5 March 2015
Both ends
Hiking Gaesan near Incheon
Today I went to both ends of Incheon.
The northern end has a mountain, of sorts, the southern end has an ultra modern eco design city, of sorts.
Each end is connected by a subway line of some 40 stations. I am now very familiar with this subway line.
It is my goal on this trip to climb the highest mountain accessible by a combination of public transport and walking in each of the 5 cities I am staying in.
My goals are very specific, and somewhat pointless, but ask yourself, whats your goal? None. I have already achieved 1/5 of my goal. You my loyal readers, have managed to watch something on tv.
The highest point in Incheon is Gaesan. So thats where I went.
Its not particularly challenging but did have some great views. Its about an hour of steps to the top if you dont stop, and why would you stop, its cold! The further I went the less cold I thought it was, until I went over the top and re froze on the way down.
Most hiking locations in Korea have lots of people engaging in the national past time, this one was no different, with everyone decked out in full survival gear. I even saw one guy with an emergency locator beacon.
At the top, a Mr Song decided to chat with me, this would become a repetitive experience today. Mr Song deduced that I was from Austria, here for work, lost, in need of beer, and that I enjoy the rock roll musics.
Yes.
The way down was off limits I think, so I went that way. There was no path as such, just lots of exposed rocks and tree roots caused by people scrambling over each other. Gravity pretty much dictated the way to go. I only slipped over once.
There were still quite a lot of people going this way, including a bunch of school boys who seemed extremely unfit and uncoordinated.
Meanwhile me and all the 70 years olds bounded past them.
After conquering Gaesan, it was time to ride the entire length of the subway, south.
This took me to Songdo, site of future city of the future, with ecological features.
I thought I was in China.
Lots of skyscrapers that look finished, but are empty, no people, piped muzak coming from speakers disguised as rocks everywhere, the odd futuristic windmill, man made canals without any water, surely the site of the zombie apocolypse (you know its coming).
The mall was nearly completely empty, apart from the Starbucks which was standing room only, I didnt go.
Instead at the end of the outdoor mall with 4 areas named after the seasons, I found a vegetarian restaurant to experience the wellbeing and happiness of vital life and wellbeing.
This turned out to be a great choice, except Mr Kim also wanted to chat. He was thrilled to learn I was a tourist and not a worker and that I had chosen to come to Songdo new city special ecological economic future zone of my own accord.
He was then very interested in where else I might visit in Korea, as it turns out hes never been futher from Seoul than Incheon in his life. The man cooked a great tofu stew though.
In related news, the US ambassador to South Korea had his cheek cut with a razor this morning in Seoul by someone who hates Americans and doesnt want the joint military exercises to go ahead. Perhaps he wants to rejoin with the superior north.
Turns out the guy that did the cheek slice previously tried to throw a slab of concrete at the Japanese ambassador, and has been arrested before, and written about his plans all over the internet.
Im not sure how this is related news, other than that I am hear in the capacity as ambassador for global vision for the future of economic virility.
Just after the dawn, looks cold. I stuck my head out of my 12th floor window to see how cold. Cold.
Could it be so! Australian coffee chain Gloria Jeans exist in Korea (as they do in China too). And they made me a great coffee.
I can now drink coffee here guilt free, as the Hillsong church, whos dead founder was recently found to be like all other cult leaders, running a church in order to recruit children to abuse, sold it off some time ago to the same people that own Brumbys bakeries, Michelles pastissassieeierrry and various other similar establishments.
That sentence was long and confusing.
Arriving at street level from the Gaesan subway stop. No idea what to expect. Turns out its a bustling neighbourhood. Lots to see, no time, mountains to climb.
On the way up the hill there were many schools, it seems each student gets to make a tile of their own.
If this was attached to the outside of an Australian school I cant help but feel it would be destroyed in an hour.
Now for many mountain pictures. Half way up or there abouts. There were actually 3 ridges to go up and down before the ascent to the summit.
Looking back from the second ridge at a hazy Incheon.
And onwards towards the summit.
Ancient concrete pagoda.
View from pagoda.
Very near the top, there were a lot of tunnels such as this. Presumably this was a military look out during the war. Also, note the ice.
Cats hanging out with the hikers stopping to eat their mini tomatoes.
And now, the view from the top. Mr Song was super excited to see me.
Yep. Me. My antics caused much amusement amongst the various old folks, who were posing on one leg giving the peace sign.
The path down. Actually one of the nicer sections. After this it was a real scramble and I needed both hands, so had to put my camera away. I only slipped on my ass once.
Part of Songdo special region for the economic ecology of glorious Korea.
The zombies come mostly from the swamps, mostly.
Cenotaph glorifying all those who died constructing the magnificent unfinished Songdo.
This is the NX Cube mall. Note theres absolutely no one here.
My excellent lunch, cost about $6. Basically the same price as a cup of Starbucks coffee.
Final photo for now, the polar bears felt right at home as it was again cold. I think they have eaten all the shoppers.
I probably could have taken my pants off and pretended to ride one of them for this photo without anyone noticing.
All the stores are open and have really bored looking workers sitting reading their phones.
To be fair, there are heaps of very nice apartment buildings just alongside this long mall, they are not yet open but look very close to finished.
Landscaping of the grounds around them was going on. It seems they are following the Chinese model of suddenly declaring a city open, and bussing in 50,000 people that day to their new lives.