Living in a city can have a strange effect on a person, living in a city in Asia, can have an even stranger effect. It's as if the shades are pulled down half of the time: bumping into people or being randomly poked by an umbrella naturally happens on a daily basis (as Koreans carry umbrellas no matter the weather). As much a part of the frenzy and bumping as anyone else in Mae tan dong, we decided that we needed some breathing space. Taking a bus into the country-side was the first step. Though we left Friday night, fate would not allow us outside of the Seoul Metropolitan area until Saturday morning. Friday night was spent unwinding in the Cocaine Bar, listening to The Beatles and drinking wine (Anthony and Shannon preferred White Russians). Saturday morning it was off. The country-side was lovely to watch as the bus blurred passed cherry blossoms, rivers, orchards, and the train.
We first arrived in Chuncheon, a relatively small town compared to Suwon. Here we found latterns celebrating Buddha's upcoming birthday, and a lot of "hellos" (in both English and Hangul). We hopped a bus, after what seemed like forever, to ride towards the jade mine; first we debated over whether to take the 65 or the 74, but when the 65 came barreling down the road, we decided we'd better get to the jade mine as long as it was day-light. The ride was longer than we had anticipated, the bus was mostly filled with older woman that slowly got off from stop to stop. Finally we were so far out in the country that the idea of a neon light was preposterous. We eventually pulled up to a restaurant in the making, circled, then the driver parked on a dirt road. We figured we weren't going anywhere fast when he opened the window, and lit a cigarette. (This was surely escaping the city hustle). Ten minutes must have passed. He finished his smoke, stood up and changed the bus numbers; low and behold we had been riding both the 65 and the 74 the whole time.
The Korea Lonley Planet guide-book warns that the jade mine can be difficult to get to, this is something of an understatement. When we arrived the only thing in sight was a store and a bath-house. The sales lady told Anthony (in Korean) that there was no jade mine. We were now not only in the middle of nowhere, but more perplexed then while sitting on the bus. Determined, we finally found the mine, not what we expected as it was in the basement under the bath-house. We did fall upon a row of lovely jade-beds. Shannon laughingly called it a pod. The jade could be heated, and certainly felt relaxing after hours of travel. (I'm still not sure whether or not we were meant to pay for them). After going to the saunas and sweating out the negative energy from the work-week we each took little naps, and then headed down the road. We thought we'd find the little town that we'd passed earlier, but it didn't easily happen. Luckily, a very charming and rather stylish woman picked us up on the country-road. She drove us into town, and we had dak galbi (Chuncheon is famous for dak galbi-- a spicy chicken dish-- S. was in heaven). We stayed the night in Chuncheon, after hotel-hunting A. finally called the hotel in the Lonley Planet, and just as it said, the owner came and picked us up.
On Sunday we took a trip into Gangchon, Anthony's smile reflects the happiness that small mountain towns can bring. We were quite the adventure-seekers as we rented ATVs (hey when you're in the country, why not really BE in the country-- we certainly embraced the way of life). Riding through the mountains was really picture-esqe and theraputic. I never thought I'd really love riding a four-wheeler so much (certainly beats the Seoul subway!)
After ATVs we rented bicycles, eventually found the bike trail, and rode to the furtherest point that we could. Then we hiked the rest of the way up to the waterfalls-- the mist was both visually and physically stunning. This weekend, we three left with the same expression in all of our minds: I Love Gangchon. (Someone should really market a tee-shirt stand in this place!)
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