Korea twice in one year - November 2022 - Page 3

I got off the subway and thought I will just walk along this drain to the start of the hike. It went under some freeways. It never went under the freeway I needed it to.

I doubled back and went along his trail. It seems like it will go to the mountain surely. No.

You can see the freeway and the impassable wall next to me here, and farms to my right. This was after I found a way under the freeway, via what might mainly be a drain, but was being used by farmers to drive tractors through. It was over 6000 steps for me to get to here before I even started.

Behold, a path, and lots of leaves.

Lots and lots of leaves. But a rarely used path all to myself.

After enjoying my own special path I got to the main path. The sign was a relief. I did intend to start at the freight terminal that sign is pointing at, but I never found a way to get to it.

This is actually a national park, and so this main trail was very well trodden. No more chance of getting lost today, I skipped for a while now that I had regained my confidence that I was properly on my way.

The rocky bits were few and far between. As I mentioned, I started quite far from the main entrance to the park, so it was still a proper trail rather than forest bathing path.

First view might be the clearest of the day. I did what I could to see through the smoke with the dehaze slider in lightroom.

I would be going up to those peaks, and beyond.

Just a random path photo because I like shooting photos into the sun.

This section is very near the main gate, and it is very developed, hedges! This is the bit that I did last time I was here, I remember the hedges.

This section also has stair cases wherever there is an incline, it will soon be apparent why....

This peak has no view even if there was no smoke, I remember that from last time.

They have cut proper steps into the rocky bits.

And here is why it is so well developed, this is s memorial to a paratrooper plane that crashed and killed 54 cadets here in the 1980's. It is possible that is why this area is a national park?

This peak also has no view.

However there were cats, and someone feeds them. I could hear them but not see them. I don't know what they were complaining about, they have more food than they could ever want, and there are thousands of tiny almost flightless birds and lots of chipmunks if they get bored of regular cat food.

Maybe photo of the day. I had my first bottle of water here.

The next section and the tallest peak of the day are military installations. They do not like you taking photos, don't tell me what to not do!

The detour around the army post is very picturesque.

The absolute worst view of the day, which is near the highest, but most off limits point of the day.

Some more army base. I took the same photo last time.

OK, now I am back to areas I did not hike last time, as I did not see this view last time. On a day without apocalyptic smoke dystopia, this would be a great view.

The path became less developed again, but there were quite a few people. This was a long undulating section without many big climbs, and no rocky bits that required scrambling over on all fours.

I then rejoined a more popular part of the trail, and it became developed again. Here you can see a lonely old man, and a group of housewives. These are the two types of people you see on hikes on weekdays all across Korea.

Power lines make an otherwise ruined view bearable.

The DESCENT DOWN went past many tombs such as this one.

As is often the case, the lower down bits were more colourful than the mostly dead more exposed upper bits.

Very near the end here and it becomes a grand staircase. Just below here is the 'Seoul Grand Park' where the zoo is, and also a forest bathing area. Which despite it's name, has nothing to do with water.

Last pic for the day, the path let out into a lot of baseball fields, this was presumably a professional team practising, they had a bus painted in team colours nearby. Perhaps one day when it is not smoky I will need to do this hike for a third time!

This is just a clothes shop. But the lighting on the outside changes colours on that mesh stuff. I could not figure out if the actual mesh lights up, or if there are lights shining on it.

As mentioned in a previous post, Myeongdong has sprung back to life.

The BOIBOY shop is right up my alley, no, it's in my wheelhouse. It is a beauty product shop exclusively for men who want to look like girly boys.

My dinner, some kind of pork on rice. To annoy my only reader, I told them to remove all the vegetables. Actually I was so hungry I got a bit shaky, so I headed straight to the nearest department store basement, and most of what they had on offer was cold noodles, so pork on rice it was.

And for the last photo this evening, the busy street full of department stores in Myeongdong. I think this photo came out pretty well given that I just snapped aimlessly while waiting at the lights.

My walk to the palace region went past a Buddhist temple that apparently had a lot to do with the independence from Japan movement in the early 1900's, except the top guy died before America granted Korea it's independence by nuking Japan.

Hmm, have I been to this palace before or not. I think not.

Very smoky again today.

The smoke is less apparent depending on the direction you are looking, and sometimes it makes the photos look nice and spooky.

Most Korean palaces look the same to me, I cannot tell new re-creation from old. Apparently one of the 2 today is much older, but looking at the photos now I cannot really tell where one ends and the next one starts.

Nice gardens, is that the secret garden? At this stage of the day, I still did not know.

This is not the secret garden, but I still liked it a lot.

I suspect this is palace number 2, which is the less famous of the 2. No dust spots yet because this was shot at f/5.6.

Regular garden, no secrets here.

Still just a boring regular garden.

On the edge of this lesser palace is this nice bonsai house thing. I liked it a lot.

Inside had many bonsai things. I noticed some of them were pruned incorrectly so did a quick tidy up for them.

Seriously, this is still a non secret garden.

OK, this one is secret. Note that it looks very similar to the non secret parts. Apparently in times gone by it was used for ritualistic purposes.

This part looked really old. Lots of areas were off limits.

One of the few remaining square ponds. Apparently they previously were all square, but when Japan occupied the place they ordered them to be made rounder?

You can sit and watch some performances. Once everyone was seated I started my act. It was highly inappropriate but probably lost in translation.

A contender for view of the day.

Another contender. I caught up with a guided tour group here, which was blasting out instructions in Japanese to a large group of people with giant tripods.

OK, due to colour, I declare this one to be view of the day. Another thing they used to do, release a tiger in the grounds and hunt it!

After exiting the garden, you can then take a tour of the buildings around the palace, which were old government buildings for important government things like portraits, pottery and calligraphy.

I like to do this. The irony is the guys I took a photo of were annoyed at me for taking their photo.

After you exit the paid area you are between the two main palace areas, and it is all tourist streets in an area called Bukchon. Lots and lots of tourists around today. Note to Australians who will be online complaining about Chinese tour groups, many of them were from Singapore!

The tourist area is large, hilly and has over 1000 cafes.

Here you can clearly see the dust spots! First f/8 shot of the day. I do not think I have climbed that little mountain. It is very small but has a good view of the palaces.

Yes, identifying as a woman does qualify as a disability.

And for the final shot of the day, the yellow leaves of Bukchon.

The area is quite hilly, which means you can often get a good view for photos while crossing the road.

Still quiet as it is not even 6pm when this was taken. The colourful streets extend for miles.

I decided to play some coin tennis and enjoy some dessert alchol.

It was a little surprising to find an older style market here, but here it is. If you need a fish before you head on up to da club, they got ya covered g.

My dinner. Pork cutlet seems to be the main thing in Korea now. I chose the option with the vegetables, but that did mean cold soba underneath. So cold it still clearly had crushed ice in the cold broth. Still it was quite nice. I flipped the tray 180 degrees for a photo. Those white things are mystery sweet items.

The only park in Gangnam.

Just another random street up the hill.

And after walking a long lap, I was almost back where I started, so I took another photo like the first one.
Tomorrow is another very smoky hiking day, you have been warned.

My journey to the start of the hike was all on subway line 1, from practically the front door of my hotel to the last station on the line.

It was only a short walk from the subway station to the start of the actual trail, via a convenience store for some fluids and muesli bars.

Across there is the hike from 5 days ago, with the observatory, you can see it here if you squint.

The early parts of the trail were more a kind of road. There were a lot of people on this bit.

Presumably many of the people were heading up the hill to the outdoor dentist.

The journey up to Geomdansan peak was very nice, across the way between the branches is the observatory from the other day on Yebongsan.

Rocky, picturesque and well roped off at this early stage.

Here is the view from part way up. I am glad I took a shot from here as it got smokier after this shot.

It was well roped off and formed rock steps all the way to the peak of Geomdansan, and many other people.

The leafy bits were well trampled at this stage. It would not last.

The view from here should be great, with multiple rivers and lots of mountains, but alas, smoke.

Presumably up there is the main peak of the day. It seems too early in the day to already be there. Not to worry, I will just keep going up the ridge line for a few more hours.

Today's helicopter spot was a bit overgrown.

And here is a view of the view from the peak. If you put your eyes on those, you will get pink eye.

Shocking. Actually what is shocking is I forgot to do a stance pic in my shorts to show off my girly legs.

A view of the view the other way, away from Seoul. Hmm looks a bit less smoky than the shot in the similar direction from earlier. There was a bit of a breeze today for the first time on this entire trip.

Over the river you can see the observatory again. That mountain is higher than this one. I have used the healing tool in lightroom to remove the dust spots on a few of these shots.

After the main peak, the path got harder to follow, but it never really mattered, and there were no ropes. This is a view somewhere along the way.

Sign posts were few and far between. A map would be a good idea if you intend to come this way. I use Naver which was fine.

A cropped view of the river down below. You can go down that way also, the bus services down there seemed less reliable than where I was aiming for.

Last peak of the day and it does not even get a seat or log to sit on.

Now for the hard part, going down in the leaves. This was really really steep, which is never properly shown in photos, and the leaves were really quite deep. Under the leaves, loose rocks. Still I managed to stay upright.

After leaf swimming for an hour or so, I popped out into some farms. Those mountains across there are the ones from the day where I went up the hill on a bus and walked around the fortress wall.

To get to the bus stop I had to go under the highway, via multiple tunnels. It was not a problem this time like a previous day where I could not find a way across for hours.

And finally, the bus stop. I only had to wait 10 minutes. Also it is a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, with a bus every 20 minutes and a sign telling you how many minutes until it comes. Also the Naver map app shows you live where the bus is. Very convenient. Japan needs this, relying on a bus in Japan is never a good idea.

It is official, Lotte is anti xmas. An upside down xmas tree! This is offensive.

I purchased many mini figures of popular culture icons I am now too old to recognise, because they are very useful to have.

By now I was starving even though it was early, so it was time for an immediate dinner. Abiko curry to the rescue! This is basically a direct copy of Coco curry, you can even choose your spice level, obviously I went for something ridiculous, but I did get the vegetarian option.

After dinner it was time to head to the Skygarden, this meant passing a nicely lit up gate.

The first view from the Skygarden is a handheld view. That is Seoul station, hence the lack of high rise buildings along there where the train tracks are.

The second view of Skygarden is a long exposure. I balanced my camera on the glass screen thing for a 15 second exposure.

The blue lights are very soothing. They make my teeth look white.

There is lots to see from the Skygarden, including fully animated buildings.

And for the final photo tonight, you have seen homeless people with all kinds of crap tied to a trolley, this guy decided to do the same but with his little truck. Mobile hoarders. I am filming a tv series based on this. Am I rich now?