Why I Love This Mountain | Best Hiking Spots in Seoul!

Why I Love This Mountain | Best Hiking Spots in Seoul!

[Music] Hey guys, what’s going on? This is Fronaw Mark. Welcome back to the channel. I am here in Wani Park or in Korean, Wanmi Kongwan. And I’ve been wanting to come to this park for the last 10 years. I actually never knew how to get here, but I asked one of my students and he told me the name or he told me the location and I was like, “Yo, it’s just super close.” decided to come here today and just walk around and enjoy the beautiful weather. The thing I really love about this park and as I said this is my first time is just that it has a lot of open space and the open space is full of green and spring flowers. So in Korea when spring comes a lot of people are going outside and they’re starting to hike and bike and things like that. Today the open area in the park is a little empty because it’s Friday afternoon. I’m going to take advantage of an empty park, mountain park, and do some hiking. And I want to know what that tree is. So, if anyone in the comment section can tell me what that tree is, what’s the name of that tree, please let me know because it looks like a really cool tree that I saw in Africa when I went last time. Just can’t think of it. What is that tree? I think there’s like an app or something, right, to find out the names of trees and stuff. So, what’s cool about this park, just like all Korean parks, is that there is an area for children to play. And actually over here in this area over over there, there is a really big children’s park area. It’s like separate for children like behind these trees and this building. Came in here. I was trying to decide like which way do I go up? I thought I could go to the left or to the right. But looks like going to the right up here behind me. This is the actual trail to go up the mountain right here. And behind me there’s like some kind of I don’t know if you guys can see it, but there’s some kind of like really cool monument up there with like a lot of people reaching for the heavens. So, let’s go take a look at that that monument first. Maybe this area is like a a memorial to something cuz there’s like a date right there 625 and Chamchan Mong Chai. Not exactly sure what this monument is for, but maybe, not maybe, definitely has something to do with Korean history. Koreans watching this video, let me know what is the significance of this monument here. Of course, a park would not be a park without the innumerable amount of stairs that I have to climb. Oh boy, here we go. I haven’t even gotten to the top of the mountain. This is just a really nice looking monument area, but already the view is incredible. This is a city called Bhuchan in Korea. It’s really close to Soul. This city is between Inchan and Soul. And you can see all of the apartment skyrises and buildings there. I don’t know what this is. I don’t know what this monument symbolizes, but it just looks really artistic. Yeah, it’s artistic. That’s all I can say. I’m not like a really artsy kind of person. these people who are kind of reaching for up up. There’s a man at the very top. Are there two men? Not entirely sure. There’s a woman on the side and it says Yanjung top. Don’t know what that means. Someone in the comment section can let me know what this means. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be speaking here or not. I love this area. It’s very open and there are no people here. And I wonder if there are no people here because the stairs to come up can be very taxing on the legs. And actually, I don’t even think I need to go all the way to the top of the mountain even though I am. It’s a very small mountain. is not so big. I came here just to get away from the roar and the hustle and bustle of the city. I’ve already achieved the goal of coming away from the city. But the secondary goal, I think, was just to hear some sounds of nature, like to have kind of a reset cuz sometimes, man, living in Seoul, it’s a wonderful city, but there’s just there’s too much stuff going on and you hear a lot of like background noise, you know, people arguing or someone yelling or dancing or singing or something like that. just getting away from that and coming back to nature, taking off my shoes, which I will eventually do later, and just, you know, re retaching, reattaching myself to nature. This is what coming to the mountain park is all [Music] about. This area here is a really nice spot for a picnic, just to come up here and to be with whoever you’re having a picnic with. I would love to come back here one day and just uh to chill with my [Music] friends. There are a lot of people here sitting and already having picnics. Maybe you can see behind over there. And then there’s a person over there like sleeping. This is a worker. I’m not even sure if this is a worker or not. But sometimes here in Korea, like in the parks when you come, there will be regular like citizens just coming and spending time taking care of the foliage, grooming the area to make it look or not make it, but to keep the aesthetically pleasing appearance. And now I’m going to go into the wild. This is the mountain path, I think. I think I come here to get up the mountain. Not entirely sure. I’m going to go up this area. Hopefully, I can get to the actual mountain. And the shadows here are Wow, that’s so cool. Over there, they’ve got some um mountain water that’s coming down. So, usually you can drink some of this mountain water. It’s really fresh. Okay, there’s no moon or anything. Hm. So, I wonder how this is going to work. What should I do? Maybe I can just put my I don’t know. I don’t know how to drink this, so maybe I better not touch it. Wow. Already I’m feeling great because this area just smells really good. There’s some kind of sweet honey smell. I can’t pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from, but smells really sweet. And like drinking that water, I’m sure next time I’ll bring a cup, but drinking that water and just smelling the sweet smell of this this forested area, you know, it puts a smile on my face. Now I haven’t even had a drink of the water. I can imagine how it would feel if I could drink the water. And I can hear the birds chirping. It’s very calming. It just it puts you puts me at ease. Just feel really relaxed being here. I haven’t even gone to the mountain yet. Oh, Korea. Oh, Korea. Korea is wonderful about its trails. to go to the mountains or to go up high. The steps are always clean. There’s always some kind of railing that people can hang on to. There’s always like exercise equipment. This exercise equipment looks a little old, but down at the front of the the park, there’s really nice, clean exercise equipment. So, I think from here, we’re going to go up these stairs and head to the top of Wisan. I think this is the area. I’m not entirely sure, but let’s just try. A lot of you have known Whoa, almost fell. A lot of you know that I had wrist surgery twice in the last year. And these days, my wrist is starting to heal like really well. But I can’t do all the exercises that I want to do, hence me coming hiking. But I love pull-ups. I’m going to see if I can do at least five pull-ups on this drift. The doctor said I can do exercises now, but I don’t know if my body’s ready for that. Let’s take a look. Do you guys think I can do five push-ups or more? Let me know in the comments section. Okay, let’s check and see if France can do five pull-ups. Here we go. One, two, three, six. Oh. Oh, my wrist started to hurt after the fifth one. Not good. Not good. Oh, some guys watching. He said I did a good job. Maybe I was a little overzealous with doing exercises on my wrist. I’ll chill out for a bit. Now I know what I forgot. I forgot to bring my hat. I have a special traveling hiking hat that I love to wear. I wore it when I went to Kazakhstan and Usbekiststan. Kakistan here to Kakistan. But I forgot to bring it now because I’m used to wearing this hat. You have to remind me guys from Swah. If you’re going hiking, take your hat. This is the proverbial fork in the road. It goes here, but it goes here as well. Should I go right or left? You tell me which way should I go? Looks like she’s going right. Maybe I should follow her. Okay, so on the right path and as soon as I got to like the midway point, it’s so windy up here. It’s really really windy. I think we can make it to the very very top. Just it’s windy and it’s just going like up up up. There’s no like plateau. Got to be in shape when coming hiking here in Korea. Yeah, you can see these ladies in front of me. They have these walking sticks. They have walking sticks. They have nice hiking shoes. They have jackets. They have backpacks. Koreans, a lot of them, when they go hiking, when they do sports in general, said this countless times, they’re always dressed to impress for the most part. Go up the wooden stairs or do I go up this elevated pathway? A lot of people are going up this elevated pathway. Should I buck the system and do something on my own? Maybe I’ll follow them. They seem to know what they’re doing. I don’t even have the right shoes to hike. But because Korea is like really efficient with how it organizes its trails, you’ll always find this this carpet. This carpet is made of I think uh bark tree bark. Be assured that when you’re going up or you’re going down, this uh tree bark carpet is going to keep you keep you level, keep you stable. Even though I don’t have the right shoes, there is no fear. Korea efficiency is [Music] here. Nice outside lights as well. So maybe this park is open in the evening. I don’t think they would have lights here randomly for no reason. Yeah, if you’re coming here to OneMi Park and it’s getting late, don’t worry because you can get to the bottom or the top if you so choose that way very easily and safely. Times in the parks here in Korea, you can find water fountains. I’m pretty sure this park has a water fountain as well or water fountains, but I haven’t seen one since I’ve arrived. But luckily, I was able to bring my own water from the station. Another thing you should think about as well when you’re traveling in Korea and you’re going to the parks is that if you see a convenience store, if you see a place where you can get food or some kind of snacks uh before you go hiking, it’s always a good idea to stop there and pick up something. Pick up some water, pick up some fruit bars or candy bars or whatever the case may be because you never know when the next time you’ll see a restaurant or a convenience store or a place where you can get food. So even if you’re hungry, you’re like, “Ah, I eat breakfast. I ate lunch. I don’t need anything. Yeah, you better get something because you’re going to be burning a lot of calories coming hiking in Korea because you’re always going up. That was a nice little break. I could sit down and hear the birds chirping, the bugs were buzzing, and just enjoy this fresh air and this amazing sunshine. One thing that I do recommend is that you do all of your hiking in Korea in the fall, even winter and spring because the mosquitoes, you’re going to get a lot of mosquitoes in the summertime. Like a lot, a lot a lot. And it’s going to be unbearable. At least for me. I don’t know about you, I can’t stand mosquitoes. So yeah, I just choose to come out here in the spring. This is going to be perfect perfect temperature to get hot and have the nice cool breeze cool you down. I don’t think we’re at the very very top soil and inchan here at the top. And if I zoom in, you can even see airplanes taking off over there. Is that the glide plane for Gimpo airport? So, there are two big airports in Korea. Uh there’s Gimpo. Well, Gimpo is not really big, but yeah, I think Gimpo is big. It’s international airport in Soul. There’s two big airports. Not in Korea. There are several in Korea, but Gimpo used to be the big international airport and then they built Inchan. So, I think there’s inch. No, that’s Gimpo over there because I can see a lot of planes. I can see Air Juju. Wow, I have some good eyes. I can see Air Ju planes on the runway. And I guess if I move over a little more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a whole runway over there. That’s a whole runway. If you can see through all of the foliage, but there is a soccer field over there. There’s a tennis court over here. And of course you can see this baseball park. No, this is a soccer park I think over here. But you can see like this smaller soccer park and or soccer field and this tennis court over here. Those are public places. And you can see like all over Seoul. You’ll have these public places where you can rent these very nice looking uh sports arenas for you and your friends to play. And you don’t have to worry about, you know, any crime or anything like that. people coming to steal your stuff. They’re all over the city. They’re littered all over the city. It might take a long time to get registration because Seoul is very competitive city. There’s so many people here, densely populated. But yeah, if you ever want to rent one of these public areas for you and your friends, they even have like several tennis courts over here in the background. You can’t really see it, but it’s over there. Wow, this place is really cool. Yeah, you can rent all of these places, these public places. Um, you just have to try to rent them well in advance, like sometimes even a half a year in advance because, as I said, very competitive here out in the spring, it’s time to get back outside and exercise. This is a free gym outside at the park, this mountain park here in Puchan Wii Park. Wii Park. We got the older guys just out here chilling. Some are on their phones. This is a nice thing that the city and the country uh does for the Korean citizens. Some of the older people, Korea has a lot of old people. So, a lot of the older people maybe they don’t have jobs or they don’t have anything to do. They can come to the park and just exercise or just hang out here and be around people. You know, there’s going to be a lot of through traffic from people hiking. And even though these people are strangers to the people who are walking through, just seeing another human does wonders for the spirit, especially if you’re lonely. This is really nice because gyms, I heard in Korea are starting to lose a lot of their patrons. I think only like the really big gyms where a lot of the like Instagram um influencers go are are actually doing very well. But if you’re looking for an alternative to exercising at the really crazy expensive gyms here in Korea, you can always come outside to the park. At any park in Korea, you’re going to have this exercise equipment that just it’s clean and it’s it works. You know, it it does what it’s supposed to do, which is to exercise your muscles. It might not always be the I guess most technologically advanced exercise equipment, but it’s there and you’re going to be able to enjoy yourself and get exercise. They’re saying, “Oh, he’s doing a YouTube video.” I’m here. Not the top, but maybe maybe it’s like semi top. Could be. Anyways, one Nissan says right there, “This is the gazebo or gazebo that I usually see when I’m teaching from my classroom at the school where I work. I’ve never been here. I’ve been working at that school for almost 11 years. And I’ve been looking at this thing, this monument, this uh this structure for almost 11 years and have never come here. Finally, my dreams have been realized. Go inside. There’s nothing really super special about this gazebo. It’s just like most of the monuments or not monuments structure uh that you see all around Korea, especially in the parks. Yeah. Wow. You can see where is my school? This is Bhan. This city. I don’t even know where my school is. Is it even on this side? I’m not sure. H maybe it’s on this side. No, it’s definitely not on this side. It’s got to be over here on this side, but I cannot see. There is I know there’s su over there and then it comes here and where is my school? My school is somewhere over there. Anyways, I can see this this structure from one of the classrooms in my school and I’m finally happy to actually have come here after almost 11 years. I made it. Yay. Whoa. I did it. I achieved my goal for today. just feels amazing to achieve your goals, even if they’re very small goals, you know, that maybe seem insignificant to others. As long as you’re setting them and you’re achieving them, that’s all that matters. And I made it to the top and just feel great being out here in this wonderful weather. Guys, if you enjoy hiking here in Korea or wherever you are, why don’t you go ahead and drop a like for this video after seeing this amazing hiking experience here in Buchanan, Korea. Okay, now I’m walking to some forested area. Well, whole place is forested, but this place I think is especially forested or a forest. At least that’s what it said on the sign. But while I’m walking this way, if you guys are interested in coming to travel in Korea or work in Korea, why don’t you sign up to my email list and get some free mini courses about how you can become English teacher here in Korea or travel in Korea or how to move abroad in general. I have a lot of good information over 17 years of knowledge that I can give to you guys in my mini courses, my full courses, and in my consultation. So, if you’re interested, why don’t you join my email list and get updated on all of the stuff that I have to offer. Ah, so much wind here. Okay, I reached another crossroads. Should I go down here? If I go down there, there’s like a nice little seating area. Or should I continue down this way where I don’t exactly know where it’ll lead me? The adventure Francois wants to go down here, but the part of me that wants to eat a snack wants to go down there. Which way, guys? Which way? If you chose Ford, you’re right. The adventure part of Franquis is going forward because he wants to know. He wants to know what is there. But so far, it’s a really nice area just like the entire park. So many wonderful wild spring flowers. And whoa. Yo, check this out. If I walk through here, not gonna go down, but if I walk through here, there’s these funky like wood or tree stump steps. This is super funky. And it’s going to lead over here to this area, this open area where there’s this nice, what is this? Burgundy colored tree. A cool gazebo. Oh, there’s already someone sitting here. Ah, but this is a nice little forested area. I think this is what the sign was saying. Pretty sure this is what the Yep. This is what the the sign was was uh saying. It’s here. And wow, the park isn’t so big. I mean, it’s big, but it’s not as big as I thought it would be. There’s north south part. Okay. So, we can’t like go veering off to the left or anything like that or to the west or east. One of the new stations that was built within the last year, I believe. And where am I? Am I here? I’m here. And here is Kachi. Kachi. And oh, there’s no line one. Okay. Okay. Okay. Guess I’m going to chill here for a bit and just look at the flowers. Oh, I can sit here if I want. The wind is a little strong up here, though. So, maybe maybe I’ll go down. I’ll go down. But this area is just so nice. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I’m loving it. I’m loving it. Okay, I think I’m going to plop myself down up here on this little hill and have some snacks. A lot of wind up here, but still pretty cool. So, I got my snacks. I stopped at the the bakery in the store or excuse me, the bakery, not in the store, the bakery in the station before I came here and I got some like Korean bread. This is like uh don patang. So, there’s like sweet uh sweet bean inside. I love this. Many foreigners don’t like this, but I love this bread so much. And I got a I don’t know what kind of bread this is. I just saw it and it smelled good, so I bought it. And I got a chocolate muffin. Let’s see. Here we go. Chocolate muffin. And this was so cheap. Like each of these items cost 1,0001. I think the quality is actually pretty good because there were a lot of people in that bakery trying to get these products. So, I’m going to sit here. I’m going to chill. I’m going to eat my snacks and enjoy this nice weather. Thanks a lot, guys, for joining me today. My wonderful trip here at WMI. And I hope to see you in the next video. Make sure you stay hydrated. Franuis loves you. Make sure you love your loved ones like Fran loves you. See you in the next one. Take care. Peace. Tada. Uh,

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Why I Love This Mountain | Best Hiking Spots in Seoul!

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