This past Thursday was a prime example of things not always going exactly how you think they're going to go, but still working out for the best. We went to Hwasun beach thinking that we'd kayak, but quickly learned that the weather was too windy and the water too rough to paddle out on the sea. Instead Anna suggested we take a walk along the closest Olle trail, and so we found ourselves trudging along the beach, scrambling over rocks, climbing countless stairs, and pulling ourselves up a steep gradient using a rope.
Once we reached the start of what looked like an actual trail through the woods, we encountered a Korean man and his family. In English the man told us, "You can't go that way. There's a big spider on the path." And we stood there thinking, this must be one massive spider to turn away a big Korean guy and his family. Although I was wary, Anna was undeterred. The two of us scouted a little father into the brush, leaving Oli and Reesha behind. We quickly came across the spider, which was brightly colored and hanging out on a web crossing the footpath, so Anna took a stick and moved the spider out of the way. No big deal.
I've noticed that many of the Korean people I meet while hiking Ole trails are incredibly well outfitted with all the right brightly colored hiking gear, but when it comes to getting their hands dirty they're fairly inexperienced with the outdoors.
Anna and I reached a viewing platform at the top of the cliff, but since Reesha and Oli didn't follow us, we had to turn around and go back the way we came, making a detour around the cliff, we reconnected with the olle trail on the other side and continued our hike through a rolling field and then along the coastline.
From our perch on another seaside cliff, we looked out and saw gorgeous hidden beaches lining the coastline.
Some of the cove beaches were closed to the public, but we found one that we could walk onto. Nobody kicked us off at any rate... We sunbathed and swam for a couple hours. The sea was so warm and the rocks on either side of us kept away the worst of the wind and waves.
We moved on, walking along the beach, continuing towards distant Sanbangsan. The beach was riddled with interesting rock formations and caves. The rocks looked almost like plastic, the were so odd. It was like lava flow trapped in time.
Apparently at some point we had separated from the olle trail, which was above us, and we were below on the beach. We could see stairs leading up to a viewing platform, but had to get up to them somehow. I know it's terrible, but we ended up scrambling up a giant sand dune in order to reconnect to the trail. After our haphazard ascent, we reached a viewing platform where we could look out on the beach we had just crossed, and we could even see our original starting point, Hwasun Beach (next to the industrial park in the photo below).
The olle trail eventually led us to the base of Sanbangsan, which is a huge, very steep oreum that is visible even from my room at NLCS Jeju. Since the sides are so steep, it's impossible to climb to the top of this oreum without ropes and equipment, but there is a Buddhist temple set into the south side with stairs leading someways up the mountain and ending in a grotto.
As soon as we stepped foot onto the temple grounds, we were suddenly assaulted by a group of Korean men, who were keen to show us around. One in particular was especially enthusiastic, waving his arms around pointing at things and speaking to us very loudly in Korean. We were a bit annoyed by this and managed to escape his attention eventually. We climbed up many stairs...
And more stairs...
Forever stairs...
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| Beautiful photo by Row of the inside of the temple |
...Until we reached the very top of the temple, which was basically a big Buddah set into a cave in the side of the mountain. In fact, I learned recently that Sanbangsan means Mountain Room Mountain, named for the grotto room called Sanbanggul.
At the top, we came across the Very Enthusiastic Korean Man once more, and he convinced Oli to go up to the Buddah and pray. It was a hot day, so we took a rest on the benches near the grotto and were approached by yet another Korean man with a ponytail. So excited to see foreigners, he immediately dialed up his wife, a Korean teacher, and handed his cellphone over to me. I chatted with his wife on the phone for several minutes, and she told me about her husband being in Jeju on vacation while she was back at their home on the mainland.
On our way back down the mountain we quickly made our way past Enthusiastic Korean Man, and encountered a new person: Short Korean Man, who was so impressed by Anna's height that he struck up a mainly Korean conversation with her. The two of them took a picture together and we moved on.
At the ticket booth at the base of the mountain we ran into the other half of our group, who had left later in the day after having a lie-in. They had just arrived by taxi and hadn't yet seen the temple, so we made plans to meet up again in an hour, and we went for a quick lunch as the other group climbed the many stairs.
Then, WHO DID WE SEE AT LUNCH???? Why it was Very Enthusiastic Korean Man and his friends. As soon as we walked into the restaurant they called out to us loudly in old man Korean, with a lot of deep loud voices and saliva flying everywhere. They had already had a bit to drink. By this point we accepted that this was our fate -- too many chance encounters to call it anything else -- and sat down at the table next to them.
They poured us drinks and we toasted many times and ate seafood pajeon (Korean chive pancakes). Just as they were about to leave, Ponytail Korean man saw us at the restaurant and came in. He told the other men about our previous encounter up on mountain near the temple, and explained to them about me chatting to his wife on the cellphone. Of course then we had to toast to THAT too. But we were all laughing and having a good time, even though I speak 10 words of Korean and they spoke even less English.
After lunch we met up with the other half of our group, who had finished their hike up to the temple. We walked along the beach, and sat briefly to appreciate the view of Sanbangsan from afar:
After a beer at the cafe, You and I, we called it a day and headed back to NLCS, recounting our unexpected encounters and discoveries along the way.
[Some photos courtesy of Row, Anna, and Reesha]
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