Emotions are brimming, heaven is pouring. Will you make it through the rain?

Sokcho is a coastal city located about 2 hours from seoul in Gangwan-do.

Beautiful, laid back place with quite a number of tourist attractions.

Could feel the sea breeze while walking towards our lodging at house hostel

Despite the bad weather, we decided to visit the main attraction of sokcho, Mt Sorak.

On the bus to Mt Sorak

Past by many fields on the way up. Fresh air gushed in from the bus windows

At the foot of Mt. Sorak

Had to get raincoats cos of the drizzle

Mt Sorak is a national park.
3 main routes up the mountain and we chose the toughest hahahaha =p
The USANGBAWI rocks. Catchy name! It takes about 3 hours to hike up to the peak of the usangbawi rock and 2 hours to get down. Started at~10 plus and ended mid afternoon. That is the tallest mountain i've ever climbed in my life. Unforgettable. Now everytime dar and I climb a long flight of stairs, we will be reminded of that hike. haha.
Lots of rocks, mud paths and stairs =p

Despite the fog that day, we managed to enjoy some really nice scenary. There was a huge buddha and a temple at the foot of the mountain. Suppose to have a super long history which i can't remember now =p

Tourists from all over the world wrote wishes on these slabs

The way up was mud trail and rocks initially. Followed by steps and more rocks haha. Was really tiring. But...even grannies made their way up. haha we couldn't give up.

A huge piece of rock out of nowhere =p

Steps...

the FOOT of Usangbawi...after about 2hrs of hike

steps....

more steps...

AND MORE!!!

We were already in the clouds!

When we finally reached the peak of Usangbawi, we couldn't really see anything

Peak of Usangbawi. We thought we were in the wrong place =p

Although the view was covered by the fog, we had a strong sense of achievement. That point is the tallest point anyone can reach at Mt Sorak. The winds can be chilly up there~but haha shiok.

Lunch at the peak! The tuna bread tasted so good cos both of us were starving =pp

After some of the fog cleared, we could see part of the scenary haha.
Better than nothing =p

Wwe stayed at the peak for a little while, got a souvenir and continued downwards.
It was super windy and cold

The walk down was so much easier and relaxing. We took our time to go back to the hostel, bathe and rest before we set out again. This time, with bikes.

The host and his pet =). Excellent host. He explained everything so well!

Their wet market. It was still open in the evening.

we continued cycling on the streets.
Beware of their alleys~cars can appear anytime =S

Everything went well until it started to rain extremely heavily. Initially, we wanted to make our way to the bus terminal to check the timing for the next day's bus back to seoul and visit some other attractions, but gave up. It was really difficult to cycle in the rain. I couldn't cycle beside him and couldn't hear what he was saying. Being at the back most of the time made me feel quite vulnerable.

So we took a break and waited for the rain to stop. Meanwhile, we decided to quit seeing other attractions and head for dinner. haha. Dinner saved the day! That was dar's favourite meal in korea. cheap and good. meat bbq buffet for just 7000won (less than 9sgd)!!

This is the shop. Go look for it if u ever go to sokcho!

The happy man~

That was not the end of our day haha. After dinner, we continued cycling in the rain to explore sokcho. Found a huge lake but it was too dark to see anything.

We were back at the hostel at about 10pm. Its a nice place with great people but rooms maybe a little run down. Had some rest that night and guess what, we woke up at 3 plus cos we wanted to catch the sunrise before going back to seoul =pp

Photo of the lighthouse early in the morning. We cycled in the drizzle again hahaha.

At the sunrise pavillion. The sky was too foggy to see any sunrise... but was still worth waking up early to enjoy the sea breeze and to watch the bustling sea port.

We also cycled to the market again that morning before we checked out of house hostel and went back to seoul. Come to think of it, its amazing how we accomplished so much in just one day at sokcho. It was a feat we accomplished together. Usangbawi especially. The tough hike made us cheer on and support each other, sang songs to entertain and we chatted about everything under the sun. It really made us stronger.
Now we firmly believe there's nothing we cannot accomplish together. =)

If given a chance, would definitely visit Sokcho again.

LiJEin
Thursday, August 05, 2010