Mt. Naejang National Park lies in Jeollabuk province just a couple hours north of Mokpo. We were told Mt. Naejang is known through out Korea as the number two place to see fall foliage (number one going to Mt. Seorak) so it had long been our plan to spend a weekend camping and hiking there since it is so close. We were excited when the time finally rolled around. Initially our plans were a bit more daring than what we end up doing. We wanted to hike across the park along a mountain ridge that connects the 2 main temples in the mountains. In the end, (due to time, weather, and confusion) we ended up camping out at a campground and doing a day hike with, who we presumed to be, half the population of Korea.
The small mountain town within the park played host to the hoarders of visitors. The whole town was in full-on festival mode for the event. An event which I imagine starts and ends with the changing of the leaves. Basically, the town is in festival mode for 2 months. One thing that we have learned about Korea is that all festivals are the same. The theme or reason for them may be different, be it the sea parting, lanterns, cherry blossoms, kimchi, or fall foliage, they are always the same. There are rows of stalls selling roasting chestnuts, cranberries, and all other random assortments of unidentifiable edibles. They are all set up under small tents and umbrellas of primary colors. There are rows of identical restaurants. They all have a half pig roasting on a spit while they cook up some haemul-pajon (seafood pancakes, unreal) and stuffed squids. Everything gets washed down with some dongdongju (brown rice wine). Most importantly, its always fun. As you walk past checking out the food and debating whether you should stop here or go to the next identical restaurant old Korean woman grab you and just start pushing toward a table and asking what you want to eat. Once we had battled our way past them we starting making our way to our walk.
Also, of course, there is always an older man dressed in drag and playing drums to dance music.
As I mentioned at the start, we are not the only people on this hike.
And you can see why...
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| Loads of the Korean men were posing like this. Clearly to maximize their manliness. |
After making our way up to the temple and back it was time to get some that good Korean festival food! One of my favorite foods here in Korea is the haemul-pajon. It's a sweet pancake with seafood and spring onions. It's also amazing. We just relaxed for a while enjoying our drink and talking about how crazy it is we are leaving Korea so soon. It is hard to believe that a year has already passed us by. While we were chatting, the guy in charge of the pig spit was hard at work and trying to get us to buy some. We would have gladly if we didn't have hobo dinners waiting for us back at camp.
Thanks for checking in!
