Not So Easy Getting Away From It All - Naejangsan Part 1

Set off from Gwangju for Naejangsan around mid-day. BIG mistake. Found myself stuck in a traffic jam. What would’ve been a simple 1½ hour bus ride turned out to be an extra hour long crawl up to this provincial town which didn’t look unlike Seoul in terms of population, noise and traffic. Whoever told me that it would be less crowded on weekdays was mistaken. Or maybe, on second thought, that person was still right as the weekend jams would’ve been twice as long. ( Yes, they were.)

Still, the one kilometer leading up to the entrance of Naejangsan National Park is a pretty place to get stuck in a long queue of buses and cars all inching towards the parking area if one’s timing is right. I was lucky to be able to admire the bright scarlets of the dampong ( maple leaves) at leisure as the trees flanked the road leading up to the park entrance. Click here for the 2009 autumn foliage schedule.

   It's much quieter in the tourist village in other seasons.

 The noise and crowds at the village centre were quite overwhelming. It wasn’t just the excited chatter from local tourist groups but the loud music as well blaring from loudspeakers of the various eateries and vying for their attention. There were more restaurants ( sikdangs) and shops than expected in this small tourist village. Didn’t think I’d get any sleep if I spent the night amid the cacophony so I retreated towards what looked like a cluster of minbaks away from the centre.

Chose the “Happy Days” minbak, largely on account of its eye-catching orange facade and its relative proximity to the park entrance and bus stop. Given a really tiny room with no window and a temperamental TV but at least it was in the privileged position within the house and I could use the family bathroom. My friendly hosts, Mr Lee and his wife invited me into their kitchen which also looked like the main operations centre as a desktop sat in one corner of the crowded area. The missus kindly offered me coffee and slices of juicy pears and proudly showed me their webpage with photos sent by previous guests. Husband and son are fencers but a pity I didn’t get a chance to see them in action.

For this place I had to fork out 30,000 won per night. Realized soon enough that everything was expensive in Naejangsan. Elsewhere in the country, meals like sanchae bibimbap could cost between 4000 and 5000 won but here, every restaurant seemed to be charging no less than 7000 won for ordinary meals. Small wonder then that I became a frequent patron of the small Family Mart outlet here.

From Travel Journal dated 2 November 2005.

source:

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=817924

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/399516/