Trip to Samcheok 2: Trip Harder

This post chronicles Part 2 of the Trip to Samcheok - For part 1, see below.

After arriving back in Samcheok's core, from Haesindang Park, the five of us made our way over to an Italian restaurant we had spotted during our morning run to Dunkin Donuts. For such a cheese-unfriendly nation, an Italian restaurant was a pretty awesome thing to find. After gulping down our food, like the disgustingly-hungry foreigners that we were, we decided to explore Samcheok a bit more.

We found a bar who's logo was the american flag, called simply 'Western Bar, Rock n' Roll'. Just about every stereotype you could ever see about North America from the last 50 years was there to be found; from the Big-Band statues (pictured), to the 'Enjoy Coca-Cola' sign. Surprisingly enough, no one in this 'Western Bar' spoke any English... so it was obviously not a place for Westerners to come, but rather somewhere that Koreans can go to if they want to 'Get a feel' for the culture. Kind of like we do, with many Asian restaurants.. decorate it with as many artifacts and pictures as possible, to give it that asian 'feel', no matter how un-genuine it actually is.

Anyway, after toying with the idea of going bowling again, we just ended up calling it an early night, so that we could get an early go on Hwanseongul Cave the next morning.

After an obligatory run back to Dunkin Donuts (in the rain), we took a taxi to the local Bus Terminal, and hopped on a bus that headed toward the cave. The trip up there was through a very mountainous area, and took approximately an hour - but it was well worth it. Pictured below is the beautiful view of the mountains in that area (and the less-than-beautiful view of me staring at them).









The reason we got to see so much of that area is that the bus drops you off a full 1.2km away from the cave - all of which is uphill. Way, way uphill. The cave is about 900 meters above sea-level... and although it didn't say at what level we were dropped off, my guess would be at 500-600 meters above sea-level. Now, I don't know if anyone's ever climbed uphill a few hundred meters before, but to do it in a 1.2km stretch means it's steeeeeep. But hey. It was well worth it.

Inside the cave, there's a pre-laid-out path on steel catwalks, and according to Wikipedia, it's about another 1.6km self-guided tour. Most of the pictures didn't turn out too well, since Cameras and Darkness don't typically agree, but it was quite, quite a sight. A formation of this type is a very unique thing to see, and walking through something that took nature many millenia to carve just felt incredibly cool.

We made our way back down, took a bus back to Samcheok, and finally hopped on a bus back to Seoul at 2:25 in the afternoon. We got home without incident, at around 8pm on Sunday.

I was feeling seriously commited to staying at home for the next month, after two full-weekends of going all over the country, but it seems like that won't happen. Kay, the HR Manager, organized a trip for the coming weekend for all of the teachers at GEC, as well as for some teachers working at Public schools, to go to an island-getaway on Saturday.

No worries. I'll rest when i'm dead!