Day 06 - Heading up North

The alarm rang at 4.30am, I got up from the warm cozy bed and headed to the washroom. Cleaned up and got ready for our next journey to Suwon. At 5.30am, we met up Tae woon and shin at Bio Tech village entrance. Shin had a solemn expression on his face, probably because of the arguments with his girl friend the night before. Tae woon’s car was big enough to fit all our luggages, fortunately. And there was still enough space to fit Shin.:))

The early morning streets of Gimhae were not quiet at all. There were many vehicles on the road, I supposed Koreans are active workers with high productivity. When we arrived at Gupo station, we were still early. Taewoon bought us some Gim bap as breakfast, how nice of him. My head was throbbing with pain and felt dizzy, I sat on the bench and observed the news on tv, displaying the temperature of cities all over Korea. Gimhae was not very cold. I didn’t feel the chill that morning, but I wasn’t feeling comfortable. Weird. Soon, it was time to leave, we bid goodbye, to one another, and thanked them repeatedly for their warm hospitality, which we will never forget. I guess we left with heavy footsteps, felt reluctant to leave this small, but peaceful town with warm hearted people. At 6.28 sharp, Mugunghwa train arrived, we hurriedly got our backpacks and trotted in. In a few minutes after settled down, we fell asleep. I was half conscious all the way, due to my severe headache, I didn’t take much breakfast. Soon before we reached suwon, I felt much better after going to the washroom a few times and a lot of sleep. :p
The train stopped in front of Suwon station at 11.11am sharp. I was very impressed with the punctuality of Korean public transportation.

At the arrival hall, Prof Kim welcomed us with a big grin. We followed him to the place where he parked his car. We were practically running our way there. As we reached, he introduced us to his friend, Mr. Soh who would be guiding us to Seoraksan. Mr. Soh served in the military for 3 years around the area of Seoraksan, that was why he was very familiar with the route there. We squeezed all our luggage at the boot and the back seat. Poor Siewchun, he got to cramp himself together with the luggage at the back.

We left Suwon immediately. Using Yeodong Expressway to Seoraksan. Around 12.30pm, we stopped at a rest house for lunch. The sky was gloomy, and the wind was strong. We dashed into shops and ordered our food. I had Bibimbap for lunch. It was more expensive than what we ate in Busan. Anyway, it still tasted good. After lunch, Prof Kim and Jimmy went to carry a box of food, there were fruits inside. We ate some Korean pears. They ate once in Hansu’s house, which I did not take that time as I was having shower.

Then, We continued our journey. It was drizzling outside, and everyone fell asleep. I could not sleep as there was no supporter behind my head. To neutralize my boredom, I looked out the windows and admired the scenery that we do not have back home. Our next destination was Odaesan National Park. It was a surprise visit, as we were not told before hand. And outside, spreading all the way up the mountainside, were the colours we had come to see.

We were duly appreciative. "Wonderful!" "We're here just at the right time ..." "The colours are so beautiful!", “I would like to stay here!” etc. etc. And it was indeed a very pleasant scene – trees clothed in fire.

Prof Kim pulled over by the road, and we got down to take some shots of the unspeakable charming scenery. Gangwando province has many recreational opportunities such as camping, mountain climbing, jungle tracking, boating, canoeing, sight seeing and much more. After experiencing the Korean everyday lifestyle in Busan, now it was time for us to be close to the nature.

We continued uphill to a temple. There were many lanterns in the temple. According to Prof Kim, they wrote their wishes on the lantern and it will come true. He translated some wishes written on the lantern. Many were sent in by students, praying for good results in examination. After that, we went to another temple down hill. There were many temples in Korea, as these holy places were free from government taxes. After temple visiting, we had a stroll at the forest. It was when we could have a closer view and felt ourselves surrounded by the autumn air.

Approximately 5pm, we left Odaesan National Park.. again back to Yeodong Expressway, we traveled across quarter of Inje, and also the 38th division line. After the world war two, the 38th division line served as the demarcation line that divided the nation into two where the north part was occupied by the Soviet forces and the south governing power belonged to Japan until the establishment of the American military government. Many people were sacrificed during the outbreak of the Korean War, as we had seen in Taekgukgi.

On the way, we stopped by at a mart and Mr Soh bought Soju. We saw many young people with uniforms along the street. They were students, I was surprised they hang out late in the afternoon. According to Prof Kim, they were having extra classes at private institute, which we called, tuition.

We continued our journey as the sky getting darker. Soon, we reached the mountain area. The vehicle sped along the winding road up the hill. No street lights, no other passerby. It felt as if we were in a haunted movie. Finally, we saw a few small huts in the distant and pulled over. Prof got out and spoke to the man in the hut, and we also got down to stretch our legs. Few minutes later, he got the keys and gestured us to get back to the car, and drove us to the chalet. There was a row of wooden chalets up there. In the night, we could see nothing except the small light on the front porch of the corridor between the huts. It was a thrilling experience. We did not know which house the key belong to. So we searched from the left. There were two isolated huts at the corner. Prof and Mr Soh went closer to the door, and they said it was the wrong house. Finally, we found the chalet that we checked in. It was the left one in the middle row. Hurriedly, we got our luggage into the hut and unpack our stuff. Cathy and I shared a hut, Jimmy and Siewchun another, Prof and Mr. Soh another.

Obviously, we were starving after a long journey. Prof Kim and jimmy went out to carry all the food that he brought all the way from Incheon. We explore the small little house and found that there were some cooking equipments. Great, we were going to prepare a korean dinner. Cathy and I washed all the plates and woks in the cabinet as they certainly had been unused for quite some time. Then we began cutting cucumber, and roast the pork. Prof Kim brought a sauce called samjang. It was supposed be eaten with raw cucumber. This was a wonderful combination! Jimmy and prof kim cooked some pork as well, just like samgeopsa.

Soon, Mr. Soh joined us for dinner. It was a fabulous dinner probably because we were so hungry. We had rice, seaweed, cucumber with samjang and samgeopsa (pork). Then we also had some fruits. After the satisfying dinner, they all went back to their chalets to clean up. Needless to say, the girls will end up cleaning the mess! Haha... So we washed the dishes and boil some water. Prof said, we shall meet outside at 8pm! Hurriedly, we had a quick shower and met them at the front yard.

I saw everyone was there except Mr. Soh, Prof said he wanted some rest. It was quite tiring anyway.. Prof brought us to a small stream nearby. The place was surely dark. But there was a street light somewhere. The stream was beneath the bridge, it was quite rocky but prof went down. We were hesitant for awhile as it was totally rocky and slippery down there. Soon, I saw jimmy went down, so we tailed behind him. Prof said this was for our unforgettable memory. Then he folded his pants and dipped his feet into the piercing cold stream. We were terrified, unable to imagine how cold the water would be. I was already in my sweatshirt, feeling colder than we were in Busan. Dipping my legs into the water was indeed an unforgettable memory. The coldness hit me. But soon I was numb and felt warmer as the coldness in my feet was more intense than the chill in my body, so were the rest. We had some talking. Jimmy said he would be applying to study master in Korea. Prof told us some story as well. Anyway, we had a great time.

The night ended as we walked back to our chalets… hiding under the thick warm blankets, what a comfy place to rest our feet.