Taming Koreas Tallest Mountain Part III

Picking up the story at the sleaze motel again..... It was without a doubt the worst place that I have ever paid to sleep. The bathtub was grungy and the size of my thumb. Seriously. I had my knees schrunched up against my head, and it had a regular tap that was pretending to be a bath sized tap. So it took three years to fill up. And the shower head was out because it was waist height and pointing at my foot. The night didn't get any better when we tried to order a pepperoni pizza and got the sea food special instead. My room didn't have curtains either, so between the neon lights at night, the sun in the morning, and the people talking non-stop outside both my door and window, I didn't get the recovery enhancing sleep that I was looking for.

In the morning we jumped a bus headed for Sokcho and hopped off looking for some tourist info. I don't think any of us were bending our legs at this point. I hadn't realized how nice it was going to be to see the ocean again, but it was. We managed to time our lunch just right to avoid a horrid rainstorm (see picture)

We walked along the beach a little, climbed a light house and saw a breakwater that reminded me of home. It was nice to be by the water again. We found a cool coffee shop up high with a nice ocean view and regrouped there before heading out to the condo. Heres some random sokcho shots. They are, the beach, a photogenic couple braving the waves, some barbed wire, and the view from the lighthouse.

On the barbed wire topic, you can never quite forget that this is a country at war, between the barbed wire, snipers nests, jets/apache helicopters overhead everyday, and ever present military bases and soldiers you always have small reminders.

The condo was really a breath of fresh air, it was nothing luxurious, but it was a resort setting with a big (expensive) waterpark, spa, and roman bath set-up which we didn't partake in. It was expensive and crowded, so we didn't bother. But it was spacious, quiet, 10,000,000 times better than our sleaze motel, had some walking trails a couple restaraunts and a coffee shop.

We were lucky enough to find a direct bus home which shaved off two hours from our traveling time...that was a bonus for our weary heroes.

All in all a great weekend, I would obviously have preferred not to have the 13hr hiking day and descent of darkness, but it makes a better story that way anyway. ~ Made some memories that's for sure.