Monday, October 9^th, 2006

The kind hotel owner came to our rescue once again. I wanted to go to Mt. Halla (the central mountain on the island and highest mountain in South Korea) and there were virtually no buses that would take us to the course I thought my parents and I could handle. So, we hopped in his van and he drove us for almost an hour to the mountain and up to the path where we would begin. I had been sad that the leaves hadn’t changed yet but up there, they had! The Beauty, oh the beauty! The mountain was sprinkled with large rocks, tear drops of the generals who’d cried at the death of their mother whom they’d eaten in a soup (the myth that I won’t go into fully) and the leave filled trees surrounding them blazed in a mix of yellow, red and green. After messily eating the very Korean lunch pastries we’d picked up earlier in the day we were off, on steps! Steps, ahhh, tourist spots. But as we went on the view certainly made up for it. At every level my awe in this beautiful landscape increased and (by now far ahead of my parents) I was happily snapping pictures. Upward and onward – past the shade of the trees my awe increased and amazement poured through each vein of my body. The massiveness, the sublimity, the riot of flaming colours – and as I turned my head I was greeted with the far hazy, almost surreal hills in the distance – then back again – the crags, oh the crags!! In all my life, with the exception of Alysis in a state of Joy, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful. The blazing sun, the steep stone steps meant nothing. I stopped only to soak in all that was before me then was off again, an elated grin plastered to my face, joy and thankfulness to God for life, for movement, sight, creation, coursing through me with each gasp for breath. I yelled and sang praises on this mountaintop. The energy and adrenaline enabling me to hardly feel the strain. After reaching just about the utmost level I came to a woods and on the other side of it a long wooden trail like a beach boardwalk, 1700 mtrs above sealevel! I walked on until reaching the end of the course I’d taken … and there were lot’s of people eating, talking, relaxing, buying food at the small café atop this mountain . . . I haven’t been hiking in many other countries – is this a common thing? Anyway, I headed back, filling my waterbottle at a cold mountain spring on the way, hoping that my parents had made it up high enough to see the views I’d delighted in and just when I was coming back through the woods, singing praises, I saw mom! Yea!!

Once we’d descended and reached the rest place it would have been about a 2.5 km walk to the spot where we could catch the bus that wouldn’t come for about 3 hours. So, using my charm and ‘I’m a helpless foreigner’ smile I approached a couple who’d just gotten in their car and pretty much forced an invite to drive down with them. When they agreed (not really understanding I think) I called my parents over and (to the couple’s surprise I think) we all piled in. I think they were excited about it though, The lady made a few calls on her cell phone and was boasting it seemed about having what I’m pretty sure was the Korean word for foreigners in her car. When we got to the spot where we could catch a bus, before getting out I took out my map to see where they were going. It turned out they would be passing the intersection where we wanted to get off for our next destination so they agreed to take us ‘till there. At which point we were able to catch a taxi for the equivalent of about $2.00. Not bad at all! We toured a waterfall, then decided to head to the beach. Hailing a taxi driver who was sitting and talking with a bunch of others he told us to walk because it was only five minutes. So we walked . . . perhaps it was five minutes in a taxi – about 40 minutes later we arrived at the beach, mom and I determined to get a swim in before the sun set. The water was beautiful, chilly at first but incredibly buoyant. I even found a ‘super-cool’ dried blowfish on the beach.

We were near one of the sights I’d really wanted to see and it would be ridiculous to come all the way back to this part of the island the next day so we decided to try to squeeze it in. Reaching a group of taxi drivers playing a game I asked one who insisted that it was closed from it being too late in the day. Not trusting him I called the tourist info to find out it was open for another two hours. Finally one of them agreed to leave the game and take us for the drive that would barely pass his initial fee but save us over an hour of walking. The rocks we visited are an actual archaeological wonder – a mystery yet to be solved. So incredible, I have no idea how it’s possible but they rise up out of the ground in this near perfect rectangular pillars. It’s like a village of sky scrapers. They completely blew me away – I’d seen the pictures but to see it in real life. . . standing with the breeze, watching the sun set and the fishermen go about their lives on this incredible landscape, wondering if they take the time to appreciate the beauty that surrounds them and is a part of their daily existence.

We hitched another ride that took us more than halfway back to our hotel. Umm, a good day indeed.