Gangwon-do trip Day 1 & 2

Because of Buddha's birthday being Saturday May 2nd, and Children's Day being Tuesday May 5th (note: Children's Day is a national holiday and there is no school. The same cannot be said of Teacher's Day, which is Friday, May18th), Julie decided to give us Monday the 4th off. This gave me a four day weekend, and a perfect excuse to go on a little expedition.

I had originally planned to go with Adventure Korea for a tea festival and hiking since most of my friends weren't going to be in the country. Then James canceled his plan to go to China, and since we know we travel well together, we decided to explore Gangwon-do - the province to the east of Seoul that borders the East Sea.




Since James had Friday off and I didn't, he went to Andong on Friday, and we met up in Sokcho early Saturday afternoon.

The tourist information booth and bus terminal at Sokcho. I love climbing ivy.

After finding a place to stay for the night, we headed to Hwangsongdul Cave.

Waist-high field of flowers on the way to the cave entrance.

Fairy Falls, also on the way to the cave.

A mountain peak on the pleasant but steep climb to the cave

The cave entrance, with a bat themed ticket counter. We didn't see any bats this time.

The cave itself was, well, cavernous. The guidebook mentioned that it was the largest limestone cave in Asia, and that some places were cathedral sized 'rooms'. James and I had a rather long discussion on whether or not it was actually cathedral-sized or not. Seeing as how I've never been to Europe and seen a 'real' cathedral, I think he may have won. (He said it was a small cathedral at best.) Regardless, it was the exact opposite of the last cave I went to, which was small and slightly claustrophobic. There was also a large underground river running through it, so the sound of running water (which I love) was ever-present.

A view down to the walkway and underground river

Thank you Korea. I couldn't have lived my life happily before this.

It looks like an egg, don't you think?

Weird rock formations inside the cave

A rather out-of-place-looking wooden tepee thing outside the cave that had a waterfall that looked like the one from Kill Bill

We got back to Sokcho, and spent the evening wandering around the town. The next morning we decided that we would head to the Penis Park first since it was an hour away. The hotel let us check out but keep our bags in the office, and we went to go catch a bus. Now, for the sake of my possibly younger audience, I have not included any of the pictures of this rather eclectic, and slightly shocking park. I have, however, included pictures of the scenery of the area, as the views of the East Sea from the top of the park, as well as at the bottom of it, were amazingly beautiful.

From the top of the park looking out to the East Sea below

One of the statues overlooking the sea

I could have spent all day clamoring over those rocks.

I think this is wisteria that was hanging on a trellis at the top part of the park

This is one of my favorite pictures, even though it's slightly crooked.

The water was so beautiful. I shouldn't have been surprised at the number of kids we saw at the park.

The park only took about an hour, so we decided to head over to see the Unification Park, which had a North Korean submarine that had crash-landed off the coast of South Korea in 1996, as well as a US battleship that had been donated to South Korea.

Battle stations ready!

It was a big boat.

My fiercest attack face on a 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

James' face was better.

The inside of this was so small. I was bent over the whole time. I can't believe that 26 people were in here!

We went back to the hotel to grab our stuff, then we took a train to Jeongdongjin, which is famous for having a station right on the beach. It was the first time I've been in a real train (that wasn't a subway). I was rather excited.

The next cabin up on the train

A view from the train of the beach. Notice the barbed wire and the lights. It's to deter the North Koreans from trying to land.

The first train I ever rode at Jeongdongjin station. Korea has been full of firsts!

Why yes, that is a giant cruise ship sitting on a cliff in the background. How astute of you to notice.

Jeongdongjin station was amazing, as it was right on the beach (even closer that A1A is in Ormond). James gave me a hard time about this, but I was not happy with the set up of the station. You have to cross the tracks to get onto the train, or to get to the rest of the town from the station. Can you imagine having to cross train tracks in the States? Someone stupid would get run over by the train and sue the company. There's no railroad crossing signs, or stop signs or anything. I guess they assume that you should be smart enough to see and hear the train coming, and if you're not then you deserve to get run over.

I must take after my mother. Doesn't that just look dangerous to you?

After getting our hotel situated for the night (since Jeongdongjin is famous for sunrises, we decided to stay the night instead of moving on so we could see it), we began to wander around the beach and the town.

A stream emptying out into the sea

Empty soju bottles from the night before

There were tons of kids here. It looked like a great place to spend a family weekend.

A giant hourglass. Apparently a famous Korean tv drama called Hourglass was partially filmed here. I have no idea how often it turns.

The beach at twilight

I love the coastline in Korea - so beautiful!

One of the more touristy things in Jeongdongjin is the giant cruise ship that's comfortably nestled on the top of a cliff at the edge of town. James and I climed the steep entranceway to the ship, but it's 5,000 won to just get onto the grounds, not even get into the ship (which is a hotel/ resort), and we didn't feel like paying for a view, so we left.

Don't ask.

A boat yard that we clamored around until an ajushi yelled at us to leave.

James had never lit a firecracker, and since they're legal (!) and popular on the beaches, we each got one and lit them.

Lotus Lantern Festival

This year Buddha's Birthday fell on a Saturday. It's a big deal in Korea, and had it fallen on a weekday, it would have been a day off for most Koreans. The celebration begins a few weeks earlier with people all over the country hanging lotus lanterns in the city, and especially near Buddhist temples, to remind people that it's coming. There is a Lotus Lantern Festival the weekend before, which I attended with several of my friends.

The main event for the festival was on Sunday April 26th, so I canceled my Korean class for the week and headed out late Sunday morning for Seoul. I had planned to meet up with friends later in the afternoon, but I got there around noon, so I wandered around to look at the area by myself.

A mass of lanterns in Tapgol Park in Insadong, in front of the remains of the Wongak Temple.

I wandered through Tapgol Park, and discovered that the station I got off at was an easy walk to Insadong - the ancient cultural tourist trap where I purchased all my traditional Christmas presents last year. I came across some ajumas making mini lotus lanterns for donations.

The ajumas hard at work making mini lanterns outside Tapgol park.

There was a woman standing near the ajumas, trying to get people to buy the lanterns for only 1000 won (about a dollar). She pointed to the sign that she had written, which said something to the effect of "meals will provide to men are old". I was able to tell the woman, in Korean, that I understood what she was asking for, but that her sign didn't make sense in English. So I offered to write her a new one. I wanted to write something along the lines of "The donations you give to purchase a lantern will go towards purchasing meals for older men", but it was too far away from the original sign. So this is what she ended up with:

Photo courtesy of a Chris Chien, who I didn't see at all that day, but who saw my sign later on that day and thought it was awesome enough to take a picture of.

She seemed very pleased, and after I gave her 1000 won for a lantern, she gave me another for free as a thank you. At this point I headed back to the subway station to meet up with Kathryn. Kathryn and I chatted over chaumchi-kimchi-jiggae (tuna and kimchi stew - yummy!) in the Jongno area.

Kathryn took a picture of me in Topgol park with my two lanterns, which I later lost.

I took Kathryn through the same areas I had been, and we went through Insadong as well. We had forgotten it was the Hi Seoul Festival as well, and we came across these lovely dancers, who broke out into dance in the middle of the very crowded street:

And right after the dancing, I ran into one of my students from my morning classes and his mom. She spoke no English at all, and he knew no English two months ago when he started, so communication was rather difficult. I had to explain to the rather worried looking mother that I was his English teacher, and not just some random foreigner talking to her son. She indicated with her hand for us (myself and Kathryn) to follow her, and then she proceeded to walk away, without a glance back to see if we were following, or even if her son was still with her. She ended up buying us a box each of some traditional Korean spun sugar candy (that I also lost later on in the evening), but it was a good distance away from where we had been and the whole time Kathryn and I were watching her son to make sure he didn't wander off and wondering where she was taking us, and even if she had meant for us to follow.

Little wooden statue men in Insadong. They're traditional, and I have no idea why.

After wandering around we went for coffee, but apparently it hit Kathryn wrong and she said she needed to go home just as James and Dayna got to the station to meet us. So James, Dayna and I went to look at the festival.

The first part we saw was an area with a bunch of tents that had everything from grinding your own coffee, to painting hanji paper crafts and meditating with monks.

Well-Being is Korea's version of the health craze. This is Well-Being Yoga. With plates.

Dayna talking about fair trade practices while grinding her own coffee.

The coolest version of double dutch I've ever seen. Look closely, and you can see the ropes form a cross that the person is jumping over. So you need 4 people to hold the ropes instead of just 2.

The penultimate Jenga game.

After wandering through the street of tents and such, we ended up at Jogyesa, which is the largest Buddhist shrine in Seoul and the headquarters of the Jogye sect.

The entrance to Jogyesa, which was overly adorned with lanterns. We thought they might have spelled something with the colors, but we couldn't tell for sure.

More lanterns just inside the entrance, with the seven-tired pagoda in the background to the left of the tree.

How can you take a scolding seriously when your mom is wearing a lotus on her head?

The white lanterns are hung for relatives or friends who have passed on.

The architecture of the temple was amazing- even the doors were beautiful.

A happy Buddha statue at the temple, seemingly asking you for money.

We stayed at the temple for a while, and watched a performance with dancers from the traditional Hahoe masked dance, though it wasn't the original dance itself but rather just the characters from it. After the dancing we met up with some other friends, who had just had dinner. We recommended to them that they watch the performance, and then Dayna, James and I went to get something to eat.

Girls in Hanbok, traditional Korean clothing, waiting for something.

James knew a small place in a back alley in Insadong that served home-made mandu (dumplings) that was delicious.

My favorite Korean food - steamed mandu.

After dinner we headed back to the main street by the Jongno subway station, which is where the lotus lantern parade was to be held.

Lining up waiting to start the parade

It started drizzling right around this time, and since the sun was going down it got rather chilly as well. We decided to move from where we were to get a better view, so we switched to the other side of the street. And before we saw anything, we heard this:

The parade was fascinating. I sat next to James the entire two hours, and we talked about all the different floats, people, and just random weird stuff that kept passing by us. After the parade was over, we headed to the subway to go home, at which point I realized I'd left my bag with my lanterns, my candy, and my brochures under my seat by the parade route. But it was late, I was cold, and I just wanted to go home, so I didn't go back for them.

Here are the photographic and video highlights from the parade:

I tried to catch the peacock on film while it was breathing fire, but it didn't want to cooperate.