Last day in North Korea

Our last day in North Korea focused on the main hike up the Mangmulsang course. It was a really beautiful hike. Unfortunately, we weren't able to complete the full hike. The top of the course had become so iced that only hikers with crampons were being allowed to complete the walk. However, there were some highlights.



The hike followed the course of the partially frozen Gwaneum river. We were surrounded by incredible cliffs on all sides, so despite the fact that it was mid-morning the path was often cast into shadow. Which is the reason that so much of it was ice covered.



There are a lot of superstitions about the water from this area. We were told that drinking the water from this river was supposed to add years to your life and take 10 years from your face. I don't know what the origin of this belief is, but all the S. Koreans were carrying cups and bottles with them so they could taste and save some of the water. I filled both my water bottles from the river and brought them both back with me to Busan. I brought one of the bottles to work with me so everyone could try it. I think some of the South Korean women in the office were quite excited to drink real Geumgang water :)



One of my favorite spots on the hike was the frozen waterfall you can see in the picture above. At times the hike was too crowded. It's easy to forget sometimes how many people live in this tiny country, but whenever you go to a popular tourist place you are reminded how many people you are sharing your space with. However, once you accept that when in the great outdoors you can't enjoy the same seclusion as in Australia or Canada, it's not so bad. At least people are good at giving each other room to take a good picture.



I was with the first group to make it to the top of the trail (or at least the top of the trail we were allowed on without crampons) and we got a nice Korean guy to take our picture. I met some really nice people on this trip. All of the people in the picture were new acquaintances I met on the trip. They were all really nice people. Most of the people in this particular picture are from Canada. The people on the trip were from all over the place. There were N. Americans, Europeans, Australians and New Zealanders. However, there were definitely a disproportionate number of Canadians. For some reason, there are a lot more of us in Korea than you would expect from our small population.
Anyway, after the hike we headed back to the hotel for a late lunch and some time in the Jimjilbang (bathhouse). It was the nicest Jimjilbang I have been to in Korea. The indoor area was nice, but nothing out of the ordinary. However, the outdoor section was really amazing. When you go outside you are protected from prying eyes by a stone wall. There are a number of hot and cold pools which had hot and cold waterfalls you can stand under for a water pressure massage. However, the best part is that the whole thing is designed so that over the stone walls you can see the entire panorama of the Geumgangsan mountains spread out before you. It had rained and snowed on the first day, so the air was crystal clear. I spent a long time just lying in the water mesmerized by the view. It's too bad you can't take pictures in a bath house :)
Anyway, we got back on the buses around 4:30 for the long trek back to Seoul. My friend Lindsey and I got an 11pm bus from Seoul back to Pusan, which arrived at about 3:30 in the morning. I was pretty dead for work on Monday, but it was definitely a great trip!

Pyongyang Circus

Ok, so back to the N. Korea trip. As I said we didn't have time for more than the briefest of breaks after we returned for our hikes. The circus was going to start in 20 minutes. The area where they keep the South Koreans (Hangukin) and other foreigners (Waygukin) is this strange modern little enclave. It even has a Family Mart, which is Asia's answer to 7/11. So I picked up some sort of nasty packaged pastry and headed into the auditorium.
The Pyongyang circus is apparently pretty well known and the show was really amazing. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I managed to sneak some really good shots of the acts.



The first memorable act was some truly amazing juggling. The Jugglers wove around and through and between each other constantly juggling. They climaxed with the juggling tower you see pictured.



The next picture shows one of the formations created by the acrobats using the pole apparatus. These guys were like monkeys climbing up the poles upside down, sideways, over and under each other. I can't imagine the strength and control the guys on the top must have to hold the weight of all the others.



This pictures shows some of the acrobats doing jump rope on monocycles. The picture itself isn't that impressive, but the act was pretty cool. Later on, the women stood on the men's shoulders while they jumped the ropes. They also combined a crossways jump rope and cycled (on bicycles) at full speed in between and past each other in a really amazing pattern.



The final act was some incredible trapeze artistry. There were about 8 trapeze artists and they were great. the women were being thrown clear across the entire stage! They were moving too fast for me to get a really good shot. I wish that the pictures I 've put in the post were able to do justice to the experience. But if you ever have the chance to see the Pyongyang or the Chinese circuses (apparently somewhat similar) I strongly recommend you go.

A bit of an epiphany

If I can digress from my posts about North Korea, I wanted to write briefly about an epiphany I had today outside a movie theater washroom. I was sitting waiting for a friend, thinking about nothing much really, when I suddenly realized one of the subconscious reasons I like being here in Korea so much.
One of the things that has always psychologically frustrated and upset me in my life is the constant sense I have of not belonging to anywhere. I am an Australian, Canadian, American. I have never lived in America so I have never felt that that was my home. I lived in Australia for many years while I grew up, and there are many things I love about Australia. However, there are several reasons why I never felt that it was my own country. I guess I feel more Canadian than anything else. I certainly prefer to tell people that I am Canadian these days because of the despicable politics of America and Australia. However, it was never completely home either.
I realized today, sitting outside that washroom that part of what I love about being here is that I don't feel bad about not belonging here. Wherever else I have lived I always wanted to be part of the culture and feel a sense of belonging, but my own psyche (and sometimes the people around me) never allowed me to forget that this was not "home." Here in Pusan I can feel perfectly at peace with not belonging. I don't belong here, but I don't belong in a way I can feel proud of. I am here living in an alien culture and the strange thing is that I sometimes feel that it is more positive to be where I can never really belong than in countries where I always felt like I should, but never did.

The first hike

One of the amazing things about the Geumgang Mountains is how they rise from the plains. Around the mountains the ground is largely flat and close to sea level. There are stark and impressive rock formations (it feels a bit like pictures of Arizona, with less red) but there are no real foothills. Then the mountains themselves rise straight for the sky. I met a couple from near the Alberta Rockies, and they told me while hiking that the Geumgang mountains (although much much smaller) were in some ways more impressive for their sheer cliffs and thousands of jagged sharp peeks.
The tour took us by bus part way up the mountain to where the trail began. From the very beginning the hike was incredibly steep.



Stairs had been cut into the mountain for much of the hike. Without them certain stretches of the trail would have been beyond inexperienced hikers. There was one part of the trail where the stairs we climbed allowed us to ascend about 250m almost straight up. The mountain was too steep for a simple path. The hike was only of moderate length, but it offered some of the most incredible views I have seen in years.





As we neared the peak, the views got better and better and I had to resist the urge to stop and take pictures every time I rounded a corner. But when we reached the top it was well worth it. Unfortunately, since this is Korea, there were many other people hiking the same trail behind us and we didn't have a long time to stop and savor the moment.



After we took some pictures we headed back down the mountain. Since this was to be a short trip, the tour company was cramming as many things as possible into a single day. As we reached the bottom of the mountain it started snowing. It was a real pleasure to feel the snow on my face. Although I managed to go snowboarding a few weeks ago (which I might post about later) this was the first time I had really been in a proper snowfall this year. I love how dry and pleasant Busan is in winter, but once you leave the city it's nice to experience real winter. The following pic was taken at the bottom just as the first flakes were beginning to fall.



By this time we were running behind schedule. So, when we were all back on the bus we were given a choice to either go back to the hotel, to relax and have lunch, or to go on to the next hiking area. Keep in mind that I had left Busan at 4:30pm the previous day and we started this hike at around 8:30am (with my only breakfast being a sandwich I had saved from a rest stop on the way to Bukhan) after only 3-4 hours of sleep on an uncomfortable bus. However, I didn't want to miss anything and elected to go on the next hike with most of the group. Thankfully the next course was supposed to be more of a leisurely stroll around a beautiful lake, rather than another mountain hike.
We soon arrived at Samilpo lake (back in the lowlands it was drizzling instead of snowing) ready for the next walk. This picture from the beginning of the walk will give you a small sense of how the mountains rise straight from the plains.



Thankfully, the walk was easy and restful as had been advertised. But it was well worth it since it also offered some beautiful views.



The lake course was barely over an hour with a brief respite at a North Korean restaurant. Which you can see in the pic below, nestled on the shore of the lake.



Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn't able to cope with the sudden deluge of customers and I had to satisfy my hunger with a small snack of Dubu (tofu) and a Heineken. In the picture below you can see three North Koreans. The waitress, the cook and a man watching the cook. On the coats of the waitress and the man watching the cook you can see little red dots. These are pins showing the face of Kim Jong Il.



Almost all the North Koreans we met were wearing them. One of the people on the trip pointed at a button and asked about it. The North Korean whose button was being pointed at clapped their hands over the button in horror at the desecration of a finger pointing at the dear leader! After our quick snack we headed back to buses, which returned us to the hotel with time only for a very brief corner store snack before we had to head off again to see the North Korean circus!

Welcome to Bukhan (N. Korea)

My friend Lindsey and I left Busan on the KTX train at around 4:30 pm. Korea has great public transportation. The KTX travels the 500km between Busan and Seoul in about 2 hours and 40 minutes. At one point the train reached 295 km an hour. Once we were in Seoul we had some dinner and then passed the next 3 hours over a few beer. At 11:30 we boarded the bus to Bukhan. It wasn't the most comfortable ride and it was light before we got close to the border. At around 7am we reached immigration. Everybody was herded into a big tent and sorted into lines (South Koreans in different lines from foreigners). The Bukhanin (North Korean person) soldiers were very serious looking, but to be honest, in some ways the the security is heavier at an American airport. When it was my turn I was actually asked to step aside and my passport was taken away. The soldier was concerned because my home country was listed as Canada, but my citizenship was listed as American (I was using my US passport because it has my S. Korean Visa). After everyone else had passed the soldier questioned me for a couple of minutes and let me through, and then walked off with both my passports! I found the tour guide and he said he would find out what was going on. Needless to say I was pretty fucking stressed! I was almost to the buses when the soldier came back. Apparently he needed to check with the higher ups and everything was ok. Anyway, it was quite the introduction to Bukhan. The view as we went through the DMZ and reached Bukhan was quite bleak. The dry Korean winter allows little grass to grow and the Bukhanin cut down any plant over a foot in height so that they can see anyone trying to defect. Razor wire fences line the roads and every half kilometer or so a Korean soldier stands in a pillbox watching the buses drive by. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures of the DMZ because if any soldier sees you take a picture they raise a red flag with each of them carries and you get fined (not to mention the possibility of loosing your camera). The first picture I was able to take was after we reached Bukhan proper. It doesn't show much but it gives my first image of the Geumgangsan Mountains (which were our destination) and a small Bukhanin village.



We finally arrived at the hotel and unloaded our bags in the lobby. However, we didn't check in. Instead we got onto smaller shuttle buses and headed straight out for our first hike.

Check in soon for the next installment in my trip diary!

Welcome back

Hi everyone, My blog has been silent for quite a while now. I had a period of a month where my computer was down. My A/C adapter fried and I had to get one sent from Canada. By the time it arrived I was deep in the super busy Winter Vacation term and I was at school 10 hours a day. When February rolled around I had completely lost my blogging habit. But its time to get back into it.
Since a couple of month have gone by there is both a lot to talk about and not that much. I broke up with the girl I was dating (Min Ju) for a variety of reasons. The relationship only lasted two months so it wasn't too broken up about it. It was nice while it lasted and I learned a lot about Korean culture and dating in Korea. There hasn't been any new romance since we broke up in early January.
January was really quite a dead month. It was all work and not much fun. I made a lot of money, went out on the weekends and basically just survived. It was great to get back to my regular 3:30-10pm schedule in February. I didn't do anything special last month. I was saving my money so I could start to pay back some of my university debt. Also, there had been plans for my mum to come visit me during the Sulnal (Korean Lunar New Year) holiday, but she wasn't able to make it.
I guess my two biggest pieces of news are that I am now studying Korean properly at a Hogwan. I have two classes a week on Monday and Wednesday. Korean Grammar is both very difficult and easy. Difficult because it's totally different from English and sentences are constructed completely opposite from English, but easy because it doesn't break all it's own rules like English. Also things like tenses are far simpler. I have only had a couple weeks worth of lessons but I am already learning a lot.
The other big new is that I am going to North Korea! A friend found a company which organizes trips to Geum Gang Mountain. Which is a famously beautiful area about 80 km from Pyongyang. It's a three day weekend (leaving this Friday) which includes hiking, natural mountain hot springs and some cultural shows. Our movements will be restricted to certain areas, but I still think it's a really cool chance to see what is perhaps the most closed country in the world.