Korea: Land of the Morning Calm

Korea is called "the land of the morning calm" and for good reason...but you only discover that reason if you haul your ass out of bed and get out to enjoy what a Korean morning has to offer. Fortunately for me, I did that on Wednesday with a new friend of mine, and I'm not sure I'll ever be the same.

I met Les a couple weeks ago through a rock climbing website/online community for foreign rock climbers in Korea. Turns out that we live one subway stop away from each other. We've been climbing and hanging out quite a bit lately, which is awesome because Les is one of those people you can only hope to meet at some point in your life. He's seriously that cool. Anyway, I had the morning off on Wednesday so we made plans to climb Bulamsan (Bulam Mountain). I don't think it "technically" qualifies as a mountain--it's only 508 meters tall. BUT...let me tell you, that's tall enough to work up quite the sweat! At least for me...

Once we were nearing the top, we had to use these guide ropes to help us up the boulders. At that point, the "trail" had stopped and it was nothing but granite slabs and boulders. I'm not sure I would have felt safe without the ropes--or without being roped in my climbing harness.

We reached the top and there was a little old Korean man, maybe in his late fifties, sitting in a depression at the very peak. He offered us some coffee before packing up and heading back down. From that little depression, we were protected a bit from the wind, but we had a clear view of northern Seoul and the other mountains in one of Korea's national parks, Bukhansan N.P. I felt a bit like a bird. In fact, Les and I were at a higher altitude than the black birds that were circling the forrest below.

The reason this experience made me realize that Korea is the land of the morning calm is because the hike up to the peak was really like a moving meditation. I had to be mindful of my breathing, my heart rate, and the repetitive motion of marching up the hill was very relaxing and stimulating at the same time. I felt like my lungs were working--they were really breathing in the air of the earth. The sun on my face and the wind through my hair was exhilerating in a very grounding way. Being there made me realize how much I miss connecting with nature and feeling the energy of the earth and the life it supports.

Here are a few pics from the peak of Bulamsan. The twins in the red are two ajummas (older women) who also wanted to enjoy the gorgeous morning.