A Weekend to remember . . . .

Day 3

We got a decently early start to our day! (At last) and said goodbye to the Japanese girl who’d been staying at the hostel with us. Our first mission was to find a bank so that Leona could transfer the wads of money she’d had with her. It was somewhat of a perilous mission!! Not really, but the heat in the city was tremendous and we had to walk fairly far before finding it only to discover that it was going to be more complicated then she thought. It took that time to plan out our day though and we were able to do it an air-conditioned place so that was WONDERFUL! :D We decided we’d go to Mt. Geumjeong and walk along the fortress that had been in place for hundreds of years to protect Koreans during wars. We stashed our bags in lockers (me having to empty and sort my bag since my purse was gone of course). We didn’t face much difficulty in getting there and even found a sandwich place on the way that was cheap and actually had a menu in English!!

When the bus driver dropped us off high up in the mountains (we were the only ones who got off there) it was slightly intimidating – but as we walked on we saw that we were on the right course. We arrived at the beautiful East Gate and only walked about 7 minutes in the wrong direction before getting directed to where we wanted to go (by showing people the picture on our map). It was, once again, insanely hot, rather steep in spots, and we only had about half a bottle of water left each but oh – it was worth it. Just walking along the fortress was exciting enough for me but the views we kept encountering – and the sights!! At one stop for a photo op some English speaking Korean boys passed us and let us know that we were heading towards the cable car I was hoping to find after anyways! (We were hoping we wouldn’t have to climb all that way up and then climb back the same way). As well, at one point when we veered off the path slightly (unintentionally) we were stopped by some old Korean women yelling out – ‘Hello! Hello! Kill! Kill!!’ Clearly they thought the rocks were unsafe and we were foolish little foreign girls! We went on anyway, and found such a beautiful formation. With spots to sit and little caves. A full-fleged photo shoot ensued. And after leaving that – yet again, a beautiful, large rock-face with incredible views of surrounding mountains and the city off in the distance. As difficult as being in Korea has been, and as hard and lonely as it sometimes is – especially with things that have been happening at home and having to be away from everyone I love during those times – moments like those are ones that make me think perhaps I’m not so very crazy for being here. I still don’t know whether I’ll stay – though something happened this week that makes me think there’s even less reason to go home. But at least if I do go home, I’ll know I’ve had some very good experiences.

So we continued on, and on, and on – yes – this trip was also very full of walking in pressing heat, drenched with sweat and yearning for water, but with the direction of a kind little old man we found our way and even encountered a lovely little shrine on the way – followed by a spring!!! Yippee!!! I drank to my throat’s content, I doused my shirt, I poured water over my head – and had a cup thrown at me that mostly landed on my crotch (not the most comfortable spot in thick pants – haha) and we were refreshed. The cable car down was nice but it was nothing to the views we’d already had – and VERY crowded. We ended up in a park though, where we walked past a lovely old Korean couple and their weaving shack and then stopped at a café to have some canned fruit and red bean paste on ice (it wasn’t the fruit and icecream desert Leona thought we were ordering, haha, but it was refreshing anyway.) We had some really good conversations – talking about the natives in Canada, Bob Marley, and stories of my mother and her travels. A good time.

Leaving the park we were off once again, walking the foreign streets, looking for a free public hot spring we’d read about. Utterly unsure of where to go we stopped a young man on a scooter that looked like it was built for a 3 year old and hauled out our handy dandy map with pictures. He pointed us in the right direction and alas we arrived. It was unique to say the least. This beautiful stone and marble foot bath area with domed mirrors, a shelf for reading books, a little fountain and loads of Ajoumas and Ajoushis (Korean old folks – and I’m sure my phonetic spelling is off). All outside! The water was over 40oC! It took a few minutes but we got used to it and it felt good after our long days of walking. Leona was very hesitant of taking any pictures since it was crowded and we’d had some older people get very upset when they thought that they were in our viewfinder but I was determined and so decided to take a picture of a frog on one of the domed glass ‘thingys’ in order to get the reflection below. To our delight and surprise, however, a man offered to take a picture of the both of us! We didn’t stay very long – the heat was making us sweat even more – but still it was good.

Various other semi-interesting things happened, like finding a beautiful building – one side a very open and elaborate porn place/hotel and the other side an exquisite wedding/resort/banquet hall, finding paintings (copies) of the greats in the subway halls, but this is really getting ridiculously long. So I’ll skip to the evening. We got back to Haeundae beach – luggage in tow. Surprisingly, we ran into Lori and her brother, had a trip to the tourist info, the police station (for me to get a copy of the police report – again they had no idea what I wanted until I got our tourist info ‘friend’ to help out) and sat for well over an hour on the beach having our pictures drawn. Unfortunately they didn’t turn out very well. I was smiling originally so my eyes look lively but by the time he got to my mouth I guess I had some kind of weird uncomfortable grimace on. The language barrier was an issue because we didn’t know when he was drawing what, when we should smile and when it was okay to relax, etc. Leona didn’t like hers either.

Then we were off to a Chimchilbang. Something I’m not sure I ever really thought I’d be comfortable doing. But it was quite the experience to show me how I’ve changed and grown in the past few years. What it is essentially is a public bath. And it also allows people to go up to a common area and all spend the night in these big hall/rooms on the floor. So we decided that would be a cheap way to spend the night and also get all cleaned up. When we got to the ladies floor there they were – women everywhere. Naked from head to toe women. I was okay with it. I thought I would be having visited the nude beach in Vancouver a number of times but I imagined I’d have difficulty when it came to taking off my own clothes. That act was hard but . . . once done – it was fine. And the baths were wonderful! It felt so good to get scrubbed clean (I went to a very secluded corner) and then soak in a few of the many different hot tubs. There was one on a balcony and it was absolutely beautiful! A cool breeze, the ocean and the night sky for a view. Then there was one that was only lukewarm but it had olive oil, pomegranate, and . . . one other. Very nice. All in all it was a liberating experience. I didn’t really make eye contact with anyone of course but I was amazed at the degree of comfort I did have – it felt rather natural and I felt like any discomfort I did have was just a result of societal upbringing and really these Koreans had the right idea of what was okay in that department.

We didn’t stay the night however, but perhaps I’ll have that experience another time. It wasn’t really Leona’s thing – she decided to just read in the lobby while I was bathing so we left and found a nice motel for the night.