Fresh AIR!!!

Looking down the beach
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Left Seoul at 9:15pm Friday night. Wanted to leave on the 8pm bus, but the ticket lady said, "No, express bus, 9:15pm". Okay, sure. Meet up with Patricia (Rachell's friend)--I don't use the cell phone much, but it sure is handy meeting up with people when half of the party is at Subway exit 1, and the other half at exit 2. Find our 'gate' and there's a bus parked there. Debating whether or not it's ours, when it pulls out at 9:08 and we decide it must not have been. Ours pulls in and we're on and boarded in 7 minutes flat. The boarding was made a little bit more difficult seeing as the seats weren't numbered(the Koreans couldn't find the numbers either, so it wasn't just us!) Pulled away and sat in the parking lot aka expressway out of Seoul for a bit. Arrived in Sokcho at 2:30am.

On top of the world!
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Where to stay? Trusted in sources that had said there were tonnes of hotels surrounding the bus stop. I'll trust that source again. What didn't get mentioned was that they were all fairytale/castle themed. Hoped at least 1 would be still renting rooms, and head the closest one.(Later learned the name of the hotel was Rocustel---touted by LP as "a more expensive fairyland castle with fancier rooms".) Not sure how much more expensive, but we weren't complaining about the 40,000won(~$40cdn) room that 4 of us shared. At 3am, ten bucks a night per person sounded like a pretty good deal! Ondol style--means sleeping on the heated floor on mats, which is glorious in the winter!! Also means you can put 4 people into a room that you'd maybe only fit 2 into(on a bed) in North America). Floor was blisteringly hot unless you were on the mats...got curious and in the am stuck my clock/thermometer between my mat and the floor. 40 degrees celcius!! So, we were warm enough.

Turns out it's worth the cold to go in the winter.

The view from our hotel room
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A nice sleep in--we all started stirring about 10am, but didn't actually get vertical until 11:45 when we decided to keep the room for one more night. 10 bucks a night-why not?! Decided to go for a walk to explore--hadn't seen much on the way in! Headed out, found tourist information in the parking lot(shared with the bus station). Closed. Ah well. Headed in the direction of the beach--it was around -5 to 0 degrees. Hard to tell with the wind blowing. What a beach!! The water looked really inviting except that the air was FREEZING! Could see how this would be a popular summer destination! Goofed around with a couple Korean girls who were there playing with their dog Panda. They knew NO English, and we exhausted our limited supply quite quickly.(meeguk aniyo=not american, songsangnim=teacher, chingu=friends) Gave them some Dentyne Ice gum from Canada. Wish I had their reactions on video. Priceless. They ran around in circles, fanning their mouths, squeaking, with their eyes watering. One dug a hole in the sand, and spit her gum into it. A bit 'spicy' I guess. Patricia had Xylitol(Korean brand)--gave them each a piece which they chewed with (obvious) relief!! Started walking, a bit on the beach, a bit on the road. A bit hungry at this point. Saw some fishing boats, a bridge to nowhere(actually to the touristy peninsula in the summer), and a lake. The mountains were trying to make themselves seen, but it was hazy. Back to E-mart--kind of like a department store/food court/grocery store which was 300m from our hotel(said the sign in front of our hotel). Got food from the food court, decided to find a spa. Called the information hotline--these are HUGE here, and so practical. Dial a number, get an English speaker, no sweat. Again, yay cell phones! Ended up a 20 minute cab ride out of town ($8) at a spa with absolutely NO foreigners. Were told by an English speaking Korean that we missed the mark--this was a local spa, and the tourist spa was somewhere else. We didn't mind. Naked spa--pretty much used to the stares on the street, the ones in the naked sauna don't bother me too much. I mean, when am I going to see any of these people ever again? Except that when I walked in through the doors to the pools the door I opened opened over top of a Korean woman's foot and gave her a bit of a scrape. She dropped, screaming. EVERYONE in the pools turned to look. I stood there, naked, trying to say something/anything to the Korean woman screaming (not at me--she was nice enough about it). That was awkward....

Read the sign carefully! What are they selling?
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You start the sauna by showering and scrubbing yourself beet red with what can only be described as sandpaper cloth. Once clean(presumably), you pick a tub and hop in--they're like small pools--each probably would fit 20-30 people sitting, and there's all kinds of temperatures. From practically boiling to ice cold. Some have jets, and there's a couple of saunas in case you'd prefer those. Nice enough. The strangest thing though is walking around, and there are little BOYS running around. Not sure what the age cut off is, but some of them were upwards of 5 years old, I'd say! Back into the city, and to a calbi (bbq meat on the table) restaurant. Great food. Picked up mucho pig-out food at E-mart, and back to the hotel for cards and bed.

Sleep-in day number 2 we were checking out of the hotel at noon. Took a cab to Seoraksan park. Stood at the entrance trying to figure out where to stay. Decided to gamble on the "Seoraksan Tourist Hotel"-the only hotel inside the park. Looked pretty nice on the way in--the fact that it faced the mountain made it particularly impressive. Asked how much for a room, half expecting the price to be halfway to the moon. Hearing 90,000won($95cdn) was almost a let down, it was so unexpected. Less than $25 each for a room (which turned out to have a BALCONY facing the mountain) at the only hotel inside the park which ? Yeah, sure... why not!! haha. Dropped off our stuff and headed out to explore. Decided to go up the cable car to the 'peak' (at 800m, it pales in comparison with the 1,700m highest peak in the range--but that's a 10hour hike, so we were happy with what we got!). Turns out it's worth the cold to go in the winter. The cable car(reportedly a 2-3 hour wait in the peak season--which is spring, summer AND fall) we walked onto. Up to the top, 20 minute hike up to the 'peak'--pretty steep, and lots of fun with mittens!! Got passed by a couple guys wearing dress shoes, so I wasn't too concerned. Figured they'd find the slippery places for me! Got to the top and didn't actually have to share the peak with anyone!!! Really easy to picture the line-up that there'd be at any other time of the year. Spectacular view--craggy mountains, snow covered(more like snow-brushed). Could even see the ocean. Fantastic. I think we sat up there for the better part of an hour.

Next day we had to check out. Asked if we could leave our bags at the desk, thinking there'd be a room they could put them in or something. Guy took our bags and put them on the desk chair behind the counter.(All of our jokes throughout the afternoon about him not sitting down all day came true when we returned at 4pm and the bags were still on that chair!!) Gotta love the hospitality here. Decided on a hike to see some waterfalls... Walked in, past the mysterious pile of ice blocks they were making in the parking lot. It was above 0 both days we were there--we were wondering if the ice would even last long enough to get carved!! The trail was VERY icy. Everything melts during the day and freezes at night, so it's like a skating rink. Passed a souvenir shop before the hike started uphill, and were convinced by some very adamant first cross guys that we should use the strap-on crampons that were available, "service" =free. Well, okay, if they're free(and I can see the point of the red cross guys not wanting to come haul our broken butts down the hill)! The first part was the worst part, and it was nice to have them, but then the path became a succession of metal pathways and bridges. Ever heard metal crampons on metal walkways? 2 steps and mine were off. It was a pretty hike, but the waterfalls were a bit anticlimatic. Ice covered(but not particularly nicely). It was a good hike though, and nice to be moving in the fresh air. Back past that souvenir shop with the 'free' crampons, and it was a different story when the saleslady saw our white faces come back down. Some polite refusal(of meals, wine, souvenirs) and we were on our way back.

A cab ride back into town, and it was Rachell's birthday so we decided on Pizza Hut for supper. We even got the "birthday" table, without asking! No desserts on the menu though, so nothing cake-like to be bought for the birthday girl! (not even ice cream!)

Onto the "deluxe" bus for the ride back to Seoul. Deluxe, indeed. 3 seats across, instead of 4 (a pair and a single). Tonnes of leg room, and a nice smooth ride(about $5 more expensive, and SO worth it!). We were fairly certain it was going to take eons to get back into the city--Monday night of the long weekend--we figured 1/2 of Seoul was going to be trying to get back. The trip out had taken over 5 hours, so we were counting on at least 6 for the return(keep in mind this is a 260km trip on highways!). We left at 6pm, and placed bets--possible arrival times ranged from midnight-2am. Imagine our surprise when we pulled in at 9:45. Perfect end to a fabulous weekend!