On Friday 26th of May at 8pm I hopped aboard the Line 1 train at Pyeongtaek station. I would transfer to Line 4 at Geumjeong Station. From there I was headed to Sinyongsan Station, Seoul. All in all it is about a 2 hour trip (32 stops). I would meet a bus which would leave at 11-30pm for Sokcho, a town 3 hour's directly east of Seoul. I had been excited for this little trip to Korea's east coast for a week, with a hike planned for Saturday and a beach day for Sunday. At 10pm on Friday, 26th of May, though, the Line 1 train from Pyeongtaek had taken two hours to travel 6 stops. I thought my weekend away to the east coast would not materialise. I was qumbile to say the least.
Just as a side note for those who don't have a grasp of the isiXhosa language, qumbile means grumpy or angry. For example, a Xhosa speaking person can say "Ndisel' ithywala izolo. Namhlanje intloko yam iqumbile." Loosely translated, "I had a few drinks yesterday. Today my head is grumpy". The 'Q' in Xhosa is a click, so if you're not sure how it sounds here's a tutorial for you...
Eventually, much to the relief of many dissatisfied train-users, the Line 1 train-conductors took their thumbs out of their asses and shifted their trains to 'the government doesn't pay us enough but we love our jobs' gear. In fairness, the conductors probably didn't have their thumbs in their asses because I wasn't there to see it. Ultimately, they got us to where we needed to be, so they deserve a thumbs up.
The bus ride from Sinyongsan to Sokcho was uneventfully smooth. In fact so much was it so that when I looked out the window halfway through the trip I could see a sky of stars. Seoul and Pyeongtaek are not so fortunate what with all the hustle and motor-vehicle bustle. After 3 hours of busing it, our trip organiser, Warren Kim, came on over the microphone and told us about our breakfast of muffins, apples, bananas and a bottle of water. He also told us, among other things, to do our best to 'be one with nature and to concentrate on our breathing'. This dude is one hell-of-a guru for the average weekend-enthusiast.
Our bus arrived on the southern slopes of Seoraksan, a mountain which has a couple of South Korea's most challenging hiking trails. Even though we were pretty much in rural South Korea, we weren't the only ones there. There were plenty of other people, to put it lightly. We had to stand in line just to get to the head of the trail. A few hours later we were standing at the peak.
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| At 1708m, it was majestic. |
The descent from the peak then split into two different trails. The first choice was the Dinosaur Ridge, a grueling, 12-hour course for bearded, burly buggers to budge their way along six peaks of vista-style trekking. The second was to take the ten hour long intermediate trail that followed a deep valley brook. My beard-game and knees felt daunted by the prospect of a 12 hour ropes-and-rock course, so I opted for route #2 which included a little nap next to a stream. Along the way I shared my breakfast apple with a chipmunk. He didn't say thank you. Nor did he sing the 'Food is so good, food is so yummy. Into our mouths, down to our tummies' song (as all Hagwon kindergartens do) before eating but that's alright.
Our trail ended on the eastern side of the mountain. I forget the name but I think it was called Sogongwon. It was like a little village rest stop where hikers could replenish their beaten energy levels or stock up for the effort ahead. I posted some traditional Korean-style beef and rice, and then proceeded to look for a shady spot to take a nap. We found one under a pine tree near the entrance, but a park ranger interrupted by blowing his whistle in our direction and pointing us to "piss of back to over there".
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| Sogongwon Trail Head |
At 5pm we gathered to take the bus to Sokcho. Once in Sokcho, we visited a buffet restaurant for dinner. There was an assortment of foods, some contents of which we were blissfully unaware. A buddy of mine, Blake Stein, was chewing through his food when he turned to a fellow hiker to say...
Blake: This tastes funky. What is this?
Person: I think it's Korean Word...
Blake: Cool, what does that mean?
Person Pig skins soaked in pig blood...
Blake: Cool (while pushing his plate away)
That night a bunch of us set up camp on a gravel patch next to a seaside surfing pub-and-grill. We built ourselves little fire, drank beer and makgeolli and talked shit for a while.
The next day was a snorter (meaning 'really good'). Some people went to Gangneung for a culture festival while the rest of us spent the morning on the beach. The waves were just small enough to tempt some of our members into signing up for surfing lesson. Thereafter we bought a few beers and played a few card games. Proper chilled, we even found a spade and started digging a hole.
Our trip rounded out in classic fashion. Warren does well to organise these trips to all the different places in Korea, but sometimes he overshoots the mark with the simple things. Right before we were meant to board the bus back for Seoul, Warren called us all to 'eat as much beef meat as possible because he had oversupplied for breakfast and he can't take all of this home on the bus'. We each picked up a pair of chopsticks and moved like mad. If I'm not mistaken the carnage of meat-eaters managed to munch the whole lot.
In the end, I was free of being qumbile except for my red, sunburned skin.
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