Our trip started early in the morning. We were sleepy but excited to be on our way. We had
plans to go hiking, watch the sun rise, and enjoy the surf of the East Sea. Little did we know that we
would thwarted by Mother Nature at every turn.
Journeying to the northeastern province of Kangwon-Do is an intensive process which required
a large variety of vehicles. We took a taxi to the subway station, a train to Cheonon, a taxi to the bus
station, and then a bus to Kangwon-Do. The day started out sunny and beautiful, but by the time we
reached our final destination the sky had become overcast and rain had begun to fall. We checked in
at the tourism office at the bus stop and we were told that due to the weather we would not be able to
fulfill our original goal of climbing Seoraksan, the highest mountain in the Taebaek mountain range and
third tallest in Korea.
We poured over maps and traveler information to try and decide the best to spend our
afternoon. Eventually we settled on a site a little farther south where you could tour a South Korean
battleship and a North Korean submarine from the Korean War. The monument is located near
Jeongdongjin Sunrise Park. The rain began to fall harder as our bus slowly wound its way down to our
destination, by the time we arrived it was pouring. The battleship was impressive, towering over the
tiny sub. Inside there were displays of items and armaments from the Korean War as well as some
Korean naval history. On deck we were able to see and even sit in the seats of some of the ships guns;
we were also able to stand behind the captain’s wheel. At the entrance to the submarine there is a case
of hard hats, which is lucky because there is not much room inside. Visitors can walk from one end of
the sub to the other and experience how cramped the 20 men inside must have felt. Also on display
was a small boat used by North Korean refugees to escape to South Korea by sea.
We ate a light snack while waiting for our bus, and when we got back to town we decided to buy
groceries for dinner and breakfast the next day before we went to our hotel. Dinner was Italian bread
and spaghetti, and breakfast was eggs and toast. Our hotel was very nice, and close to the beach. One
room had kitchen facilities so we could cook, while the other was just a bed and bathroom. After dinner
we went down to the beach to light sparklers and play in the waves. Here again nature was against us.
The sea was calm and only small waves lapped up on the shore, and the water was far too cold to get in.
The next morning a few of us woke up early (5:30 AM) to watch the sun rise on Korea, which
was done from the hotel balcony or from the beach. It was quite beautiful despite some leftover
clouds from the previous day’s rainstorm. After going back to bed for a few hours we woke up and ate
breakfast, then spent our afternoon walking along the beach before we had to catch our bus back home.
I'm in Thailand right now and don't have access to my pictures or I'd add some here. The last couple weeks have been pretty hectic with final presentations to give, papers to write, and tests to take. We just got to our hotel in Bangkok after a hellish day of travel. On about 3 hours of sleep we rode a bus to the airport and our first flight (to Beijing) went great; even having to go through security a second time, which we had heard horror stories about. The problems began with our flight out. We boarded on time, waited an hour, deplaned, replaned, flew for half an hour, turned back, circled for 3 hours, landed deplaned, switched planes, then finally took off about 7 hours late. We finally landed and got to our hotel, the trains here are really easy to navigate. I don't have any pictures because I left the SD card for my camera plugged into my computer in Korea. I'm planning on fixing that problem today, so look forward to lots more posts!
