Close to DMZ, Kodaesan, Feb. 5th

I like the sunny disposition of this photo. How adorable: the two bear-like figures in the background [Andrea and Insan].

Mountain tired. The ROK (Republic of Korea) army has placed many tires along the ridge of Mt. Kodae, either building stairs or bunkers. We found some lose tires and played with them. They guy on the far left, Jungshick, managed to lift this extremely heavy devil above his head. I, on the other hand, couldn't get off my kness, even with lots of help from my friends.

Halle Berry move over: here comes the real CATWOMAN, akka, my friend Jiwon, akka DF [Delicate Flower] in her best meow mountain attire. She is most certainly the most avid she-hiker in our club. We're broken-hearted to see her go back to her home town New York. Her sense of style and her deadpan humour are irreplaceable. Pleeeeeeaaaase, come back.

One of my favourite photographers, Andrea. I am "blessed" with friends who are just crazy about taking photographs. My friend Clare from South Africa stops every few seconds to immortalize this or that. Andrea is not much different. I am not complaining as it is thanks to them that I end up with gorgeous photos with very little effort. I used to be "a crazy photographer" myself but then I lost interest in it. I find that I concentrate more on memorizing things and noticing details when I don't have my camera with me. This is Andrea taking a photo of North Korean Mountains (although all we could really see was hazy horizon) 

Lunch on Kodaesan. Most certainly, one of the highlights on any hike is stopping to have lunch. We usually aim to cover most of the climbing part before lunch, leaving only a bit of the uphill action for after lunch and concentrating on the descent, which is, although physically not as exerting, many times a much trickier part that requires some skill and concentration. We find a windless spot, spread our newspaper tablecloth, got out our goodies (mostly kimbop [California rolls], kimchi [pickled Chines cabbage spiced with hot pepper, salt, fish paste, garlic], sandwiches, fruit, hot beverages in winter, or this time,courtesy of Andrea, our German member, German "herren Kuchen", a version of marble cake. Yum!  

Imelda's Dream... or Nightmare?

On our way back to Seoul we were very tired after a day of hiking and heavy dinner consisting of grilled duck and duck stew. Many hikers were sleaping which gave me a chance to sneak a photo of my favorite type of shoes: hiking boots.

Korea is not quite a land of subtlety; Koreans like to take everything to the extreme: the Han River in Seoul has too many huge bridges, highways have too many lanes, food is either very spicey or very bland (very good, too!), business signs are enormous and painted in most vivid colours... Here's an example of this love of things big and exaggerated - a larger- than- life map of Mt. Kodae. It's so big, you can't see the mountain it represents.  

Last Saturday, Febryary 5th, my hiking club went to Mt. Kodae (Kodaesan), very close to the DMZ and North Korea. After getting off the train at the northernmost train station of S. Korea, we hiked on this beautiful mountain, reaching the highest peak that serves as an army outpost. This is us gazing through shades of pullution, trying to make out the mountains of North Korea.