The Lost Blog: Skiing, Seoraksan and Spring Break

Recently, a coworker was asking about visiting Seoraksan over Summer vacation. I wanted to tell her how much I enjoyed it - and so I thought I would show her my blog. I logged on and GASP! I actually never really wrote about the details of our Lunar New Year Trip!! Considering this was one of the most insane weekends of my LIFE... I couldn't believe I managed to forget to write about it. So here, 6 months later, is how the trip went:

We booked through Z Travel Bug instead of Adventure Korea, because they were both offering similar packages, and Z Travel Bug's was a bit cheaper. I preferred the trip through Adventure Korea because they had one more day of skiing, but others in our group liked that the Z Travel Bug trip was spending time in Seoraksan National Park, while the other was just heading to Sokcho (the province where Seoraksan is) and going to the beach (IN FEBRUARY?!) In hindsight it's sort of a toss-up whether we made the right decision... Let's make things clear: I am *not* recommending Z Travel Bug to anyone in Korea. Our bus was always late, and cold, and broke down... twice. The meals that were provided were inconvenient and unappetizing. And the overall trip was a few jello shots short of a disorganized Spring Break. But, we met a lot of crazy people, and made a ton of great memories. Having taken other Adventure Korea trips - I can vouch for them. They have their act together and deliver on what their trips offer. And as for those people who are opposed to tour group travelling, I say, give it a chance! Especially in a place like Korea where if you don't know the language well, you're pretty much stuck to Seoul. ANYWAY - back to my trip...

We spent the first 2 and a half days at High One ski resort in Gangwando. Our condo was at the base of the resort and was all around fabulous! Really fancy ski lodge rooms, a television that got plenty of English channels (including BBCnews and CNN!) and a nice view of the mountain. Of course there was one small detail that was fudged by our tour guide: by 4 people sleeping to a room ... he meant 10 people sleeping to a "two bedroom" condo. Only one of which had beds, there was one couch, one room with Korean sleeping mats, and the floor of the living room to sleep on other than that. Which, under most circumstances wouldn't be all bad. But unfortunately, some of our "roommates" were the type to stay up drinking ALL night - and some of us on the trip aimed as getting out to ski by 9 am when the lifts opened. That might have been the worst night's sleep I ever had in Korea. But all in all it wasn't too bad, and once our guide got to the resort to pass out our lift tickets by eleven the next morning, I was finally on the slopes, and happy! High One was definitely the smallest resort I've been to, and I have to say that I don't think I qualify as an expert skiier anywhere but Korea, but the runs weren't crowded at the top, and the snow was nice quality. Koreans ski much different than we do in America. Most of them don't start till late afternoon and then opt to night ski. The lifts are open all day and all night (most places at home take a break before night skiing, or only run one lift at night) and you buy your ticket for a set number of hours. Also, the lift ticket is actually a plastic card you keep in your pocket and swipe at the gates. Then -for the cherry on top- instead of snow on the ground at loading area of the lift, they have a conveyor belt! You don't push yourself up to the loading point.. you just stand, and wait for the chair to catch you. Also, they are very strict about lowering the safety bar, and snowboarders generally take off both bindings and just carry their board to the to of the run. STRANGE! It was nice skiing though. And it was a very clear day, so it was prety scenery on the way down. If I could only ski one day this season, it was a good one!

The next 2 and a half days, as I said, were spent in a city called Sokcho, shooting of fireworks at the beach and going to Seoraksan. Sokcho - while in South Korea (obviously), is actually above the 38th parallel ... so that's cool. Of course, Seoraksan definitely didn't disappoint. As you enter the park you are greeted by a sprawling valley surrounded by sheer mountain peeks. If you can endure the pungent smell of beondegi and the souvenir hawkers, you can walk just past the main base area and see the giant bronze statue of Buddha. There are two (maybe more?) Buddhist temples in the park. From what I learned, there was a monk who visited Seoraksan years and years ago on a personal retreat, and he found it so peaceful that he decided to stay. I can't say I blame him, the scenery was beautiful. I imagine it's stunning in the spring when all of the snow melts and the rivers, streams and waterfalls fill up again. We hiked to Ulsanbawi - one of the most famous peaks in Seoraksan. Unfortunately, Mullen and I aren't exactly skilled mountain climbers, and weren't up to climbing 800 stairs to the top. Especially when the stairs were covered in ice. We got within .8km to the top and called it quits, so that we could have time to play in the snow and meander down the trail, before heading back to our tour bus. It worked out great because the sun came out just as we got to the bottom, so we were able to take some really gorgeous pictures of the peaks, and of the bronze Buddha. Not to mention we had enough time to pose with the odd ice sculptures near the souvenir shops. That is, if we were willing to fight for a chance to take our picture! None of the Koreans wanted to wait in line ... everyone was just slipping and sliding theif way into each other's pictures! The only let down was that everyone was wet and cold after our hike - so we were all pretty miserable at dinner - where there was no heat. We could see our breath at the dinner table - no joke. And then on the bus the heat seemed to only be working in the back of the bus. So half of us froze while the other half baked... no good.

Skiing in Korea!

Conveyor Belt Lift Loading... So Bizarre.

View of the Casino and the Base from our Resort

So they had all of these strange glowing inflatable things... After we saw them all over Seoul for Buddha's birthday we realized that they were just Korean paper lanterns. Still, there were some strange ones. Here's a few of the best.

You're ET? NO WAY! I'm ET!

Andrea's messing with the giant Ajushi. What else is new?

1985 - Kudos to the year of the Ox!

First shot of the East Sea at Sokcho

A famous fresh fish market street in Sokcho - I didn't commit the name to memory, because I really don't eat fish ... This night I had a delicous dinner consisting of sesame lettuce leaves and rice... now I know how Andrea feels.

MMMmmm Breakfast! Soft tofu soup, rice, kimchi, and seaweed. Can't you imaging chowing down on this while watching Batman cartoons on Saturday morning?! I sure can...

Finding our inner outdoorsy-ness at the entrance to Seoraksan National Park.

Bronze Buddha and a Signal Bell at the Temple.

Andrea and I being impressed with Ulsanbawi.

I am meant to climb those stairs? An-i-yo.

Stop motion snowball fight. Much more fun than scaling a mountain!!

I have to say it was one of my favorite things we've done this year. The other people on the trip definitely had different priorities for their weekend off from work, but even if we were out of our element, Andrea and I had a nice time. And it's always nice to get out of Seoul for a weekend every now and again. Which I am about to do again! On Saturday night we head out to Boracay for the week, and I couldn't be more excited! There will be some rain, but hopefully only for part of the day. It's definitely time for a real vacation!!! I don't know if I will have internet access - but if I do, I will post some photos while I am gone. I will try to post some of my photos from Buddha's birthday back in May (I realized I forgot that one too! >_<) But either way -I won't forget to blog about this next trip!