning breakfast. After reading that you might be thinking ‘What the bleep? Couldn’t you have gone to your local grocer instead?’ Hold on a moment, you…

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Seoul’s Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival

For over two hours we watched as gleeful faces, young and old, walked by waving brightly lit lanterns and twirling to the beat of Korean drums. The intricately decorated lantern floats, which were illuminated from within, came in a variety of themes, shapes, colours and sizes.…

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Hampyeong Butterfly Festival

Hampyeong

[This post was updated in February 2019] One of the first things you’ll learn about me can be summarised in this very simple mathematical equation: Me + butterflies = heaven! Let me explain: in Polish motyl means butterfly and my surname just so happens to be Motylska. So,…

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Hadong Tea Festival

Hadong

Hadong is renowned for being the first tea plantation in South Korea. It remains popular among locals and tourists foreigners because it’s one of the few tea plantations where tea is still prepared by hand rather than mechanically. Hence the reason why Hadong’s green tea is…

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