We knew Seoraksan would be a little more difficult to get to than other destinations we had visited. And our journey did turn into a mini-adventure. We took a bus to a larger city outside of the park, planning to catch a smaller local bus to Seoraksan and our guest house there, the Seoraksan Morning Inn. We ran around in the rain for a while trying to determine which bus to take to Seorak-dong and from where. Luckily, we spotted some other white-folk with backpacks and instinctively gravitated toward them. The hope in this move is always that the Westerners in question will be going to the same place and might know better what they are doing. These particular backpackers had the good fourtine of running into an English-speaking local, eager to help them. Their guide was able to help them, then us, to the correct bus stop and onto the right bus. We chatted with our fellow travelers (actually, kind of a rare sight in Korea where most Westerners we had seen had been English teachers, ex-pats, and military personnel) during the bus ride. They were two younger German guys who had just graduated high school. Their trip sounded like a lot of fun - from Dubai to South Korea - and they had much to say in favor of couch surfing. Easily the best quote from them was when one said, "We love to paw-tay!" This phrase, spoken with a German accent, made Jeff's day. Deliiight-fuuulll!
We rolled off the bus after about an hour and parted ways with the Germans. They went to their clearly marked Garden Inn, while we stumbled around for 5 or 10 minutes in search of the much harder to find Morning Inn. We finally found it and it was far creepier than the photos on their website. Massive and about 20 years past its prime, it looked like something our of The Shining. Our room was one of the crustiest we had stayed in up to that point. Howie Mandel could not have spent five minutes in it. It was dark and we were tired. The inn didn't appear to have any other guests at first, though we later heard some people yelling in the parking lot and could make out one girl shouting repetadly, "Fuck America! I fucking hate America!" She sounded to us to be American herself, but clearly she loved to party. The combination of the awkward owners, the apparence of the inn, the seemingly empty town populated only by mist and dim street lights, and the grungy room left us felling a little uncertain about our surroundings.
The next morning we woke up to blue skies and the bright, shining sun. There was a marvelous peak visible from our room and that along with the clear weather and singing birds lifted our spirits considerably. We went to the tourist office and found that we were about a week from the full opening of the park. There were only a handful of hikes available from the Seorak-dong side of the park. The first thing we noticed was that although Seoraksan had the most white people we had seen in South Korea, Korean's seemed most in awe of our whiteness. We were approached the most for introductions and conversations in Seoraksan. We even caused a small backup on the main road to the park when we stopped for breakfast on the second day. Several cars in a row slowed as the drivers and all passengers ogled us. We're talking serious rubber-necking here. Heads turning as the vehicles rolled past us. Just inside the park on the first day we joined Korean tourists in taking photos of a bear-and-cub statue when Annette was mobbed by a gaggle of little girls. One came right up to her and handed her a flower. The girl was beaming. "Hello! Hello!" they all shouted in a cute chorus. Annette felt like Lady Gaga surrounded by her fans! One of the little girls called out, "How are you?" "I'm fine," Annette replied. "How are you?" One little girl said "Good." Another said, "Fine." And another chirped our favorite response, "I'm unbelievable!" This was the "We love to party" moment of the day!
Jeff had declared less than two weeks before Seoraksan that our hike on Miyajima was one of the most memorable of his life. Two of the three hikes in Seoraksan easily blew Miyajima away. One of the best parts of hiking in Korea was noticing all of the little differences between how Koreans hike and how Americans hike. First, the outfit is of great importance. Korean cities are crammed with hiking shops filled with neon coats and black pants. This seems to be the national hiking outfit of choice. Many people we encountered had this outfit, along with fancy backpacks, hats, hiking poles, and cool sunglasses. Curiously, other people, mostly younger, but not always, chose high-heels and mini-skirts or jeans and tennis shoes. Some hiking trails demand little more than this sort of clothing, but the first two hikes we took in Seoraksan certainly demanded more. The trails were mostly paved lain with stone, but when it came to gaining altitude wooden and metal staircases are built straight up hills and mountains. These were the second and third major differences between hiking in America and Korea. At home, trails are mostly maintained dirt with bridges or wood used only when necessary. In Korea cement is utilized liberally, and switchbacks are scrapped for
steep staircases. The first hike we took ended in almost two kilometers of metal staircases ascending straight up a sheer rock face. The hike was difficult, the stairs bizarre, and the pay-off, to quote our little friend from earlier in the day, was "unbelievable!" Getting to the top of the rock we climbed would have been impossible without advanced climbing gear and experience. Once at the top, some dudes had set up a generator and were snapping photos for quick printing and selling. Cold drinks were also for sale. You see, the metal work didn't stop with the stairs. The top of the hike culminated in two levels of metal platforms for celebrating and photo ops.
Click HERE for more photos of Seorksan National Park!
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