Out of My League

Koreans take hiking to a whole other level. Seriously.

At home, if I wanted to go on a hike, I'd put on a pair of shorts, hiking shoes, sunglasses, and a t-shirt. I'd bring some water, an apple or orange and, if I'm feeling particularly saucy, a granola bar. Then I'd hike up to wherever, have my snack, enjoy the view, and hike back down. Easy-peasy.

The people we've encountered hiking in South Korea go all out. In everything. Take their trails. So many of the trails here go straight up, up, up. No switchbacks, I mean it. Parts of them are pretty steep. On our way to Manjangdae, in Songnisan National Park, the last 2km were not only steep (and up), but consisted almost entirely of stairs. STAIRS. How many of you want to climb up 2km of stairs?

The Korean hiker dresses the part. Almost everyone wears a well-put-together outfit of mesh cap, bandana, wicking pants, long-sleeved wicking shirt with a zip-up vest, hiking boots, and sunglasses. Half of them also use trekking poles, which means having a pair of wicking fingerless gloves. Hikers are mainly adults. We saw a lot of senior citizens, since we went out during the weekdays.

Lastly, Korean hikers do not mess around with their snacks. Once at their goal, they're either going to eat at one of the many small restaurants along the trail (like we saw on our hike around Sangdang Sanseong fortress) or munch on the wonderful foods they packed in. On top of Manjangdae peak, I saw one family settle down with sushi rolls and instant coffee (ie: carrying up a thermos of hot water) and another bring out bottles of soju for everyone. We chose to go back down the trail and eat at a restaurant when a couple of hikers, Miha and Kyam, invited us to share their lunch with them. They had brought an orange, cherry tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, greens cooked with sesame, watermelon, sushi rolls, a thermos of hot rice and beans sprouts, a smoked fish and red sauce dish, some sort of thick noodle in red sauce, squares of seaweed (for wrapping things in), kim chee, and, of course, soju.

It was a tasty meal and they really enjoyed sharing it with us. Her English was a little better than his, but there was a lot of charades, pointing, smiling and giggling on all sides. Miha would also use her cell phone for looking up English words. Once we learned that they lived in Cheongju and we were staying in Cheongju (we took a 1.5 hr bus ride to the park), they offered to give us a ride back in their car. We said yes and we all hiked down together. Before getting in the car, Miha bought us more snacks and drinks to try.

We were looking forward to a nice day in the outdoors, and found so much more. Thank you Miha and Kyam.

SOUTH KOREA

Flying into Seoul, South Korea was, thankfully, quite easy and boring. We did get scanned for fever at the airport, but since that didn't slow us down or anything, it was no big whup. Just for fun, each time either of us sneezed or cough before leaving the Philippines we'd say to the other, "Uh, oh! Better not be swine flu!"

Ah, the silly jokes between travelers.

Anyway, as soon as we arrived we met Paul, our Couchsurfing host, and he immediately took us out for traditional Korean bbq and soju, some really strong national liquor. The food was good. Any food would be good after the unsatisfying fare of the Philippines, but, really, Korean food is very good. I didn't know if I'd like the kim chee, but I love the crunchy spiciness of it! Korea is the first place we've been to in a long time where you get lots of veggies with your meals: kim chee, cucumber salad, pickled radish, and more kim chee.

Since we only have 11 days here, we've decided to spend a lot of it sightseeing. Our first sight was a quiet hillside, popular with the local shamans. It's tucked away behind huge apartment buildings and is quite peaceful and green. There's a small buddhist temple nestled there as well.

The next day (my birthday!!), we visited the DMZ and it's about as weird as what little I've read said it would be. The weirdness began about 30 min away, with the banks of the river Han covered with barbed wire and high fences, with guardposts every 200m. It's strange to think that South Korea has been on edge, anticipating an invasion from North Korea, and has been for years. Strange that North Korea has dug tunnels into SK (at least 4, that have been found), and that they tried to disguise one as a coal mine. Strange being told not to point, when to take pictures. Strange seeing soldiers on each side poised, still as statues, facing each other. The photo-happy Indonesians and the gift shop at the end were also weird.

Speaking of weird, we're currently staying at a love motel. Yes, that's love as in "bow-chikka-bow-waah." I know you're picturing some tiny, dingy room with questionable linens, but the rooms are quite nice. This current one has a big bed, huge-screen cable TV (with one free porn channel), mini-fridge with one beer and one small soju, instant coffee, one juice, several bite-sized candies, his and hers robes, full bath, big bottles of shampoo, conditioner, gels and lotions, toothpaste and toothbrushes. The food items are included in the low-low price of W30,000 (less than USD30). AND all you have to do is pay up front for the night and leave in the morning. No paperwork or nothing! (The manager didn't speak any English, but thanks to a couple of phrases in the guidebook we were able to make our wants known. I guess the big bags weren't much help.)