Shamanist Shrine

I was ... indisposed the day before the mountain hike and hadn't completely bounced back. I almost decided to take the Kyongju tour instead, but I'd been looking forward to the climb for months. Somewhere above this shrine, maybe 2/3 of the way to the top, I ran out of gas. Not wanting to push myself to the point of missing any later fun, I took possession of a large boulder and sat down to cool off and enjoy the fresh air.

About the time I decided I was ready to continue the climb, two women walked down the path. As they passed, I greeted them with "Anyonghasio". They stopped to talk with me for quite a while. They had more English than I had Korean, but not very much. (I can say "Hello", "Thank you", "Do you have beer", and "Goodbye", but not much else.) We chatted as well as we could, I showed them the pictures of Stanton and Emma in my wallet, we exchanged business cards. Then one pulled two small yellow melons, a knife, and a plate from her pack and peeled and sliced the melons. We had a fine little picnic somewhere along the trail, in the green of the forest, to the sound of a rushing mountain stream.

I didn't miss so much after all.