Bukhan National Park

This is a National Park that I took a hike in last week. It is just north of Seoul, you can actually see the entire city from this vantage point. That is only if there is a slight haze that day, since it is almost never clear enough to get any kind of view. The hike that I took was about 14 km long. But this is the first time that I've been on a Korean trail that actually had well marked trails.







This is just another view of the mountains to the north of where I was at the time.












This is a common sight in all of the Subway Stations around Seoul. Each station has about 3 or 4 of these lockers. Each little brown bag actually holds a gas mask for just in case the city is attacked with a chemical or biological weapon. I think that they just put them there to make people think that they are trying to protect the people, since there is no way that they will ever have enough masks for the thousands of people that are at the station at any given time.

Changgyeonggung & Changdeokgung

This is an ancient depository of scrolls and tablets that mainly held the genealogical records of the royal families. Most of the building was rebuilt after the Japanese occupation that destroyed almost all Korean cultural landmarks.











This is just a flower that was in a green house on the palace grounds. It's the oldest green house in Korea, built back in the 1890's.











This is the main Palace in the Changdeokgung complex. When you look inside it's actually kinda plain.









This is a secondary palace in the complex but I think that it is the best looking as far as location is concerned. This is actually a library now.

Mud Festival

Here's our group that went on the trip to the mud festival. We got about 20 of our coworkers together and rented a bus and took the 2 hour drive down to the Daechon beach.







Here I am all painted up with Greg.





















This is the spot where we all get painted up as well as do our grooming. All the Koreans were either scared or enamored with our 6'6" black guy. Most of them screamed in horror and ran when he tried to speak Korean to them.







This is a great game of tag in a pool of mud.

This is one of the entrances to the Hwaseong fortress. Today I walked the 5 kilometers around the fortress walls and then went through the palace.















This is a river that flows through the Hwaseong fortress as well as the city of Suwon.

Namhansanseong and Hwaseong

This is the southern entrance of Namhansanseong. It guarded the southern entrances to Seoul. The wall winds through the mountains for about 7 miles. I went up there with my friend Fialek yesterday and walked all the way around it. It took about 3 hours to get all the way around. It was a hard hike with all the steps, but the views were great. On the west side you could see out over the mountains, but on the east side you could see all of Seoul.




I don't know if these are azaleas or not but they sure look like it to me. All of the bushes are so full with flowers that you can't even see any leaves anymore.










Just a white egret I saw. It's one of the few animals that I've seen, so I decided to take a picture.











I don't think you can see it anymore but this guy caught a fish and was in the process of eating it. I think the camera is too slow and he's already swallowed it.

Trip to Daechon

Last break I went to the coastal town of Daechon with my friend Kraha. When we originally started off we were actually trying to get to a different beach. But, when we got off the train we discovered that our map was incorrect and that we were still 40 kilometers from the coast. So we waited until the next train came by about an hour later and took it farther south to Daechon. Once we got off there we took a cab the 10km from the station to the beach and walked around for a little while. The beach was long and flat and covered with little black star fish. At the south end of the beach it has huge boulders that we climbed over, to go exploring. Didn't find anything to exciting except for some old fishing baskets that Kraha tried to use as a net and catch some fish. After that we climbed back over to the beach and then walked along the road towards the harbor. All along this road there were restaurants with fish tanks out front. There were thousands of all kinds of fish, octopus, squid, crustaceans, sea cucumbers, and even a few nurse sharks. You could pick any fish you wanted and they'd pull it out for you and cook it or just give it to you raw.

We continued to walk over to the harbor and when we got there we found that they had a "cruise ship" as well as ferrys that go out to all the major islands. We didn't have time to go out on a ferry so we decided to take a one hour tour on the "Sunflower." The boat was more of an old smelly trawler than an actual cruise ship, but it was fine since it was only ten bucks. They sold these nasty frys that taste like shrimp that all the Koreans love to eat and also throw to the seagulls. So as soon as we departed port all the Koreans and all the Seagulls flocked to the back of the boat to have a contest of who could eat the most. The one good thing about the trip was that we got to see drunk Koreans trying to dance.

I went up to Seoul last week to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was held on Yo-uido island, which is an island in the middle of the Han river in Seoul. It may have been because it was the last day of the festival, but there was very little festivities. But there were tons of Cherry blossoms, so I guess one out of two is pretty good.

My friend Scabby

Here is a picture of Scabby on day 1. He's covered by a piece of gauze under a piece of plastic. This is to ensure that he grows up to be a big strong pustule. Had to keep that on for a couple of days.











Day 6, It's hard to see but the Scabby is beginning to pus up and ooze everywhere.













Here we are at day 9, you can see that Scabby is growing well. By this time my arm was so red and my lymph nodes were so swollen that I couldn't sleep on my sides, and had to sleep on my back.









On Day 12, it still looks like I've got a softball on my shoulder. Scabby is beginning to mature and lose his pubescent qualities, as his skin drys out.














And here we are on day 18 as Scabby has fully matured to the red and black, blood encrusted scab that he is today.







At the time of printing it is being reported that Scabby has died. Scabby is survived by a dime size scar on my shoulder.

Korean War Memorial

I went up to Seoul this weekend with some people from work, to go see the Korean War Memorial. It was a huge museum that gave the history of all wars that the Koreans have participated in.



This is a picture of the "turtle ship" which is a armor plated war ship that was used by the koreans to defend themselves from a Japanese invasion in the 1500s. That's right, I said the 1500s. That's 300 years before the Merrimac and the Monitor. It also never lost a battle the entire time it was in service.









Here's another picture of the turtle ship. It is just a replica but the LCD TV on the back is an original. Turns out that the ship actually got put on MTVs "Pimp My Ride".











This a picture of the museum from the outside. It had the flags of all the nations who helped defend Korea during the Korean conflict placed around the courtyard.













This is a picture on the subway to designate seats for the feable. My favorite is the pregnant woman.

More Pics

Here are some pictures from our hike on Saturday.



This is a workout zone set up along the trail about 300 meters from the trailhead. I guess this is there to help people get warmed up for the hike.











This is a picture from the exterior of one of the buildings in the Samaksa Buddhist temple complex. Almost all of the temples that I've seen since I've been here are painted as intricately as this one is.









This is a shrine set up for Buddha within the temple complex.













Near the end of our hike we came upon a park filled with pieces of "art". We walked in this one which looks more like a bamboo prison than art. The two koreans were part of a group that guided us over the mountains all day. The guy in the blue jacket was hungover when he joined us at the train station and even brought a bottle of Soju(rice wine) for lunch. So he was very friendly all day.





Here we are on the train on the way back to Osan. I hadn't seen that many blackheads since puberty.

Hike up Gwanak Mtn.

Yesterday I went with a couple of friends on a hiking trip. We left at about 8:30 am and walked from base to the train station. From there it was a little more than an hour train ride to the city of Gwanak. Once we got off the train we looked at a few maps to find our way to the mountain we wanted to climb. Giroux had been up the mountain before, but he had gone up from a different direction. We saw a few Koreans with backpacks and hiking paraphernalia so we decided to ask them what the best route was and they offered to show us around. They showed us how to get through the city and one of the trailheads. From there we started to hike up with them. In Korea almost all of the mountains are protected Natl parks. As a culture they are very different from us in that they don't like to live up high. We tend to think that living in the penthouse on top of an apartment building is the best spot, but the most popular floor in Korea is the 1st. And no one has a house on the mountains, they all prefer to have houses in the valleys and cities. They also use the mountains as cemeteries, mostly for the rich because it is very expensive to buy a plot on a mountain. So we walked through several cemeteries and practically straight up the mountain, Koreans apparently don't believe in switchbacks. It was a real nice hike our Korean guides showed us the way up the the top of Samak mtn and we probably would have stopped there if it were just us, but they showed us the way to a few more cool spots. From Samak mtn we hiked to a really big Buddhist temple. Then up to a fertility rock which looks a lot like reproductive organs. And then we hiked up to the top of Gwanak mountain. I'm really glad that we had our Korean guides because we were able to take a round trip and not see the same thing twice, which we wouldn't have been able to do since there were no trail markers anywhere. But that was our day, I'll try to get more pictures up soon.


This is a picture of the peak of Samak mountain. It's a pretty good hike because the trail goes straight up the mountain. You actually have to climb over the rocky crags near the top to get to the top, there is no actual trail.










Here is the only sign marker that I saw on the whole hike. The sign pointing to the left says "the easy road 150m" and the sign to the right says "the hard road 100m". Needless to say, we went the easy road. Although I probably would have named it the easier road because there wasn't anything really easy about it.








This is a picture from the top of Samak mtn, looking down of the city of Gwanak. The guy on the left is Giroux, my neighbor from Monterey and on the left is Hartman one of my friends from San Angelo. From the top of this mountain the only thing you could see was cities surrounding the entire mountain. It was high enough that you could even see parts of Seoul.

This is a picture of Gwanak mtn. from Samak mountain. It is kinda hard to see because the haze but there is a really tall frozen waterfall right in the middle of that mountain.

Hi Everybody,
I went to the DMZ (Demilitarized zone) today with my friend Osborne. It was a guided tour that I got through the base travel office here in Osan. I had to get up and meet the bus at 6:45 this morning for the two hour bus ride up through Seoul and North to the DMZ. Our first stop was at Imjingak, a small touristy area that featured a "reunification bridge" which was basically a really expensive bridge that went over a fake pond to a railroad track that leads to North Korea. There was also a Buddhist bell and monument. At the monument there were two guys that were sitting there, and one was constantly ringing a bell that got really annoying after listening to it for twenty minutes. But if you put a fruit basket in front of the monument the other guy would come up and pat you down with some colored strips of paper, then a chammy, and then a feather duster. After your pat down you would then do a big traditional korean bow to the guy ringing the bell. It was all pretty unusual to watch and wonder what he was doing to those poor people with that feather duster. The next stop was at tunnel number 3. It is the 3rd of 4 known tunnels discovered by the US and ROK (Republic of Korea) forces. I got to go down a tunnel created by the ROK that meets up with a NK tunnel that they had been digging to make incursions into SK. The NK tunnel stretches almost 3 kilometers, 1 of which is on the SK side of the DMZ. The tunnel was large enough to move 1 fully armed division of troops through the tunnel every hour. They give out helmets to everyone that goes down into the tunnel on the tour. Although I noticed that all the Koreans could walk upright and not have to worry about it while I felt like a 60 year old woman who had spent my life in the rice fields after walking through that tunnel. The pictures will explain the rest of my day.

This is a picture of my Passport with a stamp from the Dora Mtn. Rail Station which was built for when North and South Korea are reunified. It comes with all the amenities of a transcontinental rail station just without any trains that go across continents. North Korea doesn't allow any trains to go south to the train station or any trains to travel north from the station. So basically South Korea built a multi billion dollar train station, and also a huge toll booth for the throngs of motorists that will be going to North Korea upon reunification. Even though they aren't any closer to reunification now than they were 50 years ago.

This is a picture of a South Korean guard standing in a modified tae kwon do stance. This is taken from inside the main UN (note the baby blue background) negotiating room (T-2) in Panmunjom or JSA (Joint Security Area). He is actually standing on North Korean soil, as am I, when I took this picture. They have to stand motionless like that for up to three hours, and if you try to talk to them they'll go Jackie Chan on ya'. This guard is there to guard the door to North Korea so no North Koreans come in and none of us try to defect.

And here I am with my special UN guest badge. As you can see out the window there is a 1.5 foot wide concrete slab that marks the boundary between North and South Korea. At this point I am on the North Korean side. To my right is another South Korean soldier who is guarding the UN flag that is sitting on the main negotiating table.

Here, if you look closely you can see two of the most elusive creatures on the planet. Rarely seen

in the open it was quite a treat to see two such fine specimens wander out from cover. Because of loss of habitat they now rely on tree bark or grass for sustenance, and can be easily coaxed out of hiding with a carrot or apple. They must have found a bountiful feast today because they stayed at a cautious distance.

This a picture of a small "town" located within the DMZ on the NK side. After the war both NK and SK were allowed to have one village located inside the DMZ. SK kept a small village that now has about 220 inhabitants who mainly cultivate rice. The NK village is called "Propoganda Village" by the troops stationed across from it. Until recently the town used huge speakers to blast the South with propoganda messages. As you can see in the photo there is a huge flagpole that measures 160 meters tall and the flag itself is 3 stories in length and weighs 600 lbs dry. The town itself is just a shell. No one actually lives there, only occasionally do maintenance workers go in to keep up appearances.

This is the "Bridge of No Return". After the Korean War ended there was a POW exchange that allowed anyone to cross over to the other side with the knowledge that once you left you could never come back.