Yesterday I went with Curt to go on a small hike up a mountain (well, really just a hill). His daughter came along, who's just entering 4th grade. The mountain we chose is called 심학산 [simhaksan]. It has a view of North Korea, like many mountains around here – it was hazy and not very distinct but I'm always very aware of it – I guess it's just my geographical interest kicking in.
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After the mountain we went to a brand new giant mall and had dinner and bought his little one-year-old a Pororo-branded toy. It was fun. Here are some pictures. I didn't get a picture of the boy with the toy. I should have.
This is near the top of the mountain.
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Curt and I.
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A view southeast, toward Ilsan. Somewhere near the center of that vast cluster of buildings is my apartment and workplace.
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Here I am looking dazed with the community known as Geumchon hidden directly behind me. Geumchon is important because it's where I lived in 1991 when I was in Korea, as a soldier in the US Army.
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And here's the striking view looking North – I've added some useful labels to this picture – you can click the picture to enlarge it.
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Anywhere in Northern Gyeonggi Province, if you go hiking on the hills and mountains, you will run across military structures – fox-holes, fortified hill-tops, bunkers and concrete tank traps and hidden installations. Here's a covered "tank-parking-space" amid the trees on the side of the mountain.
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Curt's daughter (and my sometime student at Karma, too), looking focused and tired on her way down the mountain. She was angry because Curt had promised a snack at the top of the mountain and he'd forgotten, and she failed to complain about it. We had a snack when we got back down to the bottom.
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Here's a turtle-based monument seen along the trail.
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At the mall.
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Lurking in the dusky haze beyond the freeway interchange, there lies the Han River Estuary and the point of North Korea. I wonder what the Northerners think, watching this massive monument to blatant brand-name consumerism through their high-powered binoculars.
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