Palgong Mountain Hiking

A few months ago, I went to a temple near Daegu called Dong Hwa Sa (동화사) with some friends.  The temple is located in a national park at Palgong Mountain (팔공산).  I enjoyed visiting the temple so much that I wrote a post about it.  So I was excited last week when all of the teachers at my school left mid-day to go to Palgong Mountain for a hiking trip.

We left school after lunch and drove to the park.  Our trip began on the opposite side of the mountain from Dong Hwa Sa, so I got to see a totally different area.  In the parking lot, each teacher was given a bag lunch, and then we started hiking immediately.  I was confused as usual, so I just followed a few other teachers onto the trail.

I picked the wrong group and wound up hiking to the top of the mountain at full speed.  The area to which we hiked is called Gasanbawi (가산바위), which is one of the highest points on the mountain.   A huge rock at the top overlooks the mountains and valleys below.  Most of the group got tired and slowed down as we hiked, so I reached the top with two other teachers about half an hour before the rest of the hikers arrived.  This gave me time to relax, eat and snap a few pictures from the top.

Needless to say, the views were pretty amazing.  We spent an hour on the rock, just soaking in the views.  When the time came to move on, I didn’t want to leave.  But we had to see one more thing before we left – the ruins of Gasan Castle (가산산성).  I don’t know much about the castle, because I didn’t come across any signs informing hikers of its history.  The only thing I could glean from the Konglish conversation I had with my fellow teachers is that the castle is the ruins of an ancient royal house/palace from a long time ago.

Most of the ruins have been refurbished in some way.  You can see in the picture above that the top of the wall is made of newer stone than the bottom.  Other sections of the castle walls, on the other hand, have been fully refurbished.

After we finished hiking, all of the teachers went to a restaurant near Palgong Mountain for dinner.  As usual, we went to a traditional Korean restaurant that had great food.  It was the normal spread – a few types of meat and lots of sides (mostly vegetables and mushrooms).  At the end of the meal, we were served beer and a dong-dong-ju (동동주), which is a traditional rice wine that is similar to makgeolli.  Like makgeolli, it is served in a bowl and has a sweet flavor without much alcohol taste.  The primary difference between the two drinks is that dong-dong-ju is made in homes or restaurants and makgeolli is made in large breweries.  It’s Korea’s traditional home-brew.

Until next time.

-Taft

Return to Haeundae

It seems that Busan has become my weekend getaway of choice lately.  Last weekend, I made my third trip to Haeundae Beach, the most famous beach and one of the most famous neighborhoods in Korea.  It is advertised as a “world-class” resort area, but it is more Daytona Beach than Hilton Head.  At night, it has a spring break party vibe, and during the day the beach is absolutely packed with tourists.  But I like it nonetheless.

This time, I traveled with a Korean friend who showed me a couple of places that I would have otherwise never known existed.  First, she took me to Chinatown, which was more Russian than Chinese and completely underwhelming.  The only fun part was looking at all of the horribly tacky shirts hanging all over the place – mainly in the Russian clothing shops.

After escaping Chinatown, we went to one of Asia’s largest department stores, 신새개 (shin-sae-gae).  The name translates to “New World”.  It is huge, clean, elegant and packed with a great selection of stores ranging from Cartier to GAP.  We spent a few hours just wandering around.

The rest of the trip was spent walking around the Haeundae neighborhood and beach.  At night, we went bar-hopping and explored the night life.  The next morning, we took a short hike through a park that adjoins the beach and offers some amazing views of the city.  On the north side of the park, we stumbled across the site of the 2005 APEC conference, and we took a tour of the room in which several world leaders met.  It wasn’t an exciting tour, but I found it interesting.

Enjoy the pictures!

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Until next time.

-Taft

Safety Theme Park?

After visiting the temple last Saturday, we had a few minutes to kill at the bus stop.  Conor (Ireland) spent that time looking at a giant map of the park mounted on a small billboard near the bus stop.  He called me over when he noticed an interesting place in the center of the map – “Daegu Safety Theme Park.”  What the hell?

We tried to imagine what a safety theme park would be like.  Maybe they give you a helmet and you have to wear it the whole time.  Custom mouth guards for sale before you hit the super-slow rides with five-point harnesses?  Maybe instead of rides, you get to watch safety videos about taking rides.  Great fun for the wimpy kids who don’t like to go too fast.

Your guess is as good as ours.  What do you think?

Until next time.

-Taft

Just A Quick Hike

My friend Liz called me on Friday afternoon to ask if I wanted to take a hike with her.  Since Friday was field day, I got off several hours early.  I haven’t gotten enough exercise in the past few weeks, so it sounded like an excellent idea.  A nice scenic hike along the hills surrounding Daegu would be an excellent way to kick off the weekend.

I told my coteacher that I was going hiking, and he said, “oh yes.”  I tried to explain it to him, but it didn’t seem to register.  No matter – I’ll show him pictures later and he’ll understand.  An hour or two later, Mr. Kim told me that I missed the bus.  Nobody thought to tell me that the bus left two hours early on Friday.  No worries – Mr. Kim offered to drive me home.

I didn’t realize that he wasn’t taking me home until it was too late.  About half a mile before the subway station, he pulled into an underground parking garage.  We parked and walked up to the street.  After milling about for five minutes (just wasting time), the clock struck 4:00 and we walked into a bar.  Uh oh – we’re going drinking.

When we walked into the bar, the owner was still in the process of opening shop – pulling chairs off of the tables and setting them on the ground.  Mr. Kim ordered us each a tall beer (32 oz).  Because of Korean culture, turning it down was not an option.  I had to drink it all.  I tried several more times to explain that I had to meet my friend to go hiking in less than 90 minutes.  He kept saying, “oh yes…very good.”  Shit.

I excused myself to use the restroom as soon as I finished the first beer.  When I returned, it had magically refilled itself.  I began to get desperate, because I realized that he may be expecting me to get drunk with him before dinner time.  I had to think fast.  Suddenly, I remembered that my new phone has a new translation app that seems to work pretty well.  I gave it a whirl and, to my surprise, he understood.  He told me to hurry and finish my beer.  As soon as we finished gulping down our drinks, he walked me to the door and pointed me toward the subway.  Despite all of my frustration in communicating with Mr. Kim, times like these remind me that he is a really nice guy.  He didn’t think twice about covering the bill and hurrying me out the door so that I could make it on time.

I hurried home, got changed, and met Liz at her subway stop.  I was a little buzzed, but I was sure it would wear off by the time we reached the park – or wherever we were hiking.  The trip took less than an hour, but it was plenty of time.  When we stepped out of the cab near the trail, I felt better.  About two minutes later, as we walked through the city toward the trail-head, I realized that I was in trouble.  Liz pointed to the temple at the very top of Apsan Mountain.

I was out of breath by the time we got to the trail.  We met Liz’s friend, Zach (USA), at the bottom of the trail.  Zach lives near Apsan and hikes it on a regular basis.  He told me that it is still difficult for him.  This meant a lot, considering the fact that Zach appeared to be in excellent shape.

Two beers on an empty stomach, months without adequate exercise, and a damn-near vertical trail.  I was in for a treat.

It was a difficult hike.  I hated every minute of it.  There were several times when I had to swallow hard to avoid blowing groceries on the trail.  I was too out of breath to truly appreciate the Buddhist temple that we passed half-way up the mountain.  When we reached the top and I had a chance to rest, I realized that it was worth every step.  I couldn’t believe how beautiful the city was at night.  Because Apsan is on the southern edge of Daegu, we could see almost every inch of the city.

We spent about half an hour at the top.  There were a few groups of Koreans hanging out at the top with us.  A middle-aged Korean man came over to us shortly after we arrive and offered us all rice snacks and chocolates.  It was the perfect end to an exhausting climb.

Until next time.

-Taft