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59 The darkening yard T he travel writer Pearl S. Buck, a favorite author of mine, once wrote, “Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.” This profound measure of wisdom has always had an unspoken au- thority over my feral and fierce subconscious, and what Buck so elo- quently identified is nowhere more evident than in South Korea. Since my arrival in Korea over nine years ago, I’ve dedicated my life to simplic- ity. Work is a triviality, a necessary evil I both loathe and keep in check. Escaping from the unceasing burn of Seoul’s neon lights and making my way to villages and islands — those obscured by Korea’s towering peaks and divorced from the mainland by jagged bluffs — is a remedy for my feeling of urban entrapment. Perpetually searching out the unseen, I’m always trying to find peace in the isolation and tranquility of Korea’s gifted beauty. This travelogue is a record of one of those pilgrimages, one of my excursions to places of repose and majesty. Free of the blight of the familiar arsenal of franchises polluting Korea’s grow- ing megacities, these communities are sleepy and tranquil, exceptional places to relish the small joys of life Buck spoke of. Story and Photos by Sabrina Hill Escaping urban EntrapmEnt for KorEa’s simplE lifE