It was supposed to start raining yesterday afternoon, and then continue for the next few days, but it was sunny when I got up so I headed up to Mureung Valley again to check out the fall colours. Because it was Friday and I got up there by about 10am, it wasn't too busy. I headed for Yongchu Waterfall (below) and then made the steep hike up to my favourite place in the park, which is unnamed.
Unfortunately, a Korean couple had beat me there. When I arrived the woman was talking into her cellphone. Koreans seem to have no perception for volume, so they always seem to be talking about ten times louder than they need to. When she finally shut up, the man turned on his radio so they could listen to garbage. That's one of the things that drives me nuts about hiking in Korea - they can't just appreciate the sounds of nature, they've always got to be making noise.
I decided I didn't want to listen to them anymore, so I hiked up the stream another couple hundred metres and sat down for a light lunch. However, I could still hear her yapping occasionally, even over the stream.
As I made my way back to the parking lot, the clouds had started to move in, and unfortunately, due to the position of the sun, I was unable to get any good shots.
Now that it's October and the weather has cooled off and the leaves are changing colours, it's a great time to go hiking in Korea. So I decided to head north about 2 hours to Sokcho, a little coastal city that's the gateway to what's widely considered Korea's best national park, Mt. Seorak.
I arrived on Friday and wanted to get a few hikes in before all the Koreans arrived from Seoul for the weekend. So I started with Ulsanbawi (above), which I believe is the most popular hike in the park. Fortunately, it wasn't too busy yet, and so I was up and down in about 3 hours, and not stuck waiting in lines the whole way. 
You have to climb 808 stairs to get to the top, and here you can see one of the sections about two-thirds of the way up, although it's hard to see in the picture how steep it really was.
You'll notice all the Koreans are all decked out in their hiking gear, most of them with hats, gloves and jackets. I went up in a t-shirt and shorts, which got me a lot of stares, in addition to the "Look, it's a foreigner," stares.
On Friday afternoon after checking into my hostel, I went for a stroll around the harbour and saw these women (mostly, I think the one in the pink is a dude), detaching the day's catch from the fishing nets.
On Saturday I went hiking again, to a much more isolated section of the park, the Sibiseonnyeotang Valley, to avoid the crowds, however because the trail was so narrow, and there were many Korean tour groups, a lot of the time it felt like I was on a conveyor belt.
This last weekend was Chuseok in Korea (kind of a Korean Thanksgiving.) It's a huge travel period when most Koreans return from the cities to their hometowns, so the highways become parking lots.
There was a group of foreigners heading to Tsushima, which is a big Japanese island in between southeast Korea and the Japanese island of Kyushu. It's actually quite a bit closer to Korea, and apparently it has been Korean territory in the past. Anyways, I normally despise the idea of group travel, but I decided to give it a shot.
Most of them were coming together on a chartered bus from Seoul, but that didn't work for me, so I met up with them at the ferry terminal in Busan. We rented bicycles there, and then took them with us for the 2 hour ferry ride to Izuhara on the south end of the island. Our plan was to spend the first day and a half biking up the very mountainous island to the northern ferry terminal at Hitakatsu, and then our last morning taking it a little easier.
There were about 35 people in the group, most of whom were Americans teaching in Korea. I met a lot of good people, and even though I got impatient a few times waiting for others, all in all it was a fantastic experience.
On the last day, Sunday, my legs were killing me, but I decided to take off on my own and check out a few places by myself, unhindered by the group. I first went to Miuda Beach (top picture) which is apparently the nicest beach on the island. I had it all to myself for about 45 minutes, and then some of the others started showing up. I stayed for a bit, and then decided it was time to do some more exploring.
I made my way through some tiny little fishing villages until I finally arrived at the Korean lookout above. From here you can see the Korean peninsula when the weather is clear. I was able to see it, but it was fairly hazy, so I didn't take any pictures.
One of the best things about the trip was all the great Japanese people I met. Although my Japanese ability is quite low, I was able to have simple conversations with several people and they were all incredibly friendly and helpful. You don't get that so much in Korea.
For example, on the first day, I was riding with four American girls and we stopped for a rest after climbing one of the many hills. We happened to be in front of an older Japanese guy's office, so he came out to talk to us. I was the only one in our group who could speak Japanese, and he was just really excited to be talking to a group of foreigners. We verified our directions with him, and then went on our way.
About 3 or 4 hours later, when we were almost at our campground for the night, taking a breather at a rest stop, this same old man pulled up in his little mini car. I guess he was checking up on us, just to make sure we were all okay. So we talked a little bit longer, and then he gave me a Japanese book on the history of the island. Although I'll never read it, it was a really nice gesture.
The next night we were in a restaurant having okonomiyaki (aka Japanese pizza), and I started talking to a drunk Japanese guy. He was really animated (and drunk), and he ended up giving me a giant sweet potato pastry, which became my breakfast the next day.
This weekend made me realize just how much I miss being in Japan.
It was supposed to start raining yesterday afternoon, and then continue for the next few days, but it was sunny when I got up so I headed up to Mureung Valley again to check out the fall colours. Because it was Friday and I got up there by about 10am, it wasn't too busy. I headed for Yongchu Waterfall (below) and then made the steep hike up to my favourite place in the park, which is unnamed.
Unfortunately, a Korean couple had beat me there. When I arrived the woman was talking into her cellphone. Koreans seem to have no perception for volume, so they always seem to be talking about ten times louder than they need to. When she finally shut up, the man turned on his radio so they could listen to garbage. That's one of the things that drives me nuts about hiking in Korea - they can't just appreciate the sounds of nature, they've always got to be making noise.
