Owls are not what they seem

 

Yes! Owls are not what they seem. You may be familiar with this quote if you are a fan of American drama ‘Twin Peaks’ produced by a director David Lynch. The photo shows the owl bread, sold in the commercial compartment in the Balwangsan cable car station. Like Bungeoppang, a fish shaped bread that is a popular street food, these breads are stuffed with red bean paste, making it sweet and we enjoyed after tour around the summit of the mountain.

The area is a natural habitat of big eagle owl which is a symbol of this mountain. People here believe that the eagle owls are symbol of wellbeing and longevity and this notion is a bit different than the other aspect of these nocturnal birds. Because they are active at night, traditionally people in many areas with different cultural backgrounds consider them mysterious. In some case, even they are thought to be bad omen or manifestation of paranormal forces. Many monarchs of Chosun feared mere hooting of owls in the palace and they held special rituals to expel evil forces whenever owls appeared near their residences. And you may hear the contactee stories that owls appear just a moment before abductions by space aliens.

Aliens? The US congressional hearing was held on the second day of our summer trip to Kangwon province and accidently, we read this news on the day we ate owl bread. Two former US navy pilots, Ryan Grave, David Fravor and former air force intelligence officer, retired major David Grusch testified in the house oversight subcommittee. It is Mr. Grusch who made most sensational statement that US government has secretly withheld information on non-human space crafts, reverse engineering of such crafts, and even otherworldly biologics. Sounds familiar? You may be if you watched X-files or love SF stuffs. Personally, I think it is likely that some of governments of countries including US, Russia, China and Vatican (and two Koreas?) may know full well that we are not alone. Even some people (including Dr. Steven Greer, I think he is less credible though) claims that here in South Korea, there is a huge UFO hidden in the mountains.

Well…We have not been alone since the time unremembered. I am sure and since it is a very old stories and part of so called ‘status quo’ of our life on this planet. However, what is not usual is the heat waves hit the Korean peninsula. We spent six days in Pyeongchang county in the Kangwon province and the week is when the ferocious heat waves hit the peninsular. The area is higher and mountainous, it had been good with cool breeze in the morning and at night, attracting quite a few folks from everywhere. But temperature quickly rises above 32 degree-Celsius right after noon.

The skywalk of Balwangsan is the trail located at the highest point in Korea, commending the superb view of Baekdudaegan Mountain Range. Although we did not experience, people said that we could see from sunrise to sunset in this place. If you take a picture at the end of the skywalk, you can capture the wide view of Balwangsan Mountain on the camera. The skywalk photo line is always long and eventually we gave up taking picture there.

 

After return to cable car station from the summit of the mountain, we felt hot air engulfed us and worried about the rest schedule of the day. Now, everywhere seem to be warming and even boiling. Do you think our non-human friends Mr. Grusch was talking about will help us by providing out of this world technology to get rid of greenhouse gases?