Gyeongju Today I seem to be continuing a trend when traveling through Asian countries. In Japan (2001), I lost a hat. Now twice this trip I have lost a hat (I brought two on this trip!). Now both are gone and I had to buy a new one which will hopefully make it through the trip. We are two weeks through the trip, so it has to survive ten days. I’m averaging 7 days a hat it doesn’t look good.

Yet another travel day, we have moved south from An Dong to Gyeongju about 2 hours south east. When we arrived at that bus terminal it was crazy and the line up for tickets was huge. It has been a long weekend in Korea as it is their Thanksgiving – Chosek. Today’s bus ride was uneventful and the driver was probably the sanest we have had. We have checked into a Korean Love Motel for our stay here.

An Dong In the morning we hopped on a city bus and headed to visit the Dosan Seowon Confucian Academy. This site includes the hallowed lecture hall, dormitory, library, publishing place, etc. It is a very peaceful spot and you can see how it would be conducive to studying. We had lunch at Mr. Pizza and enjoyed an interesting pizza: .5 was potato and bacon (sort of) and the other .

Andong / Hahoe Folk Village This is our first full day in An Dong and we are off by city bus to visit Hahoe folk village which is about 50 minutes by city bus outside of the city. The bus ride costs about 1 dollar. Hahoe is a village that has been preserved rather than a village that has been built as a tourist site representing a traditional Korean village but you do still see modern life here – cars, TV satellite dishes, and other modern amenities.

Sokcho to Andong Another travel day. Moving from Sokcho to Andong. The directions we got from the tourist information office was to take a bus west back to Seoul then another bus to Andong. This would also involve changing to a different bus station in Seoul. Luckily for internet we discovered we could travel south from Sokcho to Gangeung and then take a train to Andong. This would save us probably 5 hours of travel.

Sokcho / Seoraksan National Park Day 2 of hiking in the park. En route to the park by 9am after double checking to make sure the camera is there! The hike today is described as mostly easy with just 600m of hard hiking. We head off to Biseondae (Flying Fairy Peak) which is a veritical rock formation that stands at the entrance to a gorge. Very easy to get to this location, from there was start ascending to Geumganggul Cave.

Sokcho / Seoraksan National Park The day started off pretty nicely, up early to catch a city bus into the National Park. About a 20 minute bus ride later we arrived in the park, paid our entrace and started to decide on which trail to take. When we discovered that our camera was still in the hotel room. So back on a bus back to the hotel. Luckily the bus ride is short, frequent and cheap.

Seoul to Sokcho Internetless today. It is a travel day today. We moved from Seoul to Sokcho on the Northeast coast of Korea. Leaving Seoul by bus, we could see the develpment occuring in the south of Seoul. Entire blocks of apartments being built. Not just one 20 or 30 story building being erected but sets of eight or ten 20 or 30 story buildings. As we moved more out of the city there were more fields of rice and smaller towns.

Our first tour in Korea. This is one thing that I didn’t get to do on my first time through Korea, so it was a must do for this trip. The day starts with a passport check at the tour office and checking to make sure everyone conforms to the dress code (no shorts / sandals / tank tops / nothing that will offend the North Koreans). Our tour bus had a sign in front “Foreign Tourists on Board”.

Seoul We have become regulars with the ‘sandwich lady’. Today we didn’t even need to order – as soon as we got to her truck she started cooking our breakfast. It’s so convienent. She is located just at the entrance to the subway. She seems to do a pretty brisk business. The plan for today was to go to Changdeokgung, a UNESCO World Heritage site. On the way there we picked up cold canned coffee to go from a 7-11 type store.