The
hotel room was insulated against the biting cold outside. It’s not as cold as
during winter but it’s still cold enough to make me wear double layer of clothing.
The floor was equipt with heaters and some spots are especially warmer than
others, so I tend to stand at one particular spot. Our first activity in Mt
Sorak was to visit the Shinheung Temple. I visited many temples before and I
find it boring, so I thought it’s going to be a boring start. I was wrong.
ShinHeung temple is located in Mt Sorak’s national park, even if I don’t want
to go into the temple, the surrounding is beautiful enough.
Near
the café I saw this interesting water fountain. The picture can totally fool
you. I find it very creative indeed. The people in Mt Sorak gets their water
supply from the mountains and the water is so clean and unpolluted that they
drink straight from the tap. They don’t need to boil it or filter it, just open
the tap and take a glassful. Like this water fountain too.
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| Let's go to the temple at the peak! |
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| Please leave a message~ |
Near a giant buddha, you can
write messages on shingles that they provided and leave it there are a
souvenir. You have to pay for the shingles of course. I went into the temple
for a while and I saw a very interesting fountain. Okay it’s not really a
fountain, its more of some concrete
they use to store the mountain water and you drink the water in it to get
blessing. I see a lot of people do them in TV so I took this chance and try it
out too. Just take the scoop and drink from it. I prefer my hands though. A
gulp of refreshing cool water down my throat and I felt nice. Haha~ I just sat
on one of the big rocks outside the temple and immerse myself in the beauty of
nature. On the hike down the temple, I see these odd rock formation. Stacked
rocks all along the path, the Korean’s believe that with one rock on top of the
other, it will grant their wish. I saw that some rock stacks already toppled,
guess someone’s wish isn’t going to come true. Poor thing.
In the
Cheese making class, we had a pot of milk being boiled on the stove. The
instructor came and thought us the steps. I was expecting the product to be
like Swiss cheese or any of those yellow coloured cheese but no, this is
unexpected.
First
thing to do after the milk is boiled is add in UHT (it’s a clear liquid). Then
it started to curdle and we add in some strawberry flavoured powder (What?).
Continue stirring while it boils so it doesn’t overflow, then we close the fire
and pour the mixture into the filter press. In the filter, we put in some fresh
flowers before pouring the mixture in and add in sunflower seeds in layer. The
objective is to get the curdle and the excessive water will flow out. Wrap the
filter and press, wait till the water is drained then you can dig in.
We ate
the cheese with some crackers and red wine. Dip the cheese cube in starwberry
jam or salt and sandwich it between the crackers then eat it. It taste oddly
plain like eating tofu, in fact it taste and feels exactly like tofu because
it’s not salty. But I ate a lot anyway, it was a nice snack. At the same time,
a bunch of Korean preschoolers came for a field trip and they are so cute.
While made the cheese, they were singing children songs in unison. When we
left, they greeted us and bowed to everyone of us, OMG, they are SO cute. I
love Korean culture because of their politeness, I mentioned the shopkeeper who
bowed to us too. But these kids are just adorable.
It was
11.30am and we were already on our way to have lunch. We were going to try Mt
Sorak’s specialty. Some fish related stew, the tour guide told me the name was
“Hwangtaeguk”. No idea what it is but it’s a good dish to have when you’re in
this cold weather. I saw this very funny menu list, there’s one dish called “A
broth chase a hangover with alaska pollack”. What a very funny name isn’t it?
After
lunch, we went for a walk near the sea in Daepohang Fish Market where you can
see all sorts of catch from the sea. We weren’t going to buy, the sellers knew,
so they let us take as many pictures as we want. Further up the market was also
a market but they sell food that can be eaten on the spot. You choose the
fish/squid/shellfish you want and they grill it for you. Or you can also opt
for fried food and tempura. There’s this dish I always wanted to try, squid
kimbap or squid sushi. Instead of seaaweed, you stuff the rice and ingredient
into squid and slice them like sushi. I was tempted to try but my stomach was
so full.
You
can purchase their special products like dried seaweed, kelps, salted/dry fish
and others in a store at the end of the market. Afterthat, we went to Abai
Village where we visited the filming site of famous drama “Autumn In My Heart”.
This drama was the entertainment revolution of Korea and you must be a hermit
not to know what it is. Watching this drama requires box of tissues because it
promises not a dry eye. The attraction is at the raft which we are required to
drag across to get to Abai Village. In the drama, the protagonists were at the
opposite direction rafts and they missed each other. The village were more
modern than what I expected. It is called a village afterall, the Folk Village
I went to was really an old village.
We had
one or two hours to walk around the village, it was pretty small. So me and my
sister decided to visit their market. There are many intruging things to see. I
was looking at more food and my sister admires the size of the fruits, the
apple was as big as her plam, so are the peaches. Is it just me or do I feel
like the fruits in Korea are double the normal size of fruits around the world?
The apples, peach, tomatoes and persimmon are gigantic! I saw stalls selling
all sorts of KimChi and Tteok (Traditional Rice cakes). I bought some tteok and
took the opportunity to speak some Korean language that I’ve so dedicatedly
learn even before I knew I was going to Korea. The shop keeper understood me,
she didn’t even doubt that I didn’t know how to speak. Yay!! My efforts paid of,
I can move to Korea now….. After my first purchase, I got the guts to flaunt
more of my Korean language. I was high.
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| An assortment of KimChi |
The
old ladies were very friendly and they laughed at me when I cringed at the
mudfish (they look like tiny eels). I saw in drama’s and show on how they catch
and eat mudfish. They live in paddy fields and shallow water, so they put a
basket/sift at the end and ran towards it from the other end. When the fish are
caught, they are washed and put in a bowl. Salt are poured on those poor
slippery fish and they start jumping around furiously. So remember to put some
cap on the bowl or you’ll have a hard time picking them up later on, they’ll be
all over the floor before you know it. The fish are either blend into a paste
and mixed into soup as a seasoning or fried, I don’t know. Usually, they are
cooked with soup.
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| Slippery & Jumping Mudfish |
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| Seasoned Raw Crabs |
Last
activity to end the day was to visit the Expo tower park. The tower has a
rather odd design, with stairs snaking it’s way to the stop. We went up the
tower and took some pictures. The top of the tower allows you to get a birdeye
view of the whole place. There’s a building next to the tower that looked like
a turtle. But I was more interested to take a walk in the park. We chose a seat
near the water and had some tteok there while watching the world go by, away
from civilization.
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| Expo Tower |
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| Do you see a turtle emerging from the water? |
I helped myself to many helpings of
meat and refills. That was so far, the most filling meal I had in Korea. Oh the
joy~~
After
dinner was of course, back to the hotel again. During the night, Mt Sorak is
freezing. I walked out to the balcony to get some air and dashed back in. Actually,
you can open the windows and sleep without the air conditioning. We will be
visiting Nami Island before departing back to Seoul the next day. Time to pack
up again.
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