Korea Day 1 - Sokcho

Needed to escape from work. Depressing when so many of my colleagues are leaving the company. Doesn't help that our staff strength is not very big to begin with. Even worse when their work are assigned to be piled onto yours. As if I don't have more than enough on my plate. -.-'''

PH, ZT and me have been talking about going back to Korea since ages ago. Finally put that into action. It was really an impromptu decision on my side, as I felt I needed to run away from all that I was facing at the moment. Thus, I just asked them if they were available and managed to plan the trip with PH but sadly ZT couldn't make it. =(

Thurday 13 Sep 12 (First Day - Sokcho)

Airport 2D 3D Art

 

Arrived at airport in the morning. Slept for only like 2 hours and was still packing right till the last minute. >.<

Korea here we come

 

As I said before, this trip was planned super last minute. Its like we booked our flights, sort of decided the places we wanna go and find hostels to stay. The rest is just to go with the flow and all plans are subject to changes. LOL.

 

The giant baby with her buys on the plane. This was the reason why we had to sit SQ - to use her vouchers which she received for her flight delay (& a lot of drama) in Turkey.
 

Was raining slightly when we reached Seoul. But seriously everytime I land in Korea (ok this is only the second time), my heart totally wells up in warmth. Even though its colder here as compared to SG. The irony -.-'''

We took a limousine bus to East Seoul Express Bus Terminal (Dong Seoul Bus Terminal) for 15,000₩ (70-90mins). You can check KAL Limousine schedule here. http://www.kallimousine.com/eng/schedule_en.asp

Then from East Seoul Bus Terminal we were supposed to sit the Intercity Bus to Sokcho. Sounds easy right? It is... Only thing was we had trouble trying to find the location to take the intercity bus to Sokcho when we reached Seoul Express Bus Terminal. This was because the limousine bus we sat alighted us across the road from the metro and the bus terminal was on the other opposite side of the metro. Didn't help that it was slightly drizzling and pulling our luggages =(. But just ask around and most passerbys will help you.... If they can understand =P

Anyhow with the help of a korean lady, we finally managed to locate the intercity bus terminal and get our tickets to Sokcho Each tickets costs 16,100₩. We had about half an hour to spare so we grabbed some food for dinner before going to the bus number stand. I was waiting in front of the bus stand with the luggages while PH went to the toilet and this guy (Later found out he was the bus driver), started talking to me in Korean and putting my bags into a bus compartment. I was like ??? and just showed him my tickets. I think I'm a little too trusting. I mean if its in New Delhi.... CHOI! But there were people getting up the bus, so we felt kind of safe. It takes about 2hr20mins to get to Sokcho. It was drizzling as I mentioned before, and both of us just dozed off after eating. Like seriously. Venturing into the unknown and still being so comfortable. We the best. -.-'''

Woke up at 8pm korean time at the rest stop. The bus just stopped at this restaurant area. Surrounding was super ulu. I mean there are shops around but its like where u have to walk a distance to get to the next shop kind. Went down for a toilet break and back on the road it is =)

                                                        Us on the bus

 

Oh did I mentioned the bus ride was super nice?! The seats are very spacious and we just pushed it all the way back to ZZZ our way through.

Not long later the rest stop, we reached Sokcho intercity bus terminal.

Guess what we forgot? BOTH of us FORGOT to print the directions to the hostel!! Did I mention it was a last minute planned trip? LOL. Anyway, we slight panic-ed as it was dark like 9 plus and we are in the country side. Not like Seoul where the night is still young. We wanted to find a place that has internet connection, so we can retrieve the directions from our mailbox. But as I said we were at the countryside... So in the end we just decided to call the hostel owner and said we lost our way. Superb pai seh. He came all the way to fetch us and even helped with our bags. and seriously the way was not difficult at all.... just that we print out the directions. >< Note to self: ALWAYS PRINT OUT DIRECTIONS!

When we reached the hostel, the owner who brought us in gave us a brief introduction of Sokcho, the more popular places and all the buses and routes we can explore. Sokcho is a small area. There are not many buses but its helps that he recommended the places to visit and the buses available. ^^

 Our Cosy Room
 

After the introduction, we checked into the room. The room itself is small. It just has the basic amenities like bed, table, toilet. But we didn't mind. I mean we treated the hostel as a place for us to sleep at night and put our stuffs during the day. Most of the time should be spent outside exploring. =D But the best thing about this hostel is that the toilet is in the room itself. See the pink door beside the shoes area? That's the toilet. Love it when we have a toilet all to ourselves  and technically the toilet is outside the room, so our room won't smell. =D

 

Oh the room also has wireless so we were able to facebook, wazzapp, etc. There was an aircon but there was no remote. No complaints though as it was cold enough at night. Especially since it had been drizzling the whole day. >.<

We paid for a night, which in my opinion is cheap. More details here:
http://www.thehouse-hostel.com/index.html

http://www.hostels.com/hostels/kangwon-do-sokcho-si/the-house-hostel/30850#anchor=overview

 

 

Planning the itinerary tomorrow. All highly subject to changes. and its ZZZ time =)