Wow, what a day I just had…
Today I went to Namhansanseong, which is a huge mountain and national park southeast of Seoul. As mentioned, Seoul is famous for the mountains that surround it, and many Seoulites love to take day or weekend trips and go hiking or camping in these mountains. I had read about how chicly Seoul hikers dress…it’s not like American hikers with blue jeans and hiking boots—no, no, no. These guys “dress up” for hiking; they all wear sleek specialized hiking ‘jogging suits,’ Darth Vader-like sun masks, and, of course, many of them use store-bought hiking sticks. Anyway, back to the mountain…
Today I was further away from Seoul proper than anytime before, and probably anytime in the future during my stay. After transferring four times on the subway, for a total of an hour-long ride, I took a bus up to the entrance of Namhansanseong park. I thought that once I reached the entrance there would be a short walk to the main trail, but boy was I wrong. I had to walk 45 minutes up a 35-45 degree concrete trail through the woods just to get to the main hiking trail. I swear I almost died during this walk. I can say without reservation that it was the most difficult walk of my life, and one I don’t think I could ever do again. Along the way there were these interesting rock formations and some Buddhist temples [see photos]. It was a nice walk and lots of people were doing it, but most were going down rather than up…
The worst part of the walk was when I reached a set of wooden stairs in the forest [see photos] which I thought was going to lead me to the remainder of the trail. I got to the top of the stairs—a total of six flights, or 180 steps (and yes I counted)—and guess what? There was a bus stop! Apparently, many people just take the bus to that point, walk down the stairs, and hit the concrete trail midway, before going to the main trail. Despite this discouraging error, I made my way down the stairs and back to the concrete trail and continued until I got to Nammun, the famous south gate [see photos]. Actually, Nammun was just the beginning of the trail, as I said. Nammun is a gate that was built 500 years ago; it’s attached to the ancient wall that surrounds Seoul. The main trail, as I’d later discover, would take me along the inside perimeter of this wall, to all of the other ancient gates (north, east, and west). But before venturing along the main trail and seeing the other gates, I had to get something to eat. I’d read that the restaurants about 1 kilometer away from the south gate served great pajeon, which is onion and egg in a batter, sort of like a pancake. Unfortunately, I had trouble communicating with the waitress in the restaurant, so I wound up with SQUID pajeon! [See video in separate post of me in the restaurant]. Luckily, the squid pajeon came with a few vegetarian side dishes, and they were good. But as for the pajeon, well, do you remember that seen in Seinfeld where Jerry is served mutton and he hides it in the napkin so as to avoid offending the chef? I need not say more (except I must add that my backpack still smells like squid).
From that point I went back to the main trail which took almost two hours to complete. Along the way there were several Buddhist shrines as well as other ancient gates. Also, there were several vistas where I got a wonderful, breathtaking, panoramic view of the city of Seoul. Just take a look at the photos and video and remember: I was at street-level when I began the hike, and look how high I was when I reached the pinnacle! It was truly an amazing experience. [Words really can’t describe it, but in the second post there’s a video of the view from one of the lookout points].
After partially descending the mountain I came across the village of Jungro which, like most of Seoul, was decorated to celebrate Buddha’s birthday. I was so hungry at this point and there were many restaurants, but they all specialized in rabbit and dog…yes, you read that right—dog! Outside one of the restaurants was a small animal pen where, in America, you’d see goats or cows, but in Jungro there were some big dogs which all looked alike and were obviously not pets.
Anyway, I hopped on the bus and headed down the mountain and took the subway back to Sangdo. Once in Sangdo, I had the pleasure of meeting up with my old student Sue (Yun Suk), and I bought her dinner and she gave me a lovely present. We reminisced about INTERLINK and had a very nice time [see photo].
I’m not sure what else to say. It was an amazing day. Although Namhansanseong does not have the spirituality of Inwangsan, the mountain I visited last week, it was still such a pleasure to visit. It’s an experience I will never forget…
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