Weekend Pt. 1 - Hiking with the masses
10:10 Wed 10th May 2006 (GMT +9 Seoul)
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We've just come off a long weekend here in Korea. Monday was Childrens day as well as buddhas birthday. Needless to say I made the most of every day, with hiking on Friday, a Mexican party on Saturday, and sightseeing in Seoul on Sunday. Far too much to write in one blog so I thought I'd break it up into 3 parts.
Part One
Pictures of Bukhansan National Park that were taken for this blog can be found here
Bukhansan National Park is a 79.916km2 park located in the middle of the Gyeonggi Province. The park itself occupies 13% of the actual City of Seoul.
Rising bright and early to a standard looking Friday day here in Korea, (you know, a shroud of smog in the background) I packed a bag with two bananas, some ginseng candy and two liters of water I proceeded to take the 90 minute subway ride to the Mangwolsa/Dobong entry point of the Bukhansan National Park for a Kent and Jared hike (minus Kent of course).
In reply to my friends (who think Im nuts getting up early) asking me why I would want to hike with the masses here in Korea, I simply said that a nice walk in the hills through some quiet temples all done up for buddhas birthday would do the system some good.
Now for those who have never lived or hiked in Korea might not realize that when Koreans do anything, they do it with 150%, including dressing the part for any event. A Korean hiker must have all the latest gear, shoes, poles, walkie talkies, radios, whistles and anything else remotely related to the outdoors. Needless to say that when I started walking in my running shoes with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt I really didn't look the part of a Korean hiker.
Hiking in Korea is kind of like going to a busy shopping mall. People everywhere, shops and restaurants whenever you need them, even the grotty bathrooms. So you can imagine how I felt when I found a trail not often used and didn't see one person for a whole 30 minutes.
The day in the mountains consisted of 2 hour hike up to the top of three peaks. Seoninbong (708m peak), Manjangbong (716m peak) and Jaunbong (740m peak), and a 2 hour hike down via a couple of Buddhist Temples. My favorite was CheonChukSa (temple). The place was covered in lanterns for birthday festivities, with Buddhist monks chanting in the background.
All in all the 8 hour trip from Bucheon and back again was as always an interesting experience, one not easily forgotten.
