Gangwan-do, the province that we went to, was just as beautiful as we were told. It was all mountains, rivers, huge lakes, forests and rice fields with huge stretches of sandy beaches along the coast. It being summer, and Korea being over populated, all of the points that made it appealing to us also made it appealing to the local population and it had it's fair share of summer travelers. We left on the Sunday of the long weekend and when we arrived in Gangneung, which has the most popular beach in the province, we were really put off by the amount of people. And it wasn't just the number of people, it was the people who were there. They were hip summer weekenders from Seoul. It was a little bit intimidating. That first night we spent in the most horrendous campsite either of us had ever been to, but it balanced out because the beach that it was close to was pretty darn nice indeed. We sat on the beach watching hoards of families setting off fire crackers and playing with sparklers. That is one of my favourite things about Korean people: they are always doing something. When Jer and I are just sitting on the beach in the evening watching the moon rise, they are playing with sparklers. When we are reading our books and having naps during the day, they are burying each other in the sand and throwing the girls kicking and screaming into the water. Just hanging out isn't in their repertoire. After our first two nights the long weekend crowd thinned out to just the summer holiday crowd and our initial fear that we would be overwhelmed by the Koreans left.
The next day we headed to Seorak-san, the "most beautiful mountain range in Korea". I say it in quotes because I was told that soooo many times, but I definitely don't say it in quotes because I'm being sarcastic. It was spectacular. The camp site there was the nicest we have seen in Korea. It reminded us a lot of national park sites in Canada. It was organized, had all the amenities (including hot showers!) and there were trees everywhere. There was no mistaking the fact that we were in Korea though. It was loaded with people. Where I'm from I'm used to having space, but, despite the trees and the idyllic location, there were people everywhere. One fun thing to do was stroll around looking at everyone else's set ups. We came with our tent on our backs and an estimated 10 minute set-up time, but the Koreans had something else in mind. Their gear is something to be marveled at and setting it up was a real time consuming process. It is like taking the showroom from the camping version of Ikea and placing it out in the wild. They have huge tents with even bigger awnings, tents for sleeping in that they put inside their huge tents, lounge chairs, barbeques, tables, hanging cupboards, and food and booze coming out their ears!
We chose not to do a 2 day hike thinking that after not hiking for months, it would be pretty sad to wake up on day two not wanting to even walk to the bathroom and realizing we were only halfway through our trek. Instead we conquered Ulsanbawi. It is a huge rock on on the top of a mountain that is pretty spectacular. The hike itself, however, was a little on the strange side and at the end of it we both decided we would never want to do it again. The hike was only 3.4km, so not a huge undertaking, but it was the layout of the hike that didn't appeal to us. The first section was like any other hike you would go on in Korea, but the second part of the hike (maybe the last kilometer), was stairs. Stairs straight up the side of this HUGE rock. Most of the stairs were so straight up that it was like climbing a ladder. I'm a little petrified of heights and I was crapping my pants most of the way up and cursing myself for being there in the first place. I especially didn't like the little segments between the sets of stairs where you had to scramble up some rocks to get to the next set. It all seemed a little bit precarious to us, but there were people with kids up there and no one seemed to notice that we were hanging off the edge of the world. The view from that top was great though and I once again had to remind myself that the climb is always worth the end result.
That night it started to rain and by the morning we were not only glad that we were not halfway through a mountain course, we were also ready to get the hell out of our tent. We packed up, ate breaky, headed to town, got the word that the next day was supposed to be nice, and then headed further North to a beach called Hwajinpo (go further North than that and you end up at the DMZ). It was cold and raining and we were hungry and miserable by the time we got there. Then I slipped on the floor of the bathroom and hurt my arm. That was it for me, I was ready to call it a vacation and go home. Instead, we got a min bak, which is another word for totally reasonably priced hotel with a kitchenette. We had hot showers and crawled into bed with our books for the rest of the evening and all was right with the world. The next day wasn't sunny per se, but it also wasn't cold and it wasn't raining. We ate breakfast on our balcony with our ocean view and took our time. It was totally luxurious. That day and the next day we spent sitting on the beach reading who-done-its (as Dad would say).
It was kind of a strange vacation when I think that most of my friends went to Europe, or the beaches of South East Asia for their trips, but it was relaxing and peaceful for the most part with the added bonuses of saving a lot of cash and getting to see another part of Korea.
We had a good time.
