Jirisan And It's Beauty

Okay... so we got back from Jirisan ("Jiri Mountain") yesterday... really beautiful sight. I met this Korean guy at the gym a few weeks ago... we invited him to the bar a few weeks ago to meet Dawna and I... as well as our other foreigner friends we work with. At the bar, he invited us to come to his village and check out Jirisan. Jirisan so happens to be the second tallest mountain in Korea, peaking at 1km above sea level. Anyway... we had a real cool Korean cultural experience... probably our realest experience at Korean life. We got to spend time with this guy and his family in his tiny village (population of 100), sleep in his Korean farm home, eat traditional Korean breakfast, lunch and dinner... all the meals are some variation that include mostly rice, kimchi (which is fermented cabbage with chili paste on top... served with every Korean meal) and other side dishes like soup, etc. Before we left to come back to our city of Masan, we checked out Jirisan National Park and saw some beautiful scenery and some Korean temples. Anyway... enough text. Here's the pictures/videos:


We spent a good chunk of the day on Saturday helping the farm family pick Persimmons. They make a living by selling these fruit as they are... or drying them and then selling them. They also sell cows.


Dawna helping out...


Me taking a stab at it...


Loading up one of many baskets...


The best persimmon-picking tutorial in the world...


Dawna and a new friend... Tae-Yong


Dawna and I attempting our best Korean camera pose...


SAY CHEESE/KIMCHI!!!!


The persimmon tree...


Watching the food getting prepared on the mountain...


Having a traditional Korean lunch on the mountain...


The view from the mountain...


Another view...


The sun setting...


A persimmon tree in front of the falling sun...


A truck full of persimmons...


How they dry these fruits off...


Walking through the tiny farm village on to the way to the farmhouse...


It's dinner time... how about some samgyapsol... or better known as... Korean BBQ!


Definately one of the meals I'll miss when I move back to Canada...


After setting off some fireworks, it's back to the farmhouse for some dessert. What's on tap? Assorted potato chips and dried/smoked squid...


So at night the guys slept in one room and the girls slept in the other room. The Korean heating system in a house/apartment works by having the floor heat up... yea... the floors are heated. It's awesome. Except when you sleep on it and it gets super hot. It also sucks when you're in the first few phases of getting a cold and someone is snoring loudly in the room. I got up at 3:30am and had to record this guy snoring so you can all believe it...


The plaque-type thing in Jirisan National Park...


One of the (many) temples in Jirisan National Park.


A look outside the Temple Square


The beauty of fall shows itself in November here...


A look inside a Korean temple...


A video of the inside of the Korean temple...


Some of the etchings outside the temple wall...


It's got Sears Photo written all over it...


A nice view of the stream...


The tree's changing colour...


Dawna enjoying it all...


Another nice shot of the water...


Some of the reddest leaves I've ever seen...


Well there you have it. What a beautiful place... Dawna and I are definately grateful for the experience we had.

- Gilad