Today was a gorgeous, perfect early fall day. Accordingly, I joined about one-third of the Daegu metropolitan population in climbing a nearby mountain, Palgongsan. The views were extraordinary, especially at sunset, and the trail followed a ridge through red pine forest. I was not at all disappointed, even with all the hype this place gets. It was just beautiful.
When I had nearly reached the top, I came upon a couple sharing an intimate moment on a rocky promontory. I was not too discreet to notice that the woman was wearing high heels. Wow, I thought, even more impressed than before at the women of this country, and more precisely, at their ability to walk around in the most perilous ankle-breaking footwear.
That's when I rounded the corner and heard the equivalent noise to ten or twelve lawnmowers, all going at once: of course. The cable car.
Within moments I moved from the peace and stillness of the forest to the pleasant bustle and chatter of a dining patio, full of people enjoying the mild, clear Sunday evening. Climbing up past the restaurant, I found one more outlook, where I couldn't help but be struck by the juxtaposition of rugged hilltop and evening dress. In my hiking boots and fleece jacket, I was the one looking out of place. I hope no one was disturbed by my fixation with, and unlicensed documentation of, their feet. I don't think they noticed; their attention was on each other, the sunset, and taking endless photos of both.
And of course, expecting people to worry about their babies climbing steep boulders or walking near the edges of unfenced cliffs is a misapplication of my foreign cultural construct of safety.
The same way that my unsafe feeling walking past a backhoe in full swing in the middle of the college path, with no safety cones, roped off area, nothing--just a stream of people dodging the backhoe as it whipped around from one side of the path to the other--was a fear based on foreign cultural expectations of construction sites. But I digress.
As the sun neared the horizon, the temperature dropped quickly, and I was glad of the chance to ride the cable car down the mountain. People in the long waiting line were jovial and friendly...at one point I found a curious grandmother pressing her chin into my shoulder so she could watch me text message in English. "I can't understand a thing," she told me (or that's what I think she said. I couldn't understand a thing, either.)
*Lest I misrepresent the truth for the sake of sensationalism (God forbid!) let me add a caveat: Korea is full of serious hikers, especially day hikers, who are typically seen wearing all of the appropriate gear, and often carrying commercial walking sticks to boot. The ones in high heels were a different crew from the ones climbing up the trail with me; the former were there (presumably) for the restaurant, cable car ride and view, and the latter for hiking.
2 comments:
You look most triumphant on the top of Cable Car Hill! Your adventures pack in a lot -- culture, nature, footwear, the whole works.
Be careful. We'd hate to lose you in a tragic backhoe incident.
::laughing:: A & I just went to the Lake District for a week, and did some hiking whilst there. And, ironically, although I was wearing Columbia Sportswear trousers, a wicking shirt, a black fleece and rugged walking boots, I felt that I wasn't a "real hiker", as scores of that particular breed strolled past me in Goretex, with commercial walking sticks AND with their OS maps in waterproof bags around their necks. ::sigh:: And here I thought four and a bit years of life in Oregon would make me an acceptable hiker anywhere in the world.
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