Havr slept so much yet I’m still feeling tired. It’s quite unusual that I fall into such deep sleep that my head rolls to the side, not once but multiple times while on flight from HK back to SG. Similarly fell asleep yesterday afternoon at parent-in-law’s place for 2.5 hours (after dozing off in car with hands slipping off wife’s lap). Woke up after 7 hours of sleep and still sleepy.

Work issues start to be on my mind (they never really went away even when I was in holiday but I consciously put them off and refused to check emails at times). Can’t avoid them now.

Back to work today officially.

No going out today. My wife’s friend’s flight has been cancelled and we could see much reduced activities around. Still, there were people walking around but the alert was on. From our room, we heard bursts of winds spat times (normally followed by crashing sound of sorts). Downstairs, on the roads, the crashing sounds were much louder and one does feel a lot more of the wind. In the morning, I went to stock up on some stuffs that we could need in case we were stuck in room for lunch/dinner, which means some cheap Daiso stuff (opened at 10am, just as I reached there), a Joe Burger and some fried kimchi rice (wasn’t quite the fried rice we were expecting, rather more like fried kimchi and then mixed into rice). Most of the rest of morning was spent reading in the room. Thank goodness for the Olleh 4G Egg.

Wife’s friend in Korea thought of meeting up for food, since we’re in the same Hongdae area we were in also (kinda like both staying in Bishan area, that’s how close we were) but she managed to get a flight. We went to Lotte Shopping Mall in the evening (after 6.30) to get stuff for home, like kimchi, seaweed, and other stuff. It was very empty for a workday, there were plenty of seating room on the train.

The shopping centre closes sharp at 8pm, when a flurry of closure happens – very sudden and you get the feeling of being chased out. We managed to get everything so went back to Japanese chashu shop at our home for food instead. Time to pack up for home. It has stopped raining since afternoon but still a bit windy.

Having decided to head to Premium Outlet but finding the bus tours departing at specific times, returning specific times and only running on weekends/public holidays, we found the public transport way of reaching there. We went back to Express Bus Terminal at Gangnam where we took the intercity bus to Seorak. For 4,900won, we booked a one hour ten minutes ride to the Yeoju departing 11am, reaching Yeoju just slightly after 12pm. Young couple (teenage kids actually) in front of us seemed to be headed the same way. From here, we were supposed to cross the road and take 51-11 or 51-13 but since there was a long line of queue for taxi, we took that instead. Don’t know how it operates but the taxi fare here goes up very very quickly (the meter increases by 100won every two seconds). We took the cab as we knew it was nearby (thanks to iPad maps) but costs us 10,000won for what would have cost a third of that in Seoul or Jeju or Seoraksan for the same distance.

Anyway, we managed to get there in 10mins and started our journey through Premium Outlet, spending our afternoon there. There was filming also (guy tries to stop people from taking photos/videos). The cafetaria had bulgogi which wife liked a lot – very sweet beef. By the time she finished and I was going to order my food, the queue had grown very very long, so decided to skip and come back later. We almost always order one portion first, and see where that brings us before ordering again, as one meal generally is enough for both due to more frequent eats.

5.35pm we reached the bus terminal and saw that despite two buses running, the frequency was half an hour (and we just missed the 5.30 bus). Took cab and it also costs 11,000won. Very weird fares indeed. However that goes us back to intercity bus terminal and we narrowly got the 6pm bus heading back! Yay!

The couple that was sitting in front of us earlier (on our way to Yeoju), was sitting in our seats. The bus was relatively empty so we just took another seat. Kinda recognized them from their hair and dressing.

Back in Seoul and got hit by traffic jam, but fortunately it was just half a km away from bus terminal. Another wonderfully red sunset that one doesn’t get in Singapore. Still miffed over the failed S100 camera. Wife was tired so we didn’t go to Coex to shop for seaweed even though it was this part of town. Instead, we head back home and the downstairs Japanese ramen that had long queue the evening before. Wonderful chashu noodles that chef happily fried with hand-held flame burner with the kind of Ajisen Ramen bone-boiled soup, that costs only 7,500won – no wonder it was popular.

Home for more music+lighted sleep. Wife had bit of problems sleeping. The warnings for typhoon Bolevan was coming in and we saw the devastation on Jeju island over internet news. No DMZ tour for us, school was closed for a day the next day. Still no rain yet but could see very fast moving clouds already. It was very windy on the way back and we commented on several negative demonstrations of umbrella usages.

We were up at 5.30am for the most beautiful sunrise, started preparing and last things to pack up (generally I would have packed the evening before). I noticed the cab waiting downstairs already – did we specify the correct time to innkeeper? Apparently cab driver was very early indeed and we left about 15mins before our scheduled 6.45am departure. The weather was still sunny but on the way, we started seeing storm clouds. Suddenly visibility turned near zero (but still no rain), and then after ten mins, rain started pouring. It was about 40mins ride back to airport, costing 30,000won (fare price) but possibly can get at 20,000won.

Flight back to Seoul was uneventful, and Seoul was sunny as ever. We followed some very specific instructions from our Airbnb host to get to his place at Hongdae are near Hongik University. We were in the middle of street shopping area, music was blasting on the Sunday when we arrived and we could hear that clearly from our room on the 5th floor. Good thing was, travel wasn’t a problem – the Hongik Uni line is one of the stops for AREX (Airport Express or Korail Airport Railway) so getting from Gimpo and leaving for Incheon was taken care. It also connected to the Digital Media line and Seoul Station, and it also has a Green line (line 2) which is a few stops to Lotte Hotel.

That was where we went in the evening as we wanted to head to DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) because no one was picking up the phone when we called to book.

http://www.dmztours.com/seoul_dmz_tours.htm

So we went down to the Hotel Lotte (supposed to have pickup here) which was the same area as the Korea Tourism, both located at Euljiro (1) il-ga on the green line. At Lotte Hotel concierge, we managed to get reservations for Tuesday (tour does not operate Sun and Mon) so planned for next day to head to Premium Outlet instead.

Walked around Lotte Shopping Mall basement a bit, where we found kimchi and stuff, also a large foodcourt. I had a Krispy Kreme donut going for 1,200won. Wife was tired so we got back to our area where I went shopping for food takeaways, ending up with dumpings and noodles. And a snack of some fried spicy fish which neither of us liked.

The room wasn’t ideal for several reasons – any movement on the bed affected the other, there was constant music in the background until 11pm (or later) and constant light also from outside as the blinds didn’t stop much of the it. Otherwise, it wasn’t too bad. There was a washing machine and we managed to get a clothsline up. Area had small shop shopping which wife loved and lots of food which I loved, and we were located right in front of a lovely Japanese ramen shop that was very popular.

Planned to head to coast area and submarine ride, but hotel manager said submarine ride unlikely as the waves were big. What??! After yesterday’s rainy day, today was a perfect sunshine hot day. The hotel manager also helped us call the airline to have our flights changed to a day earlier due to impending typhoon Bolevan. Unfortunately there were not many tickets of choice left and we decided on morning 8.35am flight. On hindsight, that was a better idea than the 2.30pm flight as it allowed us to have more time to explore in Seoul (rather than having another day travelling but because we could arrive back at residence early, to rest and spend the afternoon doing something).

Anyway took a taxi which hotel manager booked for us (arriving in 5mins) costing 15,000won to Cheonjiyeon waterfall. Walked all three waterfalls (the last is quite a distance walk downhill, and of course, coming back up. But after Seoraksan, the nasty rocky paths were nothing. Walked the bridge after that crossing the river and ended up on the side with teddy museam and all the large (read, expensive) hotels. Instead of going in the hotel path, we went straight down for coastal instead, ending up with some dolphin show area (which we didnt go in) but a buffet lunch costing 19,500won per person. It was 11.30am but we were happy to wait for opening at 12pm while we surfed on internet on a free iptime Wifi, the same that’s available in our hotel, saving battery from the 4G device.

Lunch was good, with a variety of chinese food (figured it was chinese as KaoKao was listed as Chinese restaurant when I searched for it). We ate for a good hour, too full again and then walked the coast, crossing another bridge back to the side we started from. At Seaes Resort, we went in for a look, ended up at one of the gardens and sat down for long rest (another group of people lazed in a nearby shelter also). This was, as usual in Korea, heavily advertised as place where filming for a particular movie (what’s more, kissing scene) Secret Garden, was made.

Rested, we walked around a bit before ending up in ICC Jeju. Walking in the sun at 2.30pm has taken it’s toll on us. Baskin Robbins was looking too tempting and we needed an aircon place. There was some music festival going on (price 44,000won entry fees) and then it was to Baskin Robbins where a King cup was purchased for 3,000won. All the tables around us purchased a much larger (prob 4x bigger) cup. Judging from prices, it sounded like the 4,700won double cup or the 6,700won pint takeaway.

Took a cab costing 40,000won to Aqua Planet at the other side of the island. Driver warned us it would take 1.5hours travel. On reaching, driver asked if we needed him to wait. On hindsight… maybe. Anyway tickets in were 37,000won and we had magnificent view of the gigantic whale shark which we saw on tv (due to be released back into water as another whale shark has died in captivity). Dolphin show for half hour and back to seeing more of whale shark before we were chased out closing time 6pm.

This was where we found the lack of taxi a problem on Jeju Island. Walked quite a distance and finally decided to head towards town when a cab came by (near 7pm now). Along the way we went to the beach area, saw horses, more waves, seaweed drying and cabless roads. Cab ride was 1.5hours back, with a slight detour as one of the inner roads near our resort was closed. Ate at Uncle Tonkatsu again at 8.30pm, where uncle offered to play trumpet in lieu of the mandarin orange he didnt have anymore for the katsu. After sending wife back to room, went to get groceries and stuff – needed bread for next morning breakfast and I got milk and orange juice also. Tucked in just before 11pm, both of us sunburnt.

However I am up at 2am, quite sleepless and decided to continue blogging this. It’s 5.15am now and we’re due to wake up in half an hour’s time for our trip back to Seoul (need to be at airport by 7.50 to get tickets changed and beat everyone else getting out of Jeju before the typhoon hits tomorrow).

 

Sun at 7:18am in the morning.

Sun at 8.30am

Taken from wife’s Samsung S3 Panorama

 

 

 

 

Uncle Tonkatsu with his trumpet

An early morning as our flight was scheduled for 8.35am. Breakfast and we packed up a bit before leaving home at 6.40am. On hindsight, we should have moved out earlier – reached the Gyeongbakgung SMRT ten minutes later and it was 7am before we caught our train as decided another route was more efficient (from Seoul Station where there was an Airport Rail heading both Gimpo and Incheon). Two changes of trains later at 7.35, we were in the Airport Rail line and at Gimpo in 15mins! 

A quick checkin got us in with 20mins to spare. Flight was full, with many people carrying golf clubs. Turns out Jeju was a golf haven. The flight was supposed to be just over an hour but either due to air traffic or something, we circled round for a while before permission to land. It was foggy all the way down, and raining at Jeju when we landed.  Short walk to luggage collection then headed out to find out how to get to our hotel. At the time, a lot of uncertainty but now we know better. One option was Airport Transfer Bus 600 which goes to a series of nearby hotels, then change to cab. These series of hotels are not that far, would have cost about 10,000won to our place. Instead when we reached there, we were told by the person there to take bus 100 to bus terminal and change to another bus which would get us to Sangmo-ri. It was a few stops for bus 100 (cost 1000won) and an hour trip by bus (costing 3000won) to Hamo-ri. We took all the way to the bus terminal as Jeju doesnt look like the kind of place you could drop off anywhere and just catch a cab – it was quite secluded even within the town areas. We ended up somewhere in a nearby town where is was drizzling and walked along the road before getting a cab about 10 mins later.

With that we were on our way to the Songak Resort where we had booked a room. We arrived near 12pm and forgot checkin is normally 2pm but managed to get rooms sorted out… except it smelled of very strong coffee. Went down and asked for change of room – fortunately the hotel manager speaks quite a bit of English – and went out for lunch as it would take a while to sort out room cleaning, etc. Downgraded from a 4th floor to 2nd floor but it was a nicer experience. We had planned to extend our stay here on the third day already except for that while watching tv that evening, we found out there was an impending typhoon coming Jeju’s way so we planned to change our tickets back to 26 Aug (Sunday)!

Internet in hotel was provided via a network called iptime (I saw several wifi devices on the first floow) which we used because for some reason, 4G wasn’t connecting in our room – it does almost everywhere else on Jeju where there’s civilization… Except the hotel room.

My Canon S100 had developed the same lens error it did last year and I was rather pissed about it. Reading more, I found out that it affected a batch of S100 cameras and this was a seriously bad time for it to happen again. What’s the point of having the best compact camera in the world if it doesn’t work when one needs it?

Lunch was next door, wife quite happy to eat at the tonkatsu place so I was naturally happy about it but not before we spent more than half hour in the other direction searching for food and finding two coffee shops that did not serve food. Uncle speaks relatively good English too and quite happy to entertain us. In fact we probably spent about half hour more in the shop while wife and him exchanged Chinese/Korean/Japanese words (on paper, it seemed like the different languages shared more commonalities than the spoken language). Cutlet took 20mins to prepare, a fact that the owner will always warn his customers. It was good but similar to my experience in Japan, Tonkichi’s katsu in Singapore has spoilt me :-p

It had been a long day of travel and the rain was getting to us. It was 2.30pm when we finished our food and we went back room to rest. That evening, we would walk along the coast enjoying the huge waves, but not reaching the other town. Instead we turned back after 15mins and headed towards one of the other shops beyond Uncle Tonkatsu (which was just next to our staying place). Most of the other shops sold fish and seafood as main ingredients – enough of that – and a Google Translate of Pork enabled us to communicate that we wanted to find a place to eat meat, sent us to the other end of town ( about 300metres, less than 10mins slow walk). Seriously, this is just a short road that can be covered by car in 30secs from one stretch till the other.

Dinner was a place that sold horse meat apparently, in addition to the usual fare of black pig which we chose instead. I added a Hite (local beer) and paid 34,000won total. It was worth it! The pork came in five large slices (which is to be cut up with the scissors) and owner helped show us cooking and how to eat it for the first 3 slices – together with two kinds of leaves, kimchi (I am beginning to eat everything with kimchi also, finding it weird if there’s no kimchi on the table). Too full after that! And a slow walk back to hotel, where we watched a bit of tv and accidentally switched to a channel about preparations about an impending typhoon which led us to Google for it. Planning to cut short the trip.

 

After taking bus 100 at Jeju, arrived at intercity bus terminal.

Finally at the Hotel

Decided to have lunch at this place after walking around for half an hour and finding only coffee shops.  This shop is just next to our hotel :-

 

 

 

Wife rested at home while I went out in search of food and some vitamins, also to satisfy some food cravings. After unsuccessfully looking around apartment area for 20mins due to wild goose chase from Google/Maps, decided that the “pharmacy” was most likely the facial enhancement surgery place. Had a break by having this katsu next to our residence – ordered the katsudon that came with sweet/spicy sauce costing only 7000won for large piece of katsu, totally satisfactory! After that I headed to the next nearest pharmacy indicated on the map, only to find out it was the same place Ahram took us to the day before. I tried my luck again and yes, they did have what we were looking for :-/ so that sorted out vitamins and now I just had to get some warm food back to wife. This area really had lots of food stalls. I took a chance with what I thought was warm noodles with beef that turned out icy cold and a bit yucky so that didn’t work out well.

Instead we went out together to Dongdaemun area, picking up things to eat along the way (starting with a yummy 1,500won dumpling). It was just one large connected area of shopping for one particular item for each section, very very long sections. Started with shoes and at some point we just got tired of it all, and went to look for shopping areas. There wasn’t much shopping actually… and found out that most places closed at 11am. Huh? Yeah, it looks like a midnight to late morning shopping area. So we went to some that were open before heading back. Turns out once we went past that corner (on cab), there were places like the 7storey cinema.

 

Stop for food!

Found Vit for wife!

Trip to Dongdaemun

Never.. ever… run out of shoelace or rubber or whatever.

Wow, Online currency convertor?

Arrgh!  We are here the wrong timing!

Ice in these bottled water we bought

We are now down to eating single meals at every place instead of two.  Instead, we have more meals or snacks in between

Heading over to Seoul Tower.

 

Got these long exposure shots by setting low ISO, small aperture but putting the camera on the railings.

Decided to skip going up the tower as it will take another hour (after this 10mins queue for tickets)

Instead we went to this burger place

Cyclists!

Mistake not rushing off just before the laser show ended.

Looked for food after 10pm when we got back to our place was a little difficult, but we managed

We decided to head back early in the morning so woke up at 6am to get ready to head back Seoul. It was much mistier this early. We had the super large peach bought last evening for brekkie and checked out, walking using the main road (for cars) which made it a lot easier to pull the trolley luggage along. Reached the bus stop in 10mins, around 7.25am, and saw troves of tour buses started arriving at 7.30am. The public transport number 7 arrived at 7.40 and we were then on our way to the central bus terminal (having an online map was very good in guiding us where to alight, as I had previously bookmarked the station, although the bus driver also informed us as we told him we were heading bus station).

There was an elderly man who was asking us if we were heading back Seoul, and which station. Trying to tell us that he could taxi us back for 30,000won, compared to 34,000 if we took bus. Initially skeptical, we took it though. Along the way we found out that he was heading Seoul anyway and if he didn’t have any passenger it would have been an empty trip for him (and costing quite a bit as I counted about 10,000 won in toll fees). The weather started turning rainy halfway but driver continued on his speedy gonzales driver (okay, slight reduction in speed) so while wife was sleeping, oblivious to surrounding, I was feeling rather tensed at times.

Once we hit Seoul, the meter on his cab started and he was taking us to where we were going, not just to the bus terminal so I gave him more than the negotiated price. It was pouring back in Seoul and the traffic jam was really bad – I figured it would have cost us 1/3 if not for the traffic. In any case, we reached residence at 12pm right when we were told we could go put our bags in while cleaning took place. Tried to open the lock but it didn’t work. Right then, the host Ahram came by and got us in. The previous tenant also just came up so we left the bags and went for lunch downstairs.

At 1pm, went back up and met up with Ahram who showed us how to work various items in the flat. Nice cosy place (without a t.v. but does have a stereo) and washing machine which we put to use immediately. There was a drying area just above the aircon condensor – HOT! so the clothes dried very quickly and came out nice and fluffy. Wife loved this place, calling it her favourite residence in Korea. We found it from Airbnb and it’s called BBUNGALOW2 (the second BBUNGALOW by Ahram whose nick is BBUNG), called King’s Place and it’s 5mins walk to GyeongBokGung, which is also the name of the main palace just a bit further down.

As usual, resting means I fall asleep almost immediately, and later part of the afternoon, we went to walk around the area. First stop was the palace GyeongBokGung. We walked mostly the perimeter of the palace grounds without entering (i.e. paying entrance fees) before heading further down and passed by some high end residences such as Somerset Palace Residences, before walking further on to Insa-dong. There were lots of artistic items here but we were getting tired so sitting down took priority. We settled on the 4th floor of one of the main buildings with bricky walls and had waffles with ice cream. Rested, we walked a bit further down and finally we had some road side food before heading back in a cab while experiencing a fantastic sunset with most reddish sky colour.

I kinda woke up midnight and just went around a bit before heading back again.

 

More misty in the early morning

Could see the Buddha from our room.

XL Peach!

Back to bus station

and back to Seoul.  First meal back here… seesaw

Our residence for next two nights

Wife’s fav

Fav drying place… just above the aircon compressor

Crossing the road to GyeongBokGung Palace, after sleeping in for a long time.

Wife clothes in the laundry so wearing my t-shirt

IV drip for trees

Compare a tree on IV with one that has leaves

Somertset Residences (expensive place to stay)

Reaching Insa-dong

Spectacular skies in Korea in the evenings

 

We had a relatively late start to the morning hike. By late, it means getting up at 7am when the sun is fully up already. Got dressed and then went for the hotel coffee shop sandwich which was packed in case we got hungry somewhere up in the hills. Our plan was to head towards Biseondae, a supposed 2.3km walk to take 40mins. Charlie told us an hour. We took almost two hours.

It started with a paved road for half a km before we hit the first water station. This was a large building selling food and stuff but they have water of all kinds advertised in front like hawker stalls. From here, it was no longer paved but the road still relatively flat and straightforward to walk. Once you hear the river runs, the path gets rocky, and more ups and downs. I thought we’d have problems going down on the way back but it was actually easier than feared. We saw the second stop area where there was food and water for purchase. Further on, waterfalls and finally to the Biseondae bridge. Wife wanted to keep going but I saw the rocky paths getting a bit impossible and there was the way back. It has been more than 2 hours since we set off (including a false start that took us via the backroad to cable car area, costing us almost half hour).

Photos taken, we started moving down, having our sandwiches along the way. At the 2nd stop, we had “ramen” – the only thing we knew what to order. The way back was faster. On to the cable cars.

If I remember correctly, cable car costs were 9000won. A short ride up, squeezed with two dozen other touristas, and we were up. Here, we made our way up to the harrowing Gwongeumseong. Near the top, it’s steepness was quite unbelievable but seeing how young Korean ladies in heels could do it, we went up also. My Nike shoe bottom came out on the descend but I managed to get down okay. It is only when thinking back that I realize how scary it was.

Anyway back to cable car area and realize we could descend (which most of the other tourists didn’t go to) to a secluded temple. After that it was back to hotel before we went out for dinner, advised by Charlie that a good and cheap place which his other customers had given feedback, at the 88 Baked Fish place. Taxi took us there for 10,000won thereabouts, and cost of food was 24,000won. It was next to the river where one could oversee the bridge. Oh, and got a ticket from Charlie that showed the guards we were guests of the hotel to let us back in.

Essentially you get seated, the serving lady will place a bowl of fish and start laying them out in the barbeque pit then close the air sucker over it. Then she will be back at regular intervals to serve the fish to you, but at some point the fish will be overcooked so you start taking them out yourself. I didn’t like the food as I am not a big fan of fish with a lot of small bones (seems like the Koreans eat them whole including the bones, which I cannot) and it left some really REALLY fishy smell on us, clothes and person. I tried washing the smell away from my fingers with soap thrice and it didn’t work, so in the end I just used perfumed body soap and covered the smell instead. Our clothes reeked of fish.

After that we walked the markets a bit and took cab back to hotel.

Link to morning view https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NrMgm4OujN3XFmx6VC8lw7iRKSlIIMLQ7QYEQd041rA

Packing food in case we were left in nowhere-land

The wrong way… this leads back to the start

The right way…

Drizzling but it was quite nice actually coz then it wasn’t hot

Road markers

 

The first stop area. We had refill of water here.

English signs not needed.

This rock was HUGE!

The path turned rocky

This is more like tourista stop (third rest place)

The poor guy located at this station was asked by a group of old ladies to take their photos, and we took advantage

This was about as far as we went.  After this, the road was too rocky, and I wanted to turn back.

Squirrels were happily hanging around, think because there are lots of visitors feeding them

The path that I didn’t want to go on

A guy having his lunch

This is rest stop 2 which we passed earlier.

The menu is not quite self-explanatory

Ramen… (getting used to ordering that by now)

Lady placing bread for squirrels

Sniff sniff and took the bait

Nomz nomz nomz

There was this spider with balls on feet, very thin legs, ball as body.  Very camoflaged.  It can only be spotted when moving (thus it’s impossible to find it from this picture)

Spot the blue bird

Never got to try anything from here

Cable car

Oh dear… wife is going up.

Alright, we made it to the top…

… now is time to head back down.  The descent broke my shoe soles and had to tear it off.
(click for full pic)

We headed down the path to the temple (not many people went down)

Just a toilet down there

Walked to near the entrance of the park

15,000 won for this :- we ate half only.

On cab out to town for dinner

Famous eating place (supposedly)

Fish is GONE!

We bought a super large peach from here!

20 Aug, Sunday: We had a late morning out of Hotel California, lazing in bed again till near 9am. By now we have bookings for Jeju, and also booked two nights of Airbnb stay with someone’s BBUNGALOW#2 place at GyeongBokGu which was where the palace was (actually GyeongBokGu was the name of the palace, and also the SMRT station name – SMRT stands for Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit). Went down stations down where we were staying to Express Bus Terminal. Had brekkie at one of the coffee shops and then up to the bus terminal where we found that we could only get tickets for 1pm bus

As we were walking around, we found that another counter advertised tickets to Sokcho for 12.20pm. So weird. Isn’t it standardized? Not sure why but apparently tickets are released later, for earlier buses. At that point, there was a person shouting for tickets to Sokcho together with a word my wife recognized as Hurry in Korean. Illegal tickets? Hmm, probably not as he was doing it right in front of the ticket counter… and exchanged our 1pm tickets for 12pm tickets!!! Too good to be true? No, because nothing happened and after walking around waiting for the bus for half an hour, we boarded a bus (at 12pm, of course) and were on our way to Sokcho!

It was a 2hr 40mins ride, slightly longer than the advertised 2:20 most likely caused by the rainy weather and heavy traffic jam getting out of Seoul in the rain. There was also a 15mins break stop after 1hr 20mins. Finally… we were in Sokcho. Lugged the luggage out nearby for some food – couldn’t travel really far and it was drizzling so we ended up in a nearby coffee shop for instant noodles as we don’t really know what else to order (ramen is a keyword we are using now). There is one of those 7-11-like shops at the station which sells umbrella (good quality) for 9000won and a very durable raincoat for 3000won. With that, we could at least move about (at least walk 10mins along the main road till we reached the shop where we had lunch, and the bus station)

From the bus terminal, cross the road then move rightward for about 50m and bus number 7 or 7-1 will take one to Seoroksan for 1,100won. The journey is about half hour – it is quite a distance away even though not many stops. We were staying at Seorak Tourist Hotel, where I had earlier emailed Charlie Kwak, the manager of this place and secured bookings for 80,000won a night. It was a loooooooong walk in (especially lugging luggage that had to travel on uneven grounds which prevented the otherwise draggable trolley wheels from doing it’s job)… About 100metres in. Information Counter guard did not speak English but using Google maps, found it (this has turned out to be one of the other most valuable tool on this trip, especially for the anally need-to-know me, combined with the 4G device providing instant and extremely accurate where-we-are information at all times).

Charlie was all too happy to explain about the various trekking routes, while we couldn’t wait to get into the room after a long ardeous travel and walking around in the rain. It was coming close to 4pm. By the time we got to room and settled in, fell asleep in deep nap and woke up 6pm to have a short walk round the park. At nearby temple, got caught by a monk explaining things to a group of young people whom we found out later were on templestay. Temple Stay is a program where you can stay in a temple and experience what it’s like for a few days. Think it’s free. By the time we finished, we were closer to Enlightenment but running out of time for dinner at 7.40pm (monk offered us room at their residence which is just next to our hotel). We didn’t stay at the temple :-p

It was too late – all the shops were closed despite Charlie telling us closing time was 8pm. However we could get pizza or fried chicken delivery! 15 mins!! We took the pizza option and really, most fantastic meal (as we were really hungry. Then tuck in but not for sunrise as we wanted to get more sleep than a view of sunrise from the mountain.

Not knowing what lies ahead, we ate at the first coffee shop

Schedules on three of the ticketing booths.  So it says 13:00 but later switched to 12:20 and we got the 12:00 bus ticket from some guy.

There are swimming pools in Korea but we never got to any (too rainy, too distant?).  As I had a long distance swim event in early Sept, I will be out of training for a while.

Rest stop

Windmills… and our neighbour’s innovative way of putting the bottle where there was no holder (we were on the first row)

This is the bus terminal.

Not knowing what to order, all menus were in Korean with no pictures… the owner understands “ramen” so ramen it was and something else we pointed to.

Had an hour half long session with the monk.