Fall in Seoul & Seoraksan National Park

Okay, so this was written on November 20, but I've just now gotten around to adding pics and posting it:

Fall has all but come and gone here in Korea. The trees are now bare of leaves and we just had our first snow last night. A thunder and lightening snowstorm, no less. Don't think I've ever experienced one of those before. It didn't amount to much accumulation, but coming from sunny Virginia, where our first "snowfall" comes in late December at the earliest, I'm not used to it. I think that means it's going to be a long, cold winter. :(

Stacy and I took a trip to Seoraksan National Park two weekends ago. Seoraksan (san means mountain, by the way) is supposed to be the most beautiful mountain range in South Korea. It lies along the sea in the extreme northeastern section of South Korea. It's about 4 hours away. Despite the fact that most of the leaves had mostly already fallen off, it was pretty spectacular. We went with Adventure Korea, which is a company that does organized weekend trips geared for foreigners.








The first day we hiked to the top of Ulsan-bawi. It is a pretty easy hike until you get to the last 300 meters or so. Then you have to climb stairs that go straight up the rock face. They are pretty scary. If I were scared of heights I would have never done it. The wind was so strong too! One huge gust came along and suddenly and almost blew me off the mountain! The top of Ulsan-bawi was especially windy and bitterly cold! But true to Korean form, there was a man selling hot coffee at the top.


The view is especially beautiful, though that day it was rather hazy. There are great views of the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, as it's vehemently called here). It reminded me of just a year ago when I was standing on top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park with a very good friend, freezing my butt off in the biting wind, overlooking the ocean.

The next day we went to Inner Seorak, which is merely another part of the park. Ulsan-bawi is the main attraction of the park, so all people stop there. The trail there was crowded. We were the only people on the trail in Inner Seorak, however. This trail was more of a walk through a small gorge. It was very peaceful and scenery was even more beautiful than the previous day. The pine trees growing out of the granite stones are a typical Asian scene you might have seen in pictures or artwork before.

Action shots

Ulsan-bawi
picturesque tree

"Ulsan-bawi this way"



My friendly neighborhood mountain, all decked out for fall


To the north we see the smog over Seoul; clear skies to the south.
That black cloud moved over Gunpo later that week, by the way. Yuck!!!

Chusok

So in my hast to write about the DMZ I completely skipped over Chusok, which was a five day holiday we had in the middle of September. Chusok, is the only real holiday where everyone takes off work. I was just talking to a man the other day who runs his own English school. Chusok is the only time of year he takes a break from his work. And then he'd rather work because it's stressful hosting family. He hasn't taken a vacation ever, by the way--in 20 years of working. That's the Korean work ethic.

Chusok is just like our Thanksgiving. The extended family gets together and has a big meal. Everything closes down. It's the one day of the year that people dress in their hanbok (tradition dress). All the older (30's) unmarried people I've talked to, however, hate the holiday and end up spending it alone or with friends as opposed to family. Since the relatives get together it's also the perfect opportunity to nag on nieces and nephews and grandchildren as to why they aren't married yet. So these people merely avoid the situation altogether. Ana, a teacher at our school, includes herself among their ranks.

The Friday before we had played tradition Korean games at school for the preschoolers and they all came dressed in their hanbok. Since they are not yet jaded by Korean culture they had a great time and were very cute. We played such games as spinning a top, hackey-sac, and tossing arrows into a bucket. True to kindergartners, they can't sit still for a picture to save their lives, thus the blurry pics.

I took the opportunity to explore parts of Seoul I hadn't yet seen. Stacy and I stayed in Tocheon, which is Tanja's tiny village she lives in. It takes her about an hour and a half by bus just to get to the nearest subway stop. I was at first skeptical of her calling it a village, especially living in Korea, one of the most densely populated countries in the world. However, once I saw the main drag, I was convinced. It really isn't just a small town, it's a village- surrounded by beautiful mountains and peaceful rice fields where the egrets love to congregate.







The next day of my Chusok vacation was used to go to Seoul Tower, which sits on top of Namsan which is in the middle of the city. We had a gorgeous 360 degree view of the city skyline at night. Here I am enjoying some junk art a little too much!








Chusok Day was spent at a traditional folk village with some friends. It's the same idea as a reconstructed colonial village in Jamestown or Williamsburg- old houses and people dressed in costume. What impressed me most, however was the traditional farmers' dance they did. I've dubbed it the ribbon dance because they had ribbons on their heads which they swirled around to the beat of the drums with a simple nod of their heads. It was very cool. If I can somehow attach a video of it here, I will, otherwise those of you on Facebook can access it their once I post it.


Extreme seesawing is also apparently a traditional Korean sport. Who knew? Two women jump up and down on a seesaw and fling each other so high into the air they can do acrobatics.

The pic above with the thatch house includes members of the "denim family", whose members numbered over 100 people- all with the same shirts. See, American families aren't the only ones that have gigantic family reunions where they all where the same thing. Their shirts, however, are considerably less tacky. The denim family also makes a cameo in the ribbon dancer picture. And yes, I do know the crazy girl below. That's Hadley.

Me, Marty & Karen

Cool horseback riding

Traditional Korean wedding

Dogs in hanbok. One day, I'll get a pic of white
dogs with their ears dyed purple. You think I jest!