Last Autumn
Nov 20, 2010
At the end of autumn, I decided to go hiking after learning in Korean language class that there is a popular activity for each of the four seasons. During autumn, Koreans like to go for 단풍놀이 (dan pum nol i) or 'maple leaf excursion'/ 'autumn hiking'. For spring, it's 꽃놀이 'flower excursion', for summer it's 바닷가 'going to the beach' and for winter it's 스키 'skiing'.
Decided to go to Mt Geumjeong for hiking after seeing Shirly's FB photos but later realized that my friend and I'd taken the wrong trail up!~ No wonder we reached the fortress North gate instead of South gate... and didn't see the swan lake... =.=''' But going via the Beomeosa temple (North gate) route takes shorter time to reach the top (2km, 1.5 hours up and down) while Shirly's Children Grand Park (South gate) route took her 4-5 hours up and down. Looking back it seemed the right choice because I had only a short afternoon to spare and I didn't want to be stuck on the mountain after dark.
Anyway, seems hard to believe that autumn was only 2 months ago. It feels like it's forever winter here, both physically and mentally. But looking on the bright side, it's already 2 months into winter and everything is going to end soon!~
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| When the trees are bathed in golden yellow colors of the afternoon sun |
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| Small stream |
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| Maple leaves (단풍) against the autumn sky |
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| Unknown flowers |
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| Almost bare |
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| Red maple leaf (단풍) |
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| Stone steps |
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| Stone bridge across a small stream |
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| No more stone steps, only huge rocks |
I think Bukit Jambul is easier to hike because of all the man-made steps up. At Mt. Geumjeong trail there were only stone steps up for like a quarter of the way and then there were only huge rocks all the way up and many leaves on the ground. Walking on the leaves was kinda dangerous because if you were not careful you'd slip and fall. Going down was even tougher because of the darkening sky. Haha thanks to my many 'trainings' at Bukit Jambul, hiking up Mt. Geumjeong was easier than I thought... even my friend was amazed at my stamina and pace! :P I should have done this more often...
Further up the mountain the trees got barer and barer and it felt like almost winter with all the branches sticking out. Then we reached a part where there were many silver grass (lalang) and I knew we were almost reaching the top!
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| Geumjeongsan Fortress (North gate) |
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| Designated National Monument No. 215 |
The North Gate of Geumjeongsanseong Fortress is located about 1.6km west of Beomeosa Temple. It is the most rugged-looking of the four gateways to the fortress. Unlike the other three, this does not have an arched top; it is also the smallest (means the one most 'cincai'-lah). An inscription on the Memorial Monument for the Construction of Geumjeongsanseong Fortress reads: "The work on the castle tower was started in early spring 1808 and completed after 149 days of work, under the leadership of Mayor O Han-Won. Thousands of workers were mobilized, columns and beams were brought from as far as 50km away, and rocks were brought from mountainous areas."
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| Sat there and watched as the sun went down |
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| In the evening as we hiked down and reached Beomeosa Temple |
Then we went to eat 'nak ji bok um' (octopus fried rice) in Dongrae which was very very veryyyy delicious~~
#Funny Konglish (Korean English) joke here#
And as we were eating our 'nak ji bok um', my Korean friend, who is a guy btw, suddenly asked me out of the blue, "Do you like anal?"
I almost spurted out the three octopus tentacles I was chewing on into his face.
Turns out he meant to ask whether I liked to eat pig intestines... hahahahahahahahha... that was really an OMG moment... but still I couldn't pinpoint which part of the question was wrong until yesterday I 'discussed' this with Leo... he should have replaced the 'anal' with 'anus'...
Ahhhhhhhhhhh~ LOL
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