How many "best day ever"s can I have?

Just got back from a weekend away in Naju, hiking up Wolchulsan with Stuart and Max.... it was a looooong day, but definitely one for the "Best Day Ever!" list...

I arrived in Naju on Friday night and spent the evening chatting with Stu and Max - the first time I'd seen them since Orientation week in April. Naju is a very small place, and we celebrated my arrival with a delicious malicious pumpkin and chestnut pizza (with corn niblets on it, of course!).

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to get to Wolchulsan. Our adventure began in the bus station. We bought sandwiches (ummm, ya, triangles of rice with sauce and fish or chicken wrapped in seaweed. Ya, that's a sandwich, right?) and some crazy Korean guy walked up and took my sandwich! I grabbed it back from him, and he started chatting with us. He took one of Stu's seaweed wrappy things and ate it! When it was time to get on the bus, I realized that I had lost my ticket, so had to get another one. Then, when we got to the town where Wolchulsan is (name escapes me) the crazy guy followed us into a store, picked up a can of Coke, pointed at Max and walked out! We figured that he was just a local loony taking us for a ride, since he seems to have gotten food, drink and possibly my bus ticket out of us. Fine, this is payback for all our service-uh, I guess.

Unlike the other mountains in Korea, which all seem to be like broccoli florets and covered in trees, Wolchulsan's summits and peaks are granite spires that hit the sky at over 800 metres. The hike began easily enough, but soon became steep and rocky. Sometimes, we were pulling ourselves up with ropes, or clinging to metal railings as we negotiated our way up rocks and boulders that had been smoothed by the hundreds of feet that pass over them every day. The summit was crowded with Koreans - we were the only Waguk out there - and we sometimes found ourselves walking single file with 5 people ahead and 20 people behind. Not a secluded nature trail, this!

Having only water and no food, we soon found ourselves absolutely starving as we walked along. We probably could have gone up to any of the multitude of Korean hikers who were there and asked for food, but we were all too scared (we needed Steve O. for a time like this!) At one point, walking past a small knot of men crouched around a few bottles of soju and dongdongju, I called out "Dongdongju chuseyo!" (Give me some dongdongju please) and the response (Ne!) came almost as quickly as if we were in a restaurant, but we decided against having a bowl of liquid ecstasy on an empty stomach after 3 hours of strong hiking (Max was still giggling about this episode the next day... definitely a blog worthy moment!). A sympathetic Korean hiker gave us some cucumbers which only served to make our lips and tongues go numb (WHY?). We pressed on, and our conversation often turned to food and what we would eat upon reaching the temple at the end of the trail. All in all, we calculated that we walked about 9 km, up and down granite peaks with breathtaking views, along narrow saddles with sheer drops on either side, through rivers, through bamboo or pine forests....

I was super impressed with Wolchulsan. It seems to be Korea's most under-rated attraction. Any website or guidebook has little more than a few sentences about it, whereas there may be pages written about something that is really not all that impressive.... wonder if the Koreans are trying to keep this natural treasure a secret???

Once at the bottom, we found a restaurant. My survival Korean was pushed to the limit by the ajumma at the restaurant, but we ended up with some Dak something something, which is chicken cooked at your table, then wrapped with rice, kimchi and spicy bean paste in a lettuce leaf. We were famished at this point, and devoured a sort of fish omelette thing that arrived first while we watched the other kitchen ajumma hack the chicken carcass to pieces with a huge cleaver, supporting Max's theory that meat is "carved" with a sledgehammer. The raw chicken that arrived at the table was complete with gizzards, liver, skin and some meat. Thank god for chopsticks that let you pick out the good parts. At the end of our meal, the ajumma ran out with the rest of the bits of chicken (bones etc), put them in a plastic shopping bag and handed them to Max. Poor Max! He gamely carried the bag of chicken carcass around until we got to the taxi, at which point Stu was like "You still have the chicken in a bag???" and I explained that he was not allowed into the taxi with it. He happily threw it away.

It was really an amazing day and Stuart's (who is an awesome photographer) photo link will soon be in my links list. Or, you can head to Brent's blog, and click on the pic or Max and I to get to Stu's photos.

Many thanks to Stuart for his hospitality, stories of adventures abroad and suggestions on things to do in Osaka!

Piclist: 1. Famous bridge spanning deeeeeeep ravine. 2 & 3. Views from the top: the photos don't do justice to how amazingly clear it was 4. Max (black hair) and Stuart (red shirt) 5. One of the many HUUUUUGE granite peaks.