| Seoraksan: temples, mountain views, and...a typhoon! page III |
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| We woke up at 4:30am Friday morning thinking we would go to the peak to catch the sunrise. We stepped outside and what did we find? Intense fog and rain, rain and more rain--not a gental misty rain, steady hard rain. The typhoon was on its approach and as of that morning the trails were closed. Only one was left open for people like us to get down. |
| When we first heard the news we didn't think much of it. The trail was down the opposite side of the mountian from which we had come and was our intended route anyway. It was only a 3 hour hike. No problem right? Ha! The whole trail was a bed of boulders (straight down of course) and with the rain it had become a stream. By the end of the trail we were soaked to the bone and it was only 9am! Thankfully the minbaks (homestays/motels) don't care what time you check in! |
| It rained that whole day so we dried off inside. On Saturday it let up a little but with the trails still closed due to the typhoon that was now breezing its way through the country, we decided to head down to another national park, Odeasan, and check out a famous temple there. This is it: Woljeongsa. |
| The typhoon actually completed it devasting course through the country in only 6 hours. It would later be labeled the worst typhoon in a century, but of this we were unaware. We were only concerned with warming our chilled bones. Here Kendra is in a traditional Korean teahouse next to the temple. |
| After a night of camping in a very peaceful and empty campground (it was raining--Koreans don't camp in the rain)we made the 5 km hike back to the temple and took a little detour along the way. This detour led us to a quiet little hermitage in the mountains where the two monks were slowly going about their daily tasks. Here, red hot chili peppers (the staple Korean food) are drying in the sun. |
| This picture speaks for itself, though you might be interested to know that the little boy is a monk and the sign was in front of a temple. We found it quite amusing. |
| And so, our trip ended, with only one last surprise. Our train home had been canceled due to the typhoon, so we jumped on a bus and actually got home faster! A good ending to a great trip! |
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