Sorak Mountain.

South Korea boasts a population of 50 million packed into an are slightly larger than Indiana. Apparently the entire population had the same idea as myself and a couple of friends for Buddha's birthday weekend. Aside from the bus ride that basically was the equivalent of driving from Eureka to Redding, or Madison to Chicago, or from Honolulu to Haleiwa, and having it take six hours, the trip was amazing.

We arrived late Saturday night and decided to go out and have some fun after being cooped up in that wretched bus. When in a foreign country it's always a good idea to ask your local taxi driver to take you to the girls, liquor, and fun. Or maybe not. Basically after the taxi driver took us to the lamest clubs I have ever witnessed and sat outside hoping to get a cut of the club selling us a ridiculously overpriced bottle of liquor we escaped to a karaoke bar where we were treated to "gin and tonics." We ended up singing "Help" in front of some drunk Koreans who loved us and after a round of high-fives and some Jim Beam I woke up more than ready to "hike the shit out of this damned mountain."

Giant Buddha at the base of the mountain.

It was about a six hour hike to the top of the trail that we chose. A few bottles of Soju and we were ready to roll. The hike was beautiful, the mountainside dotted with Buddhist temples and tent restaurants and shops that made me picture the effort that it took to lug it all up there.

A temple on the mountain. The rock above is the one that we eventually reached.
There were etchings in the rocks all the way to the top.
Yeahyer.
The top, Sokcho below and The Sea of Japan in the distance.
Unreal.