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We had another holiday on a recent Wednesday, so I decided on a place a friend had told me about a while ago—Bogyeong Temple and Naeyeon Mountain, which has 12 waterfalls along it. I invited all my facebook friends to go, but most people wanted a restful day, not a hiking/traveling day. So I ended up going with 2 male acquaintances, who didn’t know each other.I was a bit nervous that we’d all get along, but the guys hit it off, so that was good.
We took a bus from Dongbu bus terminal to Pohang, a city about an hour away. Then we had to take another hour-long bus ride to the waterfall area (ask at the info desk in front of the bus terminal for the bus times there and back). The weather was perfect. In Daegu it had been around 90, but along the shady mountain path, it was probably around 75. The path was up and down, not very difficult, until the sixth waterfall. After the sixth waterfall, there was a section where you climb up using ropes, and we continued on to the eighth waterfall. There were a lot of no-swimming signs, but we found a
small pool off the beaten path to take a dip in (we couldn’t figure out why there was no swimming—Koreans all had their feet in the water). Once we got to the eighth waterfall, a group of Korean women strongly warned us against trying to see the rest—they’d done it and said it was exhausting. We had to turn around so we’d be back in time to catch a bus to get back to Daegu anyway.
We made it back down to the temple area, which had a lot of restaurants nearby, so we ate dinner before our bus came. Dinner was a memorable experience. Our server was really interested in us. The only problem was that I and the guy I know from Korean class had a lot of trouble understanding her Korean. She thought we really didn’t know any Korean and took it upon herself to teach us the names for every food on the table. Then she helped all of us prepare our food before we could eat it (for example, she mixed the one guy’s bibimpap (rice, veggies, egg, and hot pepper sauce for him), as if we were children. She noticed we weren’t
really eating the dried fish side dish and asked if it was delicious. I didn’t want her feelings to be hurt that we weren’t eating it, so I said in Korean/gestures that it was delicious, just difficult to eat with chopsticks (it was really bony and tough). So she walked away from the table, and I knew I’d made a mistake immediately. She came back with plastic gloves, which she donned to break the fish apart into bite-sized pieces for us. I tried it and it wasn’t that bad, it was just really chewy and left a fishy aftertaste. She also brought out some tasty raspberries for service (“suh-bis-uh” in Korea, means you get something for free when you buy something at a restaurant or store). We finished, paid, and stopped to get some ice-cream on the way to the bus.
The waterfall area is seriously one of the nicest outdoor places I’ve been in Korea. I couldn’t believe I’d just heard about it. My pictures don’t do it justice. It was pretty crowded, but I bet on a normal weekend, it’s not too bad. I hope I have time later this summer to go back . . .
Bonus: pictures of my school's Sports Day. Sports Day is a day with no classes, in which homeroom classes compete against each other in different challenges, like Korean-style dodgeball, Korean-style kickball, group jump-roping, tug of war, and relay races. It's one of my favorite days of school, because the kids have fun, and I can wander around and have real conversations with the students. Also, in Korea, where girls aren't encouraged to play sports, on Sports Day they have the opportunity.
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coach kathy
non-member comment
you are wrong!
Those photos were great, I can't see where you get that they weren't good. What a gorgeous hike, I am glad you went there and hope you get to go again