June 20, Gyeongju, South Korea
Woke up this morning around 8 am because we needed to be ready to be picked up by Nami’s friend Andy between 9:00am and 10:00am. We got up and ready after a late night of drinking with all our new travel buddies. I believe that we didn’t fall asleep until 1:30am. But it’s all right we are only going to go hiking up and down a mountain for half the day.
Angy wasn’t feeling too hot this morning, she said that she felt like she was going to throw up and she had a headache. I as usual felt pretty good. I got up and made some coffee, toast, and eggs for breakfast. When Angy and I make fried eggs we crack the eggs into a greased pan, add a couple ounces of water and cover the pan with a lid. These pans didn’t have lids so we improvised with a plate.
Well it didn’t work to well for me this morning, I poured in too much water so when I was ready to take the eggs out of the pan I had to drain the water first. When I tried to drain the water out I lost two eggs on the floor. So Angy and I started out by sharing two eggs, toast and coffee. I then went back and made three more eggs to complete our breakfast before our hike today.
(Angy) Getting up the next morning was very hard! But I had to do it! Kyle made me breakfast, and then Andy showed up to take us to Namsam Mountain to go hiking. Nami met Andy online, and became friends through email. She had never even met him in person and he agreed to spend the day with us. He was very nervous to speak English with us. He drove all the way from Busan, picked us up and took us to the mountain. He usually hikes alone. He reminded me of my friend Mikey, only Korean. A very kind and generous heart, but likes his solitude at times.
(Kyle) Luckily Angy was feeling a little better by the time Andy found our guesthouse. He was very nice and spoke English pretty well. We introduced ourselves, got our stuff prepared and then headed to his car. He had a nice car, it looked like he had a decent sound system in there but there was no cd player. We talked about Nami and what we had done in South Korea up until that point and where we were going to hike. Andy seems to be a very nice and kind person. Angy and I were both very happy to have him take time out of his free time to help see a different part of South Korea.
We arrived at the parking lot for the mountain and Andy made sure that we went 1 or 2 before we left since there are no bathrooms on the mountain. I found this kind of odd since it is a mountain filled with trees and assorted greenery. I usually tend to think of places such as this to be like a giant bathroom as long as you do it far enough from water sources and trails. But possibly it is a bit different here in S. Korea.
The mountain that we are hiking up is called Namsam mountain and is located fairly close to Gyeongju. It is popular for all the Buddhist carvings in the mountain.
We headed across the street to the mountain, Andy armed with his backpack of unknown surprises and umbrella and Angy and also armed with an umbrella started our hike. Oh yeah I guess that I forgot to mention that it was raining ever since we woke up and we didn’t have rain gear. No problem though, I’ve conditioned Angy enough for her to be able to tough it out. Plus, as she mentions later in the day that it was nice for me that Andy was there because then she didn’t complain or whine about anything. Sweet.
One of the first things that I noticed was that the forest had a very neat and mysterious feel to it. I believe a large part of this was due to the rain, fog, and mist rolling through the forest. Also like Angy had said, it looks like the trees were just placed in the ground. I believe that all the dead fall from the trees has built up so much around the base of the trees that you can’t see the wider part of the stump.
We then walked over to look at some more of the grass and dirt tombs. These tombs are from the Shilla dynasty that existed around 1300 years ago. Try and find something this old that is man made in the US. No as easy as it has been in Japan and Korea. I’m sure there is something under one of our Mega Malls or something.
From there we started a bit of real hiking. We had a nice hike on the way up and we all worked up a good appetite. Thankfully in Andy’s handy bag he had packed away a lunch. We stopped a very nice area that was like a large covered picnic area. Except it had the clay tile shingles. Andy brought a black bean rice, kimchi, cucumbers, soybean soup, and some type of green leafy veggie.
(Angy) Lunch was good, and it gave us more energy to hike back down the mountain. We talked a lot, but I think Andy only picked us some of what we were saying. But it was ok, he seemed to be enjoying himself, and Kyle was so happy he was glowing.
After we got back to Andy’s car he drove us a little ways down the street to have a traditional Korean meal. We were the only customers since it was only 3:30pm. We had chon, greens, bimimbap, tons of side dishes, soup, and rice. It was very good, and Andy paid, which was so very nice of him.
He brought us back to our guesthouse and Kyle and I took a much-needed nap. After we got up we convinced Seul-ah and Andrew to go to Karaoke with us! Kyle was so excited. He had been wanted to do Karaoke with a group a people ever since we got to Korea. First Kyle and I ran out to get some dinner. Of course we ended up at a grill your own pork place. This once was so full, we got the last table! It was very yummy, and we turned into celebrities! The three tables around us were fascinated with us. The table to my left had a sister and brother, in their 20’s and 30’s and their mom, they were drinking lots of soju, and started pouring soju for Kyle. The table to my left had a boyfriend and girlfriend that were celebrating their 100 day anniversary, which is something Korea’s who are dating celebrate, cute! They were having lots of soju too! Then the table to their right had an older husband and wife, who seemed to know the young couple but they may have been just friendly! There was lots of food and booze sharing, and the older gentleman at the far table got Kyle completely drunk! At one point the girl celebrating her anniversary gave me a bite of her rice on her spoon that she dipped in this yummy traditional soup. It was so odd to eat off of a perfect stranger’s spoon, but what was I to say?! She was so cute and they all seemed to like us so much. Hopefully the booze killed any germs! (Adrianne- I wondered what you would have done in this situation?!)
We had to hurry back to the guesthouse to meet up with our new friends. Kyle was so drunk, we walked out of the restaurant and he said “I am Dr. Unk!!” then he giggled and wobbled the whole way back to the guesthouse! At this point I tried to cut him off, but it was no use. We walked into the city center, and Suel-ah found us a place to do Karaoke. It was stinky and hot, and not as nice as the one Kyle and I stumbled upon yesterday, but it was fun. Seul-ah got us a deal on the price, and got singing right away. She just said “Ok I will get us started!” She wasn’t shy or anything! And she was good! It was like stepping into a K-drama, Kyle and I were in heaven! We video taped and took pictures. We do not have her approval to post the video, but maybe someday we will be able to post it! We all sang, even Andrew who was not totally thrilled with the Karaoke idea. Kyle kept drinking, and usually he is super good at singing, but he was awful! After 3 hours of Karaoke, we stumbled back to the guesthouse after being denied food at the 24 hour McDonalds! I was so mad, I just wanted a cheeseburger, but they said they were out of beef!
Once we got back to the guesthouse Kyle thought he was going to be sick. We finally went to sleep. We had to leave Gyeongju the next morning but had no idea where we were going to go!
