Day 5: Climbing Seoraksan

 Finally! The highlight of our trip!! We initially had doubts about climbing in winter but I'm so glad we decided to do it despite all the difficulties getting there. From across the main road near our hostel, we took bus no. 7 that terminated at Mt Seorak. It drove through the whole town and hotels near mt seorak but you don't have to worry about which stop to get off at since it is the last one. The journey took about 30mins and we were in such good luck to have fresh snow the night before making it a white winter wonderland experience. I think we were counting our lucky stars even more that we weren't climbing it the next day when the temperature fell to a freezing -15degrees Celsius which was thoroughly felt through our bones. (on a side note, my Samsung S3 also literally froze on me at that temperature)

So once we got off the bus, the first thing you see is the entrance to the park through Seorakdong Visitor Centre and the iconic bear statue (we didn't meet any real ones though) Pay the pretty cheap entrance fee and your journey begins! There were quite a number of tour groups that arrived as well, one of which was a Thai group captured below. Otherwise, the park was actually pretty quiet especially since the tour groups mainly headed straight for the cable car to the peak of the mountain.

 We didn't really have a plan so we just headed for the first trek we saw which was the first left turn from the entrance to Biryeong Falls.We basically went trigger happy starting at this point. Fresh snowfall everywhere and we were the FIRST on the trek so there were no footprints! Cue Neil Armstrong moments. The trek was gorgeous with the snowfall and marvelled at how different it must look in different seasons. The trail was also so quiet that we could hear and see woodpeckers!

Directions to Biryeong Falls 2.3km away from the main entrance

The main bridge visible from the main entrance

My footprints!

Doesn't that look like something out of a fairy tale??

 After trekking for about an hour, because of the snow, we kept wondering if we had reached the end. Thought we had for at least 3 times until we really got to a point where we couldn't go any further up. We were promised a waterfall at the end of this trek but as you can tell from the picture on the left...... the water froze over and everything was covered with snow! We had no idea where the falls were supposed to be! If you googled the place in summer, it looks so different!

Halfway through the trek, we started shedding our layers. We wore enough to keep us warm in -15deg weather thinking that the mountain would be so cold. We forgot that walking works up a sweat and its amazing how warm you feel!





After reaching the end, trekking back proved more difficult as it meant climbing downhill on icy patches where we werent sure it would be safe enough. Honestly, many times through the climb up, I had concerns on how we were going to climb down! We were amateurs climbers with no walking sticks and only equipped with Timberland boots... well.. at least my travelmates were. Surprisingly, my SGD25 pseudo Timberland boots/sneakers (bought out of necessity when I found out about 1-2days before my last winter holiday to Scotland that my trusty travel sneakers were at their near-death) proved equally, if not better equipped with solid grip on the entire trek. Whenever I saw the professional trekkers with all the gear pass by us, I felt that we were so inadequate by contrast. That's why we had to resort to keeping our CG very low when climbing down steeper icy portions so much so we were basically sledding down slowly, aided by our hands on the side railings or ground. Waterproof warm gloves are an absolute must! A friend climbed with non water proof ones and ended up going bare handed after it got wet and got herself a bit of an abrasion climbing down.


After about 2.5hrs, we came back to the main entrance and decided to catch a break by taking the cable car up to the Gwongeumseong peak. boy is the cable car high. We could see Sokcho town and the port from the top and parts of the trek we were on earlier in the day. At the top of the cable car, there is a rest stop where you can buy food and drinks and soak up the view in the cold or warmth. We were happy to stop for hot hotteoks and ddeukbokki - I think these were our 2 fav korean snacks. 

View of river and Sokcho town from in the cable car as it ascends

 From the cable car top, there is actually another 5-10min climb to the absolute peak. I found this climb steeper and at the very top, the snow covered the pathways, making it quite difficult to find a good solid climb up. We still managed in our amateur gear and this was probably one of my favorite points of our entire climb. We were so high up and I didn't take another step from where I took a picture below as it was a cliff and you'd just drop alllll the way down if you weren't careful. For every step you take up.... there is a down. I think the picture of my 3 friends climbing down from the peak is probably my favorite of our trip. Has such an adventurous spirit to it though you can't really tell that 5seconds after the photo was taken, we were literally sliding down on our bums (sometimes faster than we could control), trying to get down safely while strong gusts of wind started to blow large amounts of snow into our faces. The picture made it look like the weather was deceptively clear except for that few minutes we climbed down!! I honestly thought oh my, how much worst does Mt Everest get from this when the wind must pick up much stronger!? yea... no intentions of climbing to base camp even from me. too harsh!

Right at the edge of the cliff

Adventure!

 After taking a break, we decided on a last trek of the day - a relative easy trek to Biseondae. This 2.3km trek was fairly flat and I was amazed at how fast the old uncles were walking while the young guys were turtles! We did some serious brisk walking on this leg that was mostly next to the river with such clear pristine waters. I can imagine how gorgeous it must be in spring or autumn with the colours of the trees and flowers. I wonder if anyone gets in to dip their in the water. must be nice! We covered the trail in about 30mins, ending off with a pretty high bridge - so high, I refused to take out my camera in case I dropped it. The end of that trail was however met with another VERY steep trail to Geumganggul Cave. We should have clued in how difficult this part of the trail would be since it was 1/4 the distance of Biseondae but estimated to take the same amount of time!!

Taking on the momentum of our brisk walk, we climbed the steep, snow covered steps with vigour... well most of us. Had concerns from the beginning of our trek that my exercise induced asthma would kick in if I exerted myself too much. Thankfully the earlier trails were manageable and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. However, 15mins into this particular trail, I couldn't take the continuous steps and I was getting quite concerned that I would make a misstep on the slippery steps if I got too tired and wasn't careful. At this point, I had to make a decision to stop where I was and asked my travelmates to continue without me. After a little insistence they go ahead and assurance that I would be ok by myself, I waited for them for about 30mins at the spot. Thank god for heatpacks as I suddenly felt cold when I stopped moving for more than 10-15mins. Within this 30mins, only ONE couple passed me and climbed down before my friends had. Another clue that this wasn't a trail for everyone.

When they got back down, my friends told me that I made the right choice in stopping. The trail only got worst! There were about a billion steps, both rock steps and steel staircases from that point. They said the cave was pretty high up and a monk made the journey up to the caves everyday. They found him worshipping in the cave and soaked in the view from high up. Back down at Biseondae, we looked up and found smoke coming from the very top of the mountain. We realised that THAT was the very place of the caves in which they had climbed to. If they had known that was where they were heading, they might not have started in the first place haha. (On a side note, youtubed how the trail looks like in summer and man I can't believe we climbed those rock steps with icy snow! just a tad dangerous yknow)

The view along the Biseondae trail

Well deserved treat after our trails

By the time we got back down, it was about 5pm and called it a day as the trails are more dangerous as the sun sets. We stopped at a cafe and ordered ourselves some well deserved drinks. Seriously, Korea is very serious about their coffee. You can find hand dripped coffee wherever you go! even in the mountains here!

After resting our feet, we exited from where we came from and found the snow to have melted in some areas, leaving dirty muddy walkways. So thankful we came when everything was so pretty! Took the same bus down and snoozed our way down. Grabbed a quick dinner and knocked out early from all the exercise!
Back to Seoul and an extreme weather condition the next day!

Day 4: Getting lost in Sokcho

We checked out of our service apartment and took the 10am bus to Sokcho. The bus departs half hourly and we bought tickets on the spot since the services were pretty frequent. There are 2 bus terminals in Seoul that connect to 2 different bus terminals in Sokcho. We did not know this before we left so we figured the one the front desk advised us wd bring us to Sokcho, and from there we thought it'll be pretty easy to get to our hostel from the directions on the website. oh boy were we wrong. forgot what the bus terminals were called now but the one that the front desk advised us was further south east of central seoul. a one way ticket cost us 17,000 won and took us abt 3-4hrs if I recall correctly. The bus was so warm, we actually chose to stand outside in the cold to rebalance our senses. The views enroute were pretty but if you get motion sickness like my friend did, you'll have to continuously scrape the window for ice to see out into the open...

Bus we took from Seoul to Sokcho

 We saw the rivers being frozen over so much that people could sit in the middle of it to do a spot of ice fishing! rubbed my eyes a couple of times to make sure I wasn't dreaming when i saw that.. the river/mountain views reminded me of white water rafting in Kathmandu and it was so apt that I found ads in Seoul promoting white water rafting or at least kayaking down these rivers. Another must do for the future in warmer weather! One activity that I was actually a little sad I didn't manage to catch was teh ice fishing festival which seemed to be pretty nearby as well considering how many posters I saw enroute. They are complete with bare handed cod fishing, bbq-ing yr fresh catch and ski/snow activities... how fun!

Rivers en route to Sokcho

 so when we arrived at the bus terminal, we followed our hostel's directions and kept walking a good 10mins before we decided to ask for directions and conclude we were seriously lost. thankfully my travelmates were pretty good at deciphering the Koreans that helped us along the way in the limited English that they had. it didnt help that the map we had was pretty vague. after brisk walking for a good 30mins++ with our backpacks, and passing by tsunami warning signs, we ended up at the other bus terminal. for some reason, it took us another 10mins to figure out the way to our hostel as we were so confused with our bearings and kept over-shooting the turns.

 

Where we headed guys?

With the help of at least 3 kind aunties with minimal English, we managed to find our hostel! On hindsight, if we had stopped at the correct bus terminal and used the hostel's directions, we would have found it pretty easily. We wanted to slap ourselves silly when we realised later that night that there was a big hostel sign on the top of the building tt was visible from where we walked from as well. if only we had looked up. 

Hostel Lobby

Hostel Entrance

 We chose to stay at the House Hostel, located in Sokcho city instead of Mt Seoraksan itself because the reviews of the hotels in Seoraksan itself were pretty bad and the place looked so dated, even in the photos! No regrets for sure. The hostel was cosy and so well decorated and designed. Everyone who reviewed the place commented over how the owner of the hostel would give a running commentary and introduction to Sokcho and Seoraksan for every new guest when they checked in. He means well and is pretty informative with plenty of tips of activities and food. Funny though because we probably saw half of Sokcho from our trek of finding one bus terminal of another that even though we said yes we've seen that and know where another place is but he continued on his little script of things to see and do. We probably didn't understand each other too well but as I said, they mean well and are very welcoming. The rooms are very clean and sufficient for a short stay. They even had heated mattresses and provided those big bottles of body wash.  Every inch of the place is decorated not in the sense of over decoration really but every switch was painted with a picture and every wall had a different cool wallpaper and they really had a lot of van gogh paintings.

Since we didnt have too much time that afternoon to see Seoraksan, we scoured the city for food at their market. We had more street food and were happy to have found Squid Soondae which is a local delicacy. The lady heated it up and cooked it in egg for us and we were happy to eat this filling meal together with some veggie tempura.

 Sokcho isn't a very big city so after snacks and coffee, we decided to have a light dinner of bibimbap which caused the secong cultural food ordering/eating blunder. We spent almost the entire day eating so we decided to just order 1 bibimbap for the 4 of us just to try it out. The woman was so confused thinking it was one each but we made it pretty clear it was only going to be one. As usual, they have their billion accompanying dishes and a bowl of rice.. Where we are normally used to, we try out each dish one by one.. after finishing all the dishes and our rice, we noticed other people coming in with their orders... and that they had mixed everything into the big bowl and added the chilli sauce that was placed on our table.... woops. guess its all gonna mix in our tummies anyway.

We decided to call an early night for a full day of trekking!

Korea Day 3

Day 3 was all white and snowy! We started off at Noryanjin Fish Market.. Take the metro to Noryanjin and follow the sign or smell to the market. On hindsight, we should have probably not gone there first since we smelled like seafood for the rest of the day. I read that you can pick out your own fresh seafood and get it cooked on teh 2nd level immediately but since we just had breakfast, we decided to skip it, especially since seeing all the fish cramped into small tanks made us a little uncomfortable. Plenty of weird seafood like hugeass octopus but I realise if I actually see the whole process of mass food being prepared, I think I'll end

 up being vegetarian. 

Seafood sold at Noryanjin Fish Market

 After the fish market, we ended up getting a little lost in the metro station. We took a train in the direction of town but the service terminated a stop after Noryanjin. We had to find the train to town on another platform but the station had put the numbers as platform numbers instead of the train numbers causing much confusion to us all. After walking on/off different platforms and consulting the map and figuring different routes, we ended up on the correct platform by complete chance. We headed in the direction of the women's university but being 11am on a Monday morning, not that many shops were open yet. We did however find a cat cafe!! The kitties we saw sitting on the windowsill were so fluffy and fat! Unfortunately, my travelmates weren't as fond of cats as I am and we settled for tea and cake at a nearby cafe instead.

Cat cafe directly opposite the woman's university

 We took the metro a couple of stops south of Insadong and decided to walk over instead of changing trains over and over again. We passed by what seemed like the area you buy knobs and ends for your toilets before we crossed the Cheonggyecheon Stream - another pleasant route to wander around had it not been so cold. It did add a different feel though being snow covered. It basically lines downtown Seoul starting from gyeongbokgung to Dongdaemun and reminds me very much of the river Turia in Valencia. love how they make use of these spaces to make it green in the city. Singapore, please learn and not set out to build some rental-churning building in every square metre of our island.

Snow covered Cheonggyecheon Stream

 The highlight of our day was probably stumbling onto a Street of Culture (street of street stall specialisation) no kidding, look at the sign. Street food!! yums :D We tried our first ddeokbeokki, fish on a stick thingy and some kimbap. We later found hotteoks nearer to Insadong which are these awesome little pancakes filled with cinnamon. Eaten in the cold winter's just awesome! and the one we bought had generous fillings of cinnamon sugar yums! The ricecakes were so chewy too and loved the chilli sauce!! We were amused though that the Koreans love chilli and we found similar ingredients in their food staples as in Malay cuisine such as beansprouts and some other fermented beans I know in Malay to be called taocho especially since their neighbors, Japan and China have such differing cuisines. True to name, they were all street stalls and you just stand around and eat as much as you like and pay up when you're done.

We also passed by a park which was so pretty with all the snowfall! All my travelmates have had their fair share of snow so no one wanted to start a snowball fight with me. what a pity... Still foto ops with the gazebo which had very similar tribal motifs as Geongbokgung Palace. Forgot to mention that these motifs were very similar to the Summer Palace I visited in Beijing, even in colour. 

 We then found our way to Insadong where they sold cultural goods and we stopped by the Jeju Tea shop which had really cute packaging and very many fragrant and interesting types of tea - papaya tea. We also walked around the cool shopping centre called Ssamziegil which was basically in slopes, filled with all the cute shops. I think there was one dedicated to cats. On the rooftop there is a cafe and instead of putting locks for lovers like at the Namsan tower, you could put a little piece of paper and there were plenty being hung all around.


We then headed to Jongmyo Shrine, a UNESCO heritage site where the tablets of all the past Kings remained. Make sure to check the days/times of guided tours as there are some days where the shrine is only open if you enter by guided tour. We were incredibly lucky to reach 15mins before the start of the free English tour when we didn't know about it nor planned to visit it. And it was a really cheap entrance fee too, Inside was really peaceful, aptly so for the resting place of the spirits of the royals. But it was seriously muddy so much so our guide was wearing wellington boots. In most areas, there is a pathway divided into 3 sections where the middle section is reserved for the spirits of the royals but because it was so muddy, our guide asked us to ask forgiveness from the spirits to step on the pathway. (Coincidentally, a travelmate had a nightmare that night after we visited the shrine!) The shrine was divided into the different halls, some for the prevailing Kings to prepare to pay their respects, and others to place the tablets of the major kings versus the minor Kings. I can't imagine how the locals endured winter before thick winter clothing and heating became available. We were again subjected to -10 to -15 degrees in the open and started shivering to death during the hour long tour, Enjoyed how it was really serene though and some of the snow untouched, hopefully reflecting that all their souls are resting in peace.

After that, there were supposed to be plans to ice skate outdoors at City Hall but the cold was too unbearable and we decided to head to Lotte Mall to have a good warm Japanese dinner instead. Tempura Udon yums. Another one for the next time - ice skating outside.... it was supposed to be really cheap too at about 1000 won per hour including skates!

The next day we would set off to Sokcho for the highlight of our entire trip - climbing Mt Seoraksan!!

Korea Day 2

Day 2 was a strong introduction to winter.

After breakfast, we took the metro to Geongbokgung to visit the Palace and passed King Sejong's statue. King Sejong is one of Korea's most revered royalties due to his contributions most notably for the simplification and creation of the Korean alphabet and language. Just read recently that his headpiece was recently donated by a collector, where they actually found the first few notes of the creation of the language hidden in it. how cool is that!

King Sejong's statue in front of Geongbokgung Palace and Mountains

We arrived at the Palace just in time for the changing of the guards which happens every hour (during their opening hours). They were all decked out in really colourful costumes and fake beards, accompanied by the drum and trumpets. We were out in the open square watching this and after standing outside for an hour, we really couldn't bear the cold (was probably about -10deg c) and decided to run indoors to the free museum to defrost before the free guided English tour of the Palace started about an hour later. I love that so much can be done in Korea for free/cheap like their museums, tours etc.

  

We grudgingly headed back out for the tour, led by a nice Korean lady who was really bundled up ready to brave the cold. She explained to us that the palace wasn't recognised as a UNESCO site because most of it was burnt down during the Japanese invasion. The works on the main gateway that we walked in from were also only recently completed. She explained to us the different sites and what they were used for. Told us a story about how the princess or was it Queen was assassinated in the palace itself. The tour lasted about an hour but we were willing it to go faster as it got extremely cold. All the water was frozen in the lake! As it ended, we ran into yet another free museum to defrost again. 

Afterwhich, we walked over to Samcheongdong which was literally next door to the Palace. I wished I had more time to explore the place. It's like Haji Lane shops combined with the convolutedness of Dempsey. There were so many quirky and cute shops but we were more concerned about getting lunch so stopped for some omurice with soup. Regretted not walking into the leather bag shop though. There were so many more alleys, cafes and shops that we didn't walk through cos the whole place was so confusing. Reminded me of Spain and their narrow alleys that lead you one way to another without realising where you're getting yourself to. Would definitely come back here just to wander through and get lost myself.

North of Samcheongdong was the Bukchon Hanok Village where old traditional houses have been preserved and people still live here so there were signs reminded the public to keep the noise levels down. cute! The houses were beautiful and were meant for the upper class to live in. We didn't manage to go in one but some peeps in people's houses looked so serene and gorgeous inside as well. Another place to happily wander around and get lost in! (except the cold wasn't helping that day)

 After another hour in the cold, we stopped at Azabu for coffee and snacks! - a take on the street snack shaped in a fish with different sorts of fillings inside like red bean, cream cheese etc. It also started snowing while we were in the cafe! For a person who had never seen snow before this, I was absolutely thrilled! Tried to take a photo of the falling snow but it was too fine to capture on camera. I also learnt that snowfall is not as romantic as I thought. They are either too light and start flying into your faces and eyes or too heavy and hurt your head! Yay to hoodies.. especially furry ones :) At least snow makes it a little warmer though.

 We ended off the day by going to Myeongdong for some shopping and had curry rice for dinner. Came back to the apartment and took a photo of the snow covered streets from our place. How different it looked from before we left the apartment that day!

The next morning we learnt that that night was the most snowfall Seoul had ever gotten in 12yrs - 16.5cm! In contrast though, Boston was blizzarding at the very same time at >60cm!!

Korea Trip Feb 2013 - Day 1

Day 1: Seoul here we come!
We were lucky to have found promo SQ tickets.. came up to about SGD730/pax but of course we didn't realise when we booked that it would be freezing like hell in Feb still!

We reached Incheon at about 330pm. Arriving at the airport, I thought, hey we just flew from/to the top 2 best airports in the world! I don't know if I'm just being biased here but I did still feel Changi is better. The important traits of a good airport were all there for both but lighting-wise, the whole atmosphere and feeling of travelling still felt much better in Changi. Felt that the duty free shopping in Changi was tons better too..

In any case, immigration was quite a breeze and then we went to find the AREX to town. Firstly we had to figure out the normal train vs the express. I'm baffled that for an extra 10mins and maybe skipping about 7 stops, you had to pay more than twice the amount. To get on the normal train, we had to buy a T-money card but you can only buy them from the convenience stores and guess what, the convenience stores are conveniently located IN the train station so they had to let us past the gantry to buy them before coming out to tap them in! Once you get to the platform, you'll notice that it's separated into the express side and normal side.

It took us about 1h+ to get to our service apartment, Frasers Seoul Centre at Seodaemun/City Hall after changing trains once. Not all stations have lifts so sometimes had to carry our luggages up/down steps.

We also booked our accom pretty late and were pulling our hairs over the reviews of the different places and prices pre and post taxes etc. Thank God for company discounts :D 4 of us stayed in a super deluxe which consisted of a master bedroom, another single bed, living room with pullout couchbed and kitchen. Loved the space and floor heating. Even came with breakfast, facilities like gym, sauna and dvd rentals which we utilised at night :) The frontdesk spoke English really well and were always very helpful.

I had a whole itinerary planned our for exploring the Namsan Tower and MyeongDong that night but it took longer and was more tiring of a journey than we expected so we enjoyed the warmth of the apartment for a while (with Timon & Pumba dubbed in Korean in the background) before heading out to find dinner around our area.

We probably made our first cultural mistake for dinner.  I'm still not quite sure what type of restaurant we ended up in (it felt a little German for some reason but the menu was positively korean). We were famished and unsure about the portions and prices of the restaurants so we just as usual ordered 1 dish each. It came up to about SGD12-15 per pax so we thought it was normal restaurants prices. We should have been clued in when the waiter moved us to a much bigger table after we ordered. We ordered an eggy soup thing, fried seafood udon, seafood + fish roe soup (left) and mussels that came with rice, pickles, kimchi and some interesting eggy thing around it (right). It was definitely a lot of food but we cleaned it up pretty good since we were hungry and were pretty satisfied with our first Korean meal.

Headed back to the apartment to get some proper rest for an extremely cold 2nd day.

Should have definitely done this sooner but I forgot. Wanted to jot down what we did and how we did it because I found it so useful when I was planning for the trip and found so many other people's blogs and their experiences and how detailed some of them were.. On hindsight, I wished I had done so when I was on exchange to relive the memories and all the places I went to more than just the pictures I've kept since.

Stories soon to come from this trip in Feb 2013:

DAY	DATE	Itin
Sat	2	Flight : 0805 - 1530
Sun	3
		Geongbokgung Palace, SamCheongDong,
		Bukchon Hanok Village, Myeong Dong
Mon	4
		Noryanjin, Insadong
		King's Shrine
Tue	5	Sokcho
Wed	6	Seoraksan
Thu	7	Seoul Art Museum
		Nanta Theatre
Fri	8	DMZ
Sat	9	Jisan Ski
Sun	10	Everland
Mon	11	Flight: 1635 - 2215