What I did on my summer vacation

The children of Korea can never catch a break. They have to come in to academy for extra hours in the morning since they don't have public school, and it would be the end of the world if they had a chance to play and have fun. Thus their (and my) summer vacation is not the already rather short but reasonable one and a half months, but only six days. Alanna's school is more competent and reasonable, so she also got the Monday off to make it a nine day break, but she was kind enough to go on two separate trips with me (see the preceding post concerning the first two-day leg) instead of one longer one.

Our first stop was in Chuncheon, where we arrived in midafternoon after a train ride to Seoul and a bus ride from there which was long but we certainly managed to entertain ourselves. In Chuncheon we had planned to go to a jade mine, but due to our late arrival and later misunderstanding of the bus system we didn't make it out there. We did go to an island on the lake beside the city. At the shore before we got on the ferry there were some totems:
On the island we rented a tandem bicycle to go see the dolmen (ancient burial markers):
Afterwards we went downtown to Dakgalbi street. Dakgalbi is a delightful dish of chicken, cabbage, and rice cakes sautéed in a spicy sauce, and then of course the diners wrap it in lettuce or sesame leaves (in case I haven't mentioned it, lettuce is used like bread here in pretty much every meal to hold food together until it reaches your mouth). One also can request that they melt pija chiseu (pizza cheese) on the top, which makes it even more tasty. Chuncheon is reputed to be the birthplace of the meal and it has a street of about twenty restaurants that each claim to be the original. My friends and I have dakgalbi fairly frequently, and while the restaurant we choose at random on dakgalbi street was excellent, I'm not sure it is a whole lot better than our usual fare.
After dinner we saw this cool building as we wandered the streets looking for a motel:
The next day we took a bus to Sokcho, a city on the Northeast coast (the Northeastern part of the country has little in the way of a rail system). Sokcho had had an expo a while back, and I like the buildings that came from that better than the ones from Daejeon's expo:
In front of the building one could rent mini motorcycles or a horse-drawn carriage or simply walk along the shore-front park.
In the morning we got up too late to see the sun rise out from the Eastern ocean, but we did see this great vehicle:
Let's pretend that my hair is windswept instead of just messy in the picture:
Sokcho is known for its squid harvests, and one of the more notable meals is squid sundae (sundae--pronounced 'soon day'-- is sausage that has glass noodles and other things mixed in with it, not to be confused with the ice cream related English word that it transliterates to). Usually sausage is stuffed in intestines, but if you'll notice, squid are rather tube shaped:We passed a restaurant with squid in tanks outside to be cooked fresh upon request for comparison:The restaurant also had some sea creatures that looked awfully like hearts: We went down to the rocky shore to enjoy our unusual breakfast:It was surprisingly good! I didn't like sundae the first time I tried it because it had some spices to it that I found disgusting and I didn't think that adding squid would make it any better, but this sundae was delicious:
After breakfast we went to the main attraction, Seoraksan National Park, a 'if you only go to one National Park in South Korea go to this one' -level beautiful area. The mountains look like the mountains in Asian artwork that I had always assumed were stylized, but they really are that craggy and rugged. They look almost alive, like the great bone and horn ridges of some enormous beast: I'm sure that at least my fellow European Hobos have been wondering when I would get arount to the all important picture of myself in a graveyard. I knew that I had a whole year to find the right place and here it is: a grave site of Buddhist monks who cremated hundreds of years ago in front of some of the most gorgeous mountains I've ever seen:The graveyard was generally worthwhile beyond its use as a backdrop for my photo op:In case you hadn't already noticed Alanna is a much better photographer than I am (the vast majority of the pictures from this trip are hers):
I really liked this pagoda at the edge of the graveyard:A little further into the park was a temple with a good sized metal Buddha:
Note the frog shaped donation box:

Past the temple was a bridge with a nice view of the mountains:
...and of another bridge in the other direction:
On this second bridge I got my first glance at Ulsan-bawi, a massive granite cliff and our destination for the day:
Just past the bridge was another temple, mostly notable for its backdrop, though it was interesting in and of itself:

We saw several other temples and other Buddhist artifacts along the way:
The full view of Ulsan-bawi left me speechless other than to sputter and gesticulate enough for Alanna to understand that I needed her to take pictures:
The trees in the area were also beautiful. I love Asian rocks and trees....The most noteworthy temple on the way up had a balancing rock in front of it. It only takes a few people to make the 16 tonne boulder rock back and forth.
The area was covered with large Chinese script:There was an impressive cave grotto, which was awe-inspiring with the wall of rock overhead and the way it was laid out:
And of course it had an imposing backdrop:
Ulsan- bawi also has an amazing folk story about its origin:
The Diamond mountains (Geumgangsan) are in North Korea, and apparently they all look like this granite cliff (Alanna has been there and confirms that Ulwan-bawi would look right at home among them), which makes me want to go there (and since the border has reopened, maybe I will).
In places of great natural beauty it is always difficult to strike the right balance between preservation and accessibility. After all, what's the point of going to a place if continual usage has despoiled it, and what's the point of preserving it if no one can go there? Koreans err on the side of accessibility, as evidenced by this 808 step metal staircase up the middle of the granite cliff:The stairs get rather steep at points:The top was too misty for good pictures, but it was beautiful in person. The way down was steep, and some parts of the staircase one almost felt that you were stepping into thin air, rather like walking down a ladder when facing away from it. Back at the stone bridge near the park entrance we saw this alien-looking caterpillar:
When we left Seorak we traveled to Samcheok, which was a good base of operations for other side trips. First we went to a limestone cave called Hwanseon Donggul. They really liked the bat motif there:
On the steep trail up to the cave there was this reconstruction of an old mill that is powered by water in a pre-waterwheel way:
The surrounding area was gorgeous, though it was an awfully hot hike up to the cave:
The cave itself was much cooler, thankfully.
One isn't supposed to take pictures in the cave, but I couldn't help myself when I saw this sign:What they meant was that a heart-shaped hole had been eaten out of the ceiling by water, but I think "Pledge of Love (corroded hole)" would be an amazing song title. The cave itself was impressive mostly for its size and the volume of water that flowed through it. There were also some formations, but really they were nothing compared to even the less remarkable parts of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Once I stopped making that comparison I appreciated this cave considerably more.

Our next stop was in Sinnam where there is a fishing villiage folk museum. It had full sized animatronic reenactments of shamanistic rituals to appease the gods of the seas, holograms about human sacrifices that were once made for the same purpose, stuffed fish from the region, and a miniature reconstruction of the village as it would have been hundreds of years ago (again with animatronics; note the shaman bowing): The coastal area outside the museum was absolutely stunning:
But let's be honest; the real reason we went to Sinnam was to see all the phallic statues (many of which turned out to be rather disturbing):
This is my vote for the most unsettling sculpture: note the fetus on a rope umbilical cord:The Lonely Planet Korea has the following to say about these statues: "While phallic symbols are nothing new, the origins of this town's penis fetish are not the usual fertility or stamina preoccupations one would expect. Sinnam legend has it that a young virgin drowned within sight of her boyfriend on a small rocky island offshore. The boy had hoped to save her but was unable to because of the rough seas. Shortly after her death fishermen noticed that the catch was dwindling and soon the town was sure that this 'unfulfilled' girl had cursed the fishing grounds. All hope seemed lost, but when a fisherman heeding the call of nature did so facing the ocean, the next day's catch increased. Soon the village erected, um, erections in hopes that the penises would placate the frustrated ghost. The fishing yields have returned to normal, and Sinnam's custom of showing Mr Willy to the water remains to this day." In other words, the penises are for fucking a horny ghost. There is a Buddhist-style shrine to her as well:
Really, can there be too many phallis pictures?
Look in the background to see the red phallic lighthouse and next to it a statue at climax:Apparently the ghost has some seriously kinky tastes from time to time. Ouch:
I'm kind of surprised that there aren't benches like this one at Reed, at least during drag ball:
We saw a surprising number of children at the park. I expect that North American parents wouldn't be as comfortable taking their children anywhere with similar content.
The zodiac is a common theme in Korean art, and I am often amused by the anthropomorphic animals that are outfitted like a DnD party, but they are even more amusing with the phallic twist:

The that evening we departed for Taebaek. There were some dragonflies at the Samcheok bus terminal:
In the morning we set out for Taebaek mountain. We wanted to go to Taebaek because it is one of the major centers of shamanism in Korea, both historically and presently. As usual, there was a Buddhist temple near the bottom of the mountain. This one was rather modern, but interesting. A monk sitting in the shade invited us to join him for a little while, which we did, and we had a pleasant chat in our broken Korean and his broken English.
Many Buddhist statues have mustaches, regardless of gender. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since many Koreans have mustaches regardless of gender or age. Actually, the five year old girls sometimes can grow more facial hair than the full grown men, though for all of them facial hair is mostly restricted to their upper lips.
It turns out there was a film festival at the base of the mountains. These guys were decked out in stage makeup to look injured in honor of the event. They were amused by Alanna's shirt, which reads 'waegookin' (foreigner) [Foreigners are instantly recognizable in Korea on the basis of race in a way they are not in North America, so we hear shouts of 'waegookin' all the time from the many rather xenophobic (or at least culturally insensitive) people here].
Nearby there was a shrine to Dangun, the mythical founder of Korea, said to have been born in 2333BCE:
We had a nice hike to the top of the first peak, which had seven impressive piles of rocks. The rocks here were completely covered with dragonflies; I must have startled hundreds of them into flight every time I took a few steps. The rock piles are part of the shamanic tradition; there was a small lit candle at the base of one of the spires that had an alcove made of flat rocks protecting it from the wind, and we were asked to move so that an older woman could pray in front of it.
A Korean man decided to take pictures of us, an he took it upon himself to be a photo shoot photographer, telling us how to pose, where to stand, etc (he took about a dozen pictures):
In the distance we could see the first of the twin peaks and the shaman shrine atop it:
Along the way there were lots of wildflowers:
At the saddle between the previous mountain and the twin peaks there was a shamanic alter. It looked and felt like a place for rituals. One can easily imagine people kneeling and bowing, lighting candles, chanting, killing Aslan...
At the top was another alter, this one was also made of stacked stones but was round and was roughly shaped as ascending concentric circles.
There was a short path along the ridge to the third alter on the twin peak: The third alter was dedicated to offerings to the sky and so naturally was shaped as a staircase (also in stacked stones).
On the way down but not too far from the summit was a Buddhist temple:
Some of the figurines below the main statue were wearing interesting accessories, like sunglasses or flies:
At the bottom we looked at some of the displays in preparation for the film festival, but did not stay around for the actual event (since we didn't feel like waiting two hours to see movies whose language would be inaccessible to us):
(The Korean script above reads Taebaeksan kkul shi bi ma chu kwi, which I would guess translates to 'Taebaek Mountain film festival') Taebaek also hosts a month long sunflower festival every August a few kilometers out of town. On the way we saw these weird stumps with bowls for hats. I have no explanation for them:
After the moderately long roadside hike we got to the festival. I was persuaded by the locals (actually, the one who spoke English was originally from Daejeon, oddly enough) to try the archery. I actually hit the bull's eye on the first (and only) try, though it was hardly a long shot:
There was plenty of art on display.
However, we were apparently too early for the sunflowers themselves. This field would have been yellow rather than green if the sunflowers were open:
Though there were a few early bloomers:
Behind some trees we saw a field of yellow. It turned out to be some other kind of flower (which I am too lazy to look up):
Finally we caught a cab to take us to the bus station so we could get the direct line to Daejeon. I wanted to be back early because that Monday was the first day of teaching an English class to a group of chemical engineers early in the morning, but that's a story for another post.