Korea is a country that is ever so slightly larger that the state of Indiana. There are nearly 50 million people squeezed into this itzy bitzy space, a feat that becomes that much more impressive when you take into consideration Korea's multitude of mountains.
Most every where you go in the Gyeonggi Province you are surrounded by mountains. This one of the reasons Koreans rave about their fall. It's then that all of the green lumps around you turn into multicolored lumps. This is obviously the best time to go hiking!
It's amazing when you can wake up on a Saturday at noon and decide on a lark to go skipping up an entire mountain. Mike and I climbed up a 810.2 meter high mountain that was practically in his backyard. I was struggling up this baby. Skidding on leaves, passing out on trees, etc. What made things more pathetic was that I kept getting passed up by ajimas (elderly women with short permed hair, outrageously huge visors, and $70 walking sticks). It was baffling how these grannies could mooooove. I kept thinking about how my grandma hated trying to sit down and stand up.
The greatest part of this climb was to finally reach the top, and find a man selling frozen strawberry yogurt pops. I'm so happy that men who carry huge, cumbersome packs of ice candy up mountains exist in Korea. It must also be noted that that evening Mike and I went out in Seoul and were able function all the way until 8AM. I guess a combination of Korean dumplings, Coronas, mokoli, and sujo create a potent cocktail of endless energy.
The second mountain we climbed this month was Juwongsan. We met up with a group of 50 hikers in Seoul around midnight, hopped on a bus, "slept" for six hours, watched the sunrise over a lake that had trees growing right out of it, and then climbed up Juwongsan the rest of the day. This was definitely an, "OK, we're in Asia moment," because even though we were in a huge natural space, it was CROWDED as could be. It wasn't hard to see why...this park was amazingly beautiful. The leaves were bold bright colors, there were a variety of temples, plump spiders, waterfalls, streams, and incredible views from the top. One of the best parts of our trek was that once we were near the peak, a group of Korean hikers asked us to join their picnic and fed us a hearty korean lunch. We then took a zillion group pictures with the cheerful bunch. It can really pay to be a novelty in this country.
After the climb, we went to rest in Andong Village. This was an area composed of old, traditional Korean houses. The next morning we got to see a masked dance performance. It was similar to Kabuki theater except it was interactive and there was a lot more urine involved.
These excursions have been great and I really want to conquer many more of Korea's mountains. Apparently one of the tallest ones here is called Gerri Mountain (that's how I'm going to romanize it). One important thing that I learned on this trip was how awesome all of the Wisconsin people I came here with are. There were some wierdees on this trip and as one of my friends put it, "Some people come to Korea because they are adventurous, outgoing, and want to discover Asia, others come here because they are still searching for a place to be socially accepted." Case in point; the giantess who barks out to the entire bus, "Why is it that I only attract hideous annoying guys!!!???"
