I knew there would be no going back to sleep so I concentrated on the scenery to keep my stomach down where it was supposed to be. The early mist and fog had lifted, but it was still cold as the bus windows were still quite fogged over. But through the window fog, I could see the sunlight shine onto slightly terraced rice patties. It was as if I was being shown a slide show of scenery, the change of scenes marked by a rocky hillside along the road. Rice patties, dams and reservoirs, trees, old headstones marking graves, and old houses flashed before me on my left. On my right, the river stayed lazy and constant, its width and many islands reminded me of the Platte River, except the vegetation was much greener.
The bus started swerving more and more as we climbed the mountain pass. It would be like going up the Lochsa in a Greyhound. The pine-covered mountains were on either side of the road and large yellow signs marked narrow turns that the bus barreled through (sometimes skidded through). Once in a while the mountain side would break and you could see the river on your right. As we started to go down hill through these turns I thought for sure I'd lose that coffee. However, just about then the valley opened up to apple orchards, more rice patties, and chili fields. I was dumbstruck by the apple trees.
These were tiny little trees! About eight feet tall, the trunk sizes may have been as big around as my arm, sometimes less. Some of these trees were held upright with stakes, sometimes they stood on their own. The leaves were sparse compared to the apple orchards back home, and they were a dry sage green color. What struck me was the amount and size of the apples that grew on these tiny trees. Think the size of giant Fuji apples at the store and put 20-40 apples on those tiny little trees. I don't know whether the apples grow naturally on the trees like that or the farmers do something to ensure that the nutrients go to the apples and not so much the tree.
Finally after 4 hours and 15 minutes total travel time, the bus reached Cheongsong. Population unknown, but this village is quite small. It is cut in half by the river. There are a couple of high-rise apartment buildings across the river and in the main center of Cheongsong and the rest of the buildings are two to three story buildings with the businesses in the bottom front of the store and apartments behind and above. I would guess that the population of the Cheongsong and surrounding farm area is probably a little more than Grangeville (3226), but it is hard to tell as there are so many family members living in one home.
This town is very agriculturally based. Corn and squash grow at the bus station, and in various parts around town. Despite the small town there are many hair salons, restaurants, and taxis. There is a boys' school and a girls' school. In fact, this town still clings to pretty old fashion ideas and you must great the elderly as you pass by them. Public swimming is a no-no I guess, and a married South African couple told me that they got in trouble for holding hands in public.
M and I met up with this couple, and four other foreigners all living in rural area. We decided to hike about three km to a mineral spring and restaurant famous for chicken (I didn't know it at the time). We reached this famous chicken area and had to decide what to do about me. Luckily a nice man came out with his cute little baby and told us that he had duck for me. So we went in and had chicken and duck (I of course didn't touch the chicken). This meal was amazing, especially after a 3 km walk! The man then told us that there were waterfalls six km away. We thought, eh why not. We made it maybe one km and turned back. We wound back to Cheongsong through chili and soybean fields and apple orchards. Then we lounged at a public monument near the river, completely exhausted by our six km walk. It was an early night for us all.
Sunday we woke up with ever intention of hiking up the mountain, but by the time we actually got up and around and found a coffee shop and me breakfast it was too late to go up the mountain. Instead we walked on the mini dam, and along the river. We stopped at an outdoor gym and played around for a bit before hitting the trail again. We walked in between beautiful rice patties (never have I been so close before) and by a horrible cow farm (cows shoved into tiny barns) and a horrible dog farm (I couldn't look at it, but I could hear the barking and yelping). Apparently they raise those dogs for food and M told me how they kill the dogs, I nearly cried. We sped through that part of the walk and back onto the river. It was so pretty along the river! Cranes, various other birds, praying mantis, dragonflies, butterflies, bees, grasshoppers, ants, flowers, and giant spiders that could compete with tranatulas in size greeted us along our path.
Again exhausted, we crashed at M's place. I was feeling quite proud of myself that I had made it this whole time with the only accident befalling me was stubbing my toe on an overly large reflector in the road. But then the alarm clock that M was absent mindingly tossing slipped through his fingers and landed right below my eye. Awesome. Of course I was so shocked and I cried "You clocked me!" We burst out laughing and started a whole tangent on how "time slipped through your fingers" and "time slapped me in the face." M asked how I was going to explain a black eye to my teacher, and I replied, "I was trying to catch up on time" I thought I was pretty clever and they just kept a coming, probably annoyingly so. Luckily I don't have a black eye, just a small bruise under the eye, so I didn't have to explain anything, yet.
But all in all a good weekend, on the whole my body survived the weekend. I am quite tired, after getting into Seoul around 10 PM and home around 10:40, but loved the fresh air and seeing the stars. Meeting some new awesome people and hanging out with my friend in his place for a change. Next two weekends in the mask festival in Andong, sounds like a good time! But in the mean time, I must go teach 3rd graders... oy.
