Day 79 – Sokcho
Today we woke up early and went to Seoraksan National Park on the 7-1 bus. Considering how rural we are, I was surprised that the bus had English announcements for all major stops. Also it was funny to see, all the bus stops looked like flip flops…maybe I just miss summer.
Flip Flop Bus Stop in Sokcho
The bus ride took around 1 hour. After purchasing the tickets for the Seoraksan National Park we decided to do the Ulsanbawi (Rock) Course first. The course was 4km long and the return trip took around 4 hours to complete. The course is a combination of metal and stone stairs.
Along the course, there is a shrine/hermitage known as Kyejoam Seokgul. We only stopped here on the way down, and it is worth a look. Just outside the shrine, there is a small fountain with water that you can drink (we saw locals drink it, so we did too). There is also a Rocking Stone known as Logan Stone, which everyone tries to push. I couldn’t get it to rock or move.
Logan Stone (Rocking Stone)
The peak of the Ulsanbawi Course has a beautiful granite ridge, which overlooks the mountains in the area. It was super windy on the top, we had to hold on to our hats and put our jackets on. We descended the mountain around 11am and it was very busy with people going up, so we were glad to have beaten the crowds.
We walked back to the start of the National Park for lunch. On the way there, we went to the Shinheungsa Temple Bojeru, The temple was built in the 1700s and was very impressive. Around the main temple, there was actually a story which was cool to stumble upon.
We had lunch at Lotteria, which is a fast food restaurant. We had to order using a touch screen that has an English menu, but once the order was made, the numbers were called out in Korean, so we had to stand there watching every order.
After lunch we decided to do the Geumganggul (Cave) Course next. There was a one hour walk to the base of the cave course. The “expert” portion of the course, took us 1.5 hours for the 1.2 km return trip, due to the steep incline. The cave has a small shrine inside it. There was a monk inside, and we had a conversation with him, and found out he lives up there! He also gave us some mountain water to drink, which seeps into the cave.
We then left as the sun was starting to set. By the time we were back to the ticket office the sun had set and we caught the same bus (7-1) back to Story House Guest House. We wanted to have a shower and then go out for a small meal followed by an early night.
Once I got to the male dorm room, we met a Korean who was also on a holiday. This (funny) guy was super friendly and we talked for ages, before we all agreed to head out of dinner together. We went to a market that was close by and with funny guy’s help we had grilled fish and Soju (Korean Whiskey). It was basic but so tasty as the fish was fresh.
Our new tour guide was still feeling hungry so we crossed the road to a seafood restaurant. Here we had a fish raw soup and were introduced to Somek, which is Soju infused with beer (stirred by the vibration of a chop stick). After dinner we went back to the guest house and talked till the early hours of the morning.