3 Days 2 Night in Gangwon-do - I

Two Weeks Vacation in South Korea - Part XII

Part XI: Two Weeks Vacation in South Korea - Part XI
Part XII:  Two Weeks Vacation in South Korea - Part XII
Part XIII: Two Weeks Vacation in South Korea - Part XIII

Itinerary to South Korea 

Day 12: Samcheok & Gangneung

Hwanseongul Cave

From Courtyard Seoul Times Square hotel, we drove to Samcheok-si, Gangwon-do. The first destination was Hwanseongul Cave. It took about 4.5 to 5 hours to get there. We stopped at couple rest areas.

Phone Number: +82-33-570-3255 
Fee: 7,000 won/person & 5,000 won/person for monorail

The reason I decided not to visit Manjanggul Cave back in Jeju Island because of my plan to visit this cave, Hwanseongul Cave. This cave located in Samcheok-si and the largest limestone caves in South Korea with 6.2 km of known passages. It took us 15 minutes walk  from the entrance to the monorail. The temperature inside the caves was around 10-14 centigrade. Therefore, a jacket is needed when you are walking inside. The total walkway inside is about 1.6 km.

Ticket office

The views from ticket office to the monorail

The views from ticket office to the monorail

The views from ticket office to the monorail

The views from ticket office to the monorail

The monorail ticket office

The monorail

The views from inside of the monorail

In front of the caves

Suspension bridge inside the caves

Toward the end of the trail

Head of the dragon

Haesindang Park

From Hwanseongul cave, we drove to Haesindang Park. Haesindang Park is known as Penis Park due to its number of erect phallic statues all over inside the park. Haesindang Park is located at Samcheok-si. This park is based on the legend of Auebawi and Haesindang. Based on the legend, a man left his woman on a rock in the sea while he was working. However, he cannot pick her up due to storm and the woman drowned. Since then, the fishermen of that village were not be able to catch fish. One day a fisherman peed into the sea water and since then, the fishermen can catch fish. To soothe her spirit, they built the phallic wooden cravings. After that, the fishermen of the village can live comfortably again. 

Phone Number: +82 33-570-3568
Fee: 3,000 won/person

 

Samcheok City

By the time we were at Haesindang Park, we were very hungry but no restaurant was open near the area. We ended up looking for one in Samcheok-si. The city was amazing and I like it very much. Due to the low season, most of the restaurants were closed. We found one restaurant and I did not know what it called as. They offered snow crab and my dad would like to eat that. The food was very cheap compare to Jagalchi market in Busan. The eomonni was very nice. She showed us how to crack the crab's feet and she ended up crack all of them so that we could just ate it. We ate for a total of 100,000 won.

The eomonni could not speak any English at all and we had a hard time to order. Luckily, there was one family who also ate there and one of them could speak English. She became our translator to order the food.

Phone Number: +82 33-574-2822

Snowcrabs

Seafood Pancakes

Fresh Sashimi Salad

Sweet and sour rice

Side dishes

Fried Rice

Jeongdongjin Sunrise Park

After finished our lunch, we went to our hotel. Tonight, we stayed at Sun Cruise Resort & Yacht Hotel. Jeongdongjin is a city in gangwon-do located near the Gangneung. Our hotel located in Jeongdongjin Sunrise Park. This hotel was a spot where the drama 'Winter Sonata' was filming. The hotel shape was a big ship sitting on top of coastal cliff. The view itself was just amazing. Jeongdongjin was one of the popular spots to see sunrise and sunset.

Phone Number: +82-33-640-4536

Sunrise at Jeongdongjin Beach (Credit @ visitkorea.or.kr)

I would rate the hotel 3.5/5. When I went, there were lots of renovation going on. The door room was still old style with a key instead of a card key. The room was a little bit dusty and smelly. I guess it was due to the low season. The views was amazing. The food at the restaurant was bad and the access to the ship roof was restricted.       

Continue Part XIII: Two Weeks Vacation in South Korea - Part XIII