Carry on my wayward Asan

The mini-mandarin, as it is called in Korea, is quite a popular food here. While walking along a bustling street you can expect to see enough naartjies to give all the citrus-addicted elephants in Addo their fix. The peel color of said fruit ranges from that green-tinged orange to the classic 'belongs in a tanning salon' skin type. The Korean clementine is pretty much like any other that can be found around the world.

I made plans to spend my fifth Saturday there by Korea by engaging in some light hiking in the Yeonginsan Natural Forest, north of Asan. To get there, I would need to take Bus 512 and travel for 'approximately two hours'. When Saturday came around I slipped on a pair of boots and shoved an essential item or two into my backpack and set off for AK Plaza, the terminal and departure point for Bus 512. On the way there I bought myself some bottled water and a packet of mini-mandarins. Well I sat waiting for Bus 512 for about an half an hour. Bus 500, though, had come around twice already so my brain thought, "Who cares about hiking, let's go on an adventure". I also had a vague idea that the 500 would be going past Yeonginsan so I nabbed a window seat when it came around again. The bus driver struggled his way through the weekend traffic. The driver must have had little idea how to drive a manual because he had a hard time keeping the gear-shifting process a silent one. After a while he either got used to his gear-changing or chose to simply stay in one gear, at which period I began to daydream a bit. The bus' route wound through Pyeongtaek's agricultural countryside, which then turned to forests. I thought the forested area might have been Yeonginsan, but thought against it when I saw I had only been traveling for forty-five minutes. So I carried on daydreaming. Before I realised how much farther the bus had traveled, the bus driver's shouts were jolting me awake. He pointed at the exit door for me to get out. It was the end of the line. I got off the bus and had no idea where I was. For all my experience, all towns in this country look practically the same. Instead of panicking, I explored the new town, stopping at a bench every now and again just to check out Korean life or enjoy a naartjie or watched a couple of street music gigs.

No mooi. after and hour or two of pioneer-style exploration I went in search of a bus stop at which I could climb on Bus 500 again to get home. It took a bit of effort but this Peeg found his hole again, passing what was surely Yeonginsan Forest on my the evening-time drive home. Hopefully the trip to Seoul this coming weekend isn't such an wayward.

Post-Note: After extensive Google Mapping, I worked out I had rocked up to Asan, The route I took to Asan was a bit further east than the one on which Yeonginsan lay. Asan deserves another visit in the future.

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