Pohang: Waterfalls and Fall Foliage

Pohang is a city on the eastern coast of Korea. It's only a little over an hour away from Daegu, so it's really easy to get to. I've heard a lot about the nice beaches in Pohang, the fireworks festival they have their in the summer, and the hand sculpture built on one of the beaches. Instead of seeing any of those parts of Pohang though, we went with Maria, Matthew, Sian, and Thomas to do a little bit of hiking to see some beautiful waterfalls and fall foliage. Matthew and Maria did this trip last year with another friend, and they liked it so much that they wanted to go again.

We left on Friday night right after school from two different bus terminals in Daegu. Sian and Thomas met Gianni and I at the bus stop near where the 4 of us live, and Matthew and Maria went from one closer to their house. We met up in Pohang at around the same time. We were all a bit worried about making sure we caught the city bus from Pohang Bus Terminal to Bogyeongsa Temple, which is the start of the hiking trails. Our buses arrived in Pohang really close to when the city bus was supposed to be stopping for the night. We ended up catching the last city bus, which is good because the taxi would have been really expensive. The city bus took a little over an hour to get us to the temple area. My coteacher, Sun Mi, was nice enough to book a Korean-style hotel for us, and it was right next to the temple. The hotel was really nice and clean, and our room was really big. Korean-style hotels are ondol (heating in the floor) rooms where you sleep on the floor on mats. Unfortunately, soon after we arrived at the hotel I realized I didn't have my phone. We tore apart the room looking for it, but it wasn't there. I went to the front desk, and the ladies who worked there tried as best they could to help. As we had taken the last bus of the night, the city bus office was now closed, so they told me to come meet them at the front desk at 6:50 the next morning and go meet the first bus of the day to talk to the bus driver and search the bus. I was pretty bummed, but I thought there was a chance of getting it back since we were on the last bus, and by the time we got off the bus, we were the only passengers on the bus. Also, Koreans tend to be very honest and don't steal as much as people at home. I've had several friends recover lost phones that were turned in to the bus lost and found. Anyway, I was a little bummed but I couldn't do anything about it that night. We spent a few hours before bed learning a fun card game called Shanghai Rummy and watching part of A Knight's Tale (my favorite movie, which Maria brought to Pohang just for me!). Maria and Matthew love playing card and board games, so they always have something new to teach us.

The next morning, I got up early to go look for my phone. The younger woman who works at the hotel, Hye Jin, walked me down to the bus stop, which is about 10 minutes walk away from the hotel. We chatted as we went, in broken English and broken Korean. She was very sweet, and I kept thanking her for bringing me and apologizing for making her wake up early. We had good timing because the bus was just pulling in when we arrived at the stop. Hye Jin talked to the bus driver and explained the situation, and he told us to take a look on the bus. I looked around near the seat I was sitting on the night before and under the seat in front of me, but I didn't see it. Hye Jin told me to call it, and I did. I heard my phone vibrate, and I was thrilled! I found my phone between the seat and the window, right on the window sill! It was amazing. I'm so happy I got it back. My phone had 1% battery left when I found it. If it had died, I wouldn't have heard it vibrating. Lucky lucky me! I went back to the room for a bit to sleep. We woke up and went in search of breakfast. Gianni, Matthew, and I opted for the free Korean breakfast provided at the restaurant on site. We got two free breakfast tickets, and Gianni paid for his. The food was a Korean stew and rice. It was pretty tasty. Sian, Thomas, and Maria had a bit of a difficult time with breakfast. There aren't really any breakfast places in that area, so I think they ended up with convenience store snacks instead. After breakfast, we cleaned up the room and packed up. We checked out and left our larger bags behind the front desk. At about 10:30am, we were totally ready for our hike. The hotel is very conveniently located right next to the temple, where the hiking trails begin. You pay about $3 to get into the temple and access the trail.

We spent about 4 hours on the hiking trails, taking our time to check out the foliage and the various waterfalls. It is a beautiful and relatively easy hike through the forest and mountains. There were a ton of people hiking with us, so it was kind of hard to stop for pictures unless you pulled off the trail for a minute. The river water was beautiful and super clear, and there were so many different kinds of trees in the forest, so we got to see the full spectrum of foliage colors. Since there was rain the previous day in Pohang, the waterfalls were really full. Some of the falls were smaller and more like rapids, but other ones were quite big. At one point, there was a bridge to cross over that took you to a really nice big waterfall. People were crowding around trying to get pictures, and we got some pretty nice pictures. My favorite picture that someone took for us includes a group of Koreans standing near the waterfall taking a selfie with a selfie stick. Such a Korean thing to do! It was really funny. There were a lot of people picnicking on the rocks in that area, but we decided to walk up some steep stairs and look at the view from a cliff face that Maria and Matthew went to last year. You actually have to rock climb for a bit to get to the top of the cliff, but once we were up there, we were totally alone. No one else came up, and we decided to eat our lunch there, looking at the picturesque view of the valley, mountains, and foliage. That point was where Matthew and Maria stopped last year, but we decided to keep going a bit further to see one other waterfall. We successfully crossed over the river without falling in and did a bit more rock climbing to get there. It was really fun. This waterfall was really beautiful and had less people around it because most people head back where Maria and Matthew did last year. I took some pictures from the bottom of the waterfall as well as from the top. There was a staircase leading to the top, and when you got closer to a rock wall at the top of the waterfall, the noise of the falls seemed to be muted a bit. The opening between the rocks at the top of the falls wasn't really that big, and you could climb around and take pictures from up there. It was very peaceful. The waterfall itself was also cool because there was a kind of circular indent in the rocks behind it, making it look almost like a little cave. It would be cool to swim by the base of the falls in good weather. After spending a bit of time at this waterfall, we decided to turn around and get back to the hotel. We were worried about making sure we got the city bus back to the bus terminal and also got a bus back to Daegu.

Notice the selfie happening behind us! hahaha

Back at the hotel, we collected our stuff from the front desk. As part of the hotel room, we got 4 free tickets to use the hotel's sauna. A Korean sauna might have one traditional sauna room, but it also has various hot tubs of different temperatures and a place to thoroughly scrub and clean yourself. Also, they are divided by gender because you are completely naked walking around in this big room filled with hot tubs. We all decided that we smelled gross from the hike (the weather wasn't that hot, but the hike made us all sweaty anyway), so we wanted to get cleaned off before heading back on the bus. The girls went in the girls room, and the boys in the boys room, and we all spent an hour in the hot tubs and showered. The ladies in the sauna were very interested in talking to Sian, Maria, and I, which was pretty funny. We did the best we could with our limited Korean skills. One of the hot tubs was a luke warm green tea hot tub, so we went in there for a bit. It felt so nice to take a good shower. I really didn't want to smell up the bus on the way home. We met the boys when we were done and started walking back to the city bus stop. On the way, we stopped for hobak jeon (pumpkin pancake) in the tourist village. Hobak jeon is my favorite kind of jeon in Korea. It is sweet and perfect for eating in the fall.

We got to the bus stop a bit before the bus came, and there were a lot of old women waiting for the bus. When we first got to the stop, there wasn't a line, and we were standing up waiting. Apparently, a line formed at some point, and we didn't notice. One of the older women told us to get to the back of the line, so we ended up behind about 40 people! Even though we had to stand for a good portion of the hour-long drive, we did get a seat eventually. We got back to the terminal and bought bus tickets to our respective bus terminals in Daegu. Before leaving, we had time to get some dinner at the food court in the Home Plus next to the terminal. This is a massive Home Plus with a movie theater and shopping mall inside, so we had to book it down all the stairs and escalators to catch our 7pm buses back to Daegu. Sian and I played a few games of our favorite board game, Ticket to Ride, on the app on my phone on the way back.

Today is Sunday, and I plan to just do a few errands and get some chores done. It will be a relaxing day. That was the only trip we had planned for this month because we really need to start saving up for China. After being gone every weekend in October, I really need some relaxation time. I think for the last trip for a little while, Pohang was excellent! The weather, mountains, waterfalls, and foliage were all stunning, and it was great to hang out with our amazing friends. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.