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Day Six
Seodaemun Prison - Gyeongbokgung Palace & Museum - Bukhansan (Korea National Park)
Fresh crisp cold morning all wrapped up & ready for the day! Sightseeing book in hand we headed for the subway. At the subway we obtained a map from the information booth we borrowed a pen & circled on the map Seoul's highlights we wanted to visit in the short time that we had here. When passing the pen back to the man on the information stand he wanted to help so he opened our map & circled some of the best must sees of Seoul - surprisingly he spoke excellent English so communicating was not a problem. He even took us to the electronic ticket booth & showed us how to buy a ticket - what a top guy!
We headed for Seodaemun Prison, we had read a little bit about the prison in our book so we expecting to feel some sadness when we got there. Arriving at the prison & tickets bought we got to the entrance only to be greeted by a lovely Korean lady who spoke better English than us hahaha. She walked & guided us to the first part of the prison & she shared her knowledge of the prison & tried to help us understand what the prison was about, the story behind the sadness, the way the Japanese wanted power & how they used the South Koreans for torture. Her explanation of things including execution was horrific & to think the prison was only closed in 1987, so not that long ago!
There were several buildings in the prison grounds & each building was used for different things. We entered the first building & saw tiny cells where the Koreans were kept & beaten. We walked further down only to see even smaller cells with no natural light, no windows, toilet or anything - it was total solitary which was used for mental & physical abuse of the prisoners. In the other cells there were dummies that had been set out as reconstructions of torture, fascinating but it was horrendous conditions being portrayed. When we had been through all the buildings we came to a smaller building which is where the prisoners got hung, it was a bit like a courtroom but it had a noose at the front with seats positioned as if people watched the executions. Behind the execution building was a tunnel where they took the dead bodies through. It was a place of great sadness & visitors to the place are mainly family members of the victims & prisoners.
Back on the train & heading for Gyeongbokgung Palace & Museum. Entering the grounds of the palace there was traditional architecture of arches which where colourfully decorated. Underneath the arch there was a massive courtyard which had more & more arches to pass under. We walked the length of the courtyard only to see traditional dressed warriors which looked mean & they never moved. We thought it was hilarious making funny poses next to them whilst getting pictures took because they couldn't even look at us, it was well funny! We didn't spend too much time at the palace but we did enter the Palace Museum for a nose around. In the museum there was tapestry & displays of traditional clothing & items worn by the Emperors. There was plenty of artefacts to see & I suppose we could have spent all day in there but there wasn't enough time, we had to get to Bukhansan to see the temple in the mountains.
After yet another lengthy train & bus journey we found the place we was looking for! Expecting for there to be nice comfortable cables cars to take us up the mountain for a better look, we were wrong. Getting to the main path up to the National Park we realised that there was no such thing as cable cars because we seen well equipped Koreans in mega hiking gear! They had rucksacks bigger than themselves, proper hiking sticks & they were all wearing sun visors. We needed to be prepared for an exceptionally long day so we grabbed some bottles of water & an ice-cream. We decided to try & walk as far as we could to see the temple hidden in the mountains.
The beginning of the walk was really nice. The sun was blazing, the place was buzzing & the path looked relatively easy but again we under estimated the difficulty that awaited ahead. The track started to become narrower, it was a proper dirt track & there was massive stone boulders used for steps. I have to admit I was struggling, the steps where getting steeper & I was getting tired quite easy. After getting pushed & shoved by Koreans in their hiking gear & visors I was getting cheesed off but it was actually hilarious because I was in my jeans & t-shirt & Andy was in his trainers & even though they were kitted out the b*****s still kept falling over & getting their hiking sticks caught between the rocks so that made me feel better. After about an hour & 20 minutes up the mountain we reach a flat part (thank god!). We Walked further along the flat part & we seen some amazing views. We could see below where we had started from & gosh it was high we had come along way. There was a beautiful Buddha at the 1st part we reached along with a beautiful shrine where people we praying & blessing. We had seen a sign for a mountain peak & decided that we had come this far why not go that bit further. We continued for about another 40 minutes passing loads of the hardcore hikers, my legs were sore my feet were getting heavy & I was feeling drained. Not much further surely??? We reached a part of the peak & as we climbed across a big stone sheet platform & looked across it was amazing! The view was better than before - we were higher, we were with the birds! Along with lots of other people we parked are bums drank some water & had a rest!
Further exploring the area we saw a sign for another peak and it said only 1.2km so it didn't seem too far to hike. We agreed to give it a go. 5 minutes in & it was the steepest track I have ever seen. There was hundreds of stone looking steps that were by no means flat & they were extra steep. After trekking for another 30 minutes we came to another sign peak saying only 0.7km by this time I was moaning, I was tired & was saying for Andy to continue without me - it was tough, proper tough! By this time we had been climbing for hours & with my moaning getting worse & my stopping becoming more frequent I ushered Andy to go on without me, I said I would catch him up or he can get me on his way back down so off he went - he couldn't get away quick enough!!!
Struggling on my own & with the end not so far away I continued slowly climbing on my own - you may think I was a wimp but wait till you see the pictures from the top! I had made it! Sweating, sore, achey & mentally drained I was actually at the top of one of the highest peaks in South Korea! Totally amazed, sod the birds at this point we where literally above the clouds & watching the sun set. It's the nicest place I have ever seen & I think it was one of the hardest challenges for me to date! I was proud of myself for not giving up or in.
As it was getting dark & there is no lighting around we flew back down to the bottom with each step getting faster but more painful. The knees had gone, our soles were burning & hunger was setting in! Half way down & dark was setting in we seen that there was little cafes where all the hikers were sitting off & then there was big shiny lights towards us, it was only a bloody taxi, yes a taxi - nobody told us that you could catch a cab half way up. Waiting for the bus & in an enormous queue we waited silently, we were that tired we couldn't talk. As the bus queue was getting bigger there were people carrier cars stopping (obviously illegal taxis) & people were that tired so they were getting in - seriously one man was even shoved in the boot. Bus & train journey back towards our district we scouted around for a place 2 scran! We found this little place that had hot plates set in the tables so we went in & had some pork that we cooked ourselves, some lovely rice but the vile horrible Korean traditional extra of this cabbage in a nasty sauce, it was disgusting! Fed & watered we headed back to the hostel.
A long knackering day, sleeping was no problem! What's the plans for tomorrow?.......
- comments
Lauren Kelly Wow I'm so proud of you making it to the top you completley sucked me into to your andventure there and when you said you actually reached the top I got proper excited for you this is all so amazing I feel like I'm there with you as I read it!!! xxx