Muju Ski Resort

For the weekend after Christmas I got on a bus and went across my province to a town called Muju, where there is a huge ski resort. It was really cold, but very beautiful, lots of Koreans skiing, sledding, drinking, and various other resort activities. I went with Elizabeth and her husband Jimmy. We went sledding, rode a snowmobile, went for a dip in an outdoor heated pool, where you could see the slopes from the pool, we drank, and enjoyed the beautiful mountain views from the ride up the gondola. I didn't ski this time but will definitely make a trip back to ski the next time.



More pretty mountains in the city of Muju, next to the ski resort.





This is from the top of the mountain after riding he gondola up. It was really cold up there, but the views were amazing. There was also a small shelter/mini-temple you could hang out in along with restaurants, ski lifts, hiking trails and a view of the city. We had some lunch, some beer and sake and then went back down by the gondola.









This was an excessively hot aroma therapy, notice the dark green water, hot tub, with a Korean dude in it. You could only stay in it a few minutes, because it was sooo hot, but it really made your skin soft and the overall experience of the pools was very relaxing and quite rewarding. I was waiting for someone to come up to the side and start adding carrots and potatoes, like we were a big meal!



This was the semi-warm swimming pool, notice no one was swimming in it when I took the picture. It was 20 degrees outside, with loads of snow just to the left, a beginner slope travels right by the pool, so not ideal swimming conditions in a pool that wasn't heated like a hot tub. If anyone went in this pool, it was for a short period of time and there was a lot of movement involved. Both Jimmy and I did braze it, just to say we did, but not for long, it was quite a shock and tingling to the body to back and forth.



This was the hot spring pool, designed like it was in the middle of the mountains, with big rocks around and a rock style bottom, really cool. If you stay in the hotel resort, it doesn't cost anything to use the pool, if not, it was about $10 US dollars and about $2 to rent a suit and it was well worth it. I imagine after being sore from skiing, it would be the perfect remedy.



On the gondola, going up the mountain.



On the snowmobile, getting ready to go for my ride.



On the snow sled, sledding was fun!!









The resort was pretty at night, it even had a working carousal.









There was also a winery there, this is me, pretending to drink from huge bottle of wine. There was also a cool map of the world made out of corks.





This is a very famous dish in Korea, called bim bim bap. It is usually made out of just different vegetables, rice, seaweed, and a fried egg, but this one has pork too. You put a small amount of this hot paste and mix it all up real good, and it is very tasty, or mushiseyo! We had this particular bim bim bap in Jeonju for lunch on our way to Muju.