Busan & Sokcho, South Korea

Busan - Culture village & Halloween

Day 1 & 2

Had a chill afternoon after arriving so we could wash clothes and do admin. For dinner we had jjajangmyeon and kalguksu for 3000 won each which is about £1.50!

Gamcheon Culture Village: an old town built with the idea that each house can’t block the house behind its' view of the sea. Was cool to walk around (so many stairs though 🥵). We got some classic Korean street food - fried chicken and Korean corn dogs!

Gwangalli beach: really nice beach in fairly central Busan. No one was in the sea surprisingly but the water was pretty chilly. They had a live performance all evening which we ended up watching (a mix of traditional Korean & k-pop music / dance 😅), along with the lights coming on around the bay as it got dark, pretty good views!

Night in Seomyeon: After a few drinks on the beach we headed to a pocha (Korean pub) in Seomyeon for some somaek (beer & soju) and food - then out for a few cocktails and stumbled into a karaoke bar at 3am. Can’t say the singing was good but we had loads of fun (and more fried chicken).

Day 3

Haedong Yonggungsa temple: rainy day but we managed to get out, on the way to the temple we stopped at Dongnae market for some hotteok (like a fried doughnut with brown sugar and nuts inside) was so good!

The temple is built on the sea so has some pretty dramatic views, although the main building was covered in scaffolding.

Dinner was a hearty bowl of ginseng chicken pot rice & bibimbap, (here).

Sokcho - Seoraksan National Park 🏞️

Day 1

Abai village & markets: Old village formed by refugees of the Korean war from North Korea, interesting to stroll around and got dinner at the (rammed) market - North Korean food called squid sundae (fried squid filled with glutinous rice) and a potato cake, pretty good - very beige!

Day 2

Mount Seoraksan - Daecheongbong: Woke up at 3:45am to start our hike up Daecheongbong peak at 5am, was a bit of a grueling start as it's just straight uphill for 1,200m in the dark. We just missed out on the sunrise at the peak but the views were still amazing both going up as the sun was rising and at the top. Glad we started when we did as even at this time we got caught in a convoy of about 20 hikers going up! We got so lucky with the weather, apparently it's usually very wet and windy this time of year, and we managed to see some late autumn colours nearer the bottom of the valley on the other side. 10/10 hike.

We crashed pretty hard after getting back at like 3pm, had a nap, then went out for our last meal in SK! We had Korean BBQ beef, and a bottle of makgeolli (fermented rice drink, kind of like a fizzy alcoholic milk but surprisingly good)!