Summer Vacation

We got our time off. Six days to do our thing. So we decided that seeing some more of Korea was the thing to do. So Saturday morning we set off to the east coast, making our way to a town in the north east of Korea, Sokcho. It was about a 4 and a half hour bus ride through the mountains from Seoul to Sokcho. The scenery was cool, very reminiscent of the alps. You can understand how there are still bears and tigers in the north of Korea, as the forests are so dense and stretch on forever. There is very little evidence of any inhabitants in the mountain areas.

Now there ain't much going on in Sokcho, but its a good starting point. Within only a short bus ride is the Seoraksan National Park. That's where we headed on our first full day, Sunday. The park is beautiful, truly stunning scenery. We took a hike through the forests, along a river, and up a mountain. A fantastic place, we got to see some amazing stuff, and get close to nature.

That night we ate at a place that did dumpling soup, that Samantha had been gagging for. We got talking to this Canadian guy who was there on his own, Reuben. Later we got talking to another guy, turned out he too was Canadian. They're bloody everywhere! Anyway, we spent the night chatting and drinking with the guys, and didn't get to bed until the very early hours.

Next day we made the decision to leave Sokcho and head slightly down south. We made our way to Jeongdongjin, a very small seaside town that's quite famous in Korea. The reason for its fame is the huge hourglass, that runs for a whole year, and is turned every New Year. Also it's well known for the cruise liner on the cliff top. Literally! The rebuilt a cruise liner on the top of a cliff, as a luxury hotel.

We found a motel in near the beach and within sight of the cruise liner. It was mid-afternoon when we got there, so we immediately hit the beach and soaked up what rays there were left. The next day it was overcast, so the beach time was out. We climbed up the cliff, to see what was going on with this cruise liner. They have a sculpture park up there, and a big sailing ship that they also built onto of the cliff. We wandered around, and has lunch in what would have been the bridge of the liner, when it was a 'real' ocean going ship.

After lunch, we'd done the whole cruise liner thing. We grabbed a cab and went about 6Km north to the Unification Park. Here they have a old South Korean warship and a North Korean submarine that you can walk around. The coast is quite heavily fortified around this part of the coast, with look-out points every so often. The submarine they have was captured only about 10 years ago.

Next day it was throwing it down, so we decided to head home. It took us a long time to get home by bus. What should have been a 3-4 hour journey took us 8 hours. Traffic was nose-to-tail all the way almost to Seoul. Looked like everyone had the same idea, and decided to come home a day early. We were so glad when we finally made it home. We had a good time, seen a lot, and I'd managed to read the whole of the last Harry Potter book.