Englishee Teecha vs. Wild

After a night in Hongdae, Christie dragged me out of my bed at noon to shower off the smokey grunge that was my body. I had promised her all week that we would go hiking at Suraksan Mt. We have had a rough week and decided we needed to do something productive in Seoul rather than just party. Although I was hungover from the night before, I put on my best hiking gear (running capris, sneakers, tshirt, and fleece sweater--not even close to Korean hiking standards). Koreans are hardcore about hiking. They are fully decked out with their hiking boots, zip ups, visors, walking sticks, and backpacks. Hopefully in the future, I will have invested in the total package.

We live in Taereung, which is only 5 stops from Suraksan subway stop. When reached street level, dozens of food stalls and hiking gear stalls lined the street. We bought cut up pork, kimbap, Korean style Funyuns, rice cakes filled with sweet yam, and mok kolee (carbonated wine that gives you wings). As we made our way through the stalls towards the mountain, it was amazing to see that the most common hiker was over 60. These Koreans are in such good shape! They climb everyday of the week. If you ever ride the subway in Seoul, you'll know why they're in such good shape. There are mountains of stairs everywhere! When we reached the mountain, it seemed like everyone was on their way down. Christie had gone a couple days before to relax before work, but this path was new to her. The best thing to do in this situation is follow the Koreans.

We started our ascent at 2:30pm. As we went up the way everyone was coming down, we realized this wasn't the easiest path to the top. We traversed through thick brush, unsteady rocks, grabbing onto any branch in site. It took us about an hour and a half to reach what we thought was the top. We finally stopped around 4pm on a large rock where other groups had stopped since it was the first major lookout from Suraksan. We could see the whole of Nowongu. At mid afternoon, the sky was still hazy and the sun was bright. I had to take off my sweater I was so hot from the trek up. We sat down and had our feast. The pork and kimbap turned out to be full of fat and dry respectfully. The rice cakes were amazing though. Not wanting to give up, I wanted to make sure that we were at the "top." We decided to go up further and see what was at the rock above us. We find that at the rock, the trail continued. We ascended another 45 minutes. Christie felt like her lungs were collapsing. The air is so much better in the mountains, but it does get thinner. I told her that this was a sign of her getting stamina. He he. When we finally did reach the top at 5:30pm, there was an ancient-style Korean pavilion filled with the few Koreans left hiking. We sat down and chatted with a Korean couple who could not understand anything we said and vice-versa. We used body languagee instead. He said we were not dressed properly and it was cold. This is the best of our conversations with the locals by the way. From the pavilion, we saw a huge mountain face lined with stairs, rope and fencing. It looked like a scene from Indian Jones. We decided that the next time we hiked, we would go all the way to the top of the face and claim Suraksan mission accomplished. As we looked out with the sun setting, we could see more of Seoul. Bright lights and white buildings filled our panoramic view. I thought to myself, "I am really in Korea and this is the best thing I've done yet."

At this point, it was getting cold and my fleece sweater was not going to hold up to the bitter evening. Since our trip up was so rough and torturing to our hamstrings, we wanted the descent to be slow and relaxing. Unfortunately, we were racing the sun. We needed to get back to civilization and there weren't any Koreans around. If they aren't around, then you should panic. As we climbed down, there was a lot of scooting on our butts, tripping over tree roots and I actually managed to slip and fall and roll down the side of the mountain--at least 2 meters. I froze thinking I broke something. Christie stopped breathing and got lightheaded--ya know because she stopped breathing. Luckily, my butt broke my fall and I had only slightly rolled on my right side. I truly wanted to conquer Suraksan without a scratch, but of course it was my damned "hiking gear." Advice: never hike with sneakers. We continued our descent and were getting nervous about never getting back. An interesting part down had a rope connected between two trees. We had to straddle the rope--because Christie had seen this done on Discovery Channel--and climb backwards holding onto the rope. This is when we truly felt like mountain women. After 45 minutes of climbing down, we gained slight night vision, but that was not going to get us down. We finally actually saw some life. Christie held me back and said, "We can't go over there! I think that's a mountain lion." I saw it stand and raise its arms, so I thought it was a bear. Actually, it was a Korean man getting out his flashlight. How smart of him! Thank goodness we found him because I was mentally preparing myself for a night in the wilderness of Suraksan cuddling next to mountain lions. Speaking absolutely no Hangul or English, we traversed down in the unsettling night. Christie led as I followed, while the Korean man took the caboose to light the way. It took us only 45 minutes to go from the top all the way down to the street stalls. When we were racing the sun and darkness, it felt much more like hours because our minds were racing with the possibilities of being lost or eaten. All we wanted to do was see Taereung and lay in our comfortable yo-topped beds. FYI--a yo is a Korean floor mat used for sleeping. Actual beds with mattresses are so uncomfortable that laying a yo between the mattress and fitted sheet makes a mattress feel like heaven. Seeing the bright lights and signs of Korean life on the street made us feel so happy. I couldn't believe I was actually stepping on pavement. After a day of sweating, huffing and puffing, eating gross pork, falling down the mountain, dirty and beat up, and being lost, I would say that it was all very worth it. This experience was truly the best experience I've had in Korea. The experience was made better because I had my Korea bestie Christie to share it with. My Korea enlightenment has been reached and I found it at the peak of Suraksan.