9 March 2015
Recovery mountain
Hiking Apsan in Daegu
What better way to rest your aching legs from climbing about on mountains than to climb another? None I say.
This particular mountain is called Apsan, and is at the southern edge of Daegu, as the pictures will show. I think the name literally means near mountain.
It is a very busy, very developed scenic attraction, no mud today. However the paths that are not steps are very steep, and much harder on your calfs than steps are.
If you have ever climbed to the peak in Hong Kong, it was steeper than that, and also longer.
Evenutally it became steps and rocks, but the path was very clear and people were everywhere.
They all go so slow and stop all the time, to compare notes on how well their mountaineering poles and technical pants are going. I should get myself a few pairs of these pants. They are on special now because its the end of winter.
Whilst I was up there, the weather changed, and its now blowing a gale. I hear this is causing the yellow sands from the Gobi desert of China to blow in and kill us all.
BBC news is reporting that it is going to be very cold on the Korean peninsular, so I guess theres going to be more hat days ahead.
Heres 3 Korean soldiers off to report for duty, carrying their beauty products.
Subway stations have mini health check stations in every one. Clearly, I need to press 2 buttons at once.
Interestingly, only stress and ADHD were in English, clearly because these are western inventions.
I like to check my blood pressure every time I go into or out of a subway station.
Old guys like to hang out by the blood pressure machine. They have some plastic chairs set up and take it in turns to see how well they are doing.
I have to fight my way to the front of the line to use the machine. If you get in my way old man, I will smack you.
This is todays mountain.
Apparently theres a cable car somewhere. I didnt see it.
The internet says to catch a bus from where I am standing for this photo, to the foot of the trail, because its far.
Bullshit, its 10 minutes walk.
This time I didnt forget the supplies! Although in hindsight, today I didnt need them!
I bought sunscreen which was $5! I felt badly ripped off.
This will blow my $20 a day budget for today, unless I eat like a peasant.....
The tunnel under the highway to the start of the trail has decided to go with the ever popular star walk theme.
As seen in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Osaka.... every city in the world where its not possible to see stars due to smog.
This path is much much steeper than it looks. People coming down zig zag to slow themselves or go backwards.
I found it to be an amazing calf workout. Cause I needed one.
Is mountain, has temple.
Is temple, has loudspeaker system.
Has loudspeaker system, has mega distortion issues.
About half way up, impressive view of the city below. Daegu is called 'the colorful city' however at the end of winter before trees grow back, its mostly grey.
And at the top theres an arch, which at night is bright white. You can actually walk up here at night which would give a great view of the city lights.
Chances are if you google image search Daegu you will see a shot of the city lights from here.
Also note the padlocks, you can declare your undying love before plummeting to your death, and surprisingly, total lack of people.
I removed all my clothing for an awesome selfie.
Vertigo time. The very strong winds started just as I was here.
Todays panorama. I found the view to be particularly impressive.
I couldnt find anywhere to set my camera down for the regular pose, so an arm length selfie is the best I could do.
Thats enough mountain photos for today.
This is number one restaurant street in all Daegu! Signs told me.
Its currently orange plastic tent world. Alfresco dining.
They have optimistically placed flags from all over the world along the street, only I didnt see one place that wasnt korean bbq, bibimbap or blood sausage.
Wrong side of the tracks exploration time, first up is the local 7 level supermarket.
One of these big brands really should come to Australia and take on the big 2.
They are an order of magnitude better than Woolworths or Coles.
I am setting up a meeting with the management tomorrow, if you want to get on board my joint venture, let me know.
This is the Daegu opera house. It looks more like a shopping centre. I remember seeing on previous nights in subway station big signs explaining what is opera?
The opera house is brand new, they are still peeling the plastic off bits of it (entire buildings come shrink wrapped here).
Koreans need instructions on how to appreciate opera. Actually so do Australians. Go read about the controversy surrounding the use, banning of, use of, re banning of subtitle screens.
A new neighbourhood of identical Samsung buildings. Samsung is a construction company too.
They are also a car company, although Samsung cars is majority owned by Renault now, so all Samsung cars are based on Nissan designs, who are also owned by Renault.
Back to the buildings, I had a wander around because I was genuinely interested. The bottom floors are shops, restuarants, cafes, childcare, kindergarten.
They also have sports courts, playgrounds, gardens. The for lease / sale ads showed the inside of the rooms, and they looked decent to me.
And because I had filled up on cookies I didnt need, and blown my budget on sunscreen, todays lunch was ramen, direct from the packet, with an added egg and spring onions.... $2! And not worth a penny more.
The photo showed a bright red spicy soup with noodles in it. I think she left the flavour thing out.
I used too many ..... today, I need to stop that...