Dear reader, 

Previously on the blog was my Uljin STEAM trip recap, there I mentioned, we were granted the Thursday and Friday off of that week since. Eric and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and getaway. I perused through the Lonely Planet Korea book and found a few spots, ultimately decided to go north to a town on the east coast called Sokcho. Sokcho is a popular destination, it’s a bigger coastal town, but if I said this to any Korean they would scoff at that notion - I found it quite large. It is in proximity to Seoraksan National Park, Seoraksan Mountain is Korea’s third-largest mountain, it reaches a height of 1,708 meters (5,604 ft.) My aim was in exploring more of Korea’s coast, there is a famous temple near Sokcho called Naksan Temple which we also made plans on visiting. Photos had a very picturesque view of the ocean with a few temples overlooking the ocean - awesome.

To get up north we had to take a 5-hour bus from the north Daegu bus terminal, it was a direct bus into downtown Sokcho. The high-speed trains do not go to that area, to take those we would have had to have gone west into Seoul and then bussed from Seoul into Sokcho. We caught a 2:30 pm bus at the terminal, after my doctor’s appointment, grabbed a quick lunch, and jumped on board. It went by fast, I finished the audiobook Atomic Habits (highly recommended by my sister Ashley) and was also reading the paperback Educated, as we passed through Yangyang, a city south, it was already dark so was hard to see the surrounding area. When we arrived we grabbed a cab, he took us not too far for a total of $3 - but to be fair taxis in general here are fairly cheap. We ended up with the Sokcho & Guesthouse, “ended up” - I’ll get to next, lovely place it actually was the highlight of the trip and love when that happens. Free breakfast, our own queen bed and bedroom, private bathroom, heated floors (traditional Korean style), and great location right in Sokcho. 

Ended up with Sokcho & Guesthouse - as I looked into accommodations a while back I fell in love with the House Hostel in Sokcho, but when we went to book the owners were on their own vacation in December. So we went looking for other places, next hostel was also on vacation but they were available on the 3rd & 4th but not the 2nd which we needed. Starting to panic we called the Sokcho & Guesthouse and secured a spot. (House Hostel photos)

The best part about the guesthouse was the owner. 

So we’re in the $3 cab and arrive safely to the spot, it’s on a major street and looks like we are above a bunch of shopping stores, we take the elevator up to the second floor then walk into the kitchen/communal area. No one was around, I ended up calling the number on the desk, a man answered (who spoke English) and told us our room number and that our key was in the door. We ventured out into the night to find food for me as I was starving. Wandering around a lot was shut down other than some seafood vendors and a doughnut shop. Realizing I had a half-leftover sandwich from the bus, I bought three doughnuts for us, two for me one for Eric (he turned down two, like a normal person) and ate sandwich and doughnuts at the hostel kitchen. We cozied up in our new room and slept like babies. 

We woke up the next morning to find one of the owners of the guesthouse in the kitchen - her name was Judy, she didn’t provide her real Korean name. Judy was very friendly and spoke fairly good English. We made toast, coffee, and cereal as we ran through our introductions and what our goals were of being here in Sokcho. She had maps and bus routes to go to all our spots - Seoraksan and Naksan Temple - she even had information for one of the hot springs & Jimjilbangs I wanted to go to which she said was open and running during Covid. We had wonderful conversations with Judy every morning we were there, she told us about living in Indonesia, about starting this business of guesthouses, about guests being complete assholes to her, about her son learning English, about Korean traditions, about what we call the month of Christmas and how we celebrate. At the end she took a picture of us - tradition of the guesthouse - and so wish I had a photo of her. We have hugs and she said “what an honor.”

Our first day we ventured to Seoraksan National Park, I wanted to hike up to some waterfalls and then maybe the other hike Judy told us to go to, as we would find out why Koreans named this hike (I forget the name.) Well, we never made it to Judy’s hike we did the waterfall hike, a hike up to the observatory at the top, and then rode the cable car. 

The hike to the waterfall was fairly easy and the waterfalls were not glamourous in the stark winter, barren landscape, but it was great to finally experience a Korean National park and nature. At the end of the waterfalls you have the option to hike to the top to the observatory for a very short 0.4km hike up. I say very short with much sarcasm, it was a straight stairmaster for 0.4km which was much longer than I wanted it to be… but I made it! With many stops along the way.

The way down was much easier, but we decided our legs were shot, we hemmed and hawed whether we would splurge and spend money to go to the top in the cable car - decided we’ll only be here once - and went to the top. (The observatory was better) but we stopped at the restaurant at the bottom of the cable car and got Pajeon (one of my favorite Korean dishes so far), a waffle and a hot chocolate. Pajeon is a full plate of pancake and scallion, it’s so delicious and filling don’t make the mistake of ordering one just for yourself - share! We spent baseball stadium dollars on that meal but it was pretty worth it, we were so full for the rest of the day. We caught the bus out of the park and headed home. 

Second day was Naksan Temple and a stop along the Daepo hang port. Naksan was nice, it was busy with lots of tourists. It was wonderful seeing the architecture of the temples and to be along the coast. But it was very much a “museum outdoors” wandering clean paths to each exhibit of the different temples and locations. There is nothing that would bring me back, but I’m glad to have seen it. 

On our way back on the bus from Naksan we wanted to go check out the seaside and ports of Sokcho, our talk with Judy she suggested Daepo and walk along the small peninsula where the big Lotte Resort was in the middle of as a scenic route. We jumped off the bus and started to explore the port and immediately were happy that we did it was a locals area and everything felt relaxed and ‘real’ compared to our previous Naksan experience. We wandered through the food vendors and popped out into the protected circle bay (? not sure what to call it) with a view of a modern bridge and the ocean. This was a seafood heavy location, many hanging dead fish and many captured/trapped aquatic life were in these markets. We also bumped into a lone man playing Whitney Houston on blast - I have added that video below - it was such a perfect song for such an odd place and I think that song really, somehow, captured the mood of it all. We wandered back towards the bus we needed to catch, the wind was bad so we didn’t make it out on the peninsula. But there is a very cool water park on that peninsula so maybe, if we ever go back, we will stop at the Lotte Resort waterpark in Sokcho. 

One side note I will mention is, I’ve found all of the places we’ve traveled to in Korea (a total of 3) very touristy, with Seoraksan there were cafes, gift shops (many of them) and other vendors all at the bottom of the mountain, and a hotel right outside of the park. The cable car obviously was packed with a line, accessibility is healthy, but just be prepared for crowds, even in December! With that, me and Eric made an “80% rule” - find a place we want to visit and go only 80% of the way there. Because there were more interesting places 80% to those places than at the actual place. Seoraksan actually had a beautiful “run-down” town, it didn’t look like anyone was living there anymore and beautiful fields and ally ways to explore. Naksan Temple was the same, we could have just taken that bus and gotten off at any other stops, and when we went into that little port inlet it was bizarre and wonderful. So for our next adventure we will definitely be exploring around the areas and making time for that. 

Other highlights of Sokcho: 

We found another great mondu place!

A book store called Moonwoodang Seorium 문우당서림 heard it was +100 years old - beautiful. 

Adjacent to the book store was a stationery store called moondan 문단 where I bought a tiny notepad.

Easy bus transportation throughout Sokcho.