Travel Diary: Kicking it up a notch.

Day 2 started with a very early lunch. A few spoonfuls of Ju-oh Tang made my stomach queasy the previous night, and demanded food as soon as I woke up the next morning. I wanted to eat something familiar, something filling and good that'll 'fuel' me to kick it up a notch, and go see more exciting/happening places. As fortunate as it sounds, Cheolla is known for massive servings of food, heaping bowl of rice, and 'too-many-to-count' banchan on the side. Scrimping is unheard of here. See how far your 10,000 won (US $8) could go in this place!

Our first stop that day is a stream in Mt. Jiri National Park. Unlike the previous one that resembles the color of 'cafe latte' , this stream is clean, and I have a very good feeling that it's also 'drinkable' to some extent. I really like the sound of the water here. When it hits the rocks, it creates a melodious squishy sound that could easily put babies to sleep. The place is so dreamy and cozy, God knows how much I wanted to laze around in a tent near here, eat a nice chilled watermelon while dredging fond memories of my childhood with Chris.

The weather was more than what I could hope for that day. And whenever the weather is nice, expect a herd of thrill seeking adults with rowdy kids in tow.

If there's a stream, most probably there's a waterfall nearby. While we were on our way traversing the zigzag mountain road to Nogodan, we saw a random sign that leads to Guryeong Waterfall. Chris was intrigued so we followed it.

It was hard to find, there was no distinct landmark except for a small wooden plank that says "this way to the waterfall", and a board with a map of the trail. As soon as we entered the forest, the wind blew strongly, and the gush of wind reverberated to the leaves and branches of the trees. The sound it created was wits-scrambling and a bit scary like that of sound effects used in horror movies. But a few more of that, it became really pleasant and calming.

The map says it's only a 300 meter hike, I thought it was a piece of cake. When we started the descent (trail starts off on top of a mountain), and saw people on their way up, with faces beat and sweaty, gasping hard for air, and constantly murmuring "ehyu" (sigh) and "himduro" (difficult), I braced myself. When we reached the bottom, my legs were painful like it was mauled by a hundred intoxicated fraternity boys.

There's a hanging bridge there which is fun to cross, but you have to be careful when you do, it bounces a lot and one could easily fall over.

The waterfall is nothing grand, but here in Korea, it's one of the biggest already.




My legs were actually so tired, but our next destination still requires a lot of hiking. They call it Nogodan, one of the peak of Mt. Jiri at 1,507 meters. What makes it worth the climb is the view while going to the top. The trail is covered in mist that moves magically when the wind blows. Being in that place can only be described as 'fairy-tale-like', and walking there felt like I was one mystical graceful being, and not a sweaty, lousy human, with arms akimbo, gasping hard for air.

At the top, the cloud was at my fingertips.

After the two consecutive hike, my leg muscles were abused, and I didn't want anything more than to walk on a flat surface. Chris said we're done with the mountains that day, and we'll be at some place flat. We followed the river course that started at the foot of the mountain till we reached Gokseong. There's a train village there that attracts tourists both local and foreigners. Chris was excited to tell me that he saw many Filipinas there. I saw some too, and I tried to smile at them, but I didn't get any response. Rather they threw us a scrutinizing look. They must have been wondering why Chris is so white compared to the local men.

This is a statue that is believed to bring luck.

There's an old train car which they converted into a diner/cafe.

And the main attraction in the area is this old steam locomotive train. It's still in running condition. It was used while filming the movie "Taegukki", with Jang Dong Gun and Won Bin.

We stayed till the skies turned into an orange hue.

I was tired from all the climbing, and I didn't have the energy to move to another place, so we tried to find a place there to sleep. After we found one and settled our things, we went out again and looked for a place to eat. We didn't know it was so hard to find a restaurant there. In a place as rural as Gokseong, people sleep as soon as the lamp posts on the streets are turned on at night. There were no stores open, no restaurants, so we had to go further and further. Then we saw a very small restaurant with a very faint light. The ajumma was cleaning up, getting ready to close, Chris immediately approached her and 'begged' for food. The Sik-dang (resto) is so small it only has three tables. There were also mosquitoes and moths everywhere that I had to prop my knees up on the chair so I wont get bitten. When the food arrived, Chris and I couldn't talk. We were so hungry that there's no room for conversation. The dish is a traditional soup made from shells they caught in the river. It wasn't really delicious but we ate everything, I mean every single thing, to the last grain/morsel of food..

Both of us were happy that we found a place to eat, it's almost impossible to find a restaurant that's open beyond 8 pm there. With a magical stroke of luck, while we were on the way to the pension, we saw an open store. It was so small like nothing I've seen before. Some of the things were slightly covered in dust, and a box of cookie that we chose was already expired. We only bought beer, and beer doesn't come in cans in this area, just bottles.