Korean Adventure days 5 – 10 Beaches, Mountains and Music Festivals

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Gangneung

It took us an hour to get from Tongil Victory Park to Gangneung which is further up the east coast, however we got off at completely the wrong stop and ended up wandering around Gangneung city for a while trying to find the right bus stop.

We’d planned for the next couple of days to chill out and camp near the beach before heading up to the mountains for some hiking. We got a bus to Gyeongpo beach as I’d read there was a campsite. When we turned up it was to a chaotic absolutely packed to the rim beach. There was weird music blaring out and there seemed to be some kind of promotion going on (on the beach) for fridge freezers – why would you target trendy young beach goers as fridge buyers? Apart from the fridge promotion it looked like a really busy beach on the costa del sol but without any noticible bars or debauched behaviour. Being there for ten minutes made me feel on edge there was no way we could stay there if there wasn’t a bar – I know this makes me sound like a raging alcy but honestly that’s the only thing that makes those kind of places bearable isn’t it? We got a taxi further up the road and then decided to just keep walking along the coast for a while.

After trudging along with our big bags for 3km we came to a nice small campsite next to a small beach. This looked much more peaceful so we set up camp and went to the mini hof tent for a fried chicken and beer dinner.

Because we’d moved a bit further north and this area was fairly quiet only part of the beach was allowed to be opened because of the possibility of North Korea infiltrating. So the beach was tiny and we weren’t allowed to swim out far. Unopened parts of the beach had been barb wired off and we were right next to a military base with look-out posts hidden in the pine trees at the edge of the beach. Surreal but interesting nonetheless.

We arrived on a Saturday evening and there was a stage and seating set up for some entertainment. We bought some beers and went down to the beach as all seats were taken. We sat on the beach sipping beer and watching a beautiful red moon rise over the ocean whilst a local brass band/orchestra played big bang tunes. You don’t see sunsets on the east coast, only sunrise and moonrises the latter I had never seen before. It was a pretty unique experience, especially because we were noticibly close to North Korea. Later on the music became more varied with some Korean crooners, a young rock band and of course noraebang (karaoke) bingo where an ajumma or ajushi (generally older married woman and man) was picked from the crowd and made to sing. We were the only waygooks (foreigners) there and it was a really nice evening.

The next day I was woken up early by lots of people cheering. Korea had just beat GB in the Olympics football meh! We headed down to the beach, got a smoothy and a pot ramen and spent the rest of day splashing in the sea (Ash freaking me out because I was swimming near loads of jelly fish without realising - they were harmless but he got amusement out of my fear). Later we went on the search for dinner. On the seafront all restaurants sold fish but it was above our price range. We found a restaurant just behind the sea front and ordered an amazing seafood soup with squid, enormous mussels, clams and various other creatures for about £3.50 each. We were so full and drained from the sun that we passed out early.

We left the next morning and amazingly (as we felt like we were in the sticks) found a bus depot just down the road from the tiny beach with a bus that was heading back to Gangneung city. The nice guy told us we could wait in his air conditioned office (by now it was the hottest part of the day and im so allergic to the Sun). We got the bus back to Gangneung main bus terminal, had a burger whilst waiting and then boarded a coach to Sokcho.

Sokcho and Soeraksan National Park

We had planned to go to Sokcho and camp near the beach. But in usual style we hopped on the right bus but missed our stop. Luckily the bus was heading out to Seoraksan National Park so we thought sod it and jumped off near the campsite we planned to stay in the next day.

It was really misty and humid and the air felt like it had recently been raining. So different to how it had been in Sokcho and its literally a 15 minute drive away. Seoraksan is South Korea’s most famous national park and its mountain range goes over the border in to North Korea. The mountains are AMAZING there you just keep looking up and thinking 'wow!'.

We set up our really shit tent in the campsite amongst all the fully equipped families and then set off on the search for food. It felt like there wasn’t much around so we had chicken (again!) and some beers, watched the athletics and then went to bed.

We got up pretty early the next morning to go hiking. After a trusty pot ramen we walked maybe 3 or 4 km to the park’s entrance and paid the equivalent of £1 to enter. The mountains are really impressive, there are a few different mountains to climb, valleys and also waterfalls so it’s suitable to all ages and fitness. We decided to go up Ulsan Bawi which is a really craggy rock that looks a bit like the back of a triceratops dinosaur. The start of the walk was nice and pleasant along the stream on raised platforms. We stopped and had some Bibimbab (mixed vegetables with rice and an egg on top) in a restaurant along the route, concerned that pot ramen and biscuits were not going to get us through the hike.

After that it got a lot tougher. The stairs became steeper and more boulder-like. It was hot but we were mostly protected by trees. Then came the most vertigo inducing set of steps I’ve ever seen leading up on to the bare rock face of ulsan bawi and after that we were climbing up big rocks to the top. It was knackering but the view at the top was the best I have ever seen in my life! Mountains heading off in to the distance with mist hanging down over them one way and blue sparkling ocean the other.

Going down was shit scary but much faster and as we walked back we saw a restaurant grilling mackerel outside and couldn’t resist. We had a huge mackerel each, plus soup, side dishes and rice for 10,000won or £5ish. It was yummy. We had a couple of beers and started walking back when we heard singing echoing in the mountains. Set up on a car park on the walk back was another impromptu show for the residents! We watched for a while but we don’t really like old school Korean crooner music so went back to the camp to bed.

After a bad night’s sleep we were up early but camping in the shit tent was taking its toll and we were really tired. I think we looked really rough and impoverished as Ash got up before me and some drunk ajushi came over, hugged him, said ‘You have no house’ and gave him an can of coffee haha. We were too tired to hike again so we went back to Sokcho and booked in to a Minbak (guesthouse) and rested for a bit. Later we went down to Sokcho beach and wandered along the harbour before buying… you guessed it – more chicken (I ate more fried chicken on this trip than cumulatively in the past decade in the UK) and beers and took them back to the Minbak.

Chuncheon

The next morning meant another bus journey to Chuncheon, which is known as the city of lakes. We had nowhere to stay so put our bags in a locker ready to go to a jimjilbang later. We went to one of the lakes and rented one of those giant swan pedalos. We were the only people on the lake so it was a bit weird. Chuncheon is famous for Dakgalbi (chicken bbq) so we had that for dinner. We tried to find a student area for nightlife but couldn’t so went to the Jimjilbang as we were going to a festival the next day.

Electronica Music Carnival

Not far from Chuncheon in Gapyeong we’d found a festival called Electronica Music Carnival. It was set up on an island in the middle of a lake which is also a campsite. DJ Shadow was headlining on the Friday and Fergie was also playing (used to like him when I was in to hardhouse) so we bought tickets. We had to wait for over an hour before anyone even came to set up the ticket stand and it felt really weird. In England if you were hanging around waiting to go in to a festival you’d see people getting hammered or making a fuss but here people were sat around really politely and totally sober.

When we finally got in and set up our tent we really wanted beer – it’s a festival after innit and then we ran in to our next problem. The bar wouldn’t take money and we would have to set up a paying app on our phone. Frustrating! We had to wait for ages while they tried to make it work so didn’t get a drink until 6.30pm!

The rest of the night was fun but so different to an English festival. I only saw one other waygook and I think we were more drunk than anyone else and I wasn’t the drunkest I’ve ever been or anything. We were joking around doing funny dances and people just didn’t know what to make of us it was strange as in the UK everyone would be doing that. DJ Shadow was good fun and when we watched Fergie it was virtually empty but it was the first time we’ve heard anything resembling actual techno in Korea so we felt happy - AND DRUNK.

We were SO hungover the next morning we got up early and went straight to the train station and then to Seoul for the last full day of our trip. We got a cheap seedy hotel and slept off our hangovers and then went to Itaewon. For those looking for a good sandwich go to Bakers Table near Itaewon. We had a dribble worthy sandwich and then went to Craftworks bar for some ale – a rarity in these parts. We wandered around the main part of itaewon but I found it a bit seedy to be honest not my bag so we went back to the Hotel.

The next day we had lunch and then got the train home. Gangwon-Do is a really interesting area and I would recommend anyone to travel up the East Coast. It’s not tropical or beautiful in the way South East Asian coasts are but it is really pretty, Seoraksan is amazing if you like mountains and it was great to experience holidays as Korean people do in a popular destination. So yeah thumbs up Gangwon Do you were great.

I’m moving blog next time just in case anyone is interested! I’m going to Wordpress as having image issues here L

In a bit x

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Photos

Moonrise
Ash took this amazing photo