Duck, Mt. Jangbok, and Weddings

              Last Thursday night before the East Hartford crew went back to America, Samsung had another team dinner. Samsung met us in Sangnam, downtown Changwon, at a popular restaurant pronounced yay-coh-toe-son. It was another Korean BBQ joint but more upscale than any BBQ place I’d been to yet. The main courses included duck, pork, sausage, duck hamburger patties, and some kind of cheese-less pizza. You pick the pieces of meat off the grill, dip them in a secret soy sauce, put them on a slice of pickled cabbage or radish, and shove the whole thing in your mouth. It was all very delicious and it was the most full I have been in Korea to date. After a few hours of dinner, beer, and soju, the Samsung manager suggested we continue our night elsewhere. Exhausted from the work week half us ended our night at the restaurant and the rest continued on to a karaoke bar. Although it was an early night for me it was still a great experience to eat with all my coworkers at such a unique restaurant.

"Gumbae" (Cheers in Korean)

A plate of duck and pork

One of the three grills

Delicious

            Around 9am on Saturday morning I set off with Ed to hike a local mountain called Mt. Jangbok. There are many mountains in Korea but Samsung employees recommended this nearby mountain for its views of the ocean. The 582m tall mountain is sandwiched between Changwon and Jinhae. Jinhae is about the size of Changwon and resides along the South Sea. After stopping several times and asking for directions a Korean couple pointed up the road and said we were only 4km away. After parking there were no noticeable hiking maps but it was clear where the tallest peak was and where the trail started.

I haven’t hiked too much recently in America aside from the dusty Griffith Park trails so it was fun to be surrounded by trees, grass, and tall plants. The hike was a pretty challenging incline that really got my heart rate pumping at times. The trails were mostly larger, loose rocks so planning your next step was often challenging. There must have been about 30 Koreans on the trail and they all had some serious hiking gear compared to my plaid shorts and cotton t-shirt. Almost everyone wore long pants, long-sleeved shirts, serious hiking boots, and about 50% of people had on big hats, face masks, and gloves. I am still unsure if they were so well covered to avoid the sun, to avoid poisonous plants, or just to get into the spirit of hiking.

            About an hour after departure I was gulping my hotel water bottle atop a rock at Deokjubong Samgeori peak. From the starting point my current location looked like the top but it wasn’t. Mt. Jangbok summit was lost in the clouds and hidden behind the peak I was at. The weather during the hike was great because there was a constant ocean breeze coming from Jinhae. Unfortunately the clouds never went away so there was little motivation to hike further into the blurry skyline. On the hike back to the car the Korean couple who we originally asked for directions caught up with us on the trail and we started talking. They were doing a much longer hike that included walking down a wooden path along the road back to their car about 4km away. Once we started talking they asked us to drive them back to their car so they didn’t have to hike down any further.

At the bottom of the mountain I noticed a trail map that was initially missed because we started up on a different trail.  Round trip the hike was about four of five kilometers. The two Koreans bought us drinks from a street vendor and we snapped a few photos together before packing into the car and heading home.


The mountain according to the Changwon City website

Enjoying nature

An abundance of loose rocks

A very healthy forest

The trail map that was found after the hike



Jinhae and the ocean

   

The eastern half of Changwon (Samsung Techwin is on the far right across from the apartment complex)



Another angle of Jinhae



Deokjubong Samgeori (the peak we made it to)



Enjoying our Korean juices with the mountain behind us



Nam-Young, Jeong (정남영) and his wife Jeong-Hae, Lee (이혜정).



You can barely see the starting point (the tiny road a little left of center)



The Summit of Mt. Jangbok



            Back at the hotel I quickly showered to try and take a nap but a lot of commotion was coming from outside my window at the pool area. After opening the dojo style windows it was a no-brainer that there was a wedding ceremony taking place. The ceremony was fairly short and most of the time was spent taking photos at the altar. There was no reception at the pool deck only an exchange of vows, which seemed odd because there were so many people there. Perhaps the party continued elsewhere. As the photographer was getting pictures of the family in front of the altar I noticed another large group of Koreans standing outside the wedding area and soon realized there was another wedding ceremony to take place about 20 minutes after this one. Each ceremony took under an hour and had the exact same setup. The flowers were the same, the tablecloths were the same, and no food or beverages were provided. The weirdest thing about both weddings is that both sets of parents got a front row seat in special chairs about 10 feet away from the bride and groom. They had their own tables and were clearly separated from the other witnesses. The ceremonies were cool to watch and for the most part were quite similar to an American wedding. Hopefully both weddings had fun celebrations at another venue or inside the hotel.

The first wedding



The second wedding was practically identical to this



Those large flower displays were only present at the first wedding