Our next destination is Mount Seoraksan. This is a popular and famous mount in Korea among tourist. We decided to reach Mount Seorak from Sokcho. It took about 8 hours by bus from Gyeongju to Sokcho via Pohang. Bus ticket Gyeongju-Pohang is KRW 4500/ person and Pohang-Sokcho is KRW 31.500/person. Arrived at Sokcho at 5 pm, we were welcome with Sokcho's cloudy weather. This was the first cloudy day in our summer Korea's trip. We just hoped that tomorrow, the weather's getting better in Mount Seorak.
Our hotel, Daechung Resortel (booked via Agoda), was located near the Mount Seorak area. So, we decided to take a look in Sokcho city first before took a bus to our hotel. We visited Abai Village, the hometown to many people of North
Korean ancestry. The
word ‘Abai’ means ‘an
aged person.’ This area became extremely popular after the Korean drama ‘Gaeul Donghwa’ (Autumn in My Heart) was filmed here. To reach Abai Village, we had to take the Gaetbae Boat. Holding up to 35 people, this Gaetbae boat operates on manpower (people pulling on ropes moving the boat across a waterway).
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| Gaetbae boat, KRW 400/person roundtrip |
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| Filming Location of Autumn in My Heart (also known as Endless Love) | | | | | |
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| Abai Village |
From Abai Village, we walked through Rodeo Drive Street, main street in Sokcho with many shops and restaurants, and also passed the Jungang Market, traditional but very modern and clean market.
Rodeo Drive Street
Jungang Market
When the dusk ended, we took bus to Mount Seorak area. Once again, we are amazed with Korean people hospitality. The bus driver was so kind. Although he speak English very little, he was trying his best to explain our hotel location. When we walked with our luggage to find the hotel ( it doesn't have Latin alphabet on the signage, Hangeul only), we asked the hotel location to a man, he looked difficult to explain the location in English, and surprisingly, he asked us to come inside his car and he dropped us in our hotel (about 100 m). Again, Korean people were very kind to tourist. Love it !
The next day, we were ready to go to Mt Seorak National Park. Unfortunately, it was light raining. After we took the cable car and hiking to the mountain, we still saw nothing than heavy fog ! What a bad day. The longest time in our trip was for visiting Mt Seorak, and when we're already here, the weather wasn't good. There's no perfect holiday ....so we tried to enjoy Mt Seorak. It still showed its beauty although in foggy day. I can imagine how beauty it is in Autumn !!
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| Clean and well maintained National Park |
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| Don't forget to visit the Seoraksan Museum |
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| Beautiful garden with Mt Seorak background |
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| Foggy |
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| Saw only fog at the peak |
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| Cable car |
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| Must be more beautiful in autumn |
1 comment:
Hi,
I've read your trip to Sokcho from Gyeongju.
I planned to go to Sokcho from Gyeongju by midnight bus.
But I've realized there's no direct bus from Gyeongju to Sokcho at night.
So I want to ask you on How to go to Sokcho from Gyeongju via Pohang? Do I need to reserve the ticket first? Or can I buy it directly on the bus station? What about the schedule?
Hope You can help.
Thank you before. :)
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