Since Seoul's forecast for the weekend was for sunny, 30 degree days we decided to go to the beach for the weekend. Unfortunately, the beach we chose wasn't in sunny Seoul... it was in foggy Samcheok instead. Of course, we didn't know the weather would be so different until we'd already paid for our bus tickets so off we went to chilly Samcheok.
We'd been to Samcheok
once before and really liked it. We decided to stay at the same love motel as last time, Motel Very 6, and it was very nice (aside from the hot tub that shot out rust flakes when the jets were on).
We had a "Helth Master" brand vibrating bed... a trusty name in beds.
Some suggested positions to use when enjoying the vibrating bed, from a pamphlet left in our room. Oh yeahhh, guess who tried the second position.
I'd gotten really bus sick, so I went to bed pretty early. The next morning we woke up and got a quick breakfast at Dunkin Donuts before catching a bus to the cave (oh yeah, because of the weather we ditched the beach and decided to go to Hwanseon Cave, Korea's biggest cave, instead). Dunkin Donuts not only sells broccoli donuts these days, but they also have super-cute paper cups.
The bus left Samcheok at 12:15 and was the only bus of the day to not go directly to the cave. Halfway through the ride, we had to get off at a corner store and transfer buses. As we got off the first bus, I asked the driver in Korean when the next bus would arrive. He said something that included the words "balli balli" (meaning "hurry") so I guessed that he meant it was coming soon. Then his tone got much more urgent and he pointed at a bus in the distance parked next to some farmland and again shouted, "BALLI BALLI". We had to RUN to get that bus before it left without us. They only run once every 90 minutes or so, so missing it would have sucked!
As you can see, the bus was on a popular route.
The cave is actually located a steep 45 minute hike uphill, so this is the entrance to the park area before you get to the trail.
When researching for this trip, we'd heard many complaints about the rough hike up to the cave. Luckily for us, there was a shiny new monorail at the base of the trail. Not knowing what we'd be getting ourselves into (and being a little cheap), I wanted to try to hike it but Mel wanted to use the monorail. For only 3,000 Won ($2.50) we took the monorail up, and I was SO glad we did. It was so steep, and hikers at the top looked miserable and were covered in sweat (it was quite a bit warmer here than in Samcheok).
Inside the cave. It was enormous! The ceiling was so high.
Random glowing hole with a waterfall.
It wouldn't be Korea if there weren't some neon to guide the way!
As always, the signage was as amusing as the site itself. "a bacon sheet is growing".
The cave had lots of signs posted to point out rock formations that looked like different things: the popcorn rock, a dragon, demon's claws, a bacon sheet, and the above heart shape.
But even better is the sign: Pledge of Love (CORRODED HOLE)!!!
The route got a bit more spooky when we entered the "Valley of Hell"!! This led to the Bridge of Hell, which didn't sound like a safe kind of bridge. It was suggested that we "cast our sins away" on the Bridge of Hell.
The Bridge of Hell carried us over the Pool In Hell!! As the sign above says, it's depth is still unknown.
Looking down at the bottomless Pool In Hell.
At the end of the Bridge of Hell, a sign informed us that we were now free of our sins. Great! And before long we were at a much cheerier bridge: a rainbow.
Cool design on the cave floor.
Soon, a sign let us know that we were about to see the Virgin Mary. What's the Virgin Mary doing in a Korean cave? Well, there she was anyway, whatever she was up to.
I'd thought we'd seen the Great Wall
last year, but apparently not. Above is the Great Wall of Hwanseon.
This exhibit is called "Joints".
Near the end of the path was the statue of this monk who'd entered the cave many years ago, but was never heard from again. I don't know how that's possible, given the number of people in the cave. Seriously, we couldn't even go to a dark cave in the middle of nowhere, surrounded in rice paddies, without a thousand people pushing us around. Sigh, Korea.
We walked back down the mountain, instead of using the monorail, and it was a very nice walk.
After our chilly morning in Samcheok and then in a cave, it was nice to get some sun and the lush, green mountainsides were beautiful.
We got downhill just in time to catch a bus back to town (as I said, they run every 90 minutes or so). We waited for the bus with a man who was eating a zucchini like it was a banana or something.
Back in town, we wanted to get something to eat, so we walked to the (very, very small) downtown area- which featured not one, but TWO Batman stores! Which sold zero Batman-related items.
One market store sold hiking and exercise clothes. "The North Face" is a very popular brand in Korea, as is it's local rip-off "The Red Face", but I'd never seen this particular ripoff: The BLACK Face!! I wanted to buy a pair, but Mel informed me that I already have enough pieces of racist activewear :(
The last time we were in Samcheok, we had a really good galbi meal (they served lemon-flavored grass!) so we were hoping to go to the same restaurant again. Unfortunately, it was long gone, so we decided to go to a different restaurant instead. Its' selling point was that they were using a shower curtain for a door, but when I went inside there were only two tables and the owner was laying asleep (dead?) on the floor. I quietly crept back out and we found a different BBQ restaurant instead. It was good, but there was no lemon grass :(
The whole idea of this trip was to spend a sunny day by the sea, but because of the weather we couldn't do that. Still, we wanted to see the beach, so we put on our hoodies and took a quick taxi ride there. It really was pretty, but the weather reminded me too much of our two Saint John summers at home- foggy, cool and depressing.
The beach was in a bit of a ghost town so it wasn't going to be easy to catch a cab out of there. A kind lady at this convenience store, whose bed was set up behind the cash register, kindly phoned a cab for us.
The bus ride home was scenic. I really love Korea's mountainous landscape.
For some reason, our bus showed a movie during our ride: The Fifth Element, starring Bruce Willis. Random! We're taken lots of inter-city buses and they've never shown movies before. Especially not English ones. Also kind of funny, when we stopped for a break at a rest stop, a rather sour looking woman who was traveling alone and sat across from us got off the bus and blew bubbles by herself for a solid 10 minutes.
By the time we left the rest stop it was dark, so the driver turned on the lights. Throbbing, green and orange lights! This lighting suited the bus with purple curtains and yellow flowers in the front window perfectly. Then, The Fifth Element started up again. In total, we saw the full movie three times before we got to tropical Seoul.
Having cast away our sins on the Bridge of Hell, we were ready for a hellishly hot day, so Sunday was spent roasting by the Han with a good book and lots of ice cream. And the best news of all? Next weekend is a 3-day weekend! Woo hoo!!
