Because two of us had to go back to Seoul first, we went to Gangneung(강릉) bus terminal. After that, we tried to find accommodation.
At this moment, we walked by one house and people inside came out to help us! The young lady can speak English very well and she'd also been to many countries for travel before.
They took us to this motel because they were friends with the owner.
This room was quite big and so was the bathroom. Clean, also.
Then we went out for a bite, but it was Sunday evening so almost all the restaurants were closed!!!
Such a quiet place.
Flower boy haha
Long time no watch TV.
In the early morning, we were heading for Sokcho(속초) because we wanted to go to Seorak Mountain(설악산), which is also a national park.
Bye, Gangneung City!
So many churches in Korea... sooooo many!
Hello, mountains!
We took a bus from Sokcho bus terminal to the entrance to the national park, and then walked down to find a motel. I guess the distance was 1 km but I'm not sure.
Five stars hotel here.
We found a restaurant to eat first because they gave us a discount. It was 불고기.
With many side dishes but some were weird to me.
Perhaps because it wasn't a holiday, there was no other guests.
Then, again, the owner of the restaurant took us to her friend's motel. The owner of the motel was very nice and we also saw her daughters in the following day.
These were all the furniture and we slept on the floor in a traditional way. However, the restroom was funny because there was a little kinda transparent window on the upper side of the door and a big gap between the door and the doorsill.
Ah, the mountain! Because one was tired and another was uncomfortable, only two of us went to visited the national park on the first day.
Seorak Mountain-Sinheung Temple(설악산 신흥사)
They sell tea and books.
Reunification Buddha(통일대불), which is the biggest Buddha statue in the world. It took 11 years to make it, and was finished in 1997. Its height is 14.6 meters. This statue symbolizes Korean people hope Korea (North and South Korea) reunification can happen.
Ohhh, so lovely!!
For wishes.
To a cafeteria.
Cute!
It was still under construction.
In 신흥사.
This is really funny.
Beautiful sunshine on the mountain.
From outside.
So many stuff like this in Korean mountains, so makes it like a... competition :P
Nature.
What a rock! I didn't know that on the second day.....we went there! To the top!
So beautiful! 설악산~~~
A lot of squirrels here, our new friends.
To 계조암(繼祖庵).
It was a really stunning place.
We set off late that day, but we'd better go back to the motel before sunset so we returned to it before going to 울산바위(蔚山岩).
On the way back, we went to 계조암 again, and we met a lady, who was in charge of the temple. She gave us this:
:)
A beautiful day.
Korean people, including old people, walk so fast even in the mountain, so do not ever believe them when they tell you how long it takes to get to any place.
