1 June 2022
Monorails and graveyards
Hiking over paper stick mountain in Daegu
Before we get into today's hike, lets talk about sleeping in my Daegu hotel. The bed is HARD. The bed is lumpy. The sheet covering the mattress is thin and under that is some kind of plastic thing. Sleeping on hard lumpy plastic is not ideal, so here's what I do. It is a huge bed, with a quilt on it, so I fold that in half and sleep wrapped in the quilt like a sleeping bag. Very comfortable. Problem solved.
Now for the hike. It was forecast to be about 33 today (celsius / centrigrade / metric temperature units). So I set off earlier than normal and selected a shorter hike. The English translation is paper stick mountain, which seems to be Yongjibong in Korean, but that could be completely wrong. Regardless, this climb started off through farmers fields and then up a nice enough path. Eventually I connected to another path, and saw a few other people and a great view, but I was at the top in just over an hour.
I decided to continue across a valley, over a road and up the next peak, past many burial mounds. The park was marked on my map, and there were a lot deer running around enjoying the complete lack of other people. But then the trail just disappeared. I looked for it for about 30 minutes to no avail, and then wisely chose to back track.
Thus, my short hike became nearly 4 hours, which is fine, I didn't get eaten by a deer, fall off a cliff or buried in a set of boobs.
I got to ride the monorail, twice! All the way to the end of the line. Here is where it goes past the end of the line and comes back again as the track switches over. You may have seen a photo / video of this taken in Okinawa Japan. I have taken that photo too! Admittedly the view from where it happens in Okinawa is somewhat better than this.
Is that where I am going? I was not sure at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, it was not where I was going, so here are some new apartments, under construction apartments and hills behind them.
Bonus monorail shot as it came back as I was going down the stairs. I over monorailed today, if that is even possible.
Street piano. I tinkled some ivory as I went past.
A chimney and I think that is a helicopter. More on those chimneys later.
Like I said, I ascended through some small farms, complete with enough communications equipment on poles to live stream every single fruit or vegetable as it grows to the rest of the world.
After those farms above, the road continued for a while, and got rockier and then rocky and dusty. A guy saw me and was following at a safe distance in his mini truck thing. I am convinced he was following me because when I turned off onto this trail, he turned around and went back.
Periodically, graves appeared. Someone looks after them even though they are in fairly inaccessible areas. You would need to carry the whippa snippa up.
The trail today was less rocky, more tree roots. Reminiscent of Japanese trails.
Then as I rejoined the main trail, a view appeared, there is a smoggy Daegu.
The main trail had a few other people, hessian rugs and stairs.
Farms were also visible on the far side of the mountain.
View from the top. Quite a good view actually. So many white buildings.
An interview was being conducted here, there is a camera on the tripod.
I decided to go over to there, I failed to get there.
Down in the valley, a temple of course.
Another set of burial boobs. In Korean culture, once the man of the house dies, the woman is considered a burden and is expected to commit ritual suicide to be buried alongside her husband at the same time, because it is hard work lugging the bodies up the mountain.
After doubling back, I walked down the valley which was full of camping grounds and holiday houses such as this one. Roof terraces are very popular on such homes in Korea.
The camping areas seem to be here so that people can appreciate this small pond. Hmm, not sure I see the attraction.
And for the final pic, back at the monorail. There is another chimney. Every new apartment development has one. Note it is painted in the colours of the apartments. This is the apartments waste incinerator. Waste is piped from apartments directly into this incinerator which generates power from burning the rubbish. So there are hundreds of waste incinerators, and since it is your waste from your apartment going into it, there is no NIMBY-ism, not that you get a back yard anyway. Personally, I am not convinced burning rubbish is a better outcome, scrubbing tech means there is no smoke or odour, and you get CO2 instead of methane which is good, but then you get ash that has to be carted away that is very toxic. OK, enough science, time to scrape off sunscreen, wash my hair, and check my itinerary for going to Busan tomorrow.