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Published: November 15th 2012
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Campsite
The campsite we chose at 12:30 in the morning After our weekend in Seoul we decided to have an outdoors weekend camping. I started loking into it and found a place a couple hours away on the east coast of Korea near a city called Sokcho. The place we were interested in camping was called Seoraksan National Park and it was supposed to be a really cool park and we would still make it in time for the leaves changing color which was an added bonus. Earlier in the week we were sending Facebook messages around to see what we were going to bring, who was bringing what, and all the neccesary items in order to camp in Korea. With all the plans made we all met up after work in Seoul at the Express Bus Terminal. I had come separately since I had to meet Jason (or newly found Korean/American friend) to grab a tent that he had bought off gmarket (a shitty China ebay). Without this tent we were going to be camping outside on the ground with no shelter whatsoever. So I was hoping that this tent would be big enough for the 5 of us. When I met him and saw the tent he was holding,
Campsite
Surprising how 5 people fit into this tent! my hope faded. It looked puny. Like something you get out of the Walmart kids camping section. Nevertheless it was still a tent that we didn't have and we figured that the closer we were together, the warmer we would be!
We purchased our tickets for Sokcho and were the last seats on the bus which was full. It was a comfortable charter bus with seats that reclined. So we settled in and reclined our seats for the 3 hour bus ride. I learned my lesson last time with drinking beer on the bus so we all waited a little bit until we were at least halfway there and then started drinking some wine and soju figuring that we may need the alcohol in order to get some sleep in the extreme cold. As we pulled into Sokcho we grabbed a 4 person taxi and somehow managed to get 5 people with backpacking gear into this cab and describe where we wanted to go. It helped being coined as the navigator since I got to sit in the front seat with more room than they had in the back. The cabbie must have loved us because at the end
Watering hole
Who knows what the fish were doing chillin there he gave us all some coffee candy which was terrible but we all said our kamsamnida's and parted ways. It was about 12:30 by the time we got to the camping area and set up the tent and a fire. Once the tent was set up we could finally see it's full size.....5 people would be pushing the boundary of this little tent. There was no rainfly, no ground sheet, and not really enough room for a grown person to sleep with straight legs. So we stayed up by the fire trying to stay warm and enjoy our first night camping on our own and eating some snacks that we had brought then crammed into the tent with hardly any room to maneuver. You were stuck in the sleeping position you chose.
A couple of posts ago I told you how decked out the Korean hikers get. Boots, hiking pants and shirts, hats, backpacks, raidos, etc. Well, they are even crazier about camping. I'm not even sure if you can truly call it camping. They must sell a a luxury tent line here in Korea because these tents are MASSIVE! I'm talking like the size of some of my
apartments I used to have....well, and currently have. Some are 10-12 feet high with an outdoor vestibule you can stand in, an inner room, and a side room or 2 for the kids. The one tent we looked into had like a full kitchen and electric set up with a tv running so they could watch their crazy television shows. And everybody has these tents. They dwarfed ours by at least 4 sizes.
The next morning we woke and decided to do a hike in Seoraksan National Park. There was a bunch of trails we could do so we decided to go in and see what we could find. We caught the bus to the entrance and joined the crowds heading in to hike. We started hiking and came upon an ancient village that was nestled beside a small river at the base of the mountains. It was nice and serene. Apparently this area is where the monks thought they could find divine enlightenment or something since it was so beautiful. We walked around the village for a little bit and then kept walking up the trail to this rock called Heundeulbawi which was a huge rock that had
a little cave under it that you could walk under and pray to Buddha. After checking that out for a bit we decided to keep hiking towards a huge rock face called Ulsanbawi. We came to the base area of the rock and looked straight up. There were steps that wound left and right and straight up this rock face to the top. I read later that there are 888 steps to the top. So we started hiking up the stairs. These stairs were really steep. One wrong step and you would go tumbling down them. Thankfully no one fell on our trip. About 3/4's the way up the mountain, Patrick and I were waiting for the girls to catch up so we found this rock that looked like it offered a great view. So we hopped up and checked it out. The view was amazing but if you stepped too far you would tumble down the cliff and basically die. It was one of those heights that made your hands sweat and your head dizzy but it was a great view of the valley. As the girls caught up we headed to the top of the mountain for a
Stone dragon
Stone dragon at the steps leading up to the temple stunning view! There was a flat rock platform with guardrails around it that showed a great view of the valley on the other side of the rocks and then of the valley we had just climbed up. It was great to be at the top of the mountain and check out the view. We climbed back down the stairs and headed back to campsite to make some dinner.
We were all starving and quickly got the fire going and started cooking sweet potatoes, onions, peppers, steak and chicken in wraps. It was SO good! Patrick had made a little "casserole" thing that he heated up and we ate that as well. I think some of the best meals are made over the campfire. Yet again, another chilly, tight night sleep in the tent. I was fine. I had wool socks, sweatpants, down jacket and a hat in a sleeping bag. I was toasty!
The next day we woke up and made some spam and eggs and packed up the tent for the long ride back to Incheon. It would have been a nice drive except for the fact that the bus driver could not drive at all. He
basically would keep tapping the gas to get the bus to speed up vs gently placing his foot on the gas. It was beyong annoying! A 3 hour bus ride took us a little over 5 due to all the traffic. Good thing we were in a comfortable bus with Anipong and Words with Friends to keep us busy! (Anipong is this phone game that all the Koreans place. I'll include a screenshot for the post whenever I get a chance) Overall it was a great weekend and we lucked out with the weather and had a blast. The weekends here are too short!
I will include pictures as soon as I can. My phone isn't letting me send out emails which is beyond annoying. So I'm going to try and find a way around it and see what happens.
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