Daegu: The Final Frontier

Now I know what you're thinking. Saturday sounded great, so how did you cap it off on Sunday? Well, that's the best part of the story of my trip. By the time we got back to Matt's place at about 4am, my night was really just beginning. Do tell, you say? Alright this is how it al went down:

The first thing you should know is that Matt and I tried like hell to convince Erin and Mark to join us on what would turn out to be an epic adventure. To no avail though, they just didn't have the desire to climb a mountain at 4 in the morning. Oh well, more mountain for the rest of us is what I said, and Matt and I were on our way (not before taking some sweet and possibly incriminating photos before we left).

At about 4:20 we rolled into the little corner store at the bottom of the mountain for a few beers (3 litres to be precise) for we knew our journey would be long and arduois if we happened to sober up. Those little SOBs almost killed us in the end. We started the hike off with a scenic view of the man-made lake at the bottom of the mountain. It was pretty beautiful at that time of night/morning and we both gave it hommage by cracking the first two beers and cheersing to our new friend. On we went.

The next 2 hours or so were spent making our way up this mas of rock and taking cool pictures of the city below. Man did it look unreal from up there. It is always amazing how serene the busiest of cities look from on top of a mountain. All along the way were stone pagodas that people had made from loose rocks along the trails. We're talking thousands of rocks per pagoda and they ewere everywhere. Matt and I even had the cahnce to add our own little touch to some of them. Don't worry kids, I have some pictures on the flicker site.

At around 6:30am I was really starting to feel that something special was going to happen. It was starting to get light out, but the sun still hadn't woken up and we were almost near the top of the mountain. Added to this fact was the addition of many Korean friends hiking all around us for the first time of the night/morning. So Matt and I busted some serious ass to get to the top of the mountain for the show. What happened atr the top of the mountain is something that I will never forget...

There just happened to be 2 mountains right in front of ours across the valley of equal height and breadth. Well, Mr. Sun just happened to choose the slight dip between these 2 mountains to make his first appearance of the day. It was beathtaking and Matt and I sat there for a couple of minutes in silence and just enjoyed this amazing experience. We tried taking pictures of this marvel, but none were able to duplicate its resplendidness. I almost feel like I am ruining the experience by writing it down, but I gotta give my fans what they want. Which is also why I texted everyone back in Cheonan at that moment (6:45am) to share my experience. Let's just say I heard it from a few people when I got back home the next day.

After the sunrise, we decided we should probably try to make it back down the mountain as we agreed that the drunker we got the harder it would be. UNDERSTATEMENT! This is where the hops and barley almost killed us. I almost fell off the side of the montain run ning down and Matt almost broke his ankle on many seperate occasions. We made it though and saw and did some pretty cool stuff on the way.

First we came across a fully equipped outdoor gym about 3 quarters of the way down. Perfect spot for 2 white dudes who are intoxicated out of their skulls. Let's just say that we offended at least 5 Koreans and Matt will never look at a bench-press the same way again.

Second we saw this really cool looking tree that had all golden leaves surrounded by trees with red leaves. It was definitely a National Geographic moment. Matt took pictures and fell on his ass in the mud. Awesome!

The last thing we did before we left the mountain was definitely a cool, random, spiritual experience that one would only truly appreciate if they are in a foreign land. At the bottom of the mountain, right next to the man-made lake, were about 10 Koreans meditating in a circle to some directions coming from a CD player. We did what any visitor should; we joined them in their session. They were really cool about it and even tried to help our drunk asses with the proper technique. It was really relaxing and just overall a cool experience. We found out later that we had partaken in a session of Falun Dafa, a style of Meditation. Super Cool!

We finally returned to Matt's place at around 9am. We had some noodles to warm up and went to bed. When Erin came over the next day to grab a train with me back to her home in Busan, she was livid to hear how much she had missed out on our adventure. The three of us decided that we since we had done it up together in Busan and Daegu, that next month we would rip it up Cheonan-style. I can't wait!

Ronnie