Seoraksan

Seoraksan is a mountain and national park in the east of Korea, about 15 minutes drive from Sokcho, a coastal city. It may sound tiring to embark on a day trip the morning after arrival but I had several constraints. Firstly it was crucial to avoid weekends for day trips. Even during the week, many Koreans, especially retired people, visit attractions, and it would be much worse during the weekend with families. Secondly, if the weather was good, it might not be so when I returned to Seoul in a week so I had to grab the opportunity. On the plus side, I was coming from a timezone one hour earlier so an early start would not be as demanding.

After a simple breakfast of cereal, bread, butter, jam, and coffee at the guesthouse, I set out for the Gangbyeon bus terminal, one of the two terminals for buses to Sokcho. This involved a ride on the circular 2 metro line for about a quarter of the circumference, which took about 45 minutes.

There I found that the earliest service I could board was around 1100, tickets for earlier buses had been sold out. Unfortunately to book tickets online, if possible at all, one needs to navigate Korean web pages. So I killed some time wandering around the bus terminal, and bought some snacks and water for a lunch on the road.

Korea is a mountainous country and highway engineers have their work cut out for them. There were many spans across valleys. The trip was about 2½ hours long. A friendly old Korean couple offered me a hard boiled egg. I declined but that was nice of them.

There was a rest stop at a row of roadside eateries and trinket shops. One is never far from food in Korea.

Finally we reached the Sokcho bus terminal. Following the instructions I had printed off the Internet, I crossed the road and caught bus 7 to the park. There was a queue of cars waiting to enter.

Finally I reached the park entrance around 1445 where I paid the entrance fee. It is possible to wander down trails and also take the cable car to one of the summits. The latter is a round trip and doesn't lead anywhere else.

Since it was already mid-afternoon, I decided to take the cable car first. Even so, there was a queue and the earliest service I could board was 1540. So I bought a ticket and took a walk on the trail to the temple until the appointed time.

The big Buddha is one of the attractions of the park.

It was quite pleasant walking on the trail in the cool autumn weather. I saw many non-Korean tourists, mostly from other Asian countries.

A cosy coffee shop which I didn't have time to try. Coffee shops are ubiquitous in Korea.

Distant peaks in golden afternoon light.

Beware of bears.

The crowd at the boarding platform.

Finally going up. The car was quite crowded.

The view at the top. The bare peaks are quite a contrast to the verdant lowlands.

More distant peaks. Some of the mountain walls are sheer.

There was a path to a local peak and I followed the crowd there. 

Everybody, including me, was snapping away. Lots of selfies were taken.

The hour was getting late so I descended.

Before leaving the park I noticed this stall selling some kind of dried berry.

The seafood in Sokcho is said to be good. I had intended to get off the bus near Sokcho beach where there are restaurants since I would not get back to Seoul until late. As it turned out I got off at Sokcho harbour, which was in a way better because of the wide choice of eateries.

I was looking for an ajingeo sundae, which is not a dessert, but fried stuffed cuttlefish.

I found a stall in the seafood market selling that, and also took a couple of cobs of corn. The sundae was passable, but the rice a bit bland and the casing a bit tough so I won't be trying it again. Anyway preferable to the normal sundae which is blood sausage. The corn was rather starchy and bland and not the sweet variety I was expecting.

Wish I had the company and time to have a meal of one of these.

I hadn't realised that the bus station was about 30 minutes walk from the port, and even checked my smartphone's GPS due to doubt. There I found that the first bus back to Seoul was at 1920 so I killed some time with a coffee and surfing on the free WiFi.

By the time the bus reached Gangnam station, the other terminal, it was around 2200, and I had still to catch the metro back to my guesthouse. But Seoul keeps going late and there were many workers or students around at that hour. BTW, yes this is the Gangnam of the hit song. It simply means south of the river, and it's a trendy and expensive district.

And that was my long day trip to Seoraksan National Park.