Stairway to NOWHERE

Hello! Cindy, here.

Last Sunday we decided we would conquer a local mountain known to be a challenging hike. Palgongsan Mountain attracts both people looking for a good hike, and those wanting to pray to the large Buddhist statue at the top. Like any other destination, going to Palgongsan Mountain took some planning. Some research revealed that we would need to take two subways and a bus.

Our early morning start reminded us of what it was like to have to get up before the sun. It felt very familiar! It was that same sluggish feeling I had felt every morning as I headed to my classroom in Canada. Oh it hurt! I have been spoiled by many mornings of sleeping in until whenever I wake up. I don't have to be at work until 4pm in Korea. 6am felt horrible.

We know the subway system very well, so taking two subway trains was no problem. However, we have never taken a local city bus. We emerged from the subway and began to search for the bus stop listed on the internet and in Lonely Planet. No luck! We looked on both sides of the street, wandered for blocks. We saw many buses, but there was no sign of the bus we needed or the bus stop. Unfortunately, in Korea we cannot simply ask someone for directions. Out of desperation we hopped onto the Daegu City Tour Bus. This is a bus that takes tourists to local hot spots. Palgongsan Mountain is one of them, and we are tourists....so even though this cost more, we figured it was better than continuing our “Where's Waldo” like hunt for the city bus. The comfy seats, English speaking tour guide, virtually empty bus, and free nifty pen soon made us feel like we had made the right decision.

A short 45 minute nap later, we were at Palgongsan Mountain. As we climbed off our bus we watched the city bus pull up. It really did exist.....and apparently everyone in Korea had found it. The city bus was more than packed. A swarm of people burst out of the bus and immediately headed up the mountain. Oh oh. We had no choice but to join the swarm.

Climbing Palgongsan Mountain was like facing the mall at Christmas time. Except make the shopping isles very narrow, with stairs, and a steep incline. Oh, and give the very aggressive granny a walking stick to use as a weapon. There were small stalls tucked away on the mountainside with elderly people selling food or religious beads and candles. Some of these stalls were a fair way up, which means these elderly people climb the mountain daily, while carrying their wares! It took us one hour of climbing, pushing, dodging, and sweating to reach the top. We were surprised to see that all the aggressive grannies made it to the top as well....and so did hundreds of others. Everyone was there to pray to the large statue, Gatbawi (except us). Many people were on the floor crouched in prayer. We had to do some leapfrogging over them to reach the lookout on the other side.

After a walk down that was very similar to the climb up, we were happy to hop onto our comfy city tour bus. We decided to take advantage of the city tour and visit Dongwasa, the next stop. It is an area with some temples, statues and......there was a Maple Festival going on that day! We were very excited. Due to the many people heading in for the Maple Festival, our bus was stuck in traffic for 45 minutes. This gave us more time to nap.

We hopped off at the temples. They were fairly empty that day because all the action was down the road at the Maple Festival. After a quick walk around the temples and religious statues, we decided to join the crowd at Maple Fest.

We could not believe what we saw. Nothing! Nothing!!! That is what we saw! The Maple Festival consisted of ten tents selling the same things we see at the markets down the road from our apartment....socks, umbrellas, dollar store items, cheap toys. We were stunned. All the people were waiting in traffic for this? We are still baffled.

The five dollars we spent on the City Tour bus was the best five dollars we have ever spent. As we waited for our tour bus to come back, we watched as hundreds of people waited in two lines for the city buses that came about ever 15 minutes. No matter how many people crammed onto the city buses, it seemed like the line up was still just as long. The people at the end would have to wait for hours. Our City Tour bus stop was right beside the two lines waiting for the city bus. We were too scared to wait in the crowd, so we watched from across the road. When our bus approached, we quickly ran across the road, jumped to the front of the masses, and hopped onto our bus, while the hoards of people waiting looked at each other in confusion. It looked like we had our own private bus. We were two of four people that got on, laughing at the hundreds left behind. Suckers. Sometimes it pays to be a tourist.