With South Korea and the U.S. planning a fun weekend of war games, we decided it would be a good weekend to get the hell out of central Seoul. But what to do? As it gets colder there's less and less incentive to hike around and sightsee while our bodies freeze in the elements. We decided to give it a go anyway and we took the cover of our Lonely Planet as inspiration. "Let's find the cover," we thought. So we headed toward Cheongju and Songnisan National Park.
Cheongju was only an hour and a half from Seoul, so though it was nice to get out of the city, it was also nice to not endure a long bus ride like we did on our trip to Gyeongju last month. After we got off the bus in Cheongju it looked like we'd been let off into some sort of royal palace, because most of the love motels (and there are probably over 50) were shaped like castles. We chose one that we understood to be called the "Penis Motel" in Hangul, but the English on the towels revealed it to actually be the "Venus Motel".
The room was pretty good for 50,000 Won. There was a computer that worked with the big flatscreen TV, a super comfy bed and a huge bathtub. We had to change rooms because our computer's speakers were messed up... and trust me, this was a long ordeal, but we liked the place enough to stay there both nights of our trip. It was the bed that made it for us. So comfy!
Our NOT Penis Motel was conveniently located across from the Don't Tell Mama Nightclub. Awesome name, but Mama knows.
A few minutes walk away from the hotel, and right outside the bus terminal was the Dream Plus Department Store. As you can see from the above photo, this dream had seen better days. We'd only gone there Saturday morning to get some lunch at the food court and we had a great meal at an Italian restaurant that only seemed to serve Korean food. Mel had a bibimbap and I had the ddok baegi bulgogi- a nice warm soup to fight the cold rainy day outside. We'd planned to spend Saturday at Songnisan National Park, but like I said, it was pouring rain and cold so we decided to go on Sunday instead. We were off in search of something to do.
In Korea, I find that you can tell what kind of town you're in based on the number of BYCs that you see. BYC is like the lowest of the low, crappiest fashion retailer in Korea. They seem to prosper best in ajumma and ajoshi, dinky, boring little places. Not that Cheongju is all that bad but... we did see 5 BYCs in one day. And Mel did comment that she was bored pretty often.
At the G20 conference earlier in the month, one of Korea's top priorities was to speak with France about returning one of it's national treasures called Jikji. It is the oldest metal-printed book ever made, and it was made in Cheongju. There's a claim to fame for ya. For the record, France is returning the book on a "permanent loan" basis.
We asked a taxi driver to take us to Jungmun, which Lonely Planet calls an "entertainment district" near a university. There was meant to be a lot of cheap shopping and food. There definitely was a lot of cheap food and night clubs, but we'd already eaten and it was a wee early for a bender. We walked around a bit, certain that we'd eventually find the shops that our guide book had mentioned. There were no shops but there was an ajumma with her pants pulled down, full-on peeing on the side of the main road. I looked around and saw so very many buildings that would have had public bathrooms for her to use. It was very strange. We carried on and found a street full of old broken mirrors and shelves, and at least there were no old ladies pissing, so we walked up there (as you do).
The street led to a small covered market. There were several in Cheongju, and most contained at least one BYC outlet.
Ever wonder what your sea monkeys tasted like? You can eat them by the shovel-full at this market.
We were cold and ready for coffee. NOT Penis Motel had kindly left us some Maxim's to enjoy but we were ready for another fix, so we found ourselves at the lovely A Bear Fall in Coffee Cafe.
Trying to find our way out of Jungmun we spotted this abandoned building with random, dirty models of Elvis and Jack Sparrow creeping things up nicely. Who needs Vegas? C'mon Elvis, let's move the wedding to Cheongju!
We hailed another taxi and headed to the Cheongju Department Store. If you want to do a little shopping in Cheongju, this is where everything is. There's a solid 4 or 5 blocks of decent stores and it's a nice place to kill a few hours.
There were quite a few good little clothing stores (and yep, a BYC), and Mel found this sweater with a pretty blunt sense of identity.
For supper, we went back to Jungmun because I'd spotted a Mongolian restaurant that I wanted to try. Little did we realize that the restaurant was completely abandoned and possibly full of Elvis mannequins. We went for BBQ instead, and let me tell you, when the guide book said this was a cheap area for food they were right. $5/each for a massive plate full of BBQ bacon, all the sides, drinks and a naengmyeon. Ridiculous!
Sunday morning we woke up to ICE! It seems like everytime we go away for the weekend the weather changes. Sokcho was the first time I wore sleeves in 4 months, and now Cheongju was where I bought my first winter hat! I hate winter- HATE HATE HATE! But at least the ice was the thin, crunchy stuff that's fun to jump on.
We decided to buy bus tickets to Songnisan, then grab some food, use the bathroom, get a Latte and then get on the bus. Well, I bought the tickets and the cashier (who had maintained her composure throughout the entire transaction) started yelling "BALLI BALLI SHEEPCHIL ORANJOK BALI". We needed to hurry our asses to bus stop 17. It took some convincing for the driver to let Mel use the bathroom first and as soon as we were on the bus, it took off. Just under 2 hours later were were at the park. We were hungry! We walked through a virtual village of restaurants and couldn't find a thing to eat. I know a heck of a lot of Korean food names and I didn't recognize anything these folks were selling. One place sold 15,000 Won bulgogi, but wouldn't make only one portion, we HAD to order two, so we just left. I bought some chicken on a stick and Mel got a hot dog. What a sad lunch. We decided to make up for it by buying coffees. When the cashier told me the two drinks I held in my hand (and the cups were so light it felt like I'd be drinking air) were 14,000 Won we were about ready to leave Songi-effing-san park before we'd even really got there.
The trail was quite nice... but where was our Buddha from the Lonely Planet cover?
We found this amazing temple called Beopjusa, built around its amazing $4 Million giant Buddha.
It's like he wants a high five but someone left him hanging.
Amazing buildings that made it feel as if we were walking through some old postcard or famous painting.
At most of these temples they just play a CD of the monks playing their music, but at this place they had a real live guy doing his thing. And I was happy to see that they set up a heat fan next to him. It was cold!
When we didn't see our Buddha from the cover of the guide book anywhere, we thought we might be onto the right track when we saw some cool rock carvings off the main path, but nope! We never found it. And with the last bus back to Gangnam leaving any minute we had no time left to search. It was also a surprise to us that we were as low on money as were and that there were no ATMs around. Our tickets home were 30,800 Won together and we only had 32,000 Won on us! If we'd spent another minute looking for Buddha we'd have missed our bus, and if we'd bought that expensive bulgogi we couldn't have paid our way home. Food just wasn't in the cards for us today. We were hungry, but at least we were heading home. The bus was completely full and started turning people away. They weren't very happy about it either. We saw some angry ass Koreans today. We were really in the middle of nowhere, so I don't know how I would have taken the news either.
If anyone out there in the blogosphere has seen this fellow, can you let me know where he was?
We were finally rescued from our diet of chewing gum by a 15 minute bus break back in Cheongju. There was exactly one restaurant in the bus terminal, and it was called Americana Burgers. I couldn't have been happier.And guess what was waiting for us when we got back to Gangnam a few hours later? The first snow of the season. It was pretty light, but the season has definitely changed. Makes me all the more ready for our vacation on the beach in a few short weeks. Can't wait!
