Hwanseongul

Sorry, I poofed again.  For those of you who missed my presence and my writings suffused with insanity spells, you can now expel an awkward sigh of relief.  My vanishing act is now complete. The past couple of weeks had been arduously long and difficult, to say the least.  The things is, I work two jobs (in a country where people love taking unnecessary mid-afternoon naps and sipping lattes in coffee shops at excruciatingly slow pace during work days, I am the ironic oddity). Getting two monthly paychecks obviously entails hard work (lots of it) and zero free time.  Add a looming long holiday to the mix and my normally tight schedule becomes the mother of all crunch time.  Blogging became an impossibility. Whatever brain function I have left when I get home, I spend it in the bathroom doing my bathroom business, or a few, dull moments in front of the television before I collapse to sleep.

Thank God for the holiday.  The nauseating mix of my daily grind is momentarily over.  I feel centered now, with a more pleasant frame of mind.  It's only fitting that I blog. Afterall, this moment of calm comes rarely, and too far in between.

So today I'll share with you the speedy version of my adventure in Hwanseon Cave.  If you've spent some time in Korea, chances are you've heard about it.  In case you haven't, let me enlighten you with some facts.  Hwanseongul is the biggest cave in Korea.  It's vastness intrigues more than a million visitors each year.  The whole cave spans eight kilometers (could be more, geologists are still exploring it), but only two kilometers of which is open for the public to see.

The cave is up the mountain.  It's mouth hidden amongst the foggy backdrop. This is how the start of the trail going to the cave looks like.



There are two ways to get to the cave.  You can do a grueling full hour of uphill hike or you can use the mono rail.  I was lazy that day so I chose to ride the mono rail. I forgot the exact cost of the ride, but I'm guessing it was around 7,000 - 8,000 won. The picture below shows the tracks.  Left one is for going down and right is for going up.

The car looks so modern right?

Upon reaching the top, you have to shell out another 3,000 won at the ticket booth. Once inside, you'll see bridges built across innumerable pools, streams, and cracks. Railings are amply lit and there are lamp posts to guide the way.  The temperature inside is comfortably cool at somewhere between 10-15 degrees C.

The coolest thing inside the cave is the presence of waterfalls.  I've seen several of them inside, but I was only able to take a picture of one. From where I stood and took this picture, it looked miniature. But I'm guessing with closer inspection, it's expanse is far greater than all of the waterfalls I've seen in my life.

The tour generally lasts for two hours. In my case it took three.  Only because I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to soak up the scene for as long as possible.

So there goes another interesting spot you can add to your Korean bucket list of travel.

I feel a teensy bit tired at the moment so I am going to split. I hope everyone is having a super awesome day.

Chon eun sa.

I'm getting into the swing of things.  My resolve to write here again has been utterly renewed and it's a good feeling.  I don't feel so awkward and contrived anymore.  I feel stupid for abandoning this, my own personal memoir. This tangible thing that helps me remember that once, my life was filled with newness and excitement.  It helps me get through that suffocating dullness of lethargy and boredom that fill my days..I'm hurting to take off into the ether and let my pathetic days be filled with adventures and road trips.  These are psychedelics to my veins.  Like adrenaline and really strong caffeine, it swishes me from normalcy to Eudaemonia.

One of the last places I visited in Korea was Chon eun sa.  A Buddhist temple built on top of a very steep mountain in Gangwon province.  The place is so steep, you'd need to use your handbrakes to go down.  So temples.  This might conjure boring images of statues, pagodas, and identical pavilions for most.  Not exactly the kind of trip that gets your blood rushing.  It's not at all romantic. Not even ideal for families with small children who couldn't appreciate culture and antiquity.  But I see it as mysteriously enchanting. Peace and calm permeating the air. Monks chanting to the beat of their very own Buddhist music.  Ajummas deep in prayers, some of them doing penitence of 1000 bows.  And with surroundings so serene and pristine, you'd think Alice and the white rabbit might be around somewhere.

Most of the temples in Korea have become more of a tourist destination. Cheon un sa is one of the few remaining ones that serve it's purpose.  Providing shelter for monks and a place of pilgrimage for devout Buddhists.  Tourists are unusual sight here.

Can someone tell me, is this persimmon tree?  I'm guessing it is. But then, my knowledge of trees constitute only three things: bananas, coconut, and mango tree. So most likely I'm wrong.

Writing this entry spurs me into thinking; why can't we just abandon all reason, hit the road, and be hippies of the 21st century?  It would be so utterly great right? I hate that gas is a finite resource. I hate that our society run off money. I hate that I wasn't born rich to afford this morbid addiction for endorphin-releasing adventures. Sorry for the impromptu rant.

So it's Friday. Weekend is almost within our grasp. Breathe it. Enjoy it. After all, life is too great to spend on redundancies and boring routines.

Chuksoru: From the movie April Snow.

It's Sunday, I'm in a bit of a rush.  Whenever it's Sunday, I always feel the hours drain through my fingers like sand. I swift steadily, full-speed towards Monday - day of the week I hate the most. Sorry people, I couldn't think of an awesome opening so I am going to dive right into the nitty gritty of it all.


So Chuksoru.  The K-movie "April Snow" was shot here.  The unfortunate thing was, I didn't watch the movie so I didn't get to fully appreciate the whole point of being there.  All I know is that Bae Yong Jun and Son Ye Jin are there, and it's about people having affairs (rotten tomatoes gave a very limited description).  I cannot bear to watch it cause I know there'll be so much drama and horrifically awful crying - two things I have too much of in my life.  I'm not really too keen on watching K-movies.  If I'm desperate though, I'm exclusive to those that involve guns (lot's of it) and dying of gruesome death. Some sick sense of entertainment I have.


I almost forgot why I'm here.  So Chuksoru park in Samcheok, Gangwon province. 




Bloody hell! Why do I always have to ruin a post by including a picture of myself?   I'm not a narcissist (as a matter of fact, I'm the other way around). I just want to show you people some cute rock formations there. 



I'm a travelholic.  And I don't just travel for the sake of seeing famous places. If I can have it my way, I'd prefer to travel without specific destination. Just go wherever my gut tells me to go, and stop whenever I feel like stopping. Long drives with no maps or navigation, and just good music for company. There better be no Chainsaw Massacre shit though. The world, as I know it, is massively liberating and beautiful.  Doesn't matter where.  It will surprise me, that I'm absolutely sure of.


My thoughts are spinning chaotically like Maelstrom today and I am all over the place.  Will go now.

Mi In Waterfall

I love the rain.  i love the way the droplets slide along my skin and slick back my hair. Each drop immortalized in it's descent from the heavens before it collides into the earth. Rain and beautiful places placate me. It registers a nice, calm euphoria that could cure my angst towards just about anything. And the best thing about it? It has the power to clear a mass tidal wave of people at any given place.  


It was July, middle of the summer.  Rains are frequent,  There couldn't be a more perfect time to go out when you feel as though you're constantly drowning in a sea of people.  More so if you're wishing to go on a different kind of adventure without the inconvenience that goes with having so many people around.


Destination then was Taebaek.  A large, busy town situated in the far south east of Kangwon province.  There lies a famous waterfall.  The locals call it Mi In.  On a usual bright and sunny day, people flock to this place like bees.  But when there's rain, the place turns into your very own sweet spot.  


A 20 minute descent on muddy soil and slippery slope is involved. I passed by a small temple along the way.  There were a few curious monks who couldn't help but stare at the drenched foreigner with muddy shoes. The rain ceased for a while.  And then there was fog.  It turned everything into a whitish haze, gracefully embracing every square inch of the area.  


This is the start of the trail,  Lots of trees, grass, and frogs croaking the afternoon away, 









As you go further along the descent, you'll pass by a couple of streams.  In reality, it's so much bigger than what it looks like in the photo.  It's just that I couldn't get a decent angle at that time.  It was slippery as hell. And I stood at the edge of a rock that hangs at the edge of a cliff. 





The rain made a very simple descent seem like a death-defying stunt. 





And lastly, the sweet spot - Mi In waterfall in all it's blurred and foggy glory.  I promise it doesn't look this bad in real life.  It's quite pretty actually.





So there goes my pathetic attempt to start writing here again.  If there's any consolation, there wouldn't be any degree of permanence as far as my writing goes.  I just need to write what's left of my travels, nothing more.  I'm comfortable calling it an 'unfinished business' that I need to get over and done with. 


I wonder how translucent these pitiful attempts at normalcy have been to the outside observer.  So if it isn't too much to ask, do send me guys your thoughts.  

Rambling at 117 lbs.

I woke up at the lovely hour of 4 am this morning. Why you ask? I think my body clock despises me in all sorts of ways and I can't seem to get more than 4 hours of sleep each night. But I'd still call it a good day. The reason I'm in a good mood is because I've lost weight. I find it it hilarious that my happiness is completely dependent upon what the scales say. It says I'm 117, and it's good enough reason to drag my lazy ass in front of the computer and start blogging.

So this is how it feels like to be 117 pounds. I just can't get over that blissful feeling of my skin not quite touching the waistband of my jeans, and every time the wind would blow, my blouse brushes across the small of my back then it would rest off of my skin. I'm at my thinnest ever, I say life is definitely getting better for me.

It's probably because of this weight loss thing that I somehow seem to have found the old me again. I've been missing for so long that I'd almost forgotten who I was and it's just incredible to remember and start to feel like the person that I know I am again. It's like I've been living 2 parallel lives for the last couple of years. Been wearing and acting out a facade of me that everyone expects to see, while on the inside, I feel lost and incompetent. But it's all better now, so expect less of my wits scrambling break-downs of semi volcanic proportions to come your way.

On a totally different note, here is a photo of me taken early of last month during our trip to Kangwondo. The place is called Samcheok harbor (that explains the fishing boat) and it's where you have to go when your jonesing for a sashimi fix like no other (like I am right now). Don't you find it absurd that one minute I'm telling you guys about how insanely good it feels to lose weight and the next minute it's all about food?

You'll see more of Samcheok on my next post. Have a great Wednesday y'all!