Music: Megalomaniac by Incubus
About 2 weeks ago was the Chuseok Holidays in Korea. To put it simply, its the Korean version of Thanksgiving, or our version of raya, hehe. And I am thankful for the 1 week holiday that came with it. At first I wanted to go to Jeju again but decided against it and went on a different road trip instead with some friends.
During Chuseok, the Koreans would pray and remember their ancestors.. give food offerings.. visit their graves etc. One of my friends invited us to his house to experience the ceremony.. his hometown was in Wonju, about 40 minutes drive from Seoul. We took a night train and reached there around 5am in the morning. It was interesting to go into a Korean house that is not an apartment. Small, nice, cozy.. the whole gang (their family) was there.. besides praying, they also eat and eat and eat!! The food was really good too. They had the prayers in the house, then we ate the food that was offered to the ancestors for breakfast hehe. Then they went to the graves and prayed at the tombstones. My friends went, however I was too tired and sleep so I stayed in and slept. Oh my how bad. We brought some fruits for the family, which were added to the already so many food offerings on the table haha.
After Wonju, we took a bus to Sokcho.. for the main activity of our trip.. which was hiking! hahahaha. It seems like that's all I do these days. Sokcho is a small city, only minutes away from the 3rd highest mountain in South Korea.. i.e. Soraksan. However, we didn't climb to the highest peak, which is at 1700m. That would take 2 days and I usually only do day hikes. Up and down the same day. Easy. But we did opt to climb the most difficult route.. There are many routes. I actually expected the climb to be more difficult. We climbed in 2 hours, 30 minutes faster than the average/estimated time. Soraksan is more like ridge so most of the way it was almost flat and the gradient was small. But the last 30 minutes we had to hike almost 80 degrees up. We started at 7.30am and were down before noon. With still so much time, we opted to go on another route and see enjoy the waterfalls. Both hikes gave us beautiful views, of course. For those who wants to come to Soraksan, which is about 2 hours from Seoul I think, but doesn't want to hike, don't fret. There's a cable car that takes you up to one of the peaks.
That night we went to check out Abai Maeul in Sokcho. Its the location where 'Autumn in My Heart was shot. Ok so apparently this drama is sooooo freakin famous and popular, and fans come from all over the world to see this place. I've never heard of it before hehe. We also ate the famous Ojingo-sundae (stuffed squid), only available in Sokcho. Haha. The night before, we went to check out Sokcho Beach. It was full moon at the time and oh my god the view was really nice.
(Hmm I think I can write better than this but I'm sort of lazy right now haha).
The next day we on the way to Jeongdongjin, we visited the Samyang Ranch, which is purportedly the largest ranch in Asia... or something. I called it New Zealand. So we went to NZ by bus. There were windmills, and the view of hills and vast green field is pretty good. There were cows and sheep and ostrich. But of course it is nothing compared to NZ, which is really one of the most beautiful places on earth, at least to me.
The reason we went to Jeongdongjin was because we can only take the train back to my place from that city. I didn't expect much but the small city turned out to be a really nice quaint cute city so to speak. It sort of gave me the same feeling when I was stranded in Lima, Peru and discovered how nice the city was! On 1st January every year, tens of thousands of people will come here to watch the first sunrise of the year. Again with the sunrise, people???!! Hahaha. No kidding, I read about it on the internet. Why here? Its supposed to be the most eastern part of the Korean Peninsular. Oh wait, I thought it was Geonjeol-kot? (refer previous post). Hahahaha. There is one interesting thing though, the Jeongdongjin Train Station is the nearest train station to the sea in the world. I dunno how true this it but thats what it says in the Korea Tourism website.
Again, I've left out many things that happened during the trip in this post, the little things and happenings and thoughts that made the trip more fun that what I described here.. oh well, sorry about that. Now comes the hardest part, choosing only a few pictures from a total of 500+ that I took.
About 2 weeks ago was the Chuseok Holidays in Korea. To put it simply, its the Korean version of Thanksgiving, or our version of raya, hehe. And I am thankful for the 1 week holiday that came with it. At first I wanted to go to Jeju again but decided against it and went on a different road trip instead with some friends.
During Chuseok, the Koreans would pray and remember their ancestors.. give food offerings.. visit their graves etc. One of my friends invited us to his house to experience the ceremony.. his hometown was in Wonju, about 40 minutes drive from Seoul. We took a night train and reached there around 5am in the morning. It was interesting to go into a Korean house that is not an apartment. Small, nice, cozy.. the whole gang (their family) was there.. besides praying, they also eat and eat and eat!! The food was really good too. They had the prayers in the house, then we ate the food that was offered to the ancestors for breakfast hehe. Then they went to the graves and prayed at the tombstones. My friends went, however I was too tired and sleep so I stayed in and slept. Oh my how bad. We brought some fruits for the family, which were added to the already so many food offerings on the table haha.
After Wonju, we took a bus to Sokcho.. for the main activity of our trip.. which was hiking! hahahaha. It seems like that's all I do these days. Sokcho is a small city, only minutes away from the 3rd highest mountain in South Korea.. i.e. Soraksan. However, we didn't climb to the highest peak, which is at 1700m. That would take 2 days and I usually only do day hikes. Up and down the same day. Easy. But we did opt to climb the most difficult route.. There are many routes. I actually expected the climb to be more difficult. We climbed in 2 hours, 30 minutes faster than the average/estimated time. Soraksan is more like ridge so most of the way it was almost flat and the gradient was small. But the last 30 minutes we had to hike almost 80 degrees up. We started at 7.30am and were down before noon. With still so much time, we opted to go on another route and see enjoy the waterfalls. Both hikes gave us beautiful views, of course. For those who wants to come to Soraksan, which is about 2 hours from Seoul I think, but doesn't want to hike, don't fret. There's a cable car that takes you up to one of the peaks.
That night we went to check out Abai Maeul in Sokcho. Its the location where 'Autumn in My Heart was shot. Ok so apparently this drama is sooooo freakin famous and popular, and fans come from all over the world to see this place. I've never heard of it before hehe. We also ate the famous Ojingo-sundae (stuffed squid), only available in Sokcho. Haha. The night before, we went to check out Sokcho Beach. It was full moon at the time and oh my god the view was really nice.
(Hmm I think I can write better than this but I'm sort of lazy right now haha).
The next day we on the way to Jeongdongjin, we visited the Samyang Ranch, which is purportedly the largest ranch in Asia... or something. I called it New Zealand. So we went to NZ by bus. There were windmills, and the view of hills and vast green field is pretty good. There were cows and sheep and ostrich. But of course it is nothing compared to NZ, which is really one of the most beautiful places on earth, at least to me.
The reason we went to Jeongdongjin was because we can only take the train back to my place from that city. I didn't expect much but the small city turned out to be a really nice quaint cute city so to speak. It sort of gave me the same feeling when I was stranded in Lima, Peru and discovered how nice the city was! On 1st January every year, tens of thousands of people will come here to watch the first sunrise of the year. Again with the sunrise, people???!! Hahaha. No kidding, I read about it on the internet. Why here? Its supposed to be the most eastern part of the Korean Peninsular. Oh wait, I thought it was Geonjeol-kot? (refer previous post). Hahahaha. There is one interesting thing though, the Jeongdongjin Train Station is the nearest train station to the sea in the world. I dunno how true this it but thats what it says in the Korea Tourism website.
Again, I've left out many things that happened during the trip in this post, the little things and happenings and thoughts that made the trip more fun that what I described here.. oh well, sorry about that. Now comes the hardest part, choosing only a few pictures from a total of 500+ that I took.
Soraksan
Ulsanbawi Peak
Biryong Falls
Samyang Mokjang
Fall foliage
Jeongdongjin.. view from our motel
Sunrise Hotel.. no its not a ship.
Jeongdongjin Train Station.. right by the sea!
Food offerings
Gambar raya! Happy Chuseok!
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