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March 27th 2006

Published: March 29th 2006

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Megan Crozier

Mt.Namsan Hike

Sites on the way

Funny story...... After a crazy fun filled, Karaoke singing, boot stompin, sojo drinking crazy night out in the big city of Seoul with Jenni and my new friends Brooke, Rich and Jason, Jen and I attempted the 7am wake up. Seeings we didn't get to sleep until 5am, we didn't try to hard. So 10am came along and we decided we'd better get going to our hot spring destination near Changji. With a quick bite to eat we were on the bus by noon (I was still 1/2 cut, only to have the hangover later). We arrived in Changji about 2 1/2 hours later and we needed to transfer to get to Suanbo, where the hot springs were. Soooo close, only 21km away actually; we jumped on the bus and were off. It was a little into the bus ride that we noticed we had had to have gone further than 21 km and were getting a little worried. Jen showed the boy next to us our ticket and he told us we were going to Daegu. So after a laugh attack we decided it was meant to be and got out the travel guide. After discussing or

Tumuli Park

options we decided on catching another bus to Gyeongju (with our Nazi bus driver that wouldn't let us talk, what's with that?), a very touristy city near the east coast.

There is an incredible amount of things to see here including an amusement park (I am not going), and arriving on a weekend it was packed with Korean tourists. We made it to see the Bulguksa Temple and Seokguan Grotto (this big huge Buddha). It was pretty cool, lots of Buddha stuff to see. There original style buildings are so colorful and neat. To get from the Bulguksa Temple it was a 3km hike, it took us just under an hour, on a pathway leading straight to the Seokguan Grotto. I don't know if it was really worth the $4 to see but our attempts to sneak in unseen failed. All it was a massive Buddha, he had some sort of significance, with a bunch of other stone dudes too. I guess if we were Buddhists it would have been a whole other experience. By the time we got back to town it was to late for Jen to get a bus and so she stayed another night

Mt.Namsan Hike

Sites on the way

and we got to hit up a bath house. This time I got the rub down (Jen too), it was only $15. I must have got the wrong translation at the last spa because it wasn't close to $200. Quite lovely it was😊

This morning Jen headed back to Seoul and I to visit Tumuli Park where there are 21 ancient tombs, one Cheonmachong (Heavenly Horse Tomb) was open to go in and check out the artifacts they discovered when they excavated it. It was a nice little morning stroll. Then an afternoon hike up Mt. Namsan; I found the hike to be quite difficult (many close call wipe-outs) taking about 5 hours and I’m not sure exactly but I think, about 15km. There's something about being on a mountain top that makes me feel so refreshed and happy inside😊 There were a few cool sites on the way up (see pics), but most of all the view was wonderful. By the end I was exhausted; it’s the start to getting back in shape. I ran into 4 monks from Seoul at the bus stop and chatted it up with the one that spoke English; they were very