Korea: Day Six: The Great Hike

Up around 7 - 7:30 (6:30 pm, Weds 10/10 at home). Had some fruit and yogurt for breakfast, followed by a grilled salami and cheese sandwich. That last part would be regrettable. We cleaned up the pan and headed out.

Once we got in the woods, we followed the signs that indicated "Mountain Climbing Trail" vs "Hiking Trail."

This trail was strenuous from the very start, and probably not even 30 minutes in, I donated my breakfast to the mountain. I felt much better after that. The hike didn't get much easier. We eventually started hitting peaks, followed by shorter, less-strenuous ridges and climbs, (some with ropes attached to trees, to help out) to additional peaks. We eventually started seeing entrenchments along the ridgeline. Originally, we thought these were just Korean War remnants, but later found out that they were originally dug by the Chinese, but were currently still maintained and used for drills. There were other smaller, roundish ditches that we speculated may have been from mortar or artillery shells.

Figuring we'd hit the halfway spot on our map, and it being ~10:30, we thought we'd be finishing the hike back to the cabin in less time than it had taken to get that far.

(Phone call from Jennifer, about Mom)

It was definitely downhill from there, and at times so steep that the occasional slide happened. We went along for a while, and still didn't see anything familiar. It was probably at least 11:30 by now. We did see a highway, and the trail led out to that. We walked along the highway for probably close to two miles, before stopping at a gas station, and giving our taxi driver from the previous day a call.



About 15 minutes later, he picked us up and took us back to the cabins, probably at least a 20-25 minute drive, down one valley and back up into the neighboring valley. We were about 15 minutes late for checkout, so we hurriedly made sure that we had the cabin squared away while our cabbie waited. He took us back to the bus terminal, for about W70,000 total. Not a bad deal, really.

Got some bus tickets and some drinks for the 90 minute ride back to Seoul.

In the evening, Jason, Steve and I walked back up to the I-Park (Yongsan Station) mall for some souvenir hunting. The malls are noticeably different here in many ways. They're not freezing cold, there are at least twice as many sales associates than you'd find in an equivalently-sized American store. You'll also pay for your shopping bags.

I got a superhero action figure for T, and some nice oil pastel sticks for Z. Also picked up weird Asian snacks. Wasn't really satisfied with the stuff I've found yet. Wandered around restaurant row until we found something Steve could handle. Went to a Japanese place called Teriyaki. I had a bento box (sometimes referred to as a Japanese lunch box, which is nothing like an American lunch box.) It was excellent, a lot of different food, more than I could eat, and only W12,000.

We walked around the mall some more, with Jason failing in his attempt to get a Korean Starbucks mug for Christine.

Korea: Day Five: Journey to Chuncheon

Made our way (via the train) to a bus station in East Seoul, where we each bought a W7800 ticket on the express bus to Chuncheon, about __ miles northeast of Seoul.
Made the trip out of the city in about 90 minutes, passing countryside for the first time.


From the bus station in Chuncheon we got a taxi to a place a few miles (W30,000) outside of town. It was a small "resort" up in the woods that had rental cabins with access to the extensive hiking trails in the area. Did I mention that hiking was a big deal in Korea? Adam had a Korean friend reserve the place for us, as evidently, that is something foreigners are unable to do.

For W40,000 we got a one-room cabin with a loft. We were issued one trash bag that we'd have to turn in with our trash when we left. The place had a table that sat about a foot off the floor, but was stowed beside the dorm fridge, which was unplugged (to save electricity, of course.) There was no other furniture, except the TV stand. We had a sink and pots and pans and plates/cups. the place was very nice and apparently pretty new. What about beds? No beds. Instead there were six semi-thick pads that you put on the floor to sleep on, and six thinner comforters, and six pillows. Since the cabin was heated by ondol, this arrangement was pretty comfortable.

We had brought some sausages and rolls with us, so we had that and some gatorade and beer for dinner. The others went outside to smoke cigars, while I ended up dozing off on the heated floor, watching TV. I think we probably turned in ~8:30 pm. It gets dark around 6 pm, so there wasn't much else to do. We did manage to get in a short hike before dinner.