Every once in a while an opportunity pops up in our work email telling us about a trip with ITT or something like that. Well this past week an email jumped out at me for some odd reason. It read “Good neighbor Hike - $5.” As I read further it was a hike and a BBQ, with transportation included for 5 dollars! My average hiking trip costs over 50,000 won so I figured it wouldn’t be great but how could I resist? Not getting my expectations up I signed up and lured in some of my friends as well. As it turns out, that would be the best $5 I had spent in a while!
We met up at the Mustang club, boarded our hot pink buses, and we were off! I kept thinking in the back of my head it was going to be a 5 minute bus ride and we would get off at some hill, but no! We were on that bus for a good hour and a half! When we arrived you could see the mountains all around us, as our Korean hosts started to set up the “for later” BBQ.
We rounded up into a group as the “tour guide” explained to us what the day would consist of and we were off to the races, up the mountain towards the Temple. Being springtime, everywhere you looked was a photo opportunity, and I, being the camera nut that I am, loved it! Stopping to see countless grass huts, massive statues, and even natural drinking springs, we leisurely arrived at the top of the mountain at 495.2m. From up there you could see out over the other mountains, and even buy ice cream from the friendly Korean vendor at the peak!
But what goes up must come down, so after a short breather we all began the descent back down with the thought of our BBQ dancing in the back of our heads. Like I said before, I am a camera nut, so while coming down, a few friends and I, took our time exploring every little crack on that mountain to see what we could find.
We were the last ones to arrive back at the buses and they had already packed away the food! Thankfully “Mr. Kim” was more than willing to pull out some of the leftovers he had packed, for us to incinerate. It was delicious. The time had come to move on so we rounded everyone up, and it was back on the buses to our next pit stop. This is where it got interesting. I have never seen Karaoke on a tour bus, and I definitely hadn’t seen a tour bus with a quality sound system, subwoofers and all! Well we were on one and it quickly became a party bus! Even the Korean hosts were singing some of their beloved songs, completely showing up us Americans with their talent, as they all “sipped” their Soju!
Putting the Karaoke on hold we arrived at our next stop, which had everything from Ancient houses, to Temples, Archery ranges, and even a beautiful lake with signs of spring everywhere! We had enough time to pretty much explore the entire area and stop for some Korean snacks on our way back to the buses. Oh, and have you ever seen a bathroom where the urinals were directly up against a window to proudly display your faces while you do your business? I have thanks to this amazing $5 trip offered through our Korean neighbors.
Who would have thought that everyone could have such a great time for just $5? Next time I get one of those emails, which I had previously been so quick to write off, I will give it much more consideration. I will also be working on my Karaoke skills for next time, so I can show those Koreans that they are not the only ones who can sing!
