Babo Blogger: SPOOKY HIKING

One of the refreshing things about Hallowe'en in Korea is the time and effort spent on costumes. Back home Hallowe'en is an excuse for girls to dress up as slutty as possible. In Korea it's an excuse to be as creative and daring as possible in making a costume. I saw the Ghostbusters, Dokdo Island, Sarah Palin, Kurt Cobain post-suicide, Tintin, Ajammas (Korean ladies all start looking and acting the same at around 60 years of age: they all have permed hair underneath a over sized viser and they all think they can push anyone who might be in their way--including people who are just trying to get off an elevator or subway)... and the list goes on. Oddly enough the really slutty costumes tend to be on Koreans and only Koreans.

I wonder what the first Hallowe'en must have been like for foreigners in Korea...and what the Koreans must have thought when a bunch of white people started dressing up in all sorts of costumes.

I was supposed to go on this hiking trip with Charles, the guy who plans amazing trips for foreigners. We had to be up at the asscrack of dawn on Saturday (7am) to get on a bus to lead us hours away from the city. Unfortunately, and for reasons still unknown, Charles and the bus never showed up. A bunch of groggy and somewhat hungover foreigners (including myself) waited about two hours before giving up. We were down on our luck because Charles had hyped this up to be one of Korea's best autumn destinations, where the crimson red foliage surrounding majestic temples is in stark contrast to the cobalt blue skies. Instead, a bunch of us (Kiran, James and Allysa) decided to go on our own hikes on some of the mountains in Busan.

The first mountain we decided to explore was called Children's Park. It's allegedly the tallest mountain in Busan, and if you can make it to the right spot you can get a 360 degree panaramic view of Busan. On trying to find this spot, we came across an amusement park, rivers, and mad-made lakes.We didn't find the 'right' spot, but we made it to a point where the trees broke away and the city was poured out in front of us. It was like someone had taken a bucket of city and threw it onto a canvas.

On the Sunday we took a cable car up another mountain, which is well known for having some of the best temples in the city. Unfortunately our day started out late, and thus we couldn't fully explore the mountain. We did make it to one of the highest points on the mountain, and did what the Koreans do and take a break for some drinking. When I stood up, everything around me was below me. Against my wishes, the clouds were too thick to enjoy what would have been a breathtaking sunset. I'll just have to go back up on a clearer day to fully take advantage of that.

Time was against us on the way down, because it was getting dark quickly, and the last cable car down the mountain was at 6:30pm. It was kind of neat, though, hiking through a rapidly decreasing luminous mountain with the wind hallowing around us. The greens and reds and oranges on the trees had creepy undertones against the darkening skies.

And now for some pictures:

Disappointed Hikers

Entrance to Children's Park

The City Painting. One of the Korean Hikers heard us say "oh my god" in unison when we got to this point, and giggled.

The group of potential hikers on Sunday. Unfortunately Kiran, James, Allysa and I splintered off because we wanted to hike, and we didn't really want to wait around forever.