Seorak - The Illusion of Snow and Reality of Height

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The Yongsan crew - Adam, Tom, Dave, Laura, Ji Hyun, and two Seong Seo-ers, Tyler and Brie, took Ji-Hyun's brother's van north four hours to Seorak (Saw-llawk) Mountain. It was high time we ventured out of Daegu and enjoyed other areas of South Korea.
Captions aren't needed, I think, for most of this trip. It was a great time, the weather was glorious, and the pictures tell all😊

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Photos

Ji-Hyun and the Scientist
The classic Jeju-doian figure stands and stares deeply into the camera, ignoring the beautiful beach scene behind it. "Yeah, yeah, it's a big vat of water, don't interest me none."

Yum Deelish.
Drying...pollack? I could sell this to a culinary or travel magazine. Anyone? Come on, it's...romantic, it's a far-away land where they still hang their fish out to dry.

Toe convention
that's right.

What did they ever do to you?
I stand back and watch the bird demonizers charge the innocent union of seagulls.

Basketball fish
Touch the tips of your fingers on both hands and pretend you are holding a ball between your hands. Now pull your fingers away from their partners about two inches. They were THAT big. We couldn't bring ourselves to bbq these bloated beasts.

Let's not climb the mountain today. Let's.....
WATERPIA!!!! Who knew, the Seorak area sights include a sizable water park with two water slides, outdoor springs and a beer stand near the hot tubs. Our crew was giddy with excitement. We decided to pay the less expensive after 6 PM rate - and we hopped over to a billiards hall to kill an hour.

The mind reels
Just outside of WaterPia and the billiards basement.

Fresh Korean Air
Ahhhhhhh

Self explanatory.
Mountain of Joy.

Classic moment
There was a nicer picture, but it wouldn't have been as true to the spirit of the trip. Dave says something off-color, and JiHyun, his MoonKkang partner, is about to retort, smack his shoulder or just walk away shaking her head. She is hysterical, and man, she puts up with him. Meanwhile, everyone else is staring, unknowingly, into my camera.

Jesus!
Exclaimed Dave. "No." Replied Adam.
Get it?
No lie. This is how it happened folks.

Foreigners!!!
They yelled. Little Korean children on rocks under bridges!! We screamed back.
Ok, no, that didn't happen.

Good luck stacks up
Thousands of these rock piles surrounded the trees in one area of the path. You create a small, or large, safely sturdy or precarious pile and then make a wish.

Welcome to our village
Four enormous carved-wood man-giants protect the village from evil spirits, and prevent meddlers from entering. They're nearly all traditional Korean villages.

Dave took this
beautiful shot.

Religious art...artistic piety?
The outer walls of the temples have 2' X 4' paintings of scenes from....unsure, will find out.

Why will you climb this mountain?
Because it is there.
We took the hardest path - thousands of steps, hundreds on the ladders and made our way to the top of this huge snow-rock outcrop.

The firsts to make it.
Exhausted, freezing and overjoyed.

Cliffs of glory!
Caption writer is getting weary. Just look and enjoy. I don't need to put my two cents in.

The difference between a tourist and a traveler.
I was thrilled to go to Shanghai, but I felt more at home, happy to have tested my abilities, more appreciative of my surroundings, when wandering at one of the highest points of the "backbone of the Korean peninsula" - the Taebaek Mountain Range.

My handsome explorer
He's traveled around the globe since he was a child, and yet he was still amazed by the sights of Seorak.
His dashing good looks made the mountains behind him quite jealous. They weren't sure who the photographer was focusing on.

God Rock.
The granited gneisses and metamorphic schists were mind blowing.

We stood stoic
but our shadows did disco.

Andy Goldsworthy...
eat my dust.

Ode to my Canon Powershot A620
Thank you. Thank you. And all 7100 pixels.

Modern-day Cave Man
The modern man hardly knows silence.

Comments

[Rachel]

wonderful!!
felt like I was there with you. or at least I wish I had been there!!