A few weekends ago, I visited Seoraksan. It is the third highest mountain in Korea and is park of one of the bigger national parks here. I went through a company called Adventure Korea and Chris decided to join me in the adventure as well. We started the Saturday morning bright and early at 6am got onto the bus then the subway to our pick up point. We ended up getting there quite early so we wandered around and bought the freshest bagels I have ever eaten from Paris Croissant. On the website where you sign up it showed that 29 seats were available for the trip - they must advertise elsewhere too though as there were three bus fulls of us, each bus fitting probably around 50 people. There was a good chunk of people going. What I find interesting about the chartered buses here is that they don't have toilets on them like they do back home, therefore are reliant on rest stops, which is not a bad thing, but I don't understand why it is.
The drive there was mostly relaxing, except the trip organizer on our bus decided to play ACDC at 8:30 while everyone was trying to sleep. Yet later when we were on the bus at 5pm they turned off the lights and did not play any music - what?! Before arriving at the park we stopped for lunch which was a bibimbap buffet (rice, with veggies and a spicy sauce with egg). It was good, but the restaurant that my co-workers and I usually go to for bibimbap near our school is much better! Here is a picture of me with my self made bibimbap.
There were two options for hiking when we got to Seoraksan - Ulsanbawi which is the longer hike and includes several stairs or Biryong Falls, which is easier and you get to see a waterfall. We opted to do Biryong Falls, but I would like to go back in the spring and hike Ulsanbawi. Here are some pictures from that part of the hike.
The park is gorgeous, and some of the trees still had their leaves which added to the beauty. It's supposed to be really beautiful during the peak of Fall when the leaves begin to change. When we first arrived we purchased tickets to take the cable car up to another part of the mountain, so we headed back and checked out a massive Buddha and a temple before getting on the cable car.
We climbed up to the top most part of this section of the mountain using rope and crevices for our footing.
As you can see from the pictures, the weather began to change during this second half but it didn't start to rain until we were in line for the cable car to go back down. The rest of the day was sunny and I wore my t-shirt for most of the time. We also played in the leaves.
This second half of the hike is called Geongumseong walking course, though it wasn't really a walking course. It started to get dark so everyone piled back onto the buses and we headed to our accommodations for the night - which were a lot nicer than expected! I figured we would be staying in a pension (a room with mats on the floor), but we stayed in a motel and Chris and I got to share a legitimate bed! I also had my first jjimjilbang experience. A jjimjilbang is a Korean public bathhouse, which are super popular here! They are cheap (under ten dollars) and you are given special clothes to wear while inside. We used the pools first. This consisted of a huge room filled with several different pools (there were at least six at the one we went to) and each pool is a different temperature. There were hot ones, moderate ones, cool ones, an outdoor one, one with minerals (looked like mud water). This room is segregated so it was female only, the men have their own on the other side of the building. This is because you go in completely naked! You get undressed, walk in, shower yourself then use the pools at your leisure. This was such a weird experience as you would never find something like this at home and it was especially weird as there were so many of us foreigners and we all just met. I got over though and enjoyed the hot pools and saunas. Afterwards we put on our special clothes and checked out the co-ed room, which is a big room with mats that you can sleep on, there is a big TV, and several smaller rooms that are different temperatures again. We didn't' stay in this area for too long as we had not eaten yet.
A small group of us girls that just met grabbed food at a restaurant nearby which only served Samgyeopsal (pork belly). Not my favourite, as you can imagine it's very fatty, but I ate some anyways as my body needed something after hiking during the day. Afterwards, Chris and I grabbed some snacks and chung-ha (a nice tasting rice wine) and went back to our room and watched Korea's Next Top Model before passing out.
We stayed in Osaek Valley which was about an hour away but still part of the national park. The next morning everyone headed out to walk and explore Heulimgol Valley - which was also very gorgeous and we had excellent weather again. Below is Chris and I with Dana, our new friend from Toronto. We also met and have kept in touch with a couple who lives nearby us. He is Indian/Korean and she is from Germany.
The water was so blue!!
For lunch we had a tofu soup, so yummy then headed back to Seoul. There was a lot of traffic and it took ages, we ended up getting out the bus and took the subway the rest of the way home. On a side note, I tried to like tofu so much back at home, cooked it different ways etc. And not, here, I love it, I even crave it sometimes! Tofu in soup is so good!
It was a really great weekend and nice to spend some time completely submersed in nature. I will be posting more pictures on Facebook, so check those out! Here is a group shot:
<3
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