The song of Songnisan

Not quite by Solomon the Wise, but I will do. I'm just copying here the entire hiking report published already on my club's web site.

Date: October 22nd Mt. Songnisan
Participants: CD and his son; Lisa, Sohee, Clare, Chris, BiancaWeather: ab-fab, a tad cool

The hills, this time of Songnisan, were once again alive with the sound of my hiking boots, the ones I got from CD upon my 12th consecutive hike. Yeah, those were the days when this loyal hiker would have probably missed her own wedding (if a husband and hanbok had ever made themselves at my disposal, that is) but not a Saturday hike. Alas, I was away from my beloved Korean hills for more than three months. Just how long the absence was and how much I truly missed my favourite pastime I realized fully on this perfect day while hiking bum to nose on Sognisan (an expression of our own Woman of Africa) with Chris, CD and his son, Clare, Lisa, Sohee and Georges.In this little report, I'l tell you about our bus ride, our hikers, our hike, and of course about the beauty of Songnisan. Clare and Sohee stayed over at my house since I live in the neighbourhood of CD' "Hansung University house." While they tossed and turned I slept for 3 beautiful long hours. When the ungodly time to wake up came (2:40), I felt refreshed and energized. We made a mad dash for the bus, and what do you think happened when we got there, all huffed and sweaty? The bus had not even arrived! The driver thought our trip was to happen on the Sunday not Saturday morning. Ghrrr!! We had no choice but to sit in front of a convenience store and sip coffee in a somewhat chilly but beautifully fresh night. Anyhow, CD sorted the problem out and the bus arrived possibly 40 minutes or one hour later than scheduled. Some 'bad' hikers cancelled at the last moment which was both a good and a bad thing: good, cause we had plenty of space on the bus; bad (very bad, indeed) because we ended up with a 150,000 won deficit. I didn't sleep on the bus but I had my ear plugs and my sleeping mask on so I was fully unaware of the driver's getting lost in an apartment complex and needing about 40 minutes to find his way out of it. We arrived to Songnisan at 8:00 a.m. The little village at the foot of the mountain was littered with huge banners advertising "the Festival of the Autumn Tint." At this point we were still blissfully ignorant of what it meant for our hike: million of hikers on the mountain. A strange open-air art exhibition presented itself on a lawn next to the road leading to the mountain: all sorts of human, animal and robot made from scrap metal grazed and gazed at people passing by. First things first, of course: we had breakfast of sundubu and our own goodies at a cute little restaurant the walls of which were adorned with naughty paintings. One of them shows a man dressed in hanbok drinking with a tiger; behind them, in the bushes, a naked expectant but forsaken woman; the captions above the tiger's head read: "drink is better than meat.?Nasty, eh? The weather was as good as it can be in the late October in Korea: cool, bright, huge blue skies with not a hint of clouds. Some trees still had green leaves, some displayed an explosion of flaming red and golden yellow tints, some were completely bare. just like humans, some aged quite well and some not so. Our trail was covered in fresh layers of fallen leaves. What fragrance they exhausted! Simply too wonderful for words. It's funny that they should smell their best as they are rotting?The trail was not too difficult: no overly steep slopes and no crazy rocks - BUT it's a big mountain. It requires stamina and endurance. We hiked for 9 full hours, the last hour spent in a crazy dash from an overpriced sick-tang (that, btw, insulted our palates with the worst dong-dong-ju and worst tubu-kimchi ever) down to Bopju temple before it closed. Before we reached the temple, we stopped at a little hermitage where we saw images of Buddha carved in a huge rock.. A very friendly monk directed us to a fenced platform above the hermitage from which he promised the best views. Was he ever right about that! As the platform is quite high, it offers open views on all sides. We stood in awe gazing at misty green peaks and slopes that looked like huge waves on a stormy sea. With thigh and calf muscles aching and our chests heaving, we finally reached the temple, an hour or so before closing. The temple grounds are every inch as fabulous as they are advertised to be: from the huge golden Buddha statue (the biggest in Asia - which makes me wonder: where else could an even bigger Buddha be, if not in Asia?), to the 5-story pagoda, to the atmosphere of 'solemnity' in spite of hordes of visitors. We had to look around the temple very quickly as it was getting dark and very, very cold. What a relief it was to sit on an ondooled floor and enjoy chiggae, pajong and the inevitable dong-dong-ju. I brought a Middle-Eastern sweet delicacy called tahan halva ( I had bought it last summer in Bosnia). It's made of sesame paste and it's really scrumptious: I was happy to see that it was a huge hit among Koreans (a mission not so easy to accomplish when it comes to "exotic [read non-Korean] food." Unfortunately, I have something unpleasant to report: Lisa twisted her ankle quite early during the hike and was not able to continue hiking. Being the good sport that she is, she didn' want to interfere with our enjoyment, so she went back down with CD's son who was quite tired and bored. I hope her ankle has recovered by now. Sohee also had to go back before the end of the hike. I'll let HER tell you the reason. They all waited for us for quite a long time at the restaurant with the man and the tiger who prefer drink to meat (losers!). I am sorry that they couldn't enjoy this wonderful day as much as the rest of us did. The hike was great and the only thing that stopped it short of perfect was the crowds we had to endure: waiting in a long line to go up to one of the peaks and feeling like monkeys in a zoo while having lunch - stared at, laughed at, but also - truth to be told- greeted in friendliest of ways by many, many enthusiastic hikers. I think I said more "anyonghaseyos" in this one day on Songnisan than in my whole sojourn in Korea. Could that be a bad thing? Surely, not. So, crowds, bring it on: I am ready.