Korea is hot as hell. It really is - I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Over the last two weeks, we have had temperatures hovering right around 37 or 38 Celsius (that's upper 90s for all you Fahrenheit peeps out there) with ridiculous humidity. I normally walk the mile to my yoga studio and back in the mornings - just for a little extra activity - but I have had to start taking the bus because the walk back two Mondays ago was so hot and exhausting that it made my physically sick, which I then had to deal with at work all day. I rarely (if ever) check the weather forecast here, so I was surprised at how wimpy of a Texan I was until Joel told me that the heat wave has been so bad that it made the front page of CNN - about a dozen people in China have actually died.
To add insult to injury, the government is trying to crack down on "excessive" energy consumption by fining businesses and notifying residents when they exceed a certain quota. A while back, to save money, the Korean government apparently purchased faulty parts for their nuclear reactors from (you guessed it!) China, so now two of the country's reactors are down, resulting in considerable strain on the grid. And now, because of their ineptitude, I got a notice in our mailbox asking us to please try to reduce our energy usage because we exceeded our previous month's consumption by 114 kW (about $35). Because the notice was all in Korean, I mistook it at first for a notice that we were being fined - and proceeded to launch into a rage because we have only been running our AC unit on weekends. Needless to say, I was quite relieved when my coworker explained the notice to me, but the whole thing is kind of ridiculous. I suppose it is typical of government to punish its citizens for consequences incurred because of its own fuck-ups.
Anyway, we have been trying to escape the heat through a series of water-related activities. Last weekend, I went hiking on Wolchulsan (a small mountain here in our province) with two of my coworkers on Saturday, and then Joel and I went with another couple to a nearby water park on Sunday. Both were unexpected adventures, albeit in different ways.
The Waterfall
My coworker initially invited my to take her to the summit of Mudeungsan, the mountain here in town, a few weekends ago. However, Wolchulsan was recommended to her by a friend and a longtime resident, so we decided to do that instead, as I had been wanting to check it out anyway. So at 5:20 last Saturday morning, the three of us jumped in a cab to the bus terminal, and from there we bused to Yeongam and took another taxi to the entrance to the hiking trail. The scenery, of course, was beautiful, but the hiking was deceptively difficult. Wolchulsan is only 899 meters high, which is a full 200 meters shorter than Mudeung, which is a pretty easy climb. I thought it would be a breeze - and I thought wrong.
Once you get past the first part of the trail and begin the real ascent, the gentle dirt trail gives way to steep rock steps, jagged rock faces with ropes to haul yourself up, and steel staircases made hot by the merciless sun. It was relentlessly bright and obscenely humid, so naturally all three of us were soaked in sweat after barely an hour. We rested often and sought refuge in patches of shade. We graciously accepted snacks and the quintessential hiking cucumber from a friendly Korean hiker. We huffed, puffed, laughed, whined and did all the things that make a girls' hike so comfortable.
After taking about half an hour to rest at the summit (and snap a few pictures), we headed down to complete the loop we took up the mountain. Around halfway through the descent, we discovered the falls - a small waterfall made by a river snaking down the mountainside that had, of course, been reduced to a trickle because of the summer heat. Still, there was enough water still coming down to make it a highly tempting rest spot. We eyed it hungrily for a moment, then I slipped off my backpack and clambered over to the slick rock face where the water was sprinkling down, almost like a shower. I lost track of how long we stayed there, giggling and sighing and splashing water on our faces and arms to wash off the sweat and dust from the mountain.
After we made it off the mountain, we stopped at a restaurant a little ways down the road to eat "mountain vegetable bibimbap." The only other customers were a large extended family, to whom we probably looked ludicrous with our wet hair and bare shoulders. Eventually we got a ride back to the local bus terminal from a gracious woman who ran a pension out of her house.
The Water Park
Joel and I have been spending some time with a couple from Ohio that we met through a mutual friend. They are super cool and down-to-earth artists: the guy, who is actually half-Korean and has family here in country, specializes in ceramics, and the lady is a photographer. Anyway, she really misses the beach and the pool (much
like me!), so we had talked about planning a trip either to the beach or to a water park. I am relatively familiar with the beaches around here, but I don't know anything about any water parks, so I went to the most logical source I could find for information - my students. They recommended several different parks to me, but the two that were most frequently mentioned were Caribbean Bay (next to Everland, outside of Seoul) and Jungheung Gold Spa (in Naju, a city in our province). The students insisted that Caribbean Bay was the best, but the prospect of spending W60k on round-trip bus fare in addition to another W30k for the entrance fee was not appealing, so I set my sights on Jungheung Gold Spa and began collecting intel.
When I initially asked around, no one seemed to know the price of admission, which I thought was odd. A Google search turned up a handful of blogs that mentioned the park, but still nothing on cost. I even tried poking around the park's (Korean-only) website, but no information on price of admission came up. Finally, I asked one of my Korean coworkers to look it up for me. You can imagine my shock when she informed me that single-person entry was a whopping 59,000 won (almost $60).
Teacher, what?
I asked my students about it, and they were just as flabbergasted as I was. They insisted that they had never paid that much, and nearly all of them had been at least once on a school trip. I discussed it with my sixth-graders, who reasoned that the W59k must be the price for those people who stayed overnight at the jjimjilbang, and that a day pass could not cost more than W15k. I thought that seemed reasonable, so I messaged our friends, looked up the bus timetable, and packed our bags.
Once again, I thought wrong.
We made it to Naju, but soon discovered that there were very few local buses that went to the water park. We negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to the park and were in high spirits until I started talking to the ticket window agent.
Me: Hello! How much for one person?
Ticket Agent: 59,000 won.
Me: Yes, but not for sleeping. Just for the day.
TA: 59,000 won.
Me: For one person?
TA: Yes.
Me: Okay but, we don't want to sleep here. I pantomimed sleeping, and then made an "X" with my arms. Just for the day.
TA: Just moment.
The woman got up and brought another agent to the window. I began again.
Me: So, how much for one person?
New TA: 59,000 won.
Me: Just for the day?
TA: Yes.
At this point, I am starting to feel the panic well up as I realize that I have unwittingly led myself, my husband, and our two delightful friends into a trap. "Ask them what it includes," suggested the guy.
Me: What can we do in the park?
TA: Water park and spa.
Me: Just the water park?
TA: Yes. And spa. He pantomimed a water slide.
...Teacher, what?
The four of us walked away slowly and stared at each other. Joel and the other guy studied the map as I studied their faces, bewildered. "It looks like there might be a beach here on the map," the other guy suggested hopefully. "Are we near the ocean, or maybe a lake? Maybe we can spend the day there instead?" So we walked around the parking lot to the "beach," only to find a small dock for motor boats to drag banana boats along a dirty-looking river. We returned to the ticket booth, defeated.
"What should we do?" the other guy asked. I sighed hopelessly.
"Guys, I'm really sorry...I had no idea. I can't believe I did this."
They assured me that it was no big deal, and after some nervous laughter we decided to bite the bullet and spend the money to go. After all, we'd come all that way, so we might as well just do it, right?
Alas, the unexpected surprises didn't stop there. Not only were all of the lines for the rides an hour long, each slide or other major attraction cost an additional W1,000, which you had to pay for by putting credit on a wristband they provided. The wave pool and lazy river required life jackets, which were another W4,000 to rent. The whole park only had a dozen or so rides. We went on a few slides and spent the rest of the afternoon pissing off the lifeguards by trying to sneak into the wave pool, drinking beer and joking about what a rip-off the whole experience was. We had fun, but the trip broke the bank for Joel and I until we got paid this week. Also, I feel like an asshole for leading two (relatively) new and lovely friends into such a ridiculous debacle.
In contrast, going to the beach tomorrow with my Dutch friend will only cost W22k. Perhaps next time I will stick to the devil I know.
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