We weren’t sure what to expect when our friend, Angie, suggested joining her and her hubby, Ryan, on a three day trip to Mount Sorak. Since we’d been stuck in Osan for several weeks, we decided to go, and what an enjoyable time we had (minus the long bus ride). The first day consisted of a four hour bus ride, and a ride in a cable car that took us high above the mountain floor to the top of a mountain called Kwongumsong. This wasn’t a long hike, but it was very steep and the view was amazing. Unlike American tourist locations where there are fences and safety equipment to avoid any accidental deaths, Korea allowed us to use rope to travel up and down the traverse the mountain top with crowds of people; this was not an adventure for the faint of heart, or for those afraid of heights!
Early in the evening, after our afternoon hike, we went on another hike to Piryong Waterfall. We followed a stream embedded within the granite cliffs of the Sorak Mountains. The trail was surrounded by tall deciduous trees as it wound its way around the base of the towering mountain side. It seemed like it took forever to reach the falls due to the trail’s rugged stair tread structure. Once we reached the falls, we were engulfed by the rough granite rock from which the water started its long cascading decent down to the deep, blue green pool. It was beautiful!
Day 2
The next day came quickly, especially after our battle with the Korean staff to have clean bed sheets. Our morning began with a quick “American” styled breakfast; unfortunately, it was not completely American being that it was about half the size of a normal breakfast. Our guide took us to the “Valley of 1,000 Buddhas”, though the valley was stunning in its beauty we failed to see the resemblance of Buddha. We hiked to KumKang Cave, which was a strenuous uphill hike. Even though we failed to see the 1,000 Buddhas, we definitely saw 1,000 steps or more to the top (it’s amazing how walking thirty miles a week can help one bound up a mountain). The view from the top was more than breathtaking, but the cave was a disappointment. Most of the tourists expected to see fascinating cave formations of stalactites, stalagmites, and columns; however, we were met by a Buddhist monk that runs a small temple on a day to day basis.
After we hiked down from the cave we went to the local water park, “Waterpia”. The water park was made up of many different hot tubs and pools to play and relax in, we definitely had a good time a wanted to stay longer, but we were forced to return from the park early in the day. Our day was full of sore muscles and adventure, so we ended up in bed early that night.
Day 3
The third day arrived and, unfortunately, we overslept because we never had a wakeup call and were forced to rush through breakfast. Then we went on a short walk to see the 7th Century Shinhungsa temple, this temple was underground and above it was an ignoramus Buddha statue. We walked among the temple grounds and discovered that there was a temple dedicated to pregnancy; the man would stay at the temple and pray for his wife to become pregnant for one hundred days and he would not see his wife through the duration of the temple stay. Many of the temples have golden Buddha statues, and it was interesting to observe temple worship. Each follower had a necklace of beads and they would stand, then bow, stand, and bow, counting the beads with their prayers.
After viewing this temple we headed back to the bus and went to the final stop, Naksan temple. This temple had burned down within the last twenty years and was completely rebuilt; it is not surprising to know that its beauty came from the beautiful coastline that met the forest of trees; it reminded me of the Californian missions. Two hours later, we hunted down our bus and headed for Osan. The best part about this bus ride was the winning streak I had while playing cribbage with Don!
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This poor little boy was bombarded
by several Korean school girls.
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Miscommunication and the Korean Trains
The military base is a small bustling city almost all hours of the day, and we needed a break. We planned to leave Osan Air Base and travel north on the commuter’s train for a weekend in Seoul. Our plan was to visit the local attractions such as the science museum, zoo, and shopping districts. This short trip was characterized by staring confusedly at a map of the train routes that could, in theory, take us all the way to Europe (however, North Korea has decided to not to participate in this thoroughfare). We spent many hours on the train maneuvering a plan to our next destination throughout the weekend.
Each time we boarded the train, we felt as though we were crammed cattle that looked just like sardines, while all the Koreans stared at the funny white people. Every destination announcement was made in Hanguel (Korean Language); including those that told train travelers that their ride was ending. Ignorant of Hanguel, we became excited as people exited the car, “Yes!!! We can sit down! This is nice, we’ve been standing forever!” … a moment passed as we looked to the left and right of our coveted seating space… “Hey, Amy, I think we’re the only people on the train.”
...“Really?” ...
As the doors of the train began to close we looked up in time to see several Koreans laughing as they smiled and waved goodbye to us; at this moment panic ensued as we realized that this train could be headed for storage for the day and we could end up being stored with it (it’s not like this train was a friendly Thomas the Tank Engine!).
Finally, the driver passed through all the cars of the train preparing it to turn around for the next set of pickups and motioned for us to follow him. We were relieved when he pointed us in the right direction of our needed stop.
Seoul City Trip
7 am. Between all of the shift changes and time changes, waking up had become a challenge; and, much to our surprise and delight – WE MADE IT IN TIME FOR THE BUS!!! Once the tour got started, we slept on the bus, all the way to Seoul (so much for waking up).
Our first stop was Seoul Tower, and it was COLD! Apparently, it was about 25˚ F, did that stop us? Nope, but we sure complained a lot! We had to walk a little to get to the entrance of the tower and on the way we saw ancient ruins (the wall behind Don) that told us more about Korea’s history. Seoul Tower was very impressive; it reminded me of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, though I’m not sure how their height compares. When we got to the top of the tower we were looking out from the center of Seoul all over the city. It was really interesting to see how various points of interest and other distances were in relation to the center of Seoul.
The Tower has developed a few traditions of its own. As the movie’s story was told to me, a Korean couple was in love and the decided to go to the Tower for whatever reason and they wrote a short message on a small stone to each other and left it at there. Since that movie came out, a variety of people have left a message about their love here at the Seoul Tower. (We just took pictures.)
Itaewon is a “zone” that apparently specializes in tourism and has a variety of shops and restaurants. It is a bustling place with many shop owners. Don and I searched for a Korean style noodle restaurant, but to no avail, we ended up eating porridge... I don’t think either of us ever remembers eating porridge, so this became an adventure. Neither of us had a clue as to how it was made – wheat, dairy, or some other item of food my immune system likes to attack - so we had to ask the waitress what was in the food. Though I am in the progress of learning and getting signed up for Korean classes, I had no idea how to tell her in Korean that I have food allergies. At this point in time I have probably already offended a couple of other Korean chefs because I can’t say, “That makes me sick. I can’t eat that.” However, I found a Korean phrasebook that had phrase to help people with food allergies, I found myself trying to pronounce the word to the young woman and I sounded like a first grader learning to read… Then I resorted to pointing. She crossed her index fingers in the shape of an ‘x’, “No” she said. (YAY! Message received.)
This picture is the meal I ordered, tuna porridge. It is a typical Korean meal set up with several different bowls containing various foods. In the upper left is “Kimchi” – you love it or hate it, in between is tough. The next small bowl is some kind of beef (yummy!) and the last is something I never tried because of the excessive red peppers. I think the other bowl had a garlic pear of some kind. The main bowl is the porridge with tuna, sesame seeds, and seaweed. I really enjoyed this meal.
After lunch we walked around the area and found “Jay’s Hairstyling”, but we didn’t stop, sorry Dad. We walked through several shops but didn’t find anything we were really excited about buying, so we went back to the bus and fell asleep on our way to the next stop which was Cheonggyeocheon, a project put on by the city to restore some of Korea’s natural streams. However, everyone was so cold no one got off the bus – Don and I were going to, but his foot was not a willing party being that it, also, was asleep.
The bus then drove us to Insa-Dong which is another tourist attraction. It is another shopping district and has more traditional Korean galleries and shops. Don and I both really liked this particular place, the restaurants were very inviting with the delicious smells coming from them, though now we were not hungry for noodles. We made a stop into the local Burger King; the seating arrangements are much fancier here than one would think not to mention that it is three stories high. Then we ventured into a historic park. This park, I don’t know the name, contained historic artifacts and the story of how Korea was freed from Japan after WWII. Most of the statues were written in Korean, but a few were in English and they basically said, “We are a unique culture and we will be free to live in our own way”.
Cheong Wa Dae (“Blue House”) is the official house of the Korean President; the phrase “blue house” refers to the blue green tiles on the roof. We were not allowed to go into the Blue House, but we were told we could take pictures – So I started taking pictures and a security guard approaches me and says (with his index fingers crossed in an ‘x’) “No, pictures!” …. The funny thing is I have no idea what picture I took that could cause problems for the Korean government, and if you ask me the picture I took was terrible, all you could see is traffic a roof top of a building with a mountain in the background. Whatever. It was late in the day, and again I would like to point out that, it was really cold. The light breeze cut through our layers. Anyway, there was a nice gift shop here and we bought some of the best green tea we had ever tasted. It was delicious.
Snowboarding and Skiing in Korea
Our First Christmas
Our first Christmas together as “Mr. and Mrs.” was really fun and full of surprises. On Christmas Eve we had two officer friends over, Andy and Richard, for the debut of my first Christmas meal – it was excellent! The turkey was very juicy and tender; it was made with tangerines and pineapples with pepper and ginger spices. We also had salad, deviled eggs, croissants, stuffing, and desert was homemade applesauce with ice cream. A delicious spread of food, and there were hardly any leftovers.
Don and I decided to open gifts that Christmas Eve night so we could get out the door on time for the Seoul City trip. Together we decided on a limit of twenty-five dollars – we successfully hit the limit! I got Don Crayons with a coloring pad (inside joke), hand warmers, a card… I hit my limit (twenty-five dollars doesn’t get one very far these days). He was very excited about the hand warmers. :) Don, my dear love, handed me a box in a plastic bag, I opened it and to my surprise I found a tennis game for a Wii.
“Don, um, I think you have to have a Wii to play the game.” Don grins from ear to ear, “Yes! So can we get one?!?!?” “Maybe we should look at how much money we have been spending and figure -” “I can go get one right now!” “What? The BX isn’t open its 11pm.” “No they’re open – special Christmas hours," said Don with a grin spanning his entire face. “I don’t think it’s open… Well, I am not going. It is REALLY cold outside!” “OK! I’ll be back!”
Before I could say anything else Don had his coat on and was out the door. I sat there for about eight flights of stairs in contemplative thought….
“I’m not sure when the last time it was I saw him run out the door that fast that was entertaining! I can’t believe he’s going outside – way too cold. I married a crazy person, to go outside for an electronic machine that can be bought tomorrow tonight and it’s FREEZING outside. At least he didn’t make me go, wait, it would be hilarious if he already had the Wii in the car and just had to go to the car….” Door beeps, the lock is opening, “Honey, did you forget something? Or did you leave the Wii in the car?”
As he walked through the door with three or four bags in his hands with a huge smile on his face, we both start cracking up. In addition to the game, I got a hooded scarf and a pedometer. So much for gift limits!
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