The Honeymoon Hostel

   and The Walk to Ulsanbawi

 

 The House 

   Welcome to the The Honeymoon Hostel. When you come to Sokcho, South Korea there is no better place to stay than at the 4 thumbs up accommodations of The House. The House's homey atmosphere sweeps you in the doors to a refreshing melting pot of possibilities. A 15 minute presentation is given (in English) to inform you of site seeing opportunities, and when you don't speak Korean, what a better way to start your adventures than by receiving a wealth of knowledge about your vacation in your own language...because..,well you won't find that anywhere else!!  That alone, is priceless enough to book a room.

After arriving at the local bus terminal, and weaving your way to the front of the building, you will come to Sokcho's Bus terminal information center. You don't need to know Korean, just say, "Hostel House", and they will hand you a map that The House provides for you. Looking out of their booth, they will point for you to go to their right, or your left while facing the booth. Follow the map and you will kind your self walking the streets of Sokcho, curving down a small alley, where you will find The Honeymoon Hostel to your right. All said in Rod Roddy's voice from Price is right.

Like I said in a previous blog....It looks like a French Villa Cafe. Upon entering you will find an inviting atmosphere with a lot of character, and a very homey feel.

Yoo, the sweet tall Asian Man who manages The House will greet you and begin his presentation of the city. He knows Sokcho, Korea like the back of his hand. He welcomes you by handing you a flyer of amenities, and explaining them.

Here are the Amenities and handout that Yoo gave us:

* Laundry is not in the room, they take it and have it done for you.

* Internet is not in the room, but they do have TV and they also have a computer lounge with about 4 free computers, and wifi capability.

* The Guest Kitchen always has coffee, tea, and bread, and they serve frosted corn flakes in the morning.

* This was not mentioned on the flyer, but The House is located right next to a market with Americanish food! It is wonderful. It is also very close to the Auto Bank which has the one global ATM available. ( It is past the Korean Post office) It is a second away from the bus stop, and 3 mins away for the bus terminal. 

Yoo will give YOU a map, or if you already have one from the information center, he opens it up and gives you a description of what there is to do in the city...(American, adventurous, Korean), how long it takes to do it all, what transportation is available, how to reach it, and the food options. 

What is there to do in Sokcho, Korea....?

Well, The Seorak National Park is about a 30 minute bus ride from The House.

 1. There is a huge waterfall.
2. A suggested cave to explore.
3. There are supposedly thousands of buddhas to see including a gigantic statue at the bottom of the Seorak Mountains,
4. The Seorak Mountains have various trail hikes through amazing landscapes including the most famous, where you can climb over 800 stairs to the Ulsanbawi rock formation.

This is the big Buddha at the beginning of our climb.

 Climbing the stairs to Ulsanbawi is said to take 4 hours from start to finish, but you have to be in good shape. And since we're fit and active youngsters we took on the challenge.....

This is us at the beginning of our hike! We look so happy!

Why are they wearing coats? It's hot!

Here we go.....I think this is where I turned my pants into shorts because I was dying...um, maybe 40 steps in...ope, no I forget..that was way back there before the steps even started.

These shops lined the climb, which is interesting as it was called rigorous. Too bad we brought so much heavy water with us, and needed chiropractic adjustments because of it...did I say youngsters?

More Stairs and Jackets? Curtis put on a show pushing the rock protecting the fortress. Someone used the word poser...and they did not even speak English! Pretty good description :-)

 I think this is stair 1500..... It was really awesome!

I think this might be where the 800 start...even though I'm sure we already walked up...HUNDREDS of Stairs before this point... I'm not complaining..it was incredible. Just trying to describe the experience..heat exhaustion, jelly legs.. you know..., normal hike up thousands of stairs info.

Hey, these stairs are padded!!

I was sooooo tired my muscles were shaking...my knees were clanking!! So forgive the droopy eyes...I was actually loving every minute!!!! At this point we still had a while to go, but everyone was saying we were close and so we kept pushing through!!!
The lady 3 pics below is ready to trek through light snow?...She probably got all decked out to go hiking because she saw it on a magazine...and was grumbling under her breath the whole way because she was SO unbearably hot.

I counted about 500 Buddhas....but that was the farthest I could see in...

These ladies were sneaking pictures of me...so I got some of them! They are cute!

Me and the cutest man alive! Look at our cairn below..

We made it to the bottom!!!!!!!!! Bring salt pills if you over heat easily they are a life saver!! And if you think you are fit..., well do some push ups and squats because you're probably not.

View from the bottom!! When you are done, you can take the bus down to the natural hot-spring and relax your sure-to-be sore muscles from the hiking. We were hungry..so we skipped the massage and continued onward to food!

There are markets to shop

There are beautiful parks that you can see by using one of the free bikes The House offers. This is down by the beach.

Night Market

Things to buy at market! Blek

The beach is fun! They have entertaining statues, and it is beautiful.

Self-Pull Ferry

Local restuarant for Korean Sundae..muhahahaha

local house hanging Jelly fish. ?? The Picture 2 above is a house with a garden that is taking over their place. You will see this at every house, and right in the city.

Many houses have mats laid out for drying fish and peppers

 While there are cities that never sleep over here, Sokcho has a night market that is open for a while, but it does eventually go to sleep, and you can be sure you will get the sleep you need. When you are hungry you can visit the American style BBQ house, or get in to the local feel and try the b.b.bop rice bowl. If you are feeling risky go for the Korean Sundae, otherwise come back to The House and pick up some food from the local mart right next door. That is EXACTLY what we did! We put our things in our room. Went to the Gas Station, bought "American Semblance" food (You can't win 'em all), and watched Titanic, I gave Curtis a Massage, and then we went to sleep after buying our tickets to Shanghai for Tuesday.—Sweet Slumber!

Here is a map of Sokcho with Yoo's informative scribble.

Oh yeah, these are some pictures of our fun hostel, The House.

Computer Lounge

Entrance to our honeymoon suite

Our bath for 2, if someone is on the others shoulders while standing. It was more for shower use..

One of the many many many staircases we had to climb to get to our room AFTER we hiked to Ulsanbawi

And That's the House!