So I went to E9 for the first time the other day since Jan left. It had been about a month since I'd been in there and it was very wierd without him but I slowly reacclimated myself to the place. I went by myself after work (and before school) for a quick bite and a beer. It was the first sunny day in spring and it was so nice and peaceful. I really enjoyed the experience. With a beer club under my belt, I got to know everyone at the bar pretty well and the regulars too. It really is the place where everyone knows your name. Sam was waiting tables that afternoon. It was great to see her again. She's super nice and such a decent person. Kind of a rare quality these days.

For the last night in Korea, our grandma gave us money for a wonderful dinner. We made a reservation at a restaurant in one of the highest towers in Seoul. They even had a wonderful jazz band playing. We sat at a table with a wonderful view of the city. It was amazing! Thank you grandma!

This was, by far, one of my best experiences in South Korea. Once I was done with the green tea plantation, I took 4 forms of transportation to go 10 miles (hitchike, city bus, county bus, taxi, camel...just kidding) to get to the base of a mountain I climbed the following morning. Well, I had to find a place to stay that night (I had my sleeping bag with me). The three options were sleeping under the stars, the $30/night hotel, or Dogapsa Temple a the base of the mountain (you actually have to pass through the temple to get to the trailhead).



Well, the option of staying at Dogapsa Temple would involve convincing the Bhuddist monks to let me stay with them. I knocked on the temple gate. When a monk came to the door, I made a hand gesture indicating sleep. He motioned me in right away. Apparently once entering a temple gate, it's a purifying process. You are to be stripped of all earthly positions for a cleansing process. They take your bag, and hand you a monk's robe to change into. Once in the robe, you are to give your clothes to the monks and are then able to experience the monastic lifestyle. They all went to sleep at about 7 pm. I found out why when I was woken up to this drum at 3 AM:



Not wanting to get up, I was "encouraged" by much prodding from the monks to get up and join them in their 1-1/2 hour long prayer time. I sat in the back and enjoyed a dull, droning chanting. It was absolutely amazing. Being a person that doesn't normally get up at 3 AM, I found it was totally worth it. After prayer time, we ate our breakfast. Like all Koreans, the monk's breakfast consisted of rice and vegetables, however, the monks vegetables were all raw (including slimy okra-like veggies). Every item in the bowl was to be eaten. It's exactly like being a kid again and having your parents tell you you can't get up from the table until you eat all of your vegetables. After that, we observed an hour of silence. From then on, I was allowed to be on my way. So I gathered my backpack and clothes and went on my hike.

Mt. Wolchul, literally meaning “Moonrise Mountain“, is located in the southwest corner of the Korean Peninsula. Wolchulsan is Korea‘s smallest national park and has three national treasures.

Look...it Smokey, the Korean bear. What has the american culture done to the world? Tsk, tsk, tsk....



Spring was just coming around the corner so all of the trees and flowers were just beginning to explode into bloom.



This Bhudda was awesome. It was high up on the mountain and I had to scale a small peak off the beaten path to get to it. How somebody carved it that high up is beyond me. I saw a man on the way to the carving. He bowed to me, so I returned the gesture. When I got to the statue, there were many offerings at its base.



At the top of the highest peak was a suspension bridge leading to the next peak over, and down the mountain to another temple at the other entrance to the park. I was in the middle of the bridge staring a few hundred feet down when a big wind came up. I about crapped my pants right there and hugged the floor of the bridge. That thing was really rockin'!



All in all, it was an incredible experience. It took me about 4 hours each way. I was huffin' and puffin' it the whole way and Korean men and women were kickin' my but the whole way. They take their mountain hiking really seriously....knee socks, walking sticks, boots, and all. They look like they've stepped down from the swiss alps in some Heidi-induced scene you can only see in a Disney movie.

This bamboo forest was too cool. I'd never seen any grove this big.





Mmmmm.......Kim-chi. Can you say smells like horse poop? But god it tastes good! If you can get past the smell that is. Between that and the sewers in Seoul, you can just about get a hit of ass every 50 feet.



And green tea! I came down to the south just to see this plantation (and to climb a mountain).
It was too cool! Wild boar run between the rows (the main delicacy in the lodge at the bottom of the hill- green tea fed boar). You can actually camp between the rows if you want to put up with the boar. I got here two weeks before harvesting. Dozens of women come out and fill the fields. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them but it was nice to be here when the bushes were at their fullest.





These fields stay fallow for 14 years after ginseng is planted. Once the ginseng is planted it takes another 10 to fully mature into a good root system. That's why it's so expensive. That's a 24-year cycle for one plot of land. I suppose it's worth it, "elixir of life" and all.

Min's tea house was absolutely exquisite. I don't think I'd felt that relaxed in a long time. It was my exact ideal of a Japanese tea house. My cup on Korean Plum Tea was about $7 but it was well worth the experience.

.

This park was always teeming with activity.

Men would play games (Go and another asian game...kind of like chess and checkers together?) after work everyday before heading home for the evening. The park was full of concrete blocks with the games grid impressed into their surfaces.





These paths are found all around the city. You take your shoes off, or not as the case may be, and walk on it barefoot. It's thought to be good for the feet. It looks quite harmless, but man is it intense on the sole! It did the trick though.



And men would draw and sell their calligraphy. Lan, my old boss in Weyco Recycling, told me that these were blessings written in Chinese (many of the older Korean generation still use Mandarin, and... it's still used in the Korean legal system).

This greenhouse was amazing. My battery in my camera ran out halfway through it but I still got some good shots:

Some random palace grounds shots:

A tour of all the palaces in Seoul could easily fill a week. Here's a few of my favorites:

You can buy everything you could possibly need within a city block. These markets were everywhere. And everything was soooo cheap!

Just some random pictures from the street.

These snakes are expensive. People use them for many medicinal purposes as well as unusual korean dishes.



This man pulled his cart up an amazingly steep hill. I didn't know people in far east cities still did this. I saw quite a bit of this in the country but not in the big city.

These are some of the wonderful meals we ate (@ a maximum of $3-5 per person...sweet!).

Nevermind that the wok looks like it's been used a thousand times before you (with the appearances of not being washed) and it's got what looks like oil from the dregs of the bottom of an engine. It's just one of the many things you have to look past to get into the rhythm of Korean life. Oh...Jamie and I were suffering from this one the next day. Can you say bloated? Ahhhh.... There's nothing quite like spicy korean red bean paste to set your morning off right.



This meal was awesome. Korean's really know how to bbq. I don't know what the sauce was or where the meat came from (and, in all honesty, I probably don't want to), but damn it was good.

This was the second or third day in Seoul.

We went on an outing up to the top of Namsan Mtn. It's a "mountain" (hill to you North Americans) in the center of town. You can take a gondola or a short hike up to the top. The view from the top was incredible. I couldn't believe how huge Seoul is.... 14 million people live in a space smaller than all 5 boroughs of NYC put together. It accounts for a lot of the same high-rise apartment buildings all over the city, and the country for that matter (South Korea is made up of 80% mountains).



There was a wonderful pagoda at the top:



And observation towers:



We also found classes of children everywhere. Koreans love their children. They place much value in their education and provide as much as they can to make their children's life as comfortable as possible. They even have Children's Day in Korea. I'm told everywhere in Seoul is festive with celebrations honoring the children.

Anyway...here are the children.



Oh, and I musn't forget the men's bathroom. At the top of the tower at the summit of the mountain they had these urinals where you could stare out over the whole town while taking a leak. Good times...



I'm thinking of writing a book on all of the different types of toilets from around the world. It'd be rather comical don't ya think?

LOTTE WORLD IS DIE!

We were planning on going to Lotte World on the first couple of days but some drunkard got on one of the rides and died falling out of a roller coaster car. So they opened up the park for free admission for 3 days (in the states, they'd shut the place down for weeks for a safety inspection). So....100,000 korean kids bum-rushed the place and 35 koreans were injured and rushed to the hospital. We got there just as the korean national guard were closing off all the entrances. Meanwhile, everyone in the park got to enjoy the park for the rest of the day.

Okay....so here's my cousin and her hot husband Jamie.



They're the reason I came to Seoul. I hadn't seen them in almost a year!

When I arrived in Korea it was 10:00 pm. When I finally got to their apartment on the other side of the freakin' huge ass city from the airport, it was 11:30 pm. I was so butt-tired but I was so glad to see them. They were waiting for me at the bus stop. As soon as the door opened, I jumped out of the bus to try and give them each a big, wet, sloppy kiss but they weren't down with that. Where's the love....? Once I got my backpack from the undercarriage we went back to their apartment (thank you so much for a place to rest my head and everything else you guys did) whereupon I quickly became jolly old St. Nick and unloaded a plethora of tantalizing acoutrement. Toting 10 lbs of candy, magazines, instant gravy, yarn, crochet needles, and so much more, for 6,000 miles and 18 hours was fun. I wouldn't have done it for anyone other than you two. Much love to the both of ya. You rock!

From there, we went to bed, woke up the next day, and went to the Anglican Church next to the British Embassy. It was Sunday after all. After that, they showed me around town with their friends from TWU all day.



Then we went out for dinner.

What a hottie!



And enjoyed the nightlife in their neighborhood.

Just chillin' in Nowan.