6am obviously came too soon. in a mad, hazy rush i did my best to collect my things, collect myself, and make my way to the bus terminal. the only casualty was my $7 umbrella left hanging on the rail of the bed. fortunately, the bus ride afforded me a 4 hour nap to our next destination: seoraksan national park. seoraksan is the third highest peak in south korea and, from what i understand, the second most visited. aside from hiking, the area is full of spa resorts with jimjilbangs (large, gender-segregated bath houses).
obvious statement: koreans are tiny people - in both height, bulk, frame, whatever. they're just built compactly. surprising statement: koreans are hardcore hikers. when i was thinking of a korean hiking trail, i was thinking of a nice walk through tree-lined clearings. maybe there would be a stream. birds would sing to me. sunlight would leak through the trees and pour onto a little blossoming flower. i was wrong. aside from the surprising addition of fire-escape-like staircases (read: dangerous-looking/potentially life threatening) at different points, most of the trails were huge bolders and loose rocks, stacked at steep inclines which sometimes offered poor footing. or in other words: it wasn't easy. and yet, all along the trail, as i was grunting and sweating, there would pass little old ladies with hiking sticks and even smaller children playing about like it was the gently rolling slope of a city park. korea was making fun of me. i probably deserved it.
this peak was at the entrance to the park. if you look closely you can see some cable lines going up. as part of our trip we were offered two options: the hike, or the cable ride. for some reason we chose the hike, which turned out to be a good thing because those who chose the cable ride never got to go on it due to tickets being sold out or arriving late or something. i dont know the details. i just know if life was a game then i would be up one point for having made the right decision. sorry max and chelsea.
this giant buddha seats peacefully at the park's entrance.
it really is giant.
the start of the hike wasn't too bad. pretty level. nice views.
but then...this picture doesn't give the incline justice. also those are the stairs i was talking about. there's around 800 steps. built right into the rockface. i was nervous.
this peak is called ulsanbawi. bawi means rock in korean. korean rock, paper, scissors is kawi, bawi, bo. koreans play it whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself. i did not see anyone playing kawi, bawi, bo on top of ulsanbawi, however. here's the story of how ulsanbawi got it's name:
ulsanbawi came from the city of ulsan, in the southeast region of korea. as kamgangsan was built, ulsanbawi walked north as a representative of the city. by the time it got there, however, there was no more room left for it to stay. sad and ashamed, ulsanbawi began it's long trip back home. one evening it decided to stop and rest in the seorak area. when it awoke the next morning it was so captivated by the beauty of seoraksan, it decided to stay there forever. the end.
view from the top. that's the east sea in the distance.
this was the steepest part. again, it doesn't look that steep and you'll notice the little girl walking down like its no big deal (little brat), but the guy in the foreground is double-handing that rail with good reason.
i was having a blair witch moment. this is how scared i was.
after reaching safe ground we had some time to kill so we stopped by this little temple.
and everyone fell asleep. i'm not sure, but i'm guessing that using holy ground as your own personal bed is not a good way to be cultural representatives.
i guess i'm sitting on a rock? why am i showing this picture? later that night we ended up trying out the jimjilbang that was close to our hotel. there was one in our hotel that was free but it was a little ghetto and we didn't mind paying the 6000won to relax in style. the hotel in general was a little bit ghetto. before arriving we had talked with one of the adventure korea coordinators about getting a 6 person room. unfortunately, what we did not know is that the 6 person room was basically a large empty space with paper thin mats in the closet for sleeping on. was. not. comfortable. but the jimjilbang was. so i guess the one thing to know about jimjilbangs is, as previously mentioned, gender-segregated. they do this because everyone gets naked and then climbs into baths together. now i'm not the most uninhibited person you'll ever meet (especially when you're going in with a british guy with the build of a soccer player), but after hiking for 5 hours (on 2 hours of sleep), i was ready to show a little skin in exchange for a little r n' r. and it was totally worth it. especially the outdoor hot spring. and the sauna that looked like a giant kiln with a little door you had to crawl through to enter.
the next day we had two choices: an even harder 11 hour hike or a nice day at the beach. which is a little like saying you can either stick your hand in these burning hot coals or have an ice cream sandwich. it's not really a choice so much as it is a rhetorical question. naksan beach was about half an hour away from our hotel. our tour guides told us it was one of the nicest beaches in south korea which i'm hoping is not entirely true. it's a nice beach and the weather was even pleasant enough for us to go swimming, but it was almost as trashy as coney island (in brooklyn, not cincinnati).
we started off with lunch. at first we were a little startled by the price - 80,000 won for a four person full service meal (so around 20,000 a person). but then we got the food. and kept getting more food. and more food. a four person meal can feed a modestly hungry party of eight. lesson learned. it was delicious though.
this is documenting a stupid bet connie made with francoise. she told him if he would eat that tiny bit of wasabi she would buy him drinks for an entire night. he of course ate the wasabi.
batman, a coca-cola and thomas pynchon on the beach. a winning combination?
max and francoise out for a dip. later on a police officer informed us swimming was not allowed as there was no life guard on duty. whoopsie daisy. after a bit we decided to rent some mini-bikes (like child-sized; comically small) and cruise the streets. i have no picture of this. nor do i have a picture of the awesome high-five between max and myself while riding in opposite directions. but i assure you, both of these things did happen.
there was a temple nearby so we slowly made our way up the hill, taking advantage of the photo opportunities the view offered.
that man is farting on me.
views from the top. really ugly country. just terrible. who could live here?
i'm not actually sure what this is a statue of...we were running out of time before the bus picked us up so we just sped through the temple. it sure is impressive though.
the other side of the beach.
on our last day we had another hike - this one supposedly easier than the first. it may have been shorter but i don't know if i would call it easier. the terrain was even rockier and it was a constant climb straight up the hillside. not so many small women and children this time around. of the two hikes i will say this one was my favorite.
this waterfall is named after a woman's bodypart. i will let your imagination fill in the blanks.
the view from the top. it was about a 10 minute extra hike from where our group stopped. you can see them through the trees in the picture below.
this rock formation is named after a man's bodypart. i'll let your imagination fill in the blanks.
there were several waterfalls but this was the nicest. we were not allowed to go into the waters however. there was a 500,000won fine for anyone who dared try.
there was another small temple at the end of the trail where we stopped to rest. after getting back we had about an hour to pack our things and leave for seoul. before leaving they made a big hurrah about the people who did all 3 big hikes - took their picture, gave them t-shirts. the rest of us got to sit and watch. i'm all for observing accomplishments but at least take a group picture? make everyone feel included? i'm no tour leader, so maybe exclusion is the best policy. afterwards we all loaded up, took the 4 hour trip back to seoul, hopped on the ktx and arrived in daegu around 7:30pm.
overall, i would say the trip was a success. the sights were really phenomenal and i'm pretty sure everyone had a lot of fun. was it worth the 141,000won (my mistake, i only paid 140,000 of that - and you'll never see that extra 1,000 - suckers)? yeah probably, but i also feel it was a bit over-priced. our accommodations couldn't have cost more than 10,000 for the 6 of us, only 2 of our meals were paid for, and we didn't get any sort of care package from them. so where'd it all go? the bus? the expert guidance? who knows.
this coming weekend i will be going to the jinju namgang yudeung (latern) festival and the weekend after that is the busan fireworks festival. big things are happening. big things.
0 comments:
Post a Comment