This weekend, I went to Bukansan National Park, within Seoul. I am unclear as to the total area this national park consumes, but it is very large, and for a $1.60 it's yours to explore. It's a popular place among both locals and tourists as it is home to some of the best rockclimbing, hiking, and cultural relics such as Bukhansanseong Fortress. Within the deep valleys you can spot many small temples and hermitages. Not knowing what I was truly getting myself into, I obliged to go on the 837m hike to the top with some people from the school.
So, from what I thought was the top of the mountain, was actually only about a quarter of the way! You can already see about half of the entire city of Seoul.
Mid mountain was kind enough to provide a small map to remind you, just in case you forgot, that you were not even close to the top and just how much farther it actually was.
But I still had a smile on my face, despite the fact that trees are almost growing horizontally!
I saw more hikers on the trail than I would ever see on a trail back in Canada. In fact, there was a point where I actually had to stop and wait in a line to get around the next corner as the trail was quickly becoming more technical. Not that that stopped the 90 year old Korean grandmothers who put us to shame by actually passing us on the trail because we were moving to slow.
Closer to the top I was beginning to understand just how serious of a "hike" this was. I would like to call it, "one step from death", but hey, that's just me.
Onward and upward and finally at the top! See Seoul in the background!
We had to pay our respects to Buddha at the bottom of the mountain.
A country with 10 million people in it's capital alone certaintly has its challenges, or does it? Certaintly, with such a large population, some adaptations have needed to take place for order to remain in such a society. Let me be the first one to give my appreciation and a cyber handshake to the South Koreans. It's a good thing North America exceeds it's land mass by its people because we are spoiled.
1. MANDATORY RECYCLING.
Ummm, hello? Why can't we implement this into North American society. It's BRILLIANT! Frankly, I can't believe it never even crossed my mind before. Garbage is such a responsibilty in Korea. All trash must be neatly separated into one of three piles. All food garbage is separted from regular garbage. You must purchase pink garbage bags which are used only for disposing of regular trash consisting of our usual plastics, wrappers, ect. Then, the food is kept separate. A neat little trick I learned in my first three days here...keep a bag in the freezer with all of your food garbage so as to keep the fruit flies and smell away. As in Canada, ALL bottles must be recycled, which granted most of us do anyway, but there is still an element of laziness in all of us, in which we throw the odd bottle or two out. There is no laziness here. If you are caught not properly disposing your garbage, it's a $1000 fine! Yup! That's a good way to enforce recycling.
2. PAPER CUPS
Drinking water of out mini slices of paper is an art that I am still perfecting. Perhaps it's just the city I live in, but most businesses have a filtered water station with cute little triangular paper cups, yup, you guessed it, made out of recycled material and are recycleable. Many shop owners are also very accomodating in filling up your water bottle for you.
3. Take out is not really take out
This may sound a bit odd, but actually makes a lot of sense and also saves the country being littered with take out "waste". You know, those styrofoam containers and plastic forks. So, when you order take out here, it actually comes to you on one of the restaurant plates. When you are done with your meal, you simply place it outside your door and someone comes along and picks it up. I especially like the "no dishes for me to do" idea behind this.
Well, there you have it. Korea is an environmentally friendly country and we could certaintly take some notes.
Hi everyone! One of the teachers snagged me last weekend and was kind enough to take me into downtown . These are just a few pics that I managed to take. The name of the palace is and was built in 1395, the Joseon Dynasty, King Taejo, one year after he moved the capital from Gaeseong to Seoul. It was the primary residence of the royal family, but was invaded by the Japanese in 1592. Many of the buildings have been destroyed but this is what remains with some repair work. A full restoration will begin in 2009.
I’ve managed to meet a nice girl from named Anne and we have designated ourselves as each others travel buddy, which is really nice. I feel much more comfortable getting lost with someone else.
We went for a hike yesterday in the hills behind Migeum (the city where our school is located). I must send pics of that experience. Although, these are not mountains per se, it was still a vigorous hike. One I am ashamed to say, where even 80 year old Korean seniors were passing me on the trail. A spider was kind enough to help me along the way, by scaring me half to death by its shear size! Didn’t get a picture of that, I was running too quickly.
Once you arrive at the top of the hill, there is an outdoor gym where you will see everyone stretching after the hike. It’s actually a very brilliant idea. I’m not even stiff today because of it. There is a lot of value on physical education in this country. Once at the top, there was a little temple upon which many Koreans sat in complete peace. We didn’t talk once we reached the top, only sat and ate lunch in silence with everyone else.
