We've been hiking

We've been on two trips hiking and plan on going hiking again this Saturday. When I read in "Frommer's guidebook to Korea" that the most popular Korean "sport" was hiking I didn't believe it. But now I believe that this applies to everyone in Korea. Everyone includes the following people and accessories: old and young, fit and seemingly unfit, hiking boots and high heels, people with heavy hiking backpacks girls with designer handbags, umbrellas for rain and umbrellas for sun. People really enjoy hiking and lucky for us fall is the perfect season for it.

Our first hiking experience was at Mudeung Mountain - just southeast of downtown Gwangju. We went with a few other EPIK english teachers and we decided on a trail named "wind" - we had a choice of "wind" or "rabbit". It was an uphill battle followed by a treacherous downhill trip-and-stumble. The viewpoint we stopped at was beautiful and the fresh air was a nice welcome from our usual city smell.

Our second experience hiking was much different. We went with two teachers that work at both of my respective schools (they are actually best friends) Ji Sook and Chan Yo. They're both very funny and outgoing. They picked us up at 10am sharp and drove us out towards Sunchan (I think) or maybe it was Gochuchang (which means red chili paste). We ate at a delicious restaurant that served us traditional Korean dinner - lots of side dishes and fish. V's favorite was the quail egg (mechuri al, al = egg mechuri=quail). And once we were nicely stuffed we drove a bit farther to a Buddhist temple for hiking.

The weather was a little rainy but for us it was comforting and really peaceful. The air was fresh and there was a little river that the trail followed for most of the way. We walking along a very flat trail until we reached our final destination. A hanging bridge. We walked up a large hill with steps and climbed up to this hanging bridge:

Eeek! It was scary for a number of reasons : it was really narrow, the metal was slippery with rain, there were tons of people on it so it swayed, and lots of people kept stopping in the middle of it. I'm not really afraid of hights but I kept picturing that scene in Indian Jones Temple of doom where they have to go across that bridge... oh and i kept looking down :( But we made it safely across and back.

Here are the lovely and talented teachers that took us:

V, Chan Yo, Ji Sook

One last picture :