This morning, we took the cable car to Dragon Peak. Weather was good and it didn't feel as cold as the day before.
Tho' it was the end of ski season, there were still quite a number of skiers. Haiz.. they all look so cool skiing down the slope so effortlessly but why did it drain so much of my energy just going down a beginners slope?!?!
Yongpyong Resort was one of the filming site for Korean drama, Winter Sonata, 2002. Didn't watch this drama but looking at the posters and fact that it is still being used as promotion to this place more then a decade since it was screened, this drama must be very good.
Reaching the station at the peak.
It must be beautiful during mid of winter when all these mountains are all snow-covered.
They are all over the place.
Coffee and bagel at a cafe with a fantastic view.
The morning trip up Dragon peak marked the end of our Yongpyong stay. Checked out of the hotel and took the shuttle bus to our next destination, Sokcho. Gonna spend a night here then proceed to Seorak-san the next morning. We checked in to Mr Egg House (more on it in a separate blog) and the host was so comical. He was so "drama" in expressing his dilemma when we asked him if we should visit the beach and seafood market or the local market. Thinking that we won't have time to do both, we asked him which should we choose. He was like ... do the seafood path cos you are tourists and the abalone hot pot which I wanted to try, tho' ex, is very nice... but... no no no... do the local market cos that's where the local go and we can experience Sokcho more visiting the local market. LOL such a comical guy. In the end, we decided to do both! They are within walking distance and we just needed to walk a little faster and make sure we don't spend too much time at each location.
First we went to the local market.
The streets were quiet. It's a relatively big market with many stalls but perhaps it was late afternoon thus there were few shoppers. There were many sellers who sell their food stuff on the street, like...literally on the street. Some preserved but there were also raw seafood, wouldn't the seafood go bad being exposed like that?
There were many stalls in the market selling dried seafood.
We stopped by this stall for break. This picture shows the front of the stall with the stall owner and the space where she prepares the food. Behind her, up 2 steps, was a tiniest little room where customers sit. The space is not bigger then a room in our HDB flat. There were 4 small tables with chairs. We shared the space with 4 other youngsters. Comfortable enough but I can't imagine how it will feel during summer or when all the tables are occupied. Must be quite claustrophobic.
We tried the traditional Korean sundae which I really had no idea what was in it till I googled... it's a mixture of pig’s blood, barley and cellophane noodles, stuffed inside a pig’s intestine and then boiled. It didn't taste bad but wasn't exactly tasty either. We also had the pig stomach, liver and tteokbokki. Tho' we don't speak the same language, it was easy to communicate. We simply point to the pot and making circular motion then pointed to both of us, she nodded her head and later brought us a plate with mixture of what was in the pot just enough for both of us.
There are stalls selling ready made food. They all look so yummy!! How I wish they allow us to taste a bit of everything. I wanna try everything!
Ojingo-sundae These apparently are Sokcho's unique twist to sundae (Korean sausage) by using squid instead of pork intestines. Didn't try it cos they were left in the open and really didn't look too appetising.
After spending about 1.5hr at the local market, we walked toward the harbour. Along the way, we saw so MANY crab restaurants! Even a whole building housing only seafood restaurants. I so wanted to try the seafood here but every restaurant look touristy and as I mentioned earlier, the town is so quiet that we worried we will be pounded upon once we enter any of these places. So we walked on.
At (nearly) the end of the walk, we reached this pavilion. So pretty and with such a view! This is the Yeonggeumjeong pavilion, popular for its magnificent views of the sunrise over the sea and the view of the harbour.
From the Yeonggeumjeong pavilion, we could see this other pavilion further out nearer to the sea but I were too tired to walk further. Time to look for food!
Panorama pix of the harbour from the pavilion with the sun setting over the mountains in the background. This is the reason why I love travelling free and easy, to be able to stop as long as we want when we desire. The view from this pavilion was so lovely that we spent some time here just staring at the waves and seagulls. Feeling the sea breeze and listening to the waves crashing onto rocks. And most importantly... taking lots of selfies and wefies.
Our initial plan was to have abalone hot pot (전복뚝배기 seafood hot pot dinner) but the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed. There were others selling this same dish but we were tempted by the snow crabs at the seafood market. We ended up at the seafood market (building with light blue strip in the photo).
This was taken from the seafood market with Yeonggeumjeong pavilion in the background.
There were many stalls there with tanks and tanks of seafood. In front of each stall, there was an ahjumma who will try to reach out to you hawking their seafood. It was pretty intimidating. We really didn't know which to stall to choose, what's the "market price" for crabs or even how to choose good ones. Whatever lah.. we stopped by this stall cos the ahjumma grabbed my arms and stopped me. Fierce. Then, we learnt something from her. The power of social media.. even at this sleepy village.
We told her we wanted snow crabs by pointing. She was like ... ok ok.. showed us the price on calculator. Picked 2 crabs from the tank, put them in a round basket and showed us with the crabs facing downward. Happened very quickly. We didn't know how to choose and kinda trusted her cos she was all smiley and kept saying "good good!" Then before she brings the crabs to the kitchen, I stopped her indicating I want to take a photo of our crabs to put on "internet", then she suddenly went.. hahaha.. ok ok... flipped one of the crab belly up and pointed to a few "holes"... MISSING LEGS! She went hahaha again, threw that crab back into the tank and picked another, showed me that all the legs are intact and told me to "take take.. put internet" and pointed to her stall number "28". Fwah... lesson learnt. I checked the other crab in our basket and found it has 2 legs missing as well. Got that changed and kinda regretted stopping at this stall.
So, since she wanted me to put her stall on internet. Here it is... Stall 28 at Sokcho seafood market. Not honest. Tried selling me crappy crabs.
No matter, the crabs still tasted very good. And this is the first time I eat out of a big red plastic tray. No plates.
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