Songnisan Sunday

This past weekend me and K visited Songnisan National Park with one of the foreign teachers (Carol) at our school. Our destination peak was 1057m high and 5.9km from the park entrance, so we were in for a good hike.

This park features a famous temple close to the entrance. So before the hike began me and K went in to take some pictures. The Buddha in the background is 33m high and cast from bronze! It’s the largest statue of its kind in Asia.

Here are 3 monks who were nice enough to let me and K get a picture. The one on the right had a look at the picture afterwards, Carol told us that the monk said she was ugly and I told her ani-yo (Korean for No).

This is where they used to cook rice, The bowl is huge, but that’s because the temple here used to house over 3000 monks! Now people come and throw coins into it and say prayers.

So after we got our fill it was time to start the hike. The first 3.5 km are literally a walk in the park. It’s all flat and smooth. A very easy beginning, although to see K here you wouldn’t think it. I should give credit because even though she was tired she kept up. Props.

This is where the hike really began to me. The trail here now begins to get steeper. The forest here seems thicker than Daedunsan and Gyeryongsan. I didn’t take many pictures between here and the peak because we were racing the sunset.

About halfway up we stopped for a couple of minutes and I did this video. Once again we didn’t stop long so we could keep up our pace. Once the trail got steep I took K’s backpack and carried it for her all the way to the peak. I should have let the camera run longer. Damn my moves are sweet… Sorry ladies but I’m taken.

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The first is K and Carol. Pleased and triumphant. The ascent was supposed to take over two hours be we made it in about an hour and a half.