Scarecrows

Last time I was out cycling, I noticed these scarecrows from up the road. However it had started to rain, so I didn't have a chance to come check them out.
The weather was great today, though, so I came to see what was going on. Apparently it's part of a "Rural Community Improvement Project" and so they've put up about 40 scarecrows around a couple of the rice fields.
I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a tourist attraction, or if it's just to convince the locals that living in the sticks isn't so bad, and no, they don't have to move to the big city for entertainment.
Notice the one in the middle has a (real) handbag.
This one looked particularly dangerous.

Cycling around Donghae

I finally bought my first road bike in Korea about a month ago. I'd been reluctant because there are so many idiot drivers here, but so far, I haven't been hit. I don't like cycling in town, but within 20 minutes it's pretty easy to get away from all the traffic.
I'm heading to Taiwan at the end of August and I'm cycling up the east coast, so I've been trying to get out at least once a week to get into cycling shape. Yesterday I headed up to what is as close to a lake as we've got in this area (it's a reservoir). The weather was beautiful, but going up hill in this heat is quite tiring.
Further up the "lake" there was a little rest stop with a couple of benches and 2 of these wooden carvings. You see these guys all over Korea, but I can't remember what they're supposed to represent.
On the way back down (which was way more fun than going up), I stopped to take this picture of all the rice fields. Almost every piece of land that you see in Korea that's relatively flat has some kind of crop growing on it. But because the country is so mountainous, they can't use all the big machinery they use in North America, so a lot of it is still done by hand.

Another trip up Mureung Valley

I haven't blogged anything for a very long time, so I decided to finally get off my ass and post something.
The weather was looking good for today so my friend and I headed up to Mureung Valley to go for a hike. Considering it's still the rainy season, the weather was unusually good today. It was sunny, not too hot, and not too humid, so we made it to our destination half way up the mountain relatively easily, and not completely drenched in sweat.
We stopped to have a bite to eat and relax for a while at my super secret waterfall, but unfortunately her big head is blocking it.

The Bitches

While in Jeju City on Jeju Island I was wandering around the City Hall area looking for a place to eat when I came across this restaurant/pub. Unfortunately, it wasn't open for the day yet so I went for Indian instead.

Safety First!

Because a lot of the apartment buildings in Korea have very narrow halls (and often, like mine, no elevators) it's very common for Koreans to use trucks like these when they move to get their stuff in and out.
However if you look at the guy at the top on the small platform with the tabletop, you'll notice there's no guard rail and he doesn't have any kind of safety harness. He's 5 floors up. If anyone bumps him or the truck, or if he slips, he's falling to his death. And yet every time I've seen these trucks (I see them at least a few times a month) I've never seen them with safety equipment. These guys are nuts.

Snowstorm

It started snowing Thursday in the middle of the night and kept going for the next 36 hours. It's stopped now, but they're predicting a lot more on Monday. We've got over a meter now, and the city's pretty much shut down.
I went for a hike yesterday when we only had about 50 cm and it was a little difficult to walk but not too bad.
I went out again today and it was crazy. I had to clear a path with my arms first and then step forward, then repeat. I went up towards the mountain and it probably took me an hour to go about 200m. But I had fun and got a ton of exercise.

Here you can see some of the bamboo trying to break free of the crushing snow load.


A bunch of finches (?) waiting out the storm.

Lunar New Year

Well Asia just finished celebrating the Lunar New Year, so I ended up with a 5-day long weekend. I bussed it down to Busan and hopped on a nice short flight (only 50 minutes!!!) to Jeju Island, a huge island (by Korean standards) off the south coast. I knew it wouldn't be hot, but I knew it would be 5 to 10 degrees warmer than my place, which was good enough.
Due to travel time, effectively I had 3 days so my plan was to spend the first two hiking on the Jeju Olle Trails, a system they started to put together a couple of years ago to attract more tourists. They've got almost 20 different routes now, and they're designed so that most of them are connected end to end, allowing you to almost circumnavigate the whole island. Most of the stages take 6 to 8 hours, so that's a lot of hiking. I had no interest in hiking the whole island (nor the time) but I thought it'd be a good way to see some nice scenery.
I started out on the southwest coast at Sanbangsan, a mountain with a temple on the side of it (including laughing Buddha, above) and some kind of shrine in a cave in the middle of it.

At the same temple, I took this picture of these gold wheels, which I think are Tibetan in origin, but I really have no idea.
Heading down from the temple to the Yongmeori Coast gives some amazing views of the sandstone cliffs, and because I got there early, I basically had it to myself. The water was an amazing blue, but unfortunately as it's early February, it's still way too cold to swim in.
I then started hiking on Jeju Olle Trail 9 in the reverse direction (the trails are set up to be walked in a clockwise direction around Jeju). I figured it'd be just as easy as walking in the proper direction, but apparently I was mistaken. The signs are placed where people going the right way will easily see them, so I missed a lot of the markers but I still had a great time. This is one of the beaches I hiked along, looking back towards the Yongmeori Coast, above.
I don't know what kind of bird this is, but there were quite a few of them on the south coast of Jeju. Kind of similar to a robin but with the blue-gray instead (and robins don't usually look like they want to kick my ass).

From the beach I headed inland into the Andeok Valley. I got lost again, and came across this trail that looked quite new, but was overgrown so hadn't been used for a while. It took me down to a nice creek with a little waterfall.

As I got closer to my base in Seogwipo, I was able to take some pictures of snow-covered Hallasan, the highest mountain in South Korea. However it was pretty hazy, so it's difficult to see it behind this rock wall.

Gunung Kinabalu

After a great time on the Sungai Kinabatangan, I hopped on a bus and headed inland to the tiny mountain town of Kundasang. Kundasang serves as the base for the nearby Kinabalu National Park, home to Gunung (Mount) Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Borneo at 4,095m.

I planned to do some hiking in the Park, but although climbing the mountain is quite popular (and very expensive due to the fees and the hiring of mandatory, but unnecessary guides), I had decided just to do some day hikes around the main park office.

My main concern about climbing to the summit was altitude sickness. I've climbed Mt. Fuji twice, and although about 300m lower at 3,776m, I got altitude sickness both times. For me it meant a pounding headache and being even more irritable than usual.

I had a nice time hiking around the park office as the trails were deserted (everyone comes to do the summit), and although I didn't see much wildlife, just some birds and butterflies, it was great hiking at 20 degrees with no humidity.
While walking on one of the roads near Kundasang I came across this car jacked up while awaiting a new tire. Apparently just leaving it in the middle of the road is okay here.

Sungai Kinabatangan

I'm finally getting around to finishing posting my pictures from my trip to Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia from back in August.
After leaving Sepilok, I headed to the Sungai Kinabatangan (sungai means river) for a few days in the hopes of spotting some wildlife along the riverbank. Due to the vast tracts of palm trees throughout Sabah, the remaining wildlife flock to the areas that still remain virgin forest. Much of this area is along the banks of the Kinabatangan so it's one of the best areas for seeing rhinos, elephants, orangutans as well as proboscis monkeys (pictured below, the males have huge noses).
I found a fantastic place to stay on the Internet, the Last Frontier Resort Lodge, so I'd arranged to spend 2 nights there. The Lodge is perched up on a hill overlooking the river, and is quite small with only 4 rooms. It's owned by a Belgian guy and his Malaysian-Chinese partner. They were both fantastic and did their best to ensure that the guests had a great time. Both nights I was there, all of the other guests were of different European nationalities, mostly Dutch.
I went out twice on river trips, but unfortunately I didn't see any of the big animals (elephants, rhinos and orangutans). I saw hundreds of proboscis monkeys, though, as well as many of some other species of monkey. I was quite excited to see the proboscis monkeys as I've wanted to see one ever since I saw a picture of one in a newspaper several years ago. The weather wasn't really cooperating, however, and so I didn't get any great pictures.
I don't even remember taking this picture, but I think it's a butterfly.
A little lizard of some kind checking to see if the coast is clear.
This is a leetch. Funny, I'd always thought of them as being black and fat.
This is a hornbill I saw from the eating area at the lodge. Apparently there are a few in the area that occasionally come by.
I went for a hike through the hill and came across this crazy furry caterpillar. It was huge.
This wild boar approached the fence on the edge of the Lodge. They have a small garden and apparently he comes by sometimes and tries to get at the vegetables. This was the first time I'd ever had a clear look at a wild boar.

Squid Island

When I was in Ulleungdo a couple of weeks ago, one of the first things that was readily apparent was how much they love squid there. Apparently the waters around the island are infested with the disgusting little creatures, and so Ulleungdo supplies a large portion of the squid consumed throughout the mainland.
All along the waterfront and on tops of many homes and buildings were racks of squid drying in the sun.

They even have a squid mascot, Oggidongyi, who you can see plastered everywhere. Here he is half way up the mountain guiding lost tourists.

Apparently he can even change colour.

And here he is with his best friend, Haehorang, a talking pumpkin. Ulleungdo is also famous for its pumpkin, and one of their most popular non-squid products is pumpkin taffy.

Ulleungdo

Last weekend, I finally made it out to Ulleungdo, a small island in the middle of nowhere in the Sea of Japan. The ferry from the mainland actually leaves only about 3 km from my apartment, so I should've gone a long time ago. However it's a 160 km fast ferry ride which takes from 2.5 to 3 hrs, and as I've had several bad experiences on fast ferries before, I was concerned about hitting rough water.
I was able to get a ticket on the Friday morning with a return ticket for Sunday morning, giving me almost 2 full days on the island. The ferry docks in the tiny village of Dodong-ri, and when I got off the ferry I was overwhelmed by all the Koreans standing around and just wanted to get away from it all. There was an information centre right at the port, so I stopped in to grab a map and ended up talking to them. They phoned a minbak (cheap family hotel) and arranged a room for me in the little village I was planning to end up in that night. I don't normally book hotels ahead of time, but I wasn't sure what time I'd be getting into town and as the place was so small I didn't want to show up in the middle of the night in November and have everything booked up.
With that taken care of, I started heading for the trail up Seonginbong, the highest mountain on the island at 984 m. The first section of the trail was fantastic, and I didn't see a single person for the first half hour or so. Unfortunately, it soon joined up with another trail, and on this trail was a large group of Korean men spread out over several hundred metres. Most Koreans I meet while hiking are great, but the flip side is that they're bloody loud. For some reason they feel this need to let out loud yells occasionally, perhaps in a misguided attempt at affirming their manhood. Regardless, it's bloody annoying when you'd rather enjoy the peace and quiet.
I tried to get ahead of them, but as I was carrying a heavy backpack and they had no packs and it was quite steep, I didn't have the energy to stay in the lead.
Anyways, I finally made it to the top, where there were great views around the island, as well as the rock in the picture above marking the summit.
I had a sandwich and a drink at the peak, and then headed down another trail to make my way towards the village of Nari-bunji, where I had my hotel reservation. I was pushing myself to go fairly quickly, as I didn't want to be going down the mountain in the dark. I ended up arriving around 5pm, with about an hour of light to spare. The village was literally a couple of little restaurants for the tourists and 2 hotels and a handful of houses. It would've been a nice place to spend a few days just hiking and wandering around, but I didn't have the time.
I got up the next morning and headed for the north coast. From there I headed east and then back inland in search of the Naesujeon Trail which I figured would give me some good views over the east coast. It was a very long, steep climb to get to the trailhead, but it was a very nice trail, and relatively flat until near the end where I started going back down.
When I got back to the coast I ended up in Jeodong-ri, a small fishing village a couple of kilometres from the ferry port. In the picture above, you can see a couple of giant penguins and apparently their "appendages" are used to load boats, although they weren't in use when I passed through.
I then took a seaside trail cut into the rock to check out the view from the lighthouse. It was a nice walk but none of the pictures turned out that well due to the lack of light on the rocks and the haze that seemed to hang over the island.
I then made my way back to Dodong-ri and headed to the information centre again to look for a place to stay for the night. As it was Saturday and it's peak season for the leaves changing colour, most places were full. The very kind woman working at the info centre called at least 15 different places on my behalf trying to find a vacancy. Even though my Korean is terrible, I understood enough of what she was saying. Every call went something like this:
"Hello. Do you have any rooms available? I have a foreigner looking for a room. It's okay because he speaks very good Korean...Oh. You don't have any rooms. Okay. Thank you."
I found it odd that it was even relevant that I was a foreigner, but she told every single place that I was. Anyways, she finally found a place for me at a hotel only a five minute walk up the hill and she also gave me some green tea while I was waiting.

Buryeong Valley

On Friday I took the bus a couple of hours down the coast to the small town of Uljin. There I caught a city bus about 20km inland to Buryeong Temple, which unfortunately, was under renovation.
The area is famous for Buryeong Valley, which is a beautiful stretch of river that heads back to the coast. Because there is no hiking trail that follows the river, I decided to just walk back down the road to town, figuring this would give me the best views.
The weather wasn't with me, though, as it was cloudy with a few sprinkles throughout the day. This was great for walking, but horrible for the pictures of the mountains. I saw these wildflowers on the side of the road when I stopped to take a picture of the river.
Although I would have preferred to have been able to walk the whole way along the river, the advantage was that the river was almost completely untouched.
There are lots of persimmon trees in the area, so one of the houses had strung a bunch up to dry.

Odaesan National Park - Sogeumgang

I finally made my first trip to Odaesan NP, which is just outside Gangneung, a city about 40 minutes north of me. It's actually the closest national park to me, so I'm not sure why I never made it there before.
I headed to the Sogeumgang area which is in the northeast corner of the park. It only takes the 40 minute bus ride to Gangneung, and then a local bus for just under an hour to the park entrance.
Unfortunately on the city bus there was a class from a boys' high school also going to the park so the bus was bursting and we were squeezed in like sardines, and it was probably at double the legal capacity. However there don't seem to be a lot of laws in Korea, only guidelines, so apparently it wasn't a problem.
The main trail in the region follows the river and so there are dozens of waterfalls along the way. Fortunately the main attraction is the first waterfall, and so most people just walk to that, take a few pictures, and then head home. That meant that there weren't too many people on the trail past that point.
The leaves have started changing colour in the last week or two, but they still haven't reached their peak yet in this region. However I definitely noticed more colour the higher I climbed.

Shimanami Kaido - Part 2

As I mentioned in the last post, the bike route has special paths for the sections leading up to the bridges. In the picture above, you can see a lane through a bamboo forest.
On one of the islands I came across this huge brontosaurus(?) on the side of the road. It seemed very out of place, and there was no sign (in English or Japanese) to explain why it was there.
On the second day, I awoke about 5:30 in the morning to a crazy thunderstorm. I'd heard the weather forecast that it was going to rain most of the day, but that didn't make it any easier to get up and get going. It ended up raining off and on all morning until I finished the trip in Imabari around lunch time.
On a nice downhill run after one of the bridges you can see this retired chopper from the Japanese Self-Defense Force (their military).
In Canada, you usually have to go to the beach to see crabs, but in Japan I've seen many crabs quite a ways inland from the ocean. I don't know if they've evolved to not need to go in the water or not, but it's still strange coming across crabs half way up a hill.