Soju Sundays are Mountain Days

Sunday rolls around in Korea and it's time to hit the hills. Yes, it's mountain time! Billions upon billions of people hit the paths and paved laneways of Korea's mountains...which is interesting since only millions live here! It's time to throw on your North Face shirt/hat/pants/socks/jacket/sunglasses/backpack/walking stick/knee-socks and little tin cup attached to your backpack in order to consume the 3 bottles soju you stashed in that North Face pack. The hills are filled with thousands of men yelling, forcefully removing phlegm from their lungs and wreaking of cheap ethanol alcohol...hmmmm...ain't nature great???

It was a clear and crisp day. We hit the hills in northern Busan. Guemjeong Mountain and the little overcrowded cable cars that can take you to the top. We scuttled about the paths atop the mountain for the better part of the afternoon, before descending the approximately 27,000,000 stairs that take you to the bottom. My legs will be telling me where to go tomorrow morning when I wake up!

After that, it was time to eat heaps of yummy pig meat at a local Jangsan favorite, appropriatley named, "The Green Pig." It's a great bang for the buck BBQ restaurant in the neighborhood.

A nice view at from the top of the ridge.

How dare we hit the hills looking so casual. We were scowled at by many! Look at us....so uncultured, not an article of North Face clothing to be seen. If you ever had the chance to hike in Korea, you'd understand. The "Cult of The North Face" holds great power here! You can see (left to right) Myself, Mai, Tom, Sunny and Sheri.

A great view of a part of downtown Busan. It was a great afternoon to get out of Haeundae and see some other parts of Busan.

Today's highlight was almost getting into a physical altercation with a drunken middle-aged man on the mountain. He was insisting that we eat some chocolate that he had. He was demanding we take chocolate from a pocket in his pack. When we told him the pocket was empty, he was thrown into great drunken confusion. We were able to get past him, but he retrieved his long lost bag of treats and followed us, again demanding we help ourselves to his chocolate. We graciously took a piece, in hopes of getting the freak to back off and he luckily did. It could have been worse...I can see the haeadlines in the Busan Ilbo now..."Ignaorant Foreigner in Fist Fight With Drunken and Chocolatey Goodwill Ambassador."