Winter Sonata Day 5

Day 5 started early. We barely had enough sleep as we reached Sorak Hotel past 10pm. But we were relieved to have some place to rest, to re-charge our camera and sleep.

The weather was good.

After breakfast, we boarded the coach to Seoraksan National Park, which was also known as Mount Sorak.

As it was a Sunday, we could also see Koreans waking up early to hike up Mount Sorak.

Big Snowman

Besides having a hiking trail, Mount Sorak also house the biggest Buddha statue in Korea. Korean use white candles as praying items. They inscribe well wishes on the white candles and light up in the cupboard in front of the statue.

Note the size contrast between the people in the background and the Buddha statue.

Like in Jeju, Mount Sorak has this crescent moon bear as its mascot. If you see this crescent moon bear, it means you are in Mount Sorak. This is also the place that separates North and South Korea. Unfortunately this bear had long extinct.

Extinct Crescent Moon Bear

Mount Sorak is really great in height. The Koreans together with the Swiss built this cable car to travel from ground to the mid of Mount Sorak. We just had to hike 800m to reach the peak.

The Cable Ride

The hike was good. It was picturesque at the peak.

See the small people at the bottom of the picture. The Majestic Sorak!

Lunch was mushroom hotpot. This was a typical Korean cuisine with many side dishes.

Early Lunch at 11.30am

Outside the restaurant, there was a van selling strawberry. Tour guide encouraged us to buy one pack as she explained the price was right and it would be hard to buy strawberry as we moved on with our itinerary.

our 9000 won strawberries

It was a good buy! We had such big and fresh strawberries. All of it was so sweet!

see how BIG was our strawberry

After our lunch, we moved on to Phoenix Park Hotel. Along the way, the tour guide arranged for us to rent ski suit and sleigh. So exciting! Tomorrow we would be skiing.

But before that, we changed to our swimsuit and headed for the Blue Canyon Water Theme Park. No photography was allowed hence there was no photo to show.

It was an eye opener for us. First, I was impressed with their locker system. One key for your shoe and also your clothes locker. Your locker number was issued when you purchased your admission ticket. I thought it was a good system. You don't have to search for empty locker.

Second, in the changing room, the local women walked around in nude blatantly. They were really comfortable and there were indoor hotspring tubs for you to soak in. But you got to be naked to enter.

Third, the water theme park was connected to outdoor, so we swam out to the open and experienced the cold in our swim suit. Other than that, there were also 3 different type of hotspring pools for you to soak.

After 30 minutes, we changed out and headed back to our hotel.

Back in our Phoenix Park Hotel, we could watch people ski from our room. Looking forward to our maiden attempt in this popular winter sport the next day.