130428 Sunrise, Naksan Temple and the Seokcho Market

we woke up soooooo early like 4.30am????
just to catch the sunrise. well, actually i've never seen a sunrise in my life so i guess it's a good experience. but we reached really early and even took a taxi when we could have just walked over.

but there were people who were earlier than us... and couples hugging each other in the cold.

i meant to spam all the 300 photos that xm took while we waited for an hour looking at the orange ball slowly rising. but i shall not bore you with the same pictures. or they are technically not the same, since the ball is in a different position.

was so cold i was in winter wear. hurhur.

and then the view of the market area while we were waiting... from dusk to dawn.

we then walked back to our hostel to have breakfast at the lovely cafe.

and we finally get to see the hostel dog! so big and white and flufffffy, but he bites if you try to touch him. ouch. not that i'll risk my hand.

since there's not a lot we can do, we got stuck with the option of visiting a temple. a great big temple in fact - uh, i'm not sure if that sounds more appealing. ok, a grand temple on top of a mountain with a sea view. (more climbing, great..........................................!)

we missed our bus stop and had to loop the bus back and paid a double fare. grah. so unfriendly! managed to reach the must-see temple in the end. of course. not that i wanted to reach.

so how about i spam some temple shots, since i went through great difficulties to get here?

and we have to climb a loooong winding path...

the rock says 'the way to realising your dream'. which is just about true, since i wanted to get over climbing the top quick.

and great goddess statue at the top with the sea view...

and what's a temple if you don't have those wishing wells, and stuff that you have to spend money on to grant the wishes that never come true??

still, i managed to throw a 10 won in the urn at the first try. awesome!

xm was wondering if the gods in korea understood english / mandarin. went ahead to write her wish and rang the bell anyway. if you're a god you must be fluent in universal language right.

and time to head down...

great big pond in the middle!

stopped at a museum with all kinds of rocks.

had tea for a while but it started to rain. thankfully it wasn't so heavy but we still ran out all the way. and we're out!

ooh fancy horse carriage with blasting music! this marks the end of our temple trip..

went over to the shopping district afterwards. bull looks familiar? heh. (no, not that it's my friend!)

this place is supposed to be a filming area for Autumn in my Heart. but i don't remember the scene anymore.

and it seems that this restaurant was featured in a variety show. too bad i don't watch it.

and on our way to buying our famous hoddog + famous chicken - which is the 2 MUST TRYs in seokcho, passed by some couple statues.

there's so many chicken imitations, but this is the best. it tastes awesome cold and hot!!! what a mystery!

we took like an hour+ to queue for the hoddog, but it was so worth it!!

YUM! felt like getting more pieces because we queued so much for it, but one piece really fills you up. it's drowned in oil though so it can get kinda queasy if you eat too much of it.

after that it was time to leave seokcho. we stayed the night at yongin while preparing to fly off the next day to jeju~

130427 Seokcho - Seoraksan

so on the first day of xm's trip she decided to start it off with a bang... by conquering mt seorak.

bad choice.

well at least we started with a rather good breakfast from yesterday's pancake leftovers.

left us aching for many days to come. here's the view of the entrance before we start the climb.

i had thought that it would be pretty chilly - and it was, just before you start the climb. so i was sort of wearing winter stuff. lol. but the more we climbed, the hotter it got, so we started stripping along the way.

stopped a lot to take all the pictures along the way.

and then when we finally reached the steps that says... 10mins to the top - which was a complete lie!!! we took about an hour to reach the top from there T_T

and then we finally reached the top!!! we conquered ulsan-bahwi~~

there was a drinks and photo stall at the top (i wonder if they have to climb the mountain everyday to work there...) and we got this free tea from there because of our connection with the pancake uncle the day before. the herbal tea is awesome!!! (or was it because we climbed like 4hours just to have the drink, that's why??)

settled down and began to have our packed gimbabs and relax on the rock...

and some memorial photos before we head back down T_T

the climb back down was pretty scary because of the rocky path and also cos the steps were so steep. almost tripped on a few occasions.

we then headed to the other mountain, which you could reach easily via cable car. damn, we should have just came here.

the view was great, but somehow the one from ulsan-bahwi was better. but i think it was a  psychological effect - we climbed so hard for that one that we had to insist it's much better.

you see the peak int he picture? we actually wanted to go there, but the steps were a bit crazy - it was steep and rocky and people were sitting to get down. it seems that if you're not careful enough you could lose your life. so we just got up halfway.

then we climbed all the other random rocks strewn around.

some how it's quite impossible to capture the breathtaking view from the top with my s3. you have to really see it for yourself.

then it was time to cable back down. we had pancake at the restaurant just at the mountain before we headed over to our onsen. actually wanted to go to the waterpark but it was pretty late and not worth the money so we went over to the onsen instead.

after all the hot bath... we had hard boiled eggs, just like the people in k dramas. hoho.

and that's enough mountain for me... for the rest of my life. or so i say. before i'm dragged to another mountain again by my almighty bestie. T_T and our legs ached like no tomorrow the next day.