Korea Day 2 - Sokcho (Abai Village)

After Seoraksan, we made our way to Sundubu Halmeoni Restaurant by Taxi for lunch. The taxi ride costs 8,800₩ by meter. Found this restaurant at korean tourism website under halal food section. Apparently, the area is famous for its Tofu and there's even a KBS filming place at the back of it. Sadly, we didnt have much time left as we had to meet Sookyeong in Chuncheon at night, so we gave the place a miss.

Tofu

The restaurant only specialises in tofu and thats the only menu as you can see in the picture above. One tofu set costs 8,000₩. The portion is huge but I think the tofu is too bland for my liking. It suppose to be the main meal so its not sweet. But not so salty either. So I just kept mixing it with rice and other side dishes. I was trying to look at how others eat it cos I kept thinking there must be a way to mix all of this into a nice mixture. Funny thing was I was basically trying to follow this elderly couple who mixed the chilli paste with the tofu. I thought they were koreans so I was following their actions. Later while waiting for the bus after lunch, we met them at the bus stop and found out that they were actually Singaporeans as well! So I've been following the wrong actions -.-'''

Chatted with the couple since the bus was taking quite a while. Apparently they have retired and are travelling around Korea. They hiked Seoraksan the day before and it took them the whole day. O.o Both of them were super cute as well. The lady just kept talking what she wanted, while her husband kept refuting her. Although they were like semi arguing each other, I think it was cute. =P The lady told us that we were very fortunate to be travelling around at our age. At our age, they were working very hard and retired when all their children are working. They told us all the places they have been since they retired. Its amazing! I want to be like that as well. Like how my parents are randomly taking trips as well now. >.<

Anyway, took the same bus (1,100₩) back to the 'city' area while the couple alighted to see the glass museum. I imagine Mama would want to visit that as well. Lol. Went to hunt for Abai Village and arrived at the same boat area. Decided that it was correct and hopped on to cross the river. It costs 200₩ and you pay after you cross at the entrance. There is a person there collecting the money.

 
Boat Area

Abai Village is really very small and their most famous product is sundu sausage which is not halal obviously. So we just went round the island. It took us less than an hour I think. Most of the time was spent taking pictures. =P

Some background information... Abai Village is made up of mostly North Korean Refuges and in the korean drama Autumn in my heart, the lead actress, Eun xi used to take the boat to visit her mum.

Rows and rows selling the same thing.

On our way back, we got the chance to pull the boat. The boat is actually manually operated. So to get across to the other side, there is one person who have to 'pull' the boat. Not really sure on the mechanism of the boat. Basically, there's this rope in the middle, and you have to hook the metal rod onto it and just pull to the other end of the boat and start over again. So you would in a sense be walking to and fro the length of the boat.

The metal rod

Using my strength...

The ideal pose =D

After that we walked back to the hostel to collect our luggages and made our way to the bus stop. The bus ride from Sokcho to ChunCheon costs 12,500₩ per pax. Oh one tip would be to find out the timing of the buses so that there won't be much time wasted waiting. We managed to snap a picture of the timing of the bus to Chun Cheon the night before while waiting for the owner to come and get us. Smart us after forgetting to print the directions to the hostel. >.<

Chun Cheon Bus Timing

 Sokcho's Rodeo Street

& off to Chun Cheon to meet SooKyeong~~