From Seoul to Sokcho

Photos: South Korea: From Gwanghamun to Sokcho

I’m sitting here sipping on a lemon iced tea in a little cafe in Sokcho. Sokcho is a city on the east coast of South Korea, as well as a gateway to Seoraksan National Park. I think I mentioned yesterday that I wasn’t sure what my plans were for the next few days. Well, this morning I was woken up by construction, seemingly just outside my window, at 7:30am sharp. I tried quite hard to go back to sleep and managed to snooze a bit, but around 8:00am I just had to get up. I was the only one in my room of three bunk beds so I took my time stretching and groaning and digging through my pack. I plugged in all my electronics to charge for a bit: iPod, netbook and camera battery.

The shared toilet/shower was all in one small bathroom, with the same floor and nothing really separating toilet from shower, so I decided to forgo a morning shower. Breakfast turned out to be a burned black rice tea (which smelled vaguely of peanuts to me, but tasted nice) and two pieces of white bread toast with some kind of jelly, courtesy of Beewon guest house. I saw the couple from Holland there and said good morning, compared plans for the day, and then got on my way. Before leaving Beewon, I packed all my things up into my big pack and locked my room, so that I could come back right at 11am (checkout time) and just grab my bag.

First thing was wandering down to Tapgol Park and then down to the stream, just to have a look. Somehow I bypassed Tapgol Park, but I did find the stream and walked along it for a ways. Then I headed back towards Beewon to hit up Jongmyo Shrine, in the hopes that I could go in, take a look around, and get back to the guest house in time to check out at 11am. I got to Jongmyo right at 10am and waffled a bit: you had to be on a tour to enter and the English tour started at 10am and lasted an hour. Finally I decided not to worry about being late for checking out and bought an entry ticket. Into the shrine I went, catching the tour just a few minutes late.

The shrine wasn’t what I expected, which was a place of prayer, like a temple. Instead, it was a burial grounds for past Joseon-era kings and their ancestors. Actually, I think it actually houses their “spirit tablets,” which are revered by Korean tradition. In this case,  the tablets were the originals, which had been hidden away during the Japanese occupation and eventually entombed at Jongmyo. The grounds were open and beautiful, with some similar architecture to the palaces I’ve seen, but some different, too. King’s quarters, for the ancestral rites ceremonies, faced south, as in most of the palaces. Another recurring theme was a round island inside a square pond, or round columns inside a square room. Traditionally, Koreans believed that the earth was square and the universe was round, and you see this theme played out in much of the architecture in both big and small ways. For example, sometimes a column would be round but the base of it would be square.

There were walkways leading up to the shrine similar to the walkways in the palaces: a two-tiered raised path, with the center, highest pathway for

the king, the second, lower path on either side for officials, and the ground one level lower for everyone 

else. 

In some cases, the raised pathway was black-stoned. This was the pathway for the spirits and our tour guide carefully took a large step/hop over it to avoid even stepping on it. Today, the ancestral rites ceremonies are held only once a year, by the descendants of the royal family. On the first Sunday in May, Jongmyo is open to the public as the rites are carried out. As I recall, there are five parts to the rites: inviting the spirits, welcoming the spirits, entertaining the spirits, thanking the spirits, and sending off the spirits. We got to see the shrines where the spirits slept and learned about the ornamentation on the roofs, which I’ve been curious about. It turns out that the small figurines near the edges of the roof are guardians, and the number of guardians indicates the importance of the building (more guardians = higher importance). In the case of the main Jongmyo shrine, there were eight guardians, and dragon’s head and a falcon.

Jongmyo shrine was quiet, peaceful and kind of awesome. You could just imagine the rites being practiced here, with singers and royalty and commoners all coming to invite, entertain, thank and send off the spirits. It would be fascinating to attend the annual celebration someday.

After the tour, I high-tailed it back to Beewon, worrying about being late and possibly getting charged for a late checkout. It was all worrying for nothing, though, because I got there, got my stuff, returned the key and left without any commotion whatsoever. Whew! Although I pondered staying and finding another place to sleep, the beautiful day and a sense of wanting to get moving all pushed me to get going to Sokcho.

I had done a little research on how best to get to Sokcho and decided to take the subway a few stops, transfer to a different line, and go to a different bus station than I originally planned. Once I got to the correct stop, crossing the street to the bus station, purchasing a ticket and finding my gate, I had only twenty minutes to wait. I knew I should get lunch, and there were a few places inside to get noodles or rice, but I was worried about missing my bus, so I stood outside and waited instead. I did manage to buy a small bag of tangerines and a bottle of water, though.

The bus ride to Sokcho was smooth and easy. I napped fitfully for the first hour and, when I awoke, we were going through mountainy areas. We made a rest stop, where I got out and bought some mixed nuts and a bag of mixed sweets (cookies, wafers, etc) and stretched a bit. Then we were off and before I knew it, we were in Sokcho. I had expected, from my research, to be on the bus for three and a half or four hours. Instead, we got to Sokcho in just two and a half hours or so. Not bad!

After grabbing my pack from under the bus, I honed in on a tourist information kiosk and promptly received a map. When I asked for directions to a hostel, the lady drew me directions to the House Hostel, which I’d seen mentioned a couple times on the internet. It was just a ten minute walk from the bus station and I was able to book myself two nights there. I’ll need to find somewhere to go for Saturday night, but I figure I’ll just do that on Saturday.

The House Hostel is wonderful. Yoo, the young man who checks people in, spent twenty minutes drawing on my map and showing me and a French-Korean girl where various sights, restaurants and hot spots were. He explained how to get to Seoraksan, to include what he felt were the best hikes and the length of time each hike took. For just 20,000 won, or about $19 USD, per night, I have my own room with an en-suite shower (toilet is down the hall). It’s small but it’s just a room for me, and much nicer than the Beewon. It was the only room they had open and I’m glad that is was!

After checking my e-mail and responding to an e-mail or two, I 

wandered out to explore Sokcho a bit. It was around five o’clock at this point. I made it down to the beach, taking a small pulley-boat across a tiny channel for 200 won first and wandering a couple dingy alleys. Then I walked up to a huge bridge and walked up it, catching the sun setting behind  the  mountains that I’ll hopefully be hiking tomorrow. Then it was back over the tiny channel in the pulley-boat and back to the hostel to ask where I could find one of the restaurants Yoo had mentioned. He gave me the directions again and off I went. 

Ten minutes later, I had found it. I’m quite proud of myself, by the way, for my navigational and map reading skills. Most of you reading this know that I’m generally fairly directionless and prone to getting lost at the drop of a hat (or turn of a corner). Thus far, however, I’ve done pretty well at working things out and making my way to places with a minimum of wrong turns. Anyway, I made it to the small restaurant Yoo had directed me to, and ordered what he’d recommended. What I got was a thick soup with noodles of two different types and several strange opaque-ish, soft but chewy chunks. I have no idea what the chunks were… not fishy, as I suspected, but of such an odd consistency that I couldn’t get myself to eat more than half of one of them. The proprietors of the restaurant didn’t speak a lick of English, so I couldn’t ask them. 

Anyway, after the meal (which was quite filling and tasty, even without the chunks of whatever), I started back to the hostel, stopping to have a treat (my lemon iced tea) and write this entry.

Tomorrow, I’ll get up early and take the thirty minute bus ride to Seoraksan. I hope to do one big hike in the morning, which is supposed to take four hours, and then take a smaller two hour hike in the afternoon. It gets dark around six here, so I don’t want to leave the park any later than 5pm.

I’m really glad I came out today. Hopefully the House Hostel will have a cancellation or no-show and I’ll stay there Saturday night too, but if not there is a Couchsurfer who is camping and I may join him. We’ll see…

--Z