Island Retreat

After a long week of midterm exams, I needed to get out of the city.  On Friday morning Philip and I headed to Gangwha-do (강 화도), an island northwest of Seoul, for another adventure!  The inter-city bus was to leave from the Sinchon bus terminal, but the terminal was nowhere to be found.  After 20 minutes of wandering around asking for directions, a guy came up and asked if he could help. He even walked us to our destination!  It turns out that they moved the bus terminal only two months before, so we were incredibly lucky to meet someone so helpful!

A 2.5 hour bus ride took right to the foot of Mani-san.  Mani-san stands 469.4 meters tall and is the highest point on Ganghwa-do.  The legendary god-king Dangun is said to have made an altar on top of Mani-san and offered sacrifices to his ancestors, and a shamanistic ceremony is still held here once a year.  

In typical Korean fashion, everyone was decked out in hiking attire, and Philip and I earned several odd looks for hiking in jeans and sweaters.  The view at the top, while crowded with people, was fantastic.

And, after hiking, don't forget to vacuum your shoes!


The weekend occurred mainly without a plan, just with a vague idea of what we wanted to see and do.  A trip to Seokmo-do (석모도), an island off of the coast of Ganghwa that is home to the famous Bomunsa (보문사) temple, and some exploring in the fishing village of Oepo-ri were high on the list, so we headed towards the coast as the sun set.  "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky at morning, sailor's take warning!"  With the intensity of the sky's red, I went to sleep with high hopes of beautiful weather for the next day's exploring!  (And a full belly of giant fried tiger shrimp - I love seafood!)

The next morning, a few hundred meters from the motel, I noticed a path a path lead into a wooded hill.  I can't resist exploring, so we scrambled up the hill and came upon this fort!  The Mangyang Dondae fortress was built in 1679 to protect the town from enemies.  And the doors were very short. 

Just below the fortress, the pine-tree covered hill met the rocky shoreline, and we couldn't help but dally there for a while, listening to the sounds of the ferries, the seagulls, and the waves.  How far away Seoul seemed!

A short and beautiful ferry ride (2,000 won roundtrip!) brought us to Seokmo-do, where a bus (1,000 won) dropped us in front of the entrance to Bomunsa.  Old women lined the street, selling an odd variety of vegetables, fruits, and herbs, and well-attired Korean tourists swarmed everywhere.  I was quite excited, because I conducted a successful purchase of tickets - asking the price, requesting tickets, and giving payment - all in Korean!

 

A very steep walk uphill brought us to the temple complex.  People were tossing coins onto the pagoda as if it were a wishing fountain.  I tossed a coin with the Trevi Fountain in mind, and my coin found a home on my first try. :)  In the pictures below, check out how all of the little men were uniquely painted.  In the picture on the right, a man seems to have a little blue demon on his lap! (You can click on a picture to make it bigger!)

 

A steep flight of stairs led up to a 10-meter-tall carving of a seated Buddha, where women and their mothers go to pray for the birth of a son.  After sweating and panting my way up, I was impressed to see many older women serenely performing their series of 108 bows.  I've read somewhere that Bomunsa is considered one of the most sacred places in South Korea, and it certainly was beautiful and awe-inspiring.

After hiking up and down the mountain of Bomunsa, Philip and I were in desperate need of sustenance (both of us get cranky when hungry).  An outdoor, traditional (sit-on-the-floor) Korean restaurant at the foot of the mountain with a stream running past it served us sanchae bibimbap (fresh local vegetables served with rice and spicy sauce,) panjeon (파 전, Korean green onion pancake), and many side dishes.  A feast!

And what would a trip to an island off of an island be without a ride on a scooter?  We drove through trees on the hills and fields by the sea.  Flowers lined the road, the sun shone, and the air smelled of the harvest. 

Eventually we took the ferry back to Ganghwa-do, and, following the crowd of Korean tourists, caught a bus to Ganghwa-eup, the island's main town.  From there, our final act on the island was to visit the Ganghwa dolmen.  Dolmen are tombs from the 1st millennium BC that are constructed of large stone slabs.  The largest and most famous (UNESCO World Heritage Site!) dolmen weights somewhere between 150 and 225 tons.  It was very old and very big, and I was very cold.

 

From the dolmen, we journeyed back to Ganghwa-eup and home to Seoul.  The wonderful weekend adventure ended with a chocolate cake at Paris Baguette, where Philip and I marveled at how much our jaws hurt from smiling too much. Only 36 hours had passed, but we'd explored so much and I felt totally refreshed! 

Here's a little story...

The sleeve on my coffee cup from this morning told a little story:

Here's an example from a butterfly an example

that it can lie happy on a hard rock

An example that it can lie on this unsweetened

stone friendlessly and all alone now let my bed

I do not care.

Help me out, please; what do you think it means?!

Giraffes and tigers and cats, oh my!

My Understanding Korean Art class requires me to go to an art museum and analyze some of the work.  I chose to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is south of the city in Seoul Grand Park.  Seoul Grand Park also houses the Seoul Zoo, and you know how I love animals... so I decided to make a day trip out of it!  Susanna and Clara (USA) came along with me on this expedition last Thursday (no classes, since it was exam week!).

It was a GORGEOUS day.  The sun was shining and the leaves were changing and there was just the slightest hint of a Fall chill in the air.  We first went to the Korean National Museum of Contemporary Art.  The grounds contained a rather impressive sculpture garden.  My favorite piece was a giant statue of a man (looked rather like the Iron Giant!) whose jaw was moving up and down and from which was emanating a strange monk-like song!  The Museum was free and contained an impressive collection - it's worth an hour or so of your time if you're in the area!

The Zoo was pretty amazing - and pretty cheap!  Admission to the giant zoo (5th largest in the world, I believe!) was only 3,000 won!  Originally, the Japanese built the zoo on Korean palatial grounds as an insult to Korean heritage and history.  When the war came around, then, the Japanese poisoned all 150 animals, and it was the Koreans who later restored the zoo to its present glory!  On the way in, we each bought animal ears - I was a giraffe, Susanna was a cat, and Clara was a leopard! 

For me, the zoo was a roller-coaster of emotions.  I loved it and I hated it. I got so excited when I saw the African animals, because these were animals I had seen in the wild!  I called out their Oshiwambo names in a giddy, childish voice! 

Then, in Ape Jungle, we wandered into a room.  We were standing there, looking through the windows, trying to see some animals, when a lemur zipped past us.  And another one!  And another!  In an exhibit that would NEVER fly in the States, we were allowed to walk alongside lemurs!  Of course, we all broke out in a rousing chorus of "I like to move it, move it!"

The lemurs observed walked around and up to us, observing us with their eerie eyes, until I wasn't quite sure who was the center of the exhibit!  Throughout the day, I had a definite feeling that we three were subjects of our own exhibit thanks to the reactions we caused.  Being the only Westerners in the entire zoo, we created quite a sensation.  People would call out to us, "Hello!" and "How are you?!" and get quite excited when we responded.  I feel so at home here that I often forget how much I stick out.  Plus, well, we were wearing animal ears...

Clara and I, being the representative Americans, got wildly excited when we saw animals from 'home.'  We saw our beloved black bear and, drumroll, please! the raccoon!  At home, raccoons are annoying, dirty pests.  It was so strange to see them as the center of an exhibit with people fawning over their cuteness!

Oh, yeah, and there was a pharmacy in the zoo!  Do we have those in zoos at home?

In another atypical move, the zoo let you hold a snake!  In the reptile exhibit, a zookeeper stood waiting to toss a snake onto your shoulders for a picture!

And then there was the downside of the roller-coaster ride.  Sometimes there were a few too many animals in one cage.  And sometimes the face of an animal staring out through the rusted bars of its cage shocked me. And sometimes people threw any food they had handy to the animals without regard to their particular dietary needs.  But I kept reminding myself that the zoo was making people aware of an interested in animals.  And that is half the battle in getting people to care about the welfare of animals.  And I did get to see some beautiful, beautiful animals.  So, overall, successful zoo day!

Cutest little fennec fox!

I'm being serenaded by a gorilla!

Pretty kitty! Sad bars.

Many tigers waiting for meat to be tossed down!

IHOP

I must say, I never have understood IHOP.  What makes them the International House of Pancakes??  Are they an international corporation?  Is that enough to warrant the name?  Because, the last time I checked, there isn't anything remotely international about their menu.

Pancakes, however, appear to be beloved by much of the world's population.  Which is why, during exam week, Susanna, Philip, Veronika, and I decided to take a break from studying and celebrate the truly international nature of pancakes!  We went to the local mart and picked up some essential ingredients: bananas, milk, strawberry jam, vanilla spices (we'd never heard of it before, but thought it would be a good addition!), and eggs (we accidentally almost grabbed hard-boiled eggs).  Philip hosted the event at his apartment and was supposed to dazzle us with Danish pandekager!  Apparently, America really is the only country that does thick ole flapjack-style pancakes.  Europe, for the most part, has rollable pancakes that resemble crepes.  Doesn't matter to me, because the meal was delicious!  Philip flipped the pandekager for us three ladies in an oh-so-manly way; I cut the fruit; Susanna played DJ; and Vroni arranged the jam, bananas, and sugar on the pancakes, rolled them, cut them, and fed them to us.  

There's nothing like international cuisine to rejuvenate you before a midterm!  Stay tuned for later installments of our global pancake tour.  Austria is our next destination, and I hear they eat their pancakes with Nutella!

On Top of the World

 Koreans love their hiking.  I consider myself an adept and fairly passionate hiker, but I don't hold a candle to the average Korean hiker. 






The weather has been getting cooler and the leaves are starting to change, so Philip, Veronika, and I set our sights on Baekundae, the 836 meter highest peak in Bukhansan National Park.  Bukhansan is directly north of Seoul, and, as such, has earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Most Visited National Park per Unit Area."  

Snacks given to us by the women in the back sitting on the rock

We took subway line 3 to Gupabal station and climbed up to exit 1.  Thanks to the many impeccably-dressed hikers, we were able to easily find bus number 704 to take us to Bukhansanseong bus stop.  The beginning of our hike was through the entrance of the park, past many stalls and stores selling hiking gear.  Once the real climbing was underway, though, we climbed up, up, and up, passing several temples along the way.  As we were hiking, some older women called us over to speak to us and gave us each a persimmon and a handful of cold boiled peanuts! (Just as a side-note, to all you Southerners, try explaining 'hot boil' peanuts' to Europeans... they think we are crazy!)  I still can't get over how nice everyone is to us!

The last kilometer or so of the hike took us up a steep flight of rocky stairs to a point above the treeline.

That's me, in the middle!

From there on  up we had to scramble up the bare rock face with the help of metal cables!  The trail was incredibly steep and pretty tough, but we kept pausing as we ascended to marvel at the beauty of the view!  All of Seoul was spread out before us!  On the very top the 360 degree view really did make us feel like we were on top of the world!

At the top we enjoyed our lunch of delicious kimbap and Austrian beer chocolate (I love Veronika!) and a little bit of a nap.  In the forest below we could see a giant golden Buddha between the trees and hear the intonations of a monk. Completely surreal, to be so close to a city yet surrounded by such peace.

The way down seemed even steeper thanks to our slippery shoes, but the metal cables proved true.  
 

















To get back to the start, we followed a steam bed, and we were lucky enough to have the trail pretty much to ourselves. Many parts of the trail were too steep and rocky to have been managed without the cables that marked the path.  Korea sure means business when it comes to hiking!  We were practically the only people without hiking shoes and hiking polls!

After a long day of scrambling, we finally made it home to pizza, chicken, and a movie.  After spending such a beautiful day outside, I can't get Fall out of my head!