Gumi is a small city in the center of Korea, it's easily reachable by train from Seoul, which meant first taking the (VIP) bus back to the capital.

From there I had about an hour to transfer from the bus terminal to the central station, which was juust enough time.

I made it to Gumi around 1700, which meant time to drop off the luggage at the hotel and find some dinner. Sometimes you have no idea what you ordered until it arrives at your table. While it was quite good, eating this with just two chopsticks and a spoon was some expert-level stuff.

Geumosan National Park

The next day I woke up early again, there's a typhoon coming this way and while it isn't in the neighbourhood yet, some rain is expected in the afternoon, so I plan to be back at the hotel by then.

From the hotel it's about an hour's walk alongside a well-maintained river park to the cable-car starting point. I didn't walk the entire way, just till the first bus stop that would take me there. Some coffee was bought along the way as well.

At the cable car, I noticed that almost 99% of the people opted to walk the trail up the mountain instead of taking the cable-car, very cool.

I'm starting to sense a trend in Korean mountain trails, they're basically just stairs up the mountain. No winding semi-flat pieces of trail, it just goes up, straight to the top.

With 30-degree weather and a bento-box-style lunch burning in my backpack, it's time to consume it before it goes bad in the heat. And what better place than this view.

After an early lunch it's back up the trial to the top, where the views were less than rewarding, due to the clouds. At this point I've almost climbed a kilometer straight up.

But every once in a while the clouds broke and revealed this amazing view.

A bit past the summit lies a temple, that also has great views.

A very friendly couple gave me some fruit to enjoy together with the view. They also pointed me to a "secret" (you have to ignore some signs) trail around the summit to this view of the temple.

While trying to find my way down the mountain (there was construction going on, obscuring some trails), I was asked by a group of Koreans if I would like to join their lunch/drinks, which sounded good to me!

Long story short, I became part of their hike tour group and even got a ride on their tour bus to a nearby restaurant for a lovely dinner and (many, many, Somaek drinks).

Somaek is a combination of Soju(Korean Vodka) and Maegju(Beer). Dinner consisted of a delicious stew, rice and bulgogi, thinly sliced beef.