the short list.
We slept in a Buddhist monastery set in a misty mountainside. And then we hiked with 40 lbs on our backs 1500 meters straight up through rocks. And we climbed lots of stairs. I mean LOTS.
You’ve never seen so many stairs in your life. And then we slept at the top of the mountain perched high above those misty mountaintops. And then we had to get down from that mountain. It was hard. And as we made our way down, we walked down even more stairs and saw forty-foot waterfalls plunging into gorgeous pools of emerald water. And then there were more stairs. At the bottom of all those stairs was a giant rock face set upon a lovely stretch of river. We slept at a cabin looking up at that beautiful rock, listening to the roar of the waterfall rush past us in the night. And I did yoga with a handful of Korean rock climbers in the cabin and laughed all the way through it. When we woke, we had lost the functioning of most muscle groups in our bodies. We hobbled down the rest of the stretch of path, found an actual, real-live, flat, paved road and jumped for joy. Sort of. See, we couldn’t actually jump. But we did very small leaps in our own
minds with ecstatic excitement. And just as we were lamenting that there would be no more forty-foot waterfalls to take our breath away, we turned our heads across a long bridge and had the wind knocked right out of us. There stood the tallest, most majestic statue of Buddah I could ever have imagined. Truly a sight to behold. And we found the secret entrance to the shrine below this magnificent being. And we meditated beneath it. And it was beautiful. Finally made our way out of the park and ate tater tots and kiwi juice on the way. Found the bus, traveled to the beach and found our hotel. Took one of those I’ve-been-in-the-woods-for-four-days-and-my-body-is-broken kind of showers and headed to the sea water spa in the basement of our cold-war era hotel. Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh. Soaked in the glorious mineral-rich warm sea water pool, eased the pain in my body in the steam room and dry sauna and plunged my body into the cool sea water tub. At last. Relief. An hour and a couple of good rub downs later, we were napping on the floor of our little hotel room on soft mats with bean bag pillows. We bbq’d clams and got lots more than we expected for practically nothing. We wandered the strange little beach town packed to the gills with people and various beach-like entertainment—like fireworks, mini-carnivals and mini-bikes. We spent the day on the beach.
Ate ice cream. Napped. Fended off the hawkers of fried chicken and red bean ice flake extravaganzas that insisted on stepping ON me instead of around our little oasis of beach blanket. Another afternoon in the spa. A night on the town, which involved a variety of activities including having our feet and toes nibbled on my very small fish. Fireworks. Cards. An extreme Korean version of an ice cream sundae that involved, of course, red beans. And back to Gwangju the next day—an epic journey that took 11 hours, the only appropriate closure to our own epic vacation.Ok, so that’s the short list. I’m not sure how long this post will be, but my guess is that it will be LONG. Seriously long. So many things happened to us on this crazy trip. So, let me start back from the beginning.
Seoul.
We started out in Seoul. We managed to get there in time to make it back to Smile Planet to see what those crazy characters were up to, as they had recently opened a new store in the building. We were pleased to see that the silver Barbie construction that had been in pieces on our last visit was finally installed—as a giant floor-based lighting fixture. It was set against wallpaper that looked exactly like ruth asawa sculptures. Perfect.
We ordered some espresso. And, in true Seoul style, the bill came to ₩13,200 (about $13). But just as we were leaving, I saw our friend, the barista, emerge from the workshop space with a small gift. He presented me with this lovely little amalgam of plastic goodness. It's a little plastic charm with lots of funny little toys attached to it. I'll take a picture and post it later. I squealed with glee, I do believe. Yes, squealed. We headed down to the store, called The Bus, and found what was actually a little gallery of wearable (almost) art. The first section was a selection of gorgeous pieces of jewelry made completely unwearable by elaborate and delicate glass sculptures that had been added. Truly amazing pieces of handwork.
The next section was the artist from Smile Planet. Her stuff consisted of a bunch of odds and ends packaged in airtight plastic bags and strewn on the floor in front of a rack of clothing—all vintage high end couture: ysl pants, louis vuitton dress, etc. and all in miniscule sizes for silly amounts of money.We headed to a nearby part of town to meet up with our friends for some good Indian/Nepalese
cuisine. Finally, samosas, nan, and yummy, yummy, food. We had an excellent meal, great conversation and then headed out to walk around the stadium area to watch the Koreans shop. Seriously. It’s all anyone does. On our way to the shopping area, we came across a man and a woman having an intense fight. The woman was wailing—quite literally—and clutching at the man’s shirt. He simply stood there and watched her. He made no move to be violent. She, however, was scratching and screaming endlessly. We could do nothing but stop and stare. A couple of Koreans were doing the same. We, of course, had no idea what was really going on. We all made up stores. Was she crazy? Was she drunk? Did he just break up with her? Is she a woman scorned, having just found out about some indiscretion of his? A larger crowd had gathered by the time we crossed the street. Such a strange thing to be in another place where language and culture creates so many barriers to understanding—what do you do? What do you say? So strange.
It was around 11 or so, and the street was bumpin’ with shops and department stores and outdoor stands. We came to one end where a man was selling teeny cute puppies, of which I have about a million pictures. We wandered about and eventually parted ways with our friends. Made it back to our hotel and were off the next day for Seorak-san.
Seorak-san (part one).
This national park is located in the northeastern section of South Korea. It’s really not too far from the DMZ, so there is a heavy military presence. There were many army boys on the buses with us during our journey there. We set out for the bus station (which took almost 2 hours to get to in Seoul by Subway and taxi) and jumped on a bus to the western side of the park. As we drove, a massive storm hit the area. Lightning, thunder, extreme winds. The sight of wind
blowing across rice fields on a backdrop of dark thunder clouds and bolts of lightning was pretty amazing. The rain subsided, we made it to our destination, and we started on the path into the park. Our packs were definitely heavier than we wanted them to be, uncomfortably so, but we trudged on, figuring they would get lighter over time, and our trek couldn’t possibly be that hard, right? Right…There was a bus that was taking folks up a 2 km road to the temple at the end—Baekdam-sa. We opted to walk. How far could it be, right? We entered the park and came upon the most beautiful river valley. It was lightly raining. We started to feel the weight of our packs. I was stubborn and wouldn’t take a break (or course)-we must keep moving I thought. (I thought this a lot during this trip—it would prove to be a generally bad idea). We dodged a dozen buses going in either direction. And just as Jim got me to sit down and drink some water, a bus pulled up and asked if we wanted a ride. It was an empty bus, not full like all the others, making it easy to accommodate us and our giant packs. So, we jumped on. And just in time, I think. The road immediately got narrower and more dangerous in its curves. We would have most certainly been in danger of death by bus had we kept walking.
So, we arrived at the temple and started to explore. We wandered over to a little statue of Buddah set in front of a large pool of water. The Buddah was a fountain, and on the basin sat a number of small plastic drinking cups. “I read about this!” Jim exclaimed. “You can drink the
water!” and so we did. It was incredibly clear and fresh and cold. As we stood there looking out onto the mist rolling over the mountains, a young monk walked toward the fountain to fill his water bottle. We chatted with him for a minute and he asked us where we were staying that night. “oh, the hut up the way, we think.” “You can stay here,” he said. Well, the hut is close, right? We showed him our topo map. “Oh no,” he said. “That will take you 2 hours.” 2 hour? To go a half a km? Are you sure. Oh yes, very. Okay…Wow. Cool. Let’s stay at the temple. He walked around and showed us the bathroom and the dining room where we’d have breakfast at 6 the next morning. He brought us to a little room with another guy who looked to be the one who makes all the sleeping arrangements. They wanted ₩30,000 at first, but when we balked at that, they said, ok, no money. Don’t worry. So, there we were. We had our own little room in a temple in the mountains. It was lovely.We walked around a bit, and Jim met some folks who spoke English. Turns out they were a
group of Korean-Swedes in for a conference in Seoul for international Korean adoptees—a conference a friend of mine from Gwangju was also attending. So we chatted with the Swede for a while. We cooked dinner by the river and watched the lights of the temple flicker on as the sky got dark. We crawled into our little bed on the floor and looked forward to a long day of hiking the mountain. Of course, that day came much sooner than we thought. At 2:40 am, we were awakened by a group of people outside chatting away and hanging out as if it was nothing to be up at 2:40 am at a Buddhist temple. Jim finally opened our door to see what was going on, and there were the Swedes (damn those Swedes!). They were all dressed and ready to go somewhere. Where, I have no idea. But over the course of this trip, I have realized that Koreans have lots of places to go at 3 am. Lots. 15 minutes later, we hear the singing start. A monk has begun singing and playing a wooden bell. For a really long time. And apparently, the Swedes had been clued in to this event and were up to watch. (We found out later, after watching a funny Korean movie called Sisley 2 km yesterday that this song is meant to keep out evil spirits, at least I think that’s what this song was.) We finally got to sleep, only to be awoken at 5 am for yet another round of signing and bell ringing, this time with the great steel bell that sits within the temple site (I have some photos/video of the bell above). At 6 am, it was breakfast time. We were the last to get in on the food. The Swedes, of course, were the first. They are so punctual, those Swedes.At 7:30 am we were off for the day of hiking. Our plan was to hike about 10 km to a “small” peak and stay the night at one of the huts in near the peak.*
*Here are some things you should know about camping and hiking in Korea. First, Koreans are ALL about their hiking. They are insane hikers, often getting up at 3 in the morning to start their hike just to make it to their destination before the sun comes up. They have walking sticks and gloves and, for the most part, very, very small packs. So of course, hiking long distances is
no biggie. They’re equipped for it, and so they often make just day trips or, at most, 2 days. There isn’t much camping within the national parks. You have to stay at these things called “mountain huts” which cost about ₩5,000/person and consist of varying sizes of rooms with floor space for folks to sleep on. You get packed into these places like sardines…we had two such experiences, the second one better than the first.We were not prepared for the distance or the terrain we hiked on this trip. Not at all. However, with great foresight, Jim bought us both walking sticks (adjustable, metal hiking poles) which I sneered at and said, multiple time, I don’t think I’m going to need this, but ok. Ok, is right. Had I not had that damn stick, I’d have broken both legs, I think. Seriously. It was more than handy in our climb straight up the mountain and our crazy descent to the bottom.
And so we started off, walking through the gorgeous river valley, passing another temple on the way, and stopping for an hour or so in the afternoon to eat some lunch. We got back on the road around 1, thinking we would arrive at our destination in a few hours. What we didn’t realize is that we had chosen the most difficult means of reaching our destination that the park had to offer. Straight up with nothing but rocks and ropes to help us scurry up the mountain with our giant packs on our backs.
And so I will leave you here, dear readers, as we begin our ascent into the most unforgiving mountain territory I have ever encountered. I’ll return with part two and three of the story in the coming days.
Tomorrow, it’s back to teaching. Please do send the word to me when you get the chance. I’m missing home quite a bit at the moment.
I survived the mountain.
catie
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