Over the past few years I've been convincing myself that I don't really like camping. I mean, what's the point in sleeping in a tent on a yoga mat, when you have a perfectly decent house and bed at home. I think this opinion was informed by festival experiences, where you go to bed damp, shivering and blind drunk, and wake up three hours later feeling like death, having sweated all 18 pints of cloudy cider you put away back out into your kecks. Cue a few days of smelling awful, feeling awful and risking trench-foot / polio.
It's been a few years since I went camping just for the sake of it, rather than for the sake of seeing some bands I wouldn't really remember. However, recently I started to feel strange pangs of desire to head out into the woods and get back to nature. Well, not really, as what really inspired me was the food here. Korean barbecue, unsurprisingly, translates very well to the outdoor environment. Be a proper Korean and grab yourself a portable gas stove (complete with handy carrying case), a couple of pounds of pork, a tub of soy bean paste, some garlic and a handful of lettuce leaves and you're good to go. That's what we did, and here's how it turned out:
This was our chosen spot. Stacy and I had managed to acquire ourselves what turned out to be kids' tents (hers is the pink one, in case you were wondering), lending our campsite an air of healthy familial fun. That's not really how it turned out, unless you spent your childhood playing an amalgamation of at least three drinking games with your parents and sinking corn wine at an alarming rate, but there you go.
Avian visitor. Not easily scared off either. I guess he was in the market for a tasty pork rind.
Odaesan stream. Ain't nature wonderful?
And again.
We took a stroll up to Sangwonsa, and stopped at the tea rooms. Here's an omi tea, a pumpkin soup and two tree teas, not to be confused with tea tree, which was what I ladled onto my face for most of my pimple pocked youth.
Tea room interior.
Some of the art at temples here is really spectacular. Far more so than the buildings themselves in my opinion. This piece in particular I really like. I've not seen the musicians motif anywhere else around, and the fact that this is painted on the ceiling makes it doubly impressive, though harsh on the neck.
We were up at Sangwonsa just as the sun began to go down. Once it dipped behind the mountain the pines took on a slightly surreal blueish tinge, and everything felt a bit strange for a moment. My camera didn't do a very good job of capturing it sadly.
View out from Sangwonsa over the park. You have to hand it to the Buddhists, they know how to pick a spot. Also, every temple I've been too has satellite TV. Maybe this is my new religion. I could go hiking during the day, and watch live premiership football at nights. Throw in a bit of meditation (read: sleeping) and the odd mountain vegetable bibimbap and I'd be a happy man.
This was us discovering a fun new game of hide the coin in the big rock pile. Not as easy as Stacy is making it look above. In order to get the coing properly wedged in, it's necessary to actually tilt the rock pile (which is chuffing heavy by the way) and then let it drop back down on your coin. All of this at the risk of causing "a scene" in a haven of peace and reflection.
Temple bells are awesome. If you're into drone then they're pretty much a must. Boris have nothing on a monk bashing the crap out of one of these.
And here we are, living off the land, killing what we eat, unplugging from the grid. OK, we bought everything from a supermarket, but hey ho. This was absolutely delicious. Big pieces of succulent, fatty pork, soy bean paste and garlic wrapped up in a lettuce leaf. It's probably fair to say that none of us smelt too fresh by the end of the night, but this was one of my all time favourite meals. So good, in fact, that I photographed it twice.
"I look nothing like a crack-head." Her words, not mine.
Morning: If I was more awake I'd be worried that my new burner and the frying pan have changed positions overnight.
More morning: I'll leave you guys to make your own caption here.
Minor correction, the pink tent was yours.
ReplyDelete