CRAZY-CRAZY FUN-FUN OFF-ROAD MOUNTAIN DAY!!!

NECESSARY BACKGROUND INFO: I met a friend from the USA (named Nick) who is madly in love with this Korean girl. This girl's parents own a mountain in the country(How do you OWN a mountain?!?), me and Scott (another foreign friend) were invited to go with them to their mountain. The weather was around 20C when Nick picked Scott and me up in this (soon to be) father-in-law's big, black SUV. He assured us that we'll need the 4 Wheel Drive!!! We got some impossibly delicious ice cream cones and hit-hit-hit the roady-road-road...

Points of interest:

1- THE OFF-ROADING- We did some crazy, "I THINK WE'RE GONNA TO DIE", off-roading up this beautiful, secluded mountain. Don't worry, I'm still alive (see photo).

2- OWNERSHIP- The Dad DID actually own the mountain! The only (barely drivable) path to the top of the mountain was fenced off by a chain. We used a key to get through (KOREAN FACT- If you have the key to the only way up the mountain, then you own the mountain).

3- THE VIEW- When we arrived at the quaint, little mountain cabin and got out of the SUV, we were were like a bunch of speechless school boys watching porno for the first time. Incapable of sensible conversation, we just kinda stared and uttered "Wowww!!!" and "OOOoooo". This is what unimaginable beauty does to the human brain!

4- THE HISTORY- The mountain was the site of one of the most important battles of the Korean War. The allies held it and although Daegu was surrounded it held it's own. Many young solders lost their lives on the mountain fightin for freedom. RESPECT!

5- THE GRAVES-

I've mentioned in a previous blogy-blue
that Korean people are buried on the mountain do.
This is true, Scoobie-Doo.
Let me tell you...

We saw so many graves on our hike to the summit. The Koreans are buried under these large mounds of dirt. Since there is often rock under the soil, the body is buried above ground- thus the large mounds of dirt. On the Lunar Holidays Chosuk (Thanksgiving Day) and Seollal (Lunar New Years Day), the families make a full meal, hike up to the graves with the meal, and then they set it out and pray for their dead ancestors (RESPECT!). All Koreans do this, it doesn't matter if their Christians, Buddhists, or Whatever...
We came across so many different graves, some were of unknown soldiers, some were unmarked, others were Christians, some were Buddhist, some were couples, some were old, some new, some had alters (for the food) and some had big granite vaults. It was a really moving experience- the peacefulness of the graves coupled with the stillness of the mountains!

THE MEAL- We had a Traditional Korean BBQ, with grandma's handmade bean paste and fermented soy soup, pure mountain water, meat (Bulgoggi) with mountain grown lettuce, and for dessert we dug up sweet potatoes and cooked them over the fire. We ate it as the sun was setting over the mountains.

THE WAR MUSEUM- On the way home we stopped to screw around on the tanks at the Daegu Korean War Museum.

Am I ever enjoying Korea,
PEACE!!!