Munsoon Mountain

So a last weekend was my friend Bethany’s birthday.  She wanted to trek up Musoon Mountain again.  Musoon Mountain is about 5 miles mostly up.  There are places to rest along the way and the last mile is straight up.  There are steps and ropes because it is so steep.  This is our second time doing the hike so I feel a bit better than my first time.  When we reach the top we see some other wagookens (white people).  They inform us there is another way up/down the mountain with a water hole and a temple.  We take their advice.  However it was not as easy as they said it was.  We ended up about two or more kilometers away from our usual outcome.  Luckily, there was a friendly Korean man who ended up joining our group.  He noticed we were struggling and gave the women his poles.  (side note: Koreans LOVE hiking gear.  They are decked out.  They have the right pants, socks, shoes, jackets, bags, pole, you name it they have it) We got to know him a little with our broken Korean and his broken English.  He led us down the mountain, to a place we had never seen.  He said he would take us back, but first he treated us to food and drinks.  He bought us Makli (a rice wine type of drink) and pajohn (I don’t know how to spell it but phonetically, that’s close).  It’s a vegetable that’s fried with a little bit of seasonings.  It’s so tasty.  After we enjoyed a meal (that he paid for) we hopped into his car.  We are all dirty from falling down a couple times and of course he drives a nice, new and clean Mercedes.  He took us back where we were supposed to end up and we said goodbye.  We exchanged numbers and we are all supposed to meet up in a couple weeks for dinner.  I don’t know what we would have done without him.

This a pic from the last time i went:

Ulsan is in the background.  Don't worry, thats a clear day.  If you look really really close, you might see the ocean in the distance.