 
 July
1. We went to The National Center For Korean Traditional
Performing Arts (NCKTPA) to witness one of their Saturday regular
performance. It starts at 5pm and every week has different performance.
This theatre is beside the Seoul Arts Center.
The next day, we took a hike up to Mt.
Namsan in Seoul. Halfway up the mountain, we were greeted
by a bunch of teenagers with their infamous "hi, nice to
meet you". I would
really like to know who's been teaching them this so I could
greet them with my "hi, knuckle head". We haven't
met |
yet!.. or we've already
met before! How about a warm and easy "hi, how are you?"
instead. It doesn't matter if the "i'm fine, thank you"
is over used. At least it make sense.
At the summit of Mt. Namsan, we walked, sat, looked-out and
stared at smog. We didn't intend to visit the Seoul Tower. After
living for two years in downtown Calgary, and seeing the Calgary
Tower every single day, I lost interest in towers. Sorry but,
If I see a better tower than the Toronto CN Tower then I would
be interested in going to the top again. We descended the mountain
towards the Namsan Outdoor Garden and took a nap. |
|
July 6,
I went for a solo traverse to Mt.
Samseongsan. This mountain is huge and I definitely recommend
the ridge hike to intermediate hikers. I consider this my first
scrambling experience in Korea. This mountain has granite ridges
and for some part, you would question "how did those old
Korean men and women got through this crux".
I was also first introduced here to a "drinking club with
climbing problem". I met a 60yr old Korean man named Chong(?).
He only spoke a little english but somehow we understood each
other. He invited me to sit with him and fed me some very tasty
plums. He asked me if I like hiking, I said yes. He asked me
if I drink Makeli, I said I drink Soju, this was the only Korean
alcohol I know. We hiked towards a bunch of old folks sitting
around a portable table with some finger food on it. Beside
the table were 2 big plastic buckets which apparently had Makeli.
How they got these buckets up this mountain is |
  beyond
me. Makeli is an alcoholic beverage. It looked like coffee with
some bits of hell knows what. Mr. Chong bought some and he split
it in two for me to try. It wasn't as strong as soju but it
was still alcohol... on the ridge of a mountain, in the middle
of a hot day and 100% humidity. I charge this to experience.
The next question Mr. Chong asked me was if I like climbing
(gesturing rock climbing), I said yes I ju... I mean I do. We
left the drinking club and he showed me a different way of tackling
the ridge. This alternate route involved some free climbing.
It wasn't a high wall - but with alcohol - you could very much
fall - on your bum-hol. |
| I was taking some pictures
on the summit when I realized I lost Mr. Chong. He probably
thought I was following him when he left. I tried to keep up
to where he might've gone but I never saw him again. |
|
| Sunday July 9, my wife
and I again tried to summit Mt. Bugaksan. We failed on this
trip once after summiting Mt.
Inwangsan a few weeks ago. We wanted to summit Mt. Bugaksan
as well but we couldn't find the trailhead. |
  This
time we approached it from Samcheong Park as per T2K. Well,
It didn't say there how complicated the approach would be. The
approach might actually be for cars. From Samcheong Park, we
walked on a windy road to a tunnel. Yes, we walked inside the
tunnel. The trailhead is beside this tunnel. We seem to have
bad luck with this mountain because ome people on the gate wouldn't
let us in. We tried to understand what the problem was but up
to now, I still don't understand why we weren't allowed to hike
up. I understood some words like "internet", "Koreans",
and "no" (with an x-man gesture). Ok then so we left.
Dammit! |
Beside
this damn trailhead is Samcheonggak. A traditional cultural
performance center. This
place was exclusive for government
negations and dinners but now open to public to enjoy
traditional
performances and fine dining. We enjoyed our packed lunch here.
We walked towards Jongno 3(sam) ga Station afterwards
and passed by a filipino market
and a bunch of filipinos
on the way. I immediately put my wallet to safety (just kidding).
We
bought some traditional filipino food here for
a snack and took it to an old folks' disco park.
This
park is in front of Jongmyo Royal Shrine, east of the station.
People here were really
going at it. Every group has
its own instrument, music, dancers and soju. The walk in the
park is like entering a twilight zone. This is what we're
gonna be when we get old. I see me
people. |
|
July 14.
My wife went to her 5day summer camp on Yeonpyeong Island. This
island is on the Northwest of South Korea and is very close
to North Korea. Due to the rainy season we're currently at,
their 2.5hr ferry ride got cancelled for over four hours. Apparently
ferries can't operate on heavy fog... what's up with that :-).
I went on a solo trip to Bukhansan
National Park and bagged a few summits there. This park
is a Guinness holder for the "busiest national park".
It wasn't very busy when I went but probably because of the
rainy season. This central part of the park is also the most
hiker-friendly among all the three areas. |
|
July 16.
Rainy season really sucks. I hate rain. Give me snow but don't
give me rain. But I guess I shouldn't complain. In Seoul, the
Hangang River overflowed and flooded a lot of roads and parks
nearby. Right now the water level is very close to reaching
the bridges. That would set another record. In some parts of
the province a lot of people died already... and a lot still
missing. Sounds familiar Calgary? I hope we didn't bring the
flood in here.
Today we were supposed to have a break from the rain. I woke
up early to get a head start on my planned trip but it was still
raining. It stopped at 11am and so I left then. It was a bit
late, considering I needed 2hrs of travel time to get to my
destination. I went back to Bukhansan National Park to bag a
few more summits there. This time I went to the northern part
of the park, Dobongsan.
The main summits of this area are Jaunbong (740m/2428'), Manjangbong
(716m/2349'), and Seoninbong (708m/2323'). I didn't climb any
of these :-(. |
|
July 20-22.
While most students and most Korean teachers are on a break,
english teachers are busy with School Summer Camps. Almost every
week, my wife has english classes. Sometimes I would be there
to assist her with her class but in most case I'd be out for
a hike. For this week we were happy to be together for some
free time. Rain ruined part of it though but we managed to still
get away and stay at Taebaek
for a few days.
This area of the southern Gangwon-Do province is more famous
for winter activities because it gets the most snow in South
Korea. The town was dead when we arrived even though it was
the middle of summer. It could be because of the crappy rain...
or could it be because it's not winter yet? me wonders.
Taebaek is beautiful. This town is surrounded by forests, mountains
over 1000m and the beaches are only a few minutes ride.
We arrived late in the afternoon on our first day so we only
had a chance to see Yongyeon
Cave. After the cave, it started raining hard again so our
plan to camp for the night didn't happen. We went to the Taebaeksan
Private Residence Village (where we were supposed to camp) and
looked for cheap accommodation there. This village is inside
the Taebaek Provincial Park. It has a campground, artificial
rock climbing wall, numerous minbaks, restaurants, and a few
convenient stores. This village is also called Taebaeksan Minbak
Village. Minbaks here cost W30,000 which is still supposed to
be cheap, but we found a motel for W25,000.
The next day, we hiked at Mt.
Taebaek. We traversed this mountain from east (Somunsubong)
to west (Cheomjedang)... well, ok not quite complete but almost.
It sucks when after descending the mountain... and traversing
the range, you realise you didn't bag the true summit. And this
summit is only about 100 meters away from where we started our
descent. it sucks i tells ya. I blame this on the thick
fog... but really more on senility.
On our third and last day, the weather turned out to be nice.
It was a bit awkward to spend part of the day indoors since
that the sun was out, but we didn't want to leave the area without
visiting the Coal Museum.
Afterall, the cost was included with the entrance fee to the
park.
After this, we went back to the town. We asked at the Tourist
Information Center if we could leave our packs there for a few
hours, and the representative was nice enough to allow us. We
walked around the town up to the Hwangji Pond, which looks really
good on the brochure. Next, we went to Gumunso.
We were alone in this park and it was very quiet, despite being
close to the road. From the brochure it looked like people raft
here. But it was just about picking the right angle, picking
the right subject, and picking the right moment for a perfect
photograph. |
|
Sunday July
30, I invited my wife back to Bukhansan National Park.
We went to the southern part of it and bagged a few more summits
there. This part had the most sandy granite I'd seen among the
three areas of the park... and the most hardcore Koreans too.
You wouldn't believe what these people are capable of. They
are the Korean version of Spiderman... and woman... and have
I mentioned they're in their 70s? Most hikers I've seen in Korea
are grandmas and pas - probably 80%, 10% innocent kids - before
they turn over to smoking and drinking soju, and the other 10%
are just people who got nothing better to do. Hmm, where do
I belong?
Munsubong 715m/2346' is the highest peak on this southern part
of the park, and our objective for this trip. Our hike started
at the Bulgwang Ticket Booth. We took a side trip to Jokduribong
aka Suribong, then started our traverse from there. This trip
only lasted up to Seunggabong though. It's about ten minutes
past the Samobawi Rock and a half hour hike before Munsubong.
We descended via the Seunggasa Temple down to the Seungga Ticket
Booth. The highest summit we claimed was Bibong
Peak 560m/1837'. |
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2006
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