Suraksan

The weather has finally cooled down enough to where hiking is enjoyable. Suraksan mountain is only one subway stop away from our house so it was a great way to spend our Sunday afternoon. We got a hoot out of the tid bits of English comments as we were hiking. Many people like to practice their English when they see a westerner...that held true even on the mountain. Comments like: Hello. Where are you from...oh we love USA. Good afternoon. Where do you live (but instead of live it was pronounced live like alive...it took us a while with that one) The other interesting part of the trek was trying to find the correct trail! There are many side trails but everything is labeled in Korean. We would often wait at a fork in the road until someone came by and we could ask which one to take. Because many Korean's work Monday through Saturday, Sundays tend to be the busiest day for hiking. As you can tell by some of their outfits...they are very serious about hiking and everyone wears bright colors and decks out in all the right gear. It is also common for many Korean hiker's to drink Soju (stong alcohol) on the mountain. Yes, no joke. It is sad to say but it would not be out of the norm to see hikers stumbling down the mountain half intoxicated. Dangerous...I know!

It was so nice to get out of the city and enjoy the fresh air and beautiful views! Here are some pics from the afternoon.

About half way up the mountain there was a natural spring that piped out fresh drinking water.

A bell at the Buddhist temple.

A group eating lunch and drinking Soju. They offered us slices of papple (pear/apple). It was delicious! They asked if they could come visit us in Alaska!

There are mirrors everywhere in Korea! You'll find them on all sides of the elevator, subway stations, in the hallway of buildings...apparently even on the mountain!!!

Instead of going down the back side of the rock where the trail was...it was much better for them to hike straight down the face of the rock with a cliff to the right of them...seems sensible to me!