Korea yet again for the 7th time - March and April 2026 - Page 3

Yangpyeong station. It is also a KTX (bullet train) station, I probably should have got a bullet train here. There are numerous convenience stores between the station and the start of the hiking trail.

It is about 3km from the station to the trail. Last time I went a different way and got lost as part of a park had been demolished to make a highway. This time I just followed a road.

There are already lots of rocks and I haven't even left the town yet.

Looking back through the pollution at Yangpyeong. There are quite a few large new apartment buildings in the small city, more than last time.

Time to hit the trail. I used the blowers to give my hair a quick zsoosh before I left. I am not sure how to spell zsoosh.

The trail starts with hessian rugs. But the hessian is now very worn. I recall on a previous visit it was brand new. It is easier to walk on when it is worn.

The lower bits have some steps and a lot of ropes. The middle bits have none. At the end, steps and ropes appear again. I guess that is because a lot of people start from either and end don't do the trail that joins the peaks, instead they turn around and go back from whence they came.

The rocks are starting. Despite the pollution it was often very bright today.

Rocks, all day.

Soon I will be above the stairs.

That will be the first main peak, Yongmunsan I think.

A rare smooth non rocky bit.

Lots and lots of pollution towards Yangpyeong.

I had already come over that smaller peak.

The first of 2 main summits. I had it to myself.

Getting further away from Yangpyeong. I hate typing Yangpyeong.

A different city down there. Not that you can see it.

After the first main peak, the vertigo inducing grated stairs.

There will be no more stairs for a few hours. Just rocks.

I stopped here for some pocari sweat. My hiking / running pack is still going strong, for well over a decade now.

I had come down from that way.

Next I will head over to that peak, which is actually higher. There is an army base structure on the top.

This pile of rubble used to be an ancient fortress, according to the map on my phone.

What a view! (not).

Not a fortress... just a natural rock flow.

It was around this point that last time it really started raining hard.

Last time there was dense fog through here.

No fog today, just boulders.

Second summit. You cannot get to the actual summit due to the army base.

Like so many summits with an army base, there is a secret road. That is a mountain rescue car. I saw about 4 groups of guys in rescue gear, some flying drones. I also saw the police helicopter hovering around. I do not know if they were looking for someone or doing a drill. I would have thought if they were really looking for someone they might have tried to ask me to keep an eye out.

Summit view is not great. I think it cleared up right as I ended the hike, but that might just be because I was not looking so far into the distance once I was back at the bottom.

More view. With a rock.

Lots of my big wrinkly head.

The summit is filled with infrastructure. The army base blew a bugle at 1pm, probably to tell everyone lunch was ready.

Time to head down.

It was slow going to get down from the summit to here.

The path today was defined well enough that I did not need to follow the ribbons in the trees, but they were there anyway just in case.

As you get further down the rocks get a lot bigger. There is not really a trail, just a rope to kind of follow.

Big rocks, with moss, but never really slippery.

Surprise snow / ice. I was not expecting that.

I put my ski's on for a while, then wrote my name in the snow.

Still more rocks.

A giant rock! I know I am getting near the end as I remembered giant rock from last time.

I have seen enough rocks now.

But still more rocks.

Finally I came out of the rocky valley and arrived at a temple. Very colourful, I have a feeling this is for the upcoming Buddha's birthday.

Time to leave the park and head to the bus.

It is a nice area, lots of gardens and tea houses.

The street through the 'town' is nice too. It even has a convenience store. A nice place to wait 20 minutes for the bus.

After a terrifying bus ride, I transferred to Yongmun station where I had to wait 20 minutes for the slowest train back to Seoul of all time.

The Shinsegae store does not mess about with their giant faux 3d projection thing. It is bright enough to be a traffic hazard.

Time to re-enter Myeongdong, not too many people here.

More people, more neon.

There are a lot of generic k-pop stores around these days.

Fancy coffee shops are still popular. Most also sell clothes.

This is a bit hard to see, but there is a huge number of people down there. I turned down a side alley rather than battle the crowd.

And then finally, my pho. It was decent too.

Before heading to the train station I took one last stroll along the stream. This is my equivalent to the excitement others feel when they see photos of hotel rooms.

Last stream photo. The woman down there is either weeding the grass or foraging for food, I noticed thistle soup on the menu of some traditional Korean places.

The inside of the Seoul station is very familiar to me.

Lots of trains leave from here to every corner of the country.

Here comes my train.

The inside is a 2x2 layout. This is economy class. I have some first class bookings later in the trip. It is very very cheap compared to Japan, probably 1/5th the cost.

Before too long I arrived at Changwon Jungang station, on the northern edge of town, with medium sized small mountains on all sides - yes, medium sized small mountains. I am stading at the bus stop with the bus that did not like me.

Here is the inside of my hotel room. A Toyoko Inn - yes the same Japanese brand that famously cancelled my Seoul booking a couple of years ago. It is much the same as all Toyoko Inn hotels in Korea, my next stop is one too, and I have stayed with them in both Daegu and Busan previously. The rooms are slightly bigger than in Japan, there is a small table and two soft stools where I am standing.

If you have been to Japan, you have seen this bathroom.

My room has a view... shot through glass, although the window does open. Lots of very modern looking buildings. Now to work out what I am supposed to do while I am here.

There are no buildings that tall in Canberra.

This is a couple of streets west of my hotel, and I think it is a bar and nightclub area.

You can refuel with hydrogen here and zeppelin yourself.

I found the drain! I found the drain!

This is one of the main central streets, with department stores, wide streets with wide footpaths. Very clean and sterile.

However one street over is the Sangnam market. Closing at this time, but large and chaotic.

The busy area. With less wide footpaths.

For my dinner, a very filling tofu and udon stew, with fried tofu inari, but with a Korean twist of being filled with Kimchi (of course) and bean sprouts. I think this is a specialist tofu restaurant, but word of warning to vegetarians, tofu restaurants in Korea does not mean it will all be vegetarian.

Note that there are no footpaths.

I hung around for it get dark so I could bathe in the fluro glow of neon.
Tomorrow is a hiking day. I have not chosen the hike yet, I have 3 to choose from, and only time in Changwon to do two.

The bus did not let me down today, I was allowed to board from the BRT stop near my hotel. It seems as though there are at least 3 buses (busses, I am never sure if it is one or two esses) you can take, today I took bus 151.

I got off about here, greeted by a drain and a highway overpass.

The walk up to the temple goes past this reservoir, which appears to be in use as it has a fence all the way around it, I had to feed my camera carefully through the fence to take this photo.

Time to enter the temple area. As mentioned, this is the way to the hike. Today I checked out the temple, doubled back to here, followed a phantom trail that I should not have, wasted probably an hour to slide down a hill back to the temple.

The temple is guarded by a sacred elephant and polar bear, both of which are very common South Korean animals.

They are preparing for Buddhas birthday, but have not hung the plastic extremely flammable lanterns yet.

The stone pagoda appears to be the focal point of this facility, although signs say it all dates back to 800AD, none of the buildings appeared particularly interesting. You can also see the towers on top of the mountain I am about to climb from here.

Here are some rocks, however this trail was not really rocky at all, hence it made for much faster progress.

A nice trail with the early morning light. I was thrilled to actually be on a trail after earlier being lost in the scrub.

Greener and less dead than the recent hikes in the north of the country.

Purple flowers today too.

Lots of purple flowers.

This seat and sign actually helped convince me I was on the right trail. Although surely they all lead to the top anyway. The top of this mountain has a public road up to it and is called sunset peak.

That is part of Changwon down there, soon you will see all the different parts of Changwon.

Once I got to the top, there were indeed other people around. Down there is Gimhae, which is basically part of Busan, it is where the Busan airport is. Korea is a small country, I presume I could walk down there and catch a metro into Busan.

A huge number of tv antennas on the summit today.

That is the part of Changwon I am staying in. You can see the clear delineation between industrial and residential areas.

The top has hundreds of metres of walkways and lookouts. I expected there to be more people given that it is a weekend with good weather.

Apparently, that is also part of Changwon, and the ocean. I might go to that part tomorrow, although there is also a third part too.

This photo shows that there is a mountain between the two parts of Changwon pictured above.

I really enjoyed the summit area walkways.

It is me, unshaven, and probably getting too much sun.

I did not take many photos on the way down because it was the same way as the way up. There is however this one small stream to cross, it was not really a problem.

The piles of rubbish signalled that I was returning to the Buddhist temple area.

And then as I returned quite early to my hotel, I noticed a new concept in fine dining, Japanese and Australian fusion, complete with a kangaroo dressed as a samurai. Perhaps I will go there for dinner.

This is the big roundabout at the end of the big wide street my hotel is on. It is so big, and so full of nothing but grass, that it makes for the most boring of photographs.

Identical apartment buildings, for as far as the eye can see. This must be the designated residential part of Changwon.

A velodrome, or as the sign says, Changwon Bicycle Cultural Centre.

The bike riding continues outside. Note that is the strange tree of life thing on top of the hill behind the basketball stadium.

The other end of town is convention and exhibition centres. And big western hotels. It was very quiet.

I found Korea's missing tigers!

There is however a mall, not just any mall, the City 7 Mall. I have no idea what the significance of the name is.

It is very strange inside, lots of little narrow laneways shooting off the main indoor/outdoor areas.

It probably needs a full makeover, a new Starfield giant mall is under construction nearby, perhaps this one will close down when that is finished.

My dinner is... yellow. I did not mean to order this. I had to order from a machine with no English, and tried to match the Koran symbols from a picture on the wall. I guess I guessed wrong. What I got was pork cutlet with a cheesey sauce, with random diced frozed vegetables on top. It was actually ok, and cheap too!

To end the evening, I climbed up to the roof. It had a roof garden. It was very dark up there and I am not sure I was supposed to be there.
Tomorrow I will probably go to 2 different places. There will be a lot of studying of bus routes required.