Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 53 - Samcheok, Sokcho, Seoul, Taipei (South Korea, Taiwan)

We woke in Samcheok and the weather had turned, we’d had 10 days of glorious sunshine so far in South Korea and now we had drizzle. We had our alarm set to get up and head out to a Penis Park (the highlights of the area were a Penis Park and a huge limestone cave formation and we chose the Penis Park). We got to the front door of our motel and decided the rain really wouldn’t help to promote a speedy recovery from the cold we’d managed to pick up and headed back to bed. When we left the motel we went straight to the bus station so we really didn’t see anything of the town.

We ended up getting a bus to Gangneung and after a short wait we caught another bus onto Sokcho where we booked in to a hostel that looked like it had stepped right out of a Cath Kidston advert, a lovely place with a big fluffy, skittish dog. We ventured out to find Rhys some more of the spicy, saucy, deep fried chicken he had fallen in love with and to try squid sundae and ate it on the sea front surrounded by giant yellow spiders.

The next morning we headed out to the Seoraksan National Park. The weather was holding and we made great time completing the 4.30 hour hike to Ulsanbawi in 3 hours. The trail passed a temple and wound it’s way up from the river basin through the forest to a beautiful rocky peak above the tree line at 863m, climbing 800 steps along the way. The view from the top was spectacular if a little busy - Korean’s do love their hiking! Saying that though it was nice that it was busy with locals rather than tourists and people kept offering us different food and drink to try. Back at the trail head we decided to jump on the gondola to the other side of the valley for an equally spectacular view.

That night we headed to a little local restaurant the hostel had recommended for all you can eat BBQ. We sat at a table and they brought the coals and grill to us and we spent a couple of hours cooking all different kinds of meats that we grabbed from the buffet fridge.

We spent the next morning chilling at the hostel before catching a bus to Seoul. We popped out to Insa-Dong again to grab a bite to eat and have a look around the touristy shops before bed.

Saturday was an early start as we had to tube across town to the Lotte Hotel where we were meeting our DMZ tour group. The DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) is a 240km long, 4km wide buffer that runs along the border between North and South Korea to keep the two warring nations separated. The strip is strewn with landmines and is demarcated by a barbed wire fence and watch towers every couple of hundred metres. The morning had four stops, the first was at the Dorasan train station, the last station in South Korea where it is hoped one day the railroad will continue into North Korea to Pyongyang. The second stop was at the Dora observatory where you can peer through binoculars into North Korea (although it was very misty so we couldn’t see much) and you can only take photos behind a line a way back. The third stop was at Freedom Bridge and the fourth was at the Third Infiltration Tunnel. So far South Korea have discovered 4 tunnels dug by the north to move troupes under the DMZ in the direction of Seoul in their thousands. Although North Korea deny digging the tunnels there’s a lot of evidence to suggest they did and they even went to the effort of smudging coal dust on the walls to pretend they were mining if ever discovered. We took a train down into the tunnel and walked around a little before heading back out. After a stop for lunch we headed into the JSA (Joint Security Area) for our afternoon tour. It was a lot stricter than the morning tour with both behavioural and dress codes for visitors. After having our passports and dress checked in Camp Bonifas we were driven in a special bus then lead in single file by an American UN soldier into the JSA to Panmunjom, the truce village where both sides have buildings and where talks can be held. We only saw one North Korean soldier on guard looking at us through binoculars. The South Koreans were pretty scary looking, they stand on guard to protect tourists facing North Korea in a modified taekwondo stance. The only place we could cross the border in to North Korea was within one of the portacabins so we all squeezed in just to be able to say we’d done it. Back in Seoul we headed back to our hostel with take-out to watch the Spurs game in the communal kitchen before bed.

Another early start and we were on a bus to the airport for our flight to Taiwan. The flight was only 2:30 hours and was pretty painless. On arrival we checked through customs and jumped on an Airbus into the centre of Taipei. We were pretty tired by then so we turned in for an early night.

When we woke it was drizzling outside so we were a bit limited in what we could do (that and it was a Monday and everywhere closes on Mondays). We decided to head to the Longshan temple and were amazed at just how intricate it was compared to the temples in South Korea - lots of red and gold and swirling dragons and incense. After wandering around for a bit we headed off to find the botanical garden - a bit of a let down, a decent park but not really a tourist attraction as such. We took a long walk back to the tube and passed the National Theatre and CKS Memorial Hall (a huge building built to commemorate the passing of President Chiang Kai-Sek) which were both huge impressive buildings. Luckily we timed our walk with the changing of the guard within the CKS Hall which was pretty impressive, lots of gun twiddling. After stopping by a handicraft promotional centre we headed back to the hostel.

We got talking to an Australian girl (Victoria) and an Israeli girl (Noa) in the common room and ended up heading out to find a bar. After food in the night market by our hostel we found what was quite possibly the smallest bar in Taipei. It had room for 12 people seated, two guys at the bar shifted up to make room for us and we spent the rest of the night talking to all the locals, chewing betel nuts (supposedly a mild stimulant a bit like coca leaves in Bolivia) under strict orders to spit out the juice, drinking Saki the locals bought for us and admiring one of the guys Harley Davidson’s in the garage next door. All up it was a great night.

The weather was a abit better the next day so we decided to head south to catch the gondola up into Maokong. We queued especially to get a ‘crystal cabin’ which meant the gondola had a glass floor so you could see down into the valley on the 4km trip to the top station. Maokong is a tea growing area with lush green rolling hills on the outskirts of the city. We headed to the Tea Promotion Centre thinking we’d be able to get an idea of the tea production process and instead ended up drinking free tea and paying to feed the koi carp in the pond. We walked a couple of short trails and ended up down at the Zhinan Temple where a lady took us into the back room to show us our guardian angels (determined by birth year). After telling our angels who we were and our wishes we headed back to the gondola station back to Maokong to find a tea shop with views over the valley. It was amazing, we chose a tea and were given a little tin of it and paid a water charge. They brought over a little gas stove and a kettle, a miniature teapot, two different mini cups and a strainer and pouring jug and showed us how to prepare the tea, quite a palaver really for a cuppa but fun to do for the experience.

Back at the hostel we met up with Victoria and Noa and an Australian guy called Matt to head out to the Shilin night market. It was huge, so many people and neon lights and clothes stalls and food stalls at every turn. We split up for 30 mins to browse the shops before meeting up for a few beers at a little table outside the corner shop. We grabbed street food on the way back to the tube and got back to the hostel just after midnight, when we left stalls were still being rolled out and set up - I have no idea how the Taiwanese can go to night markets and still get up for work the next day!