Gangwan-do trip Day 3

We decided to go to bed early on Sunday, as we were catching the sunrise and wanted to make sure we didn't miss it. We had wanted to take the train out of Jeongdongjin on Monday morning, as it was pleasant and rather cheap, but not only did the train not go all the way to the next town that we wanted, but the timetable was a complete mystery. We discovered that there were three trains on Monday morning: 3:30am, 4:30am, and 12:30pm. So the first two trains would mean that we would miss the 5am sunrise, and the next train would mean that we would have to stay in a rather small town that we had covered the night before, and waste half a day of our already short trip. So we planned on catching a bus instead, which luckily came by every 45 minutes or so.

We assumed that we would be one of only a few groups of people out on the beach, but apparently it's not a well-kept secret that Jeongdongjin has good sunrises, as the beach was rather crowded. We also got out of the hotel after the sky was already a bit light, though the sun hadn't yet risen. We managed to find a spot a bit farther down the beach away from the crowds.

My first sunrise since Boca

There were fishing boats out on the water, and at first James and I were rather perturbed that they kept sailing into our sunrise and parking there. But we soon realized that the boats simply made for a better and more interesting picture.

A small fishing boat off the coast at sunrise

Another boat, even further out

More of the beach, with the ever-present floating cruise ship

We had seen a pavilion on a larger hill overlooking the sea the night before. We had searched for the path up to it Sunday night so we could watch the sunrise from there, but either from lack of familiarity with the area, or lack of light to see by, we missed it and made it back to the hotel without ever having found how to get up there. On Monday morning however, we were able to find the entrance, which we had walked near but not past the night before. So we headed up a short climb to the pavilion to watch the rest of the sunrise.

A view of the sea from the nearby pavilion

A bright pink and red ceiling in the pavilion, a different color scheme than most of the other ones I've seen.

We could see the train tracks from the pavilion. We got a bit upset when we saw a train coming through after sunrise, but it was a freight train, not a passenger train.

You can see how close the train station is to the beach

After waiting for a group of 4 Korean boys who were taking their picture in front of the best view for about 15 minutes (not exaggerating at all), we took our own pictures and headed back down to get our stuff and move on to Seoraksan, one of the most picturesque mountain areas in Korea.

A random small temple in the middle of the town.

It took us two buses to get to Sokcho, and then another bus to get to the entrance of the park, so we didn't get there till after noon. Our first order of business was to find a place to stash our bags at the least, and a room at best. Our first thought was to stay in a minbak, which is a room in someones' home that's rented out, usually extremely cheaply. But though there were several minbak around, none were within a comfortable walking distance to the park's entrance. Even the youth hostel was a good few kilometers from the entrance, and was advertising prices that were twice that of the hotels at the gate. We found a hotel that was reasonably close (who wants to hike another few kilometers after a long day's climb?), but they hadn't finished cleaning all the rooms, so she couldn't give us a key. We settled for leaving our bags behind the counter, paying the 30,000 won for a room, and getting a receipt for later, just in case. Then it was off to the mountains.

The road to get to the park entrance was full of people, and it was off season

One of the mountains views on the way to the entrance. I was entranced the whole day by the scenery.

One of the hotels had two London Double-Decker buses on their grounds, complete with original signage inside and out.

They made James feel right at home.

A view of the mountain range on the way into the park.

A drying river bed.

So we headed up into the park. We turned around a bend to the right, and my jaw dropped at the sight of the larges statue I've ever seen.

This Buddha was utterly massive. I couldn't get over how beautiful it was, and tried though I might, I couldn't figure out how they made it (i.e. was it multiple pieces put together, was it carved from a single stone, was it even made from stone or metal?)

At the base of the state were two giant dragon heads. I guess kids are just as gross here as they are in the States.

And there were tiles you could buy to put anything you wanted onto them. I don't know where they went after you bought one, though.

Then we headed up to one of the temples further up the trail. I don't remember the name of the temple, but the setting was beautiful as well as the temple itself.

Temple guardians.

Look! Do you see the chipmunk? It's right there!

This is the top of the mountain. I climbed this. I don't believe it either.

It is written in stone. I just don't know what it says.

Farther up the mountain was a hermitage with temple carved into the stone of the mountain.

This is by far my favorite Buddhist temple. There was something about the relative simplicity and calmness of the temple, and the lack of massive amounts of gold. I've never really been able to reconcile the idea of leaving all worldly things behind you, and then having a massive golden statue in your temple. But this one was carved from the stone of the mountain.

My favorite Buddha statue in Korea

And we kept climbing farther, and farther up the mountain.

We knew we were almost at the top when we saw the stairs over the rocks. James left me at this point to go wizzing up the stairs, and I took my time (and tried to catch my breath) as I climbed the hundreds of steps to the top.

I have no idea how this is physically possible.

No, the picture is not crooked. The stairs are.

It was an utterly exhaustive climb. But the view from the top was more than worth it.

It started to look like rain, and we didn't want to be caught climbing back down the mountain when the rocks got slippery, so we headed back down to Ulsan Bawi.

More writing on the stones

This is Ulsan Bawi. It's massive, but it's set so that if you push hard enough, it rocks abck and forth.

James pushing the Ulsan Bawi, with the mountain that we climbed in the background



We stopped at the same temple on the way back, and we saw a monk ringing the bells in one of the buildings.

And I had to get one more picture of the Buddha statue from the other side before we headed out of the park and tried to find some dinner.