May 11th. Fork in the road

 As Yogi Beara would say “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”  And today would describe that for Meghan and I. Mary Ann was not feeling well and so Meghan and I headed to my favorite temple in all of Korea. Tried to take the subway but could not find the station we needed out in Haeundae where we are staying. And of course the wind out here decided to blow like the Mistral in France. 

But we made it to the first part of the journey. Well sort of. My recollection was that the lower station of the cable car we needed to take to go to the South Fortress Gate was at the bottom of the park on flat ground. Not so. But it was not too bad and we got our tickets and were on our way. 

Before we even got started, I saw an old time ajumonie selling her wares  

Going up

And up

We get to the top, and I could have sworn the South Gate was right there, but instead we had to follow the signs towards it. After that it would be a short level hike around the mountain to SokBulSa as it is called now. Well maybe the South Gate was just a little bit further up the mountain than I remembered. But Meghan is a trooper. 

After a kilometer or so we do reach the South Gate and a lively discussion begins on whether to continue or go back down via the cable car. Promises, crying on my part convince Meghan to stay the course and continue. 

So we follow the signs for SokBulSa and they are all pointing down when I remembered it being level with the South Gate. Oh well. The fog of time. 

Why are we headed down?

Did I mention that at one spot Meghan says to me “Be careful here it is slippery here”, slips and her phone goes in the creek on the edge of the trail. Before I can think she says “I am going in to get it” and she does. Luckily her phone was not in the water that long and seems to be OK after drying with my handkerchief and her getting water out of the connector. 

   We trudge on and on and down through beautiful mountianside and still no SokBul Sa though the signs promise .5 kilometers at one time and further on .8 kilometers. 

We are getting tired and wondering if this could be correct when we run into these 3 guys. So we better keep going. 

We plod on till the trail empties out on a paved road that leads to SokBulSa saying just 1.3 kilometers. More lies?  There are no photos of it because I was concentrating on making it up one step at a time and Meghan made sure I rested and stayed hydrated. It took a long time and even some cars could not make it up. Back and forth it went.  

  

 Busan down below. 

SolBulSa up above. It’s bell tower. 

I was tired but happy to see it one more time. 

We fill up our water bottles, say good bye to our brief friend from Sidney Australia and start down. I gave her a Topsail Island key chain for taking our picture. And on the way down we met someone who was teaching English in Busan from Charlotte, North Carolina and another from Wisconsin. Small world.  

As we walked down we kept hoping for a taxi but none came so we stopped at the first place offering something to drink. 

Nothing fancy, but we were hungry and thirsty. Turned out to be one of the best meals I have had along the road in Korea. For Meghan her best. 

So Meghan finds us a taxi and get us home.  A full day. And some wound think this is the end of the story. 

But with a wife sick, and Meghan having jumped in a stream, I am off to the laundromat. Two loads of wash and dry and I am headed home. 

But I do get to see the Haeundae boardwalk on the way home. 

Good Night