Soraksan

As promised, I'm posting some pictures of our trip with our co-teacher James to Soraksan National Park, in the northeastern part of South Korea. After a leisurely 4 hour drive, we arrived at Odae-san National Park, where we took a short hike up to a waterfall. Keep in mind, hiking is essentially a Korean national pastime, so we weren't taking a quiet walk alone. There were hundreds of people hiking up and down the trail, so it was more like a North Face fashion parade than a nature walk. And, as we got to the trail late, we were hiking against the flow of traffic (yes, definitely call it "traffic"). Still, the hike was fun and it was great being outdoors and out of the city.

After a nice meal of bibimbap with mountain veggies, we spent an overnight in a "pension"- sort of a converted apartment building- run by a nice retired couple. The pension had a view of the ocean and nice mats to drink wine on and to sleep on the linoleum floor.

The next morning we took a scenic drive along the East Coast of Korea, stopping at the 38th parallel (which is now a rest stop, not a historic site), and an expansive Buddhist temple on a cliff overlooking the water. The temple was in the process of being rebuilt after a large forest fire half-destroyed it a few years ago. Then on to Sorak-san for another leisurely hike with the masses to another scenic waterfall/boulder path. We also bought tickets and rode the cable car which goes from the bottom of the park up to a great peak for an amazing view in about 5 minutes. Muuuuuuch easier than the whole "hike-up-a-mountain-and-sweat-a-lot" approach... I'm posting a few videos of this too.

All in all, it was great getting out of the city and experiencing the traditional method of Korean hiking (i.e. elbowing through a crowd). I've posted the first half of pictures from the trip, as the blogger loading is extremely slow. Also annoying-- I can't rotate some of the pics that are mysteriously turning up sideways. More to follow soon--enjoy!




















Above is a persimmon tree-- very cool without the leaves!

















































Some random hikers we met up with who wanted to take a pic with us... yeah.






























Dried squid for sale close to beach. :(






























Jon 'enjoying' a rice gum and potato snack...

























































































A very cute Buddhist bathroom




More pictures to come. I may also post the full lot on facebook or picassa... we'll see. Have a great weekend!