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I've been bad again, but its been so close to the end that I haven't felt like posting. Call it a sense of dread or whatever you would like but I've been lazy. But I have been doing things, even with my dwindling supply of cash. 😊 One weekend I went hiking, which is one of things I've been wanting to do. I went to the Northeast corner of South Korea again near the DMZ line on the east coast line. I don' t have pictures of this, but the beaches were lined with fence and barbed wire to protect against invasion. Now, you can consider me naive, but will a fence really stop a North Korea invasion if they really wanted to invade by sea? They did dig a secret tunnel under a mountain to try and sneak in so if a mountain didn't stop them, would a little fence with some sharp wire really do it? It's more for effect, like the lights on the beach to watch for enemy spies (that is what the brochure said). I enjoyed the little coast town and the cute Barbie hotel we stayed at. It was pink, shaped like a castle, and
we were pretty sure it was a Love Hotel, like many of the cheap hotels in Korea are. But it was nice and was a traditional floor bed set up. That night after hiking we ordered pizza on the phone (where my korean skills were put to the test), I took a bath in a tub (first one i've seen since being in Korea because of living in a dorm), and watched a movie.
Seoraksan was the name of the mountain, with Seorak being the name and "san" meaning mountain. This place is renowned for being the most beautifully preserved National Park in Korea. We had to pick one of the hottest days to go hiking. I was overdressed without enough water, but there were rest stops along the way to get the water. It was wonderful to also drink from the fresh mountain springs. While we were entering the National Park where the trail was, a random guy stopped and gave me his walking stick that he picked up on the trail. I was surprised and grateful, but later it ended up being a burden so I just left it on the side hoping someone who would want
it would pick it up. The first part of the trail was slightly crowded with many kinds of people (some people get really serious about hiking and make it a sprinting sport). I had a glimpse of the mountains surrounding us, what a beautiful scene. The one thing that can get really frustrating about Korea's landscape is the seemingly constant cloud of fog and mist that is everywhere. I can never get a good clear shot of any good scenes. I thought maybe it was pollution, but then I found out later it was more than just in Seoul. So I tried fixing the pictures as best as I could in photoshop, but they still aren't as good was what I would like.
The entire hike took us 5 hours (including breaks). There were 3 of us and one of us didn't like hiking at all. She came because we were suppose to go to another part of the DMZ... we'll get to that. So it took a little longer than it would have if we didn't have to encourage her up the mountain. It was find, we got to see some scenery and take a lot of pictures.
We got to this rock that's suppose to be 16 tons (it wasn't that big) but you can move it a little with a small group. The rocks sways a bit in the spot, a lot less impressive in person. But after that there is a part where there are 808 steps (a good number) to the very top of the mountain with a wonderful view (that I could tell through the fog). 808 steps are a lot more than what it seems, and we didn't know where to start counting. They weren't always regular steps, some metal because it was safer and others were rocks, and sometimes very steep. For the friend that really doesn't like hiking, it was a horrible experience, but I have to give her a lot of credit, she made it all the way to the top.
There was a USO tour group for people of the military who hiked the mountain with a guide and we saw them at the top. This might be a good time to mention how critical I've become of westerners. I know I am one of them, but its like I don't want to be associated with them.
Like I am ashamed to be one, maybe it has something to do with how aware I am of it and not fitting into a foreign country. I'll talk about this more later. But the tour guide was funny because he wanted to keep taking pictures of me and 2 of my friends until we told him we weren't in his group. I thought it was hilarious, and we thought we should have shirts saying we are students at Ewha University. We always get mistaken for military or English teachers.
The view from the top was worth it all. We saw people rock climbing, repelling, and Ajummas flying past us on the way up. (Ajumma is a polite term for a women much older than you, say someone your mother's or grandmother's age) The surrounding mountains and landscape was breathtaking, and we saw the general direction of where North Korea would be. This was the place where we realized we had the entire way down to go yet. Going down is always harder than the going up, well at least for me. That's the funny thing about Korean mountains and hiking, their mountains go straight up and so do
their trails. No wondering or swerving along the side of the mountain, it's either straightup or turn around. So the trip down was uneventful. We made it back to the hotel and ate Mr. Pizza, the potato kind (so yummy to have chunks of potato on your pizza, or have sweet potato), and watched a movie.
The next morning we tried to watch the sun rise, but to no avail. Again it was misty and foggy and all we saw was the sky and area gradually get lighter. We saw no hint of a sunrise. We did see fireworks though, and some people aiming them at their poor friend who had no where to go because he was at the oceans edge. I forget what they were called, but they were long 'candles' and little fireworks came out. We went back to the room so they other two could sleep a little more and we then tried to go to the DMZ. Well, that didn't work. The bus that was suppose to take us there, each one that went by said they weren't going there. We had the right number, but maybe each one had different routes? I don't
know, but we waited for an hour and five buses went by and still not one that would bring us. We gave up because of the time constraint and other things. So we caught an earlier bus back to Seoul. We left the city that smelled keenly of fish (which i didn't mind) and made it in time to actually do some homework that weekend. I'm so glad that I made it to "the" most beautiful place in Korea before I left.
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