The Cloud Bridge (Kurim Tari). 52m long, 60cm wide, suspended 120m above ground. Wow!  

The March4/5 Hike: Wolchulsan National Park

Jiwon has been nagging Chang-dae, our hiking leader, to organize a hike to Wolchulsan, a national park in the southern province Chollanam-do. He obliged so on Friday, March 4th, after some beer at the Micro Pub Chris, Clare, Jiwon and I joined the rest of the hikers who were already gathered around a school bus rented for the trip. Our party consisted of: CD, Chris, Jesse, two new Korean hikers whose names escape me, Clare, Jiwon, Andrea, Agnes and me. I have been feeling a lot under the weatehr lately and I would not have gone on this hike had it not been Jiwon's last before leaving Korea.
We traveled all night in a very uncomfortable bus with some people freezing and other roasting. I was in the freezing camp sitting next to the door that could not be closed properly. At about 4:00 am we arrived to our minbak {guest house} that looked quite nice. The room for the ladies was quite small but it had beautiful traditional duvets in very very bright colours. In the morning we used the dining room and drank instant coffee managing to seriously offend the attending ajumma. The weather was quite nice, sunny and almost balmy. We all agreed that we chose perfect weather for this hike. Little did we know what lied ahead of us...
We bought crampons for " just in case."
The beginning of the hike was quite peaceful, a bit on the steep side, but nothing unmanageable. As we were reaching higher altituted the weather started to change. It became quite windy. When we crossed the spectacular Kurim Bridge (The Cloud Bridge) CD said "it'll snow soon." The minute he said it it started to snow! In no time we were moving through a blizzard. The wind was quite strong and everything was milky white. Numerous steep stairs and rocky inclines later, as the weather was getting more and more treacherous, CD, worried about a new hiker who didn't even wear a proper jacket and whose face was beet red, and about Jesse who wore sneakers and had no crampons (!?) decided to take a short cut down to the valley. The descent was quite challenging as it was slippery with snow and ice and as we couldn't really hold on to the railings and ropes - our hands in wet gloves just slipped off the railings. I am usually one of the "chickeniest" hikers, being afraid of heigths, falling, hurting myself... Strangely on this hike I didn't feel scared at all. Perhaps being sick makes me braver?

As we were going down the mountain, the weather was getting better, sunnier, warmer so that the walk close to the foot of the mountain was quite pleasant: beautiful evergreen trees with thick shiny leaves half-hidden by snow, a brook murmuring under its melting ice cover, even birds chirping.
In front of the restaurant where we ate takdori tang ( a spicy chicken "goulash") a red camelia tree in bloom and a friendliest little puppy seemed to greet us in the friendliest of ways. How idylic!.
With our food and drink reservoirs replenished we hopped on the bus again. The ride back to Seoul was much more pleasant. We watched a couple of movies or just vegged out simmering in our own juices, satiated, exercised, content...
After arriving to Seoul a few of us proceeded to my house and had a nice quite time snacking on straberries and sipping sake and beer, enjoying our last "hiking club" moments with Jiwon.
I will definitely go back to Wolchulsan in the summer or spring. It's a spectacular mountain, but for half of our hike we couldn't see anything through the milky whiteness of blizzard. What an adventure!

The white fluffy stuff on my head is not a home dye job gone awry but rather my "regular" hair in its unusal frozen condition.  

This is a picture I downloaded from one of the web sites related to Wolchulsan national park. The Bridge is called The Cloud Bridge (Kurim Tari in Korean) because it "touches the clouds." Connecting two peaks, it is at 52m the longest suspended bridge in Korea. Some say that being on it is as thrilling as a bungee jump - I can't say as I never did a bungee jump. But thrilling it is, being 120m above the ground and standing on the bridge platform that is only 60cm wide.  

This is me on the bridge, pretending to fly. The bridge hangs so high up above the ground that one really feels like a bird.  

This is a close-up of the bridge. 

Jiwon in the act of seasoning her hand with salt.  

Jiwon's Farewell Hotel Suite Party

On Monday, Feb. 28th, Jiwon rented a room in The New Kukje Hotel in the heart of Seoul, close to the City Hall. The room was a venue for her farewell party. She invited some of her closest friends for some "nosh and drinks." As I got there around 8:30 p.m. the party was already swinging. She had some middle-eastern snacks ordered from Petra, wine, beer, tequila, whiskey...There were cheerful yellow freesias everywhere in the room... candles, too. Chatting, laughing, eating, drinking, jumping on two beds with crisp white cotton sheets, a bit of dancing, massaging... It was really a fun party and a very civilized way to mess up some other place rather than your own. I took a lot of photographs but I used them to make a photo story for Jiwon as the final farewell gift. Picture above was taken by Clare. More will come when I make copies of my own film.

Rebels Without a Cause

About three weeks ago Jiwon and I watched "The Rebel without a Cause." We truly enjoyed this classic teenage drama and decided that good-looking, charismatic men like James Deans simply don't exist anymore. We couldn't think of a single male movie star that could match his appeal. After the movie I took Jiwon to my favourite bar in Insa-dong. It's on a corner of an intersection and it offers a great view of two streets and all the people passing by. It's the best spot for serious people watching. A pitcher of beer and a plate of tubu kimchi (tofu with kimchi) later, we were still in a mood to rebel against this world's lack of good men. Well, there is always some kind of ersatz, i.e. soju, that evil chemical nectar, the beloved drink of Korea that tastes like watered down bad vodka. We had two bottles at a songyapsal restaurant, sans songyapsal - the only food we ate there was some pickled radish. A great basis for heavy boozing! From this place we moved to the Jongno pojang macha (food tent) strip. After some consideration we chose one and continued our soju consumption. I remember that we ate some noodles and later some hellishly spicy pork stew - and we drank more soju. A group of business ajoshis [married Korean men] were sitting at a table on the other side of the tent. A short middle-aged, chubby man with a beautiful turqoise accordion and military uniform was entertaining them playing waltzes and singing sad Korean folk songs. Jiwon, the crazed photograph that she is, made me walk over to the ajoshi table and establish contact with the player. I did, first gingerly and then, thanks to a somewhat fuzzy brain soaked in soju, boldy and some would argue even seductively. Me? Nonsense. The ajoshi, of course, obliged and walked with us over to our table where he continued to amaze us with his accordion virtuosity.
Jiwon and I got home around 3:30 A.M. The next morning I had to wake up early to prepare everything for workmen who were scheduled to change the wallpaper in my house... How did we feel after all that soju? Some things are better left unsaid, trust me. Let me just say that even now, three weeks after the soju spree, so much as seeing a green soju bottle sets both my brain and my stomach into violent spinning...

Jiwon made this beautiful photograph of me walking by a row of pojang machas in the Jongno area. As we walked by, ajummas were attempting to tempt us to enter their food and soju kingdoms. We happily obliged.  

The ajumma was a very friendly and beautiful woman in spite of the late hour (it was probably around 3:00 a.m. or so). She obliged graciously to pose with me and a bottle of soju.  

We spotted a group of ajoshis being entertained by a peculiar looking man - a bit like a M.A.S.H. runaway in his fatigues and overall military but non-threatening look.  

Intrigued by his helmet with a red star on the front and his considerable accordion skills I slyly approached him. Doesn't he look completely lost in his music?

Thanks to the soju-induced good mood the Accordion Ajoshi and I became quick friends. 

A while ago, Clare had a ginger bread making extravaganza at her house. She had done this "project" with her young students and had lots of cookie dough left. Tracy, Jiwon, Clare and I let our creative juices run wild. For the record: none of the indecent-looking ones were made by Clare - if you can find any at all.  

The birthday girl.  

Whenever I go to Itaewon, I always stop for a tasty snack of "dukkochi" (a Korean chicken kebob), or odang. I really like this ajumma's friendly disposition. She always has a ready smile and her pojang macha is the best in the neighbourhood.  

Thrilled to get Mr. Big from Jiwon.  

Trying to figure out how the "fat scanner" works - and pretending to be o.k. with the gift.  

Heeyoung, Clare and Jiwon enjoying odaeng (a fish hotdog of sorts).  

A special birthday treat: a ride on a white horse permanently stationed in Itaewon.  

It was very cold but the feeling I got surrounded by my friends couldn't be warmer. I got wonderful gifts: beautiful roses, coolinary delicacies, "Koreana products" [i.e. a small imitiation of the Kyongju Emile bell), a body fat scanner (ouch!)...

On January 11th I had a small birthday party at a Thai Restaurant "Thai Orchid" in the Itaewon area. Only very close friends were present: Clare and her boyfriend Aaron, Jiwon, Andrea, Chris, Heeyoung and Chang-dae. We had a nice dinner with good wine, followed by drinks at The Loft, a seedy bar establishment, and some snacks at a pojang macha run by "own" friendly ajumma.