The best part about long bus trips in Korea is the rest stops! We always look forward to the 15 minute visit and dream about the snacks we will buy. The rest stops are always very clean and have lots of little restaurants to convenience stores. Of course, this is Korea, so some of the snack choices might be a little eclectic... octopus balls, anyone?
The bathrooms are outfitted with these futuristic hand dryers. It's like drying your hands with a vacuum cleaner.
When we got to Sokcho it was after 10pm on Friday night, so we just dropped our bags at a love motel called "New Town" (a little past the E-Mart) and then went out in search of food. We usually spend a little more to stay at a nice love motel, but I don't think any of the motels in Sokcho were built during this decade. The place we stayed at was only $40, had a computer with internet and it was clean, but there was no whirlpool :(
There weren't many restaurants open by this time of night and the ajumma running the place where we ate must have wanted to close because she wasn't too happy to serve us. She actually let out a big sigh when we ordered our meal. The frozen samgyupsal and warm (pretty sure she used tap water!) naegmyeon was easily the worst Korean meal I've been served. The ajumma closed the door as soon as we left the building and was probably quite happy to see us go. We wandered down to the beach, had a drink, and hung out for a while. The beach is only a 5 minute walk from the bus station so it's really convenient for visitors.
At night it had felt like our love motel was in the middle of nowhere, so I laughed when I woke up and looked out the window. We were 2 minutes from a giant lake with a park around it, and about 5 minutes from a big tower.
We wandered down to the lake for a look-see and then paid the 1,500 Won to go up to the top of the tower. It was only 15 floors, but it gave us a good view of the city.
A bug landed on the window when I was taking pictures from the tower. It's my favorite picture from that photo shoot.We had lunch at the E-Mart and left our bags in the lockers there too (a free way to dump your bags for the day). We ordered cheese oven spaghetti for lunch and when our number was called to pick up the spaghetti I got to the counter just in time to see an ajumma squeezing ketchup all over the tops of our pastas. I grabbed some napkins to wipe off the ketchup and we ate. It was very good.
After lunch we went to the beach. It was beautiful and nowhere near as crowded as Eurwangni Beach was 2 weekends ago. The water on the east coast is so much clearer and bluer than on the west. We had really good luck with the weather too because some rain had been forecast but we got nothing but sun, sun, sun all day long.
We were worried when we got there because there was a sign that said no swimming was allowed, but loads of people were swimming anyway and life guards were on duty. The water was really wavy though, probably because of the typhoon last week, so every now and then policemen came by and whistled for people to get out of the water. Everyone just went back in when the fuzz left, though, so it wasn't a big problem.
This heart-shaped tree is a must-visit for photo shoot purposes if you visit Sokcho Beach. It's on a pier next to the beach. A little cheesy but cute nonetheless.After we left the beach we needed to find another love motel, and we figured that since all the hotels around the beach were a bit po-dunk we'd try the other side of town instead. There's a port on the other end of Sokcho where ferry boats come and go from Russia, so we knew there would be a lot of motels over there too. There was, but unfortunately they were just as unimpressive. We went to one place and asked how much it was for one night and the guy said $30. We asked if they had any whirlpool rooms. He thought about the question and said yes, but the price went up to $35. This seemed like a fair deal so we exchanged our money for a key and went to check out the room. Clean, ocean view, but our "whirlpool" turned out to be a skinny bathtub. Oh well, it did the trick for the night.
On Friday night we had been surprised to see how sleepy Sokcho was, even right by the beach. On the way to our second motel by the port we'd passed through "Rodeo Street" which seemed to be a bit more happening. We decided to go back there for supper. We thought we'd just get on any bus going in that direction and we'd get ourselves there, but since the first bus we got on started to drive us into the mountains we got off and hailed a cab. Rodeo Street turned out to be just as sleepy, but there were some decent stores to look around in. We ate at a Pizza Hut full of Russian tourists and I can recommend the potato pizza (with no corn) without hesitation.
Rodeo Street also had a Puma store right next to....
a Pama Store. Oh Korea, I love you and your loose copyright laws.
We went back to our motel and checked out the area around the port. There's a bustling seafood market there and the street we stayed on was full of shops selling dried squid and fish. 40 dried fish for only 5,000 Won sounds like a deal to me, but once you have them what do you do with them?
There was a traditional gazebo-type thing on a hill over the sea that we went up to visit.
We bought some sparklers and had drinks by the sea. I had one eye on my drink and one eye on the rat that was scurrying around us.
The signs around the port were labeled in Korean, English and Russian. #1- now I totally want to go to Russia, #2- anyone know how you pronounce that backwards "R" letter?
On Sunday we took the #7 bus (across the road from the bus station) to Seoraksan. We hadn't really come to go hiking because it was so hot, but Seoraksan is supposed to be Korea's most beloved mountain so we figured we should pay it a visit. It was a nice area, but if you're looking for an interesting place to go hiking, Maisan Provincial Park in Jinan is much cooler.
A guide map at the park said that this waterfall was only about an hour hike with a difficulty level of "easy", which sounded like the path for us. The path did get a little steep at times near the top, but we survived and the waterfall was nice.
There were a few dozen people relaxing in the water and picnicking at the top of the trail. We stuck our feet in a hung out for a while. It felt really nice after the sweaty climb.
When we got back to the park entrance we decided to take a cable car to the top of one of the peaks. Like I said, it was way to hot to be hiking up that high, but it didn't seem right to visit a mountain and not make any effort to go up the mountain at all. We were happy that we took the cable car. It was only 8,500 Won and the view was nice.
We went in some irregal areas to take pictures.
When we got back down to the bottom of the mountain we visited this giant (it was massive!) Buddha before leaving the park. We had some bulgogi and bibimbap at a tiny restaurant in Sokcho and then caught the 4:40pm bus back to Seoul, hoping to be home by 8:30pm to get ready for work the next day.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way! At some point in our trip, maybe an hour outside of Seoul, a message was played on the bus informing us that due to the traffic conditions we'd be taking an alternate route. With that, our bus pulled onto a road heading towards some place called Munmuk. I had a feeling this was not going to end well. Yes, Korea is the only place I've ever traveled in where you can be in the middle of nowhere between two rice patties and STILL wind up in a traffic jam. It was after 11:00pm by the time we got home, tired, hungry and desperately needing to pee. It was still a great weekend, and hey- the traffic could have been worse. There was a traffic jam in Beijing not long ago that lasted for 9 DAYS!!Oh and by the way, we're going to Beijing in two weeks. *insert sound of doom noise here*
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