My Trip to Korea- Soul of Asia (Day 5-Mt Sorak)

           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.

Let's go to the temple at the peak!

 I saw many hikers, some well into their 70’s. I admire their stamina, I’m a total couch potato. Yeah, Mt Sorak is a stunninly beautiful place, so peaceful, so quiet and the main point? Away from civilization. It’s the perfect sanctuaryfor someone like me who wishes to escape bustling cities and noisy crowds. I could go into hibernation in these mountains. You could get a cable car to the temple on top of the mountains but I’m satisfied with just staying on the ground, watching and marvelling at the beauty of nature. Fresh and clear mountain water flows down the stream and I really feel like jumping in to take a dip if it weren’t so cold.

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.

We decent the mountains and went to a cheese making farm. Oh yay! I love cheese. I never saw sheeps before so I got a little too excited when I saw a herd of them on the hills. They are really as fluffy as we imagined. Too bad I can’t get too close.

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.

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. 

Slippery & Jumping Mudfish

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. 

Expo Tower

Do you see a turtle emerging from the water?

          Then it was dinnertime, at 5pm. We had barbecued pork! Finally! I was dying to eat those since the day we arrived. It’s not pork belly and beef but it’s fine. It’s meat…. Did I mention that in Korea, all restaurants provide unlimited refill of side dishes and skyjuice? No holding back!!!

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. 

My trip to Korea- Soul of Asia (Day 4- Everland)

4^th day and we are suppose to take the plane back to Seoul and travel up to Mt Sorak in the evening. I wasn’t feeling well since the night before, so for breakfast, I settled with a miserable bowl of porridge and soup. Right after breakfast, we rest for a while before leaving for the airport again. It was raining cats and dogs so the airport send a shuttle bus to sent us directly to the plane. When we arrived at Seoul it was 11am.

We passed by Seoul famous Han Gang or River Han where countless of drama’s and reality show were filmed. I distinctly remember my favorite show Running Man had a Bride race on the bridge and the popular drama Master’s Sun was also filmed there.

 The tour guide decided that we are ready to have lunch. I was certainly ready, what with the little porridge I had in the morning. Our lunch was Ginseng Chicken(Samgyetang)and it was superb. The dish was a whole spring chicken in ginseng soup and we were given some ginseng wine to mix in the soup. After that throw in some rice noodles into the soup and dig in. I finished the entire bowl. I was THAT hungry and my stomach was fine. The chicken is small so one person can settle it, no problem.

          Later, we did what all tourist must do while in Korea- wear their traditional Hanbok. It is an absolute must. When we got there, we can start choosing the Hanbok that we wanted to wear. I chose a blue and red Hanbok because the color was very vibrant. They had the walls decorated with different background for us to takes pictures. Needless to say, we snapped away. I got to admit, wearing a Hanbok made me felt classier. The Hanbok I was wearing are colors fit for the royals once upon a time. 

           Part of our tour was to learn how to make Kimchi, I wasn’t really interested in that since I’m too lazy. I prefer pre-packed Kimchi in the supermarket than doing it on my own. I went along anyway. The Kimchi making class was on top of the Hanbok studio so we just climbed up one level.

In the class, there were already soaked cabbage and Kimchi paste on the table. All we had to do is actually splatter the paste on the cabbage and wrap it. The instructor gave us a brief introduction on how the paste is made and how to preserve the cabbage, the duration and skill. I didn’t pay much attention. Later the instructor watched as we spread the red paste of the leaves and wrapped it. I did it wrong for the first time so I had to rewrap Kimchi. She mentioned that our end product would be donated to the Children’s home. When we were done, they brought in some sample for us to try. I knew there were many types of Kimchi but I didn’t know that there was ginseng kimchi and raw octopus kimchi. At the end of the class, I bought some since my dad just loves it. They were going to pack it for us and sent it to the airport on the day we leave. How nice to have one less baggage to lug around. Here’s my Kimchi. Tadaa~~~

For our next journey, it promises full of adrenaline rush, thrills and fun for the entire day! Yep, we are going to Korea’s biggest theme park- Everland! The trip was long enough to make me fall asleep in the bus but when we got there, it was a little past noon. I was all geared up for the rides. The theme park was beautiful. The main entrance was shaped like a castle, I reverted back to childhood. Seriously, when you’re in a theme park, it doesn’t matter how old you are, you just NEED to be a kid again. My sister, being a flower fanatic, was more in love with the flowers they planted throughout the park. It was the normal Chrysanthemum flowers but the way they decorated it is just lovely. I love the “Italy” themed fortress near the entrance. But Halloween was just around the corner so the whole place is full of pumpkins, bats and eerie skeletons. Now I’ve never been to Disneyland but I think I’ll be happy enough to just play here for the rest of my life. Now don’t forget to grab your map brochure at the entrance, you can get lost in this huge park.

I understand now why everyone loves to go to theme park, its suitable for old ages. There’s section for young children, more thrilling rides for preteens to adults and if you’re too old for a good fright down the rides, then you can just enjoy a relaxing walk in their beautiful garden. The four seasons garden is a must to visit if you don’t plan to ride, the flowers bloom for all season and it looks magnificient. I guarantee you would feel like you’re in a fairytale story. Further in the park is a rose garden which I didn’t visited because time waqs scarce. We were only given 4 hours, what a bummer. I could stay there an entire day.

Everland was exploding with life. Squeling teens in cat ears head bands walk past us, crying children that didn’t get their favourite toys and couples being excessively romantic can be seen all around. Koreans could be good boyfriends, I’ve seen so many guys holding their girlfriends handbag, bending down to tie their girl’s shoelaces, tucking her hair behind the ears and all those little sweet notion you see in dramas. They really do that in real life and in public and no one finds it weird. That’s it! I’m finding a boyfriend here! Haha~~

The tour guide insisted we take the safari ride first to see Ligers (Tigers + Lions mix breed). It’s like their pride because Ligers are extremely rare. Okay, let’s go see some ligers! To save some time getting down, we took this Ski lift and the view was amazing from the top. When we reach the safari, we didn’t even have to stand in line, just go through the back door because we are a huge group. The whole bus was reserved for us and we entered the carnivore’s lair. First animal that greeted us was the beautiful white tigers, they were sleeping. Next were the ferocious lions and then tigers. They all have sections dedicated for themselves because these Kings of the jungle can’t be friend each other, they’ll fight to their death. Then finally, their main attraction, the liger. It looks more like a lion than a tiger but you can see some strips on the body- the distinctive tiger characteristic.

They look so tame like this~

The infamous Liger!

The safari bus entered this gates which closes behind us and we entered the bear’s lair. They weren’t grizzlys but boy are they HUGE. They are close to 6-7 feet tall when they stand up on their hind legs. Each of these bears have their own antics and I find some of it cute, especially the kissing bear and the praying bear.

Don't be intimidated by it, he just wants a kiss!

The carnivore safari only last a few minutes and suddenly, we’re out. That was when we are free to roam the premises. Whee!! Let the fun begin. First stop, the T express roller coaster. One of the theme park attraction that could let you taste death. Only three of us dared to take the ride, including me of course. You’re in a theme park! You don’t waste your time walking around and doing nothing. I got only 4 hours, no time to waste. It took me almost 30 min to wait for that ride and the safari wait took 1 hour off my 4 hours already. We got lost trying to look for the T express and when we got there, a long queue awaits. We waited in line and there where over excited kids behind us who screamed that high pitch shriek when the roller coaster zoomed past us. I was preparing my heart for the scary ride and these kids weren’t helping. 

The T-Express!! 

Sitting in the coaster waiting to depart was agonizing. You don’t know what awaits and my heart was already trying to jump out of my mouth. The MC told us to do some neck exercise but I was busy excersizing my vocal cords. I’m prepared to scream my lungs out. Then it started with a slow creep up this hill and towards towards the steep fall. Writing this right now still reminds me the chills. Oh, I feel bile coming up. Excuse me while I hurl~

Suddenly, I fell and I screamed and screamed like I never did before. I don’t undestand how some people can jump off the building when they try to commit suicide. This is one scary death. The drop was 90˚ and I clung on to the bar for dear life. Screams erupted everywhere and I even hear some people laughing with glee. They’re nuts!!! Just when I thought it’s the end of the fall, the coaster climbed up in lighting speed and fall again. I don’t remember how many times I fell and mind you, it all felt like a 90˚ descend.

When it was all over, my legs were so wobbly it almost buckled. I was so lightheaded, I think my soul left my body. Everyone was chattering excitedly about the ride but I was more focused on the stairs in case my legs gave way and you’ll see me rolling down the stairs like a ball. That was the scariest ride I’ve ever had, my sister described it as “tasting death” for a minute there. And that was the only ride I had in Everland. For the rest of the time, we just walked around, looking at camel rides, cute animals and more flowers. We didn’t have much time and all the rides looked like we needed to wait for a long time. We wandered into the four seasons garden and I remember Running Man being filmed here. I don’t need to be told and my photographer mode was switched on. I went to all of the places that I remembered the running man members went to.

Does this jog your memory?

Remember GwangSoo and Jaesuk hiding here?

Jaesuk hid in here

I remember Yoo Jae Suk dashing through the shops with his grasshopper hat and Kwangsoo hiding behind the flowers in his giraffe hat. Good memories indeed~

For the rest if the time, we walked into confectionary stores and toy shop. The confectionary store is a children’s heaven. All sorts of candies and chocolate you can find are on displayed, even I felt attracted. But I persevered my sweet tooth cravings. In the toy store, I was even like a kid, playing with the plushies and cute toys. I love the adorable baby penguin soft toys and pumpkin headbands but my budget is holding me back from buying. My sister and I just walked all over the park, marvelling at the decorations and flowers.

Dinner was supposed to be our own responsibility, we are just meeting up with the main group at 5pm before we take the long ride to Mt Sorak. I had pizza and my sis had this delicious cream cheese bagel. I was thinking of getting some churros too but I held back. Everland was an unforgettable memory and I’ll be sure to come back the next time I visit Korea. 

Aren't they adorable?

I love pumpkin ears!

 When times up, we were on our way to Mt Sorak. It was a very long journey, I think it was 4 hours or so. All of us fell asleep from wearing ourselves out at Everland.

It was 2 hours before midnight when we arrived at the resort. Mt Sorak is really cold, it is the coldest place in Korea. The tour guide warned us about it and I for one, will not argue with him this time. I hauled my bag into my hotel room again, it looked more like an apartment. Since Mt Sorak has no streets to walk during the night and we’re far away from the nearest town, I went to the convenient store in the resort and bought some instant noodles. I cooked it with the stove in our room and that’s my supper. After that I zonked out for the night.