Seoraksan National Park

Photos: South Korea: Seoraksan National Park

I actually managed to get up at 7am this morning after a night of not-so-great sleep. I’m not sure why I kept waking up, other than there were mosquitoes or flies prickling at me. In fact, I woke up with several bug bites. Boo. Luckily, nothing a little anti-itch cream couldn’t cure.

I dragged myself out to the common area for a breakfast of white bread toast with jam  and black rice tea. There I met the French-Korean girl, Anais, and her brother Valentine, and we chatted about the hikes we wanted to do today. They invited me to hike with  them, so ten minutes later, we were out the door to the bus stop. We caught the 7-1 bus, as directed by Yoo, and half an hour later we had climbed into the mountains and finally arrived at the tourist entry area. We wandered a bit, then headed for the first hike of the day: Ulsanbawi Rock, 3.8 kilometers one way, and reputed to have a tough section of steps at the end.

It was beautiful out, slightly cool in the mountains but the skies were blue and autumn’s rusty dusting was starting in on the trees. The first forty five minutes of the hike was fairly easy, with a couple steps here and there, some climbs, and pretty streams and trees. Then we started climbing. And climbing. And… well, you get the point. The stairs went on and on, and each time we hit a landing, and I caught sight of the next impossible flight of metal steps, I grimaced and groaned. What the heck?! The next hour was full of steps, some shallow but most steep, either a foot and a half high or ladder-like. There were a few flattened out places where people had set up shop for either souvenirs or food, but once we hit the really climb-y part, there was nothing but more steps.

Granted, the views were incredible as we got higher and higher. Some places had stone steps between boulders which were barely wide enough to allow one person, much less the two-way traffic going on. I stopped far more often than Anais and Valentine, and so lagged behind fairly often. Near the top I was stopping every ten steps or so and even felt a bit of the fear of heights that I know others to have. Not terrible, but when all that’s between you and the ground is some metal steps, sometimes without a railing, and air… well, it’s intense.

Finally, we made it to the top, along with a crowd of people. I would say it took a good two hours to get up there. There was a Korean red cross worker there, helping to take people’s pictures against the rock… Ulsanbawi Rock, presumably. The views were beautiful and breathtaking, seeing the fall colors here and there far below. We spent about fifteen  minutes there, taking turns with the other climbers in taking pictures. Finally, we had all the photos we wanted and decided to climb out to another landing just below on a slightly different path. That took just a few minutes and was alternately more and less crowded than the first one. This was where we’d decided to eat our lunch, though, and several Korean men offered us Korean treats. I gave one of them a tangerine, and Anais gave one of them an Eiffel Tower keychain. We must have sat there for half an hour at least, watching as groups came, took pictures, and left. We enjoyed the views as we ate, but not the sudden cold gusts of wind that could last for minutes at a time.

Finally it was time to descend, a more harrowing journey than the way up because you were looking down at… air. It was faster going, though, and about forty five minutes later we got to an area with food vendors. We sat in a sunny patch and decided to order three different things. Mine turned out to be the best, in my opinion. It was called “rice with mountain vegetables,” but was basically bimbimbap, a dish that is rice, vegetables, hot sauce and an egg on top, served alternately cold and hot. In this case, it was cold vegetables on hot rice, with lots of hot sauce. Anais got something called “festival noodles,” which had fish in it and tasted too fishy for her taste. Valentine ordered a tofu and kimchi dish, which seemed good but was very hot. 

I learned that they were an adopted brother and sister, born in Korea but raised in Lyon, France. Anais is twenty eight and on a travel binge to rival all travel binges. She travels all the time, lived in Australia, going through Mongolia, India, and many other places in the past several years. She hopes to be in New Zealand in February, depending on whether she can find a job and earn some money before then. She’s in Korea with her brother to explore their country of birth for a month or so. Valentine is twenty seven, but I didn’t find out much else, since he doesn’t speak English. Anais learned it in grade school and then refreshed her knowledge when she worked in Australia in the hospitality business. 

After lunch we made our way down the rest of the way, stopping to admire a few statues and temples we’d skipped on the way up. There were peaceful areas, so many of them, that my aching feet didn’t bother me so much. Eventually, we made it back to the entry area and found the pathway to Biryeong Falls, our next hiking trip.

This hike was not nearly so difficult, although there were lots of steps again. It was pretty, falling a gurgle of water upstream as it became heavier and more insistent, falling from slightly higher distances as we climbed. The fall colors were really prominent along the way and I felt that we really picked a fantastic weekend to visit the park. It was a forty-five minute hike to the main waterfall, which wasn’t nearly as huge and impressive as the ones we saw on Jeju, but far more serene and quiet and full of nature. We spent maybe fifteen minutes enjoying the view and then it was time to head back down. Again, down went far quicker than up, as befits gravity. :)

Back in the tourist pavilion, we pondered taking the cable car up to Gwongeumsong Fortress. It was a little too spendy for me, but Anais and Valentine decided to do it. Unfortunately, just moments before the ticket office had closed. So, we decided to head home, which suited me just fine! My feet were killing me. I think I need some better insoles for my hiking shoes. Pretty disappointing for REI boots, Merrell Moabs. Ah, well.

The bus ride home was quick. I met a New Zealand guy who was teaching English in Jeju, and had been for the past eight years, and his girlfriend, an American who had been teaching English as well but is now studying, alternating between California and Korea. Anyway, we chatted for a bit, and then Anais, Valentine and I got off a few stops too early by mistake. Luckily, we were in an area I’d walked through last night, so we just walked the few blocks back to the House Hostel. They went on to the bus station to find out the schedule and I went to my room, relaxing and resting my aching feet for a bit. My stomach got the better of me, though, and I went to Yoo for another recommendation. He sent me to a place that served “stone bowl rice,” which turned out to be literal. It also came with about twelve small dishes, though, including one with tiny salty fishies, one with a larger fish and one with a big fish, kimchi, seaweed, tofu and some I can’t even name. There was also a soup with jalapenos, green onions and tofu in it.

Even though I hardly touched some of the small plates, the meal was filling. I headed home, used the public-use computers to check e-mail, Facebook and my blog, and then headed back to the hostel, where I’m now sitting in bed, half-watching some stupid vampire show and writing this blog.

I’m tired and exhausted and my feet hurt, but it really feels like a great day. I’m glad I went hiking. Tomorrow my plan is to find the Sokcho sauna/spa and treat myself to some pampering. Yahoo!

--Z