We went for a hike today to take advantage of the perfect weather. The Lil Buddha was pretty pscyhed to get going. She likes to be carried around in this thing. I feel like an elephant with one of those saddles on it.
We started out walking over a hill about 20 minutes from our house. It was one of those times when you can walk up a steep deep end street, step into the woods and suddenly feel incredibly far from the traffic and bustle of Seoul. This hill resolved on the other side into some ramshackle houses, very steep steps, and little vegetable plots in every available space. And, of course, tiny wizened old women tending to them.
This was the only place I have seen rats in Seoul.
We then walked over to another imposing mountain that we had looked at several times from the one behind out apartment. As usual, there was a Buddhist temple tucked into the foot of the mountain, looking quite nice with everything in bloom.
We hiked a good way up and (this being Korea) were not really surprised to find a badminton court way up on the mountainside. There were players too, not surprisingly. Badminton courts are always filled around here.
There was a free weights station too, tucked into a rock crevice.
Up a steep staircase was a Buddha statue and a little altar in the rockface.
Then the staircase turned to Mexican-temple levels of steepness, up to a nice view.
We figured this was the top of the mountain since it was sheer rock up from this point, but some further exploration yielded a way up, though it required some really steep rock scrambles. We were both hoping and expecting that we wouldn't have to come back this way, and it turns out we took a back way up. The main way is pretty nuts, steep stairs hewn out of the rock and a rope handrail. Lots of hikers out, many of the geared-out variety and many others of the utterly drunk variety. Everybody was really friendly.
This is Inwangsan. Nice view of Namsan and of all the palaces and and of central Seoul from up there.
Here is the way down.
And another view. This includes the reconstructed wall of Seoul.
There are a number of fortified military installations on this mountain we saw this way down. They definitely have commanding views in all directions. The military presence was interesting to see.
We ended up over above Dongnimmum and walked into a temple complex that also has a famous shamanist shrine in it, Guksdang. I looked it up later. The Japanese had destroyed it on Namsan and it was moved over here. Interesting choice of place, since this hillside directly overlooks the Seodaemun Prison in which the Japanese locked Korean independence seekers.
The top of the hill has a collection of rocks supposed to look like monks, called Seonbawl, the 'zen rocks." They are large and impressive wind (?) carved rocks which women are supposed to pray at for sons. I didn't want to take a picture of because people were praying, but here is a view from the bottom of the steps.
This is a great city for hiking, so many mountains and trails. I am sure we could have found a more direct way to this hike, but it is fun to find a peak and then keep walking until you can find a way up. Having hiked the mountains on the north side of the river I really need to make a point to hike the ones on the south side before we leave in a couple of months.
We started out walking over a hill about 20 minutes from our house. It was one of those times when you can walk up a steep deep end street, step into the woods and suddenly feel incredibly far from the traffic and bustle of Seoul. This hill resolved on the other side into some ramshackle houses, very steep steps, and little vegetable plots in every available space. And, of course, tiny wizened old women tending to them.
This was the only place I have seen rats in Seoul.
We then walked over to another imposing mountain that we had looked at several times from the one behind out apartment. As usual, there was a Buddhist temple tucked into the foot of the mountain, looking quite nice with everything in bloom.
We hiked a good way up and (this being Korea) were not really surprised to find a badminton court way up on the mountainside. There were players too, not surprisingly. Badminton courts are always filled around here.
There was a free weights station too, tucked into a rock crevice.
Up a steep staircase was a Buddha statue and a little altar in the rockface.
Then the staircase turned to Mexican-temple levels of steepness, up to a nice view.
We figured this was the top of the mountain since it was sheer rock up from this point, but some further exploration yielded a way up, though it required some really steep rock scrambles. We were both hoping and expecting that we wouldn't have to come back this way, and it turns out we took a back way up. The main way is pretty nuts, steep stairs hewn out of the rock and a rope handrail. Lots of hikers out, many of the geared-out variety and many others of the utterly drunk variety. Everybody was really friendly.
This is Inwangsan. Nice view of Namsan and of all the palaces and and of central Seoul from up there.
Here is the way down.
And another view. This includes the reconstructed wall of Seoul.
There are a number of fortified military installations on this mountain we saw this way down. They definitely have commanding views in all directions. The military presence was interesting to see.
We ended up over above Dongnimmum and walked into a temple complex that also has a famous shamanist shrine in it, Guksdang. I looked it up later. The Japanese had destroyed it on Namsan and it was moved over here. Interesting choice of place, since this hillside directly overlooks the Seodaemun Prison in which the Japanese locked Korean independence seekers.
The top of the hill has a collection of rocks supposed to look like monks, called Seonbawl, the 'zen rocks." They are large and impressive wind (?) carved rocks which women are supposed to pray at for sons. I didn't want to take a picture of because people were praying, but here is a view from the bottom of the steps.
This is a great city for hiking, so many mountains and trails. I am sure we could have found a more direct way to this hike, but it is fun to find a peak and then keep walking until you can find a way up. Having hiked the mountains on the north side of the river I really need to make a point to hike the ones on the south side before we leave in a couple of months.
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