Jessica's Travelogue

In the true spirit of traveling, I travelled to Gangwon-do province with no plans. My cousin, a friend I met online, and I booked KTX/bus tickets to Gangwon-do Province during Chuseok vacation. Chuseok is the Korean version of Thanksgiving. All I knew about Gangwon-do was that the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics was held there and that the rail connecting Seoul (서울) to Gangneung (강릉) was fairly new. In this post, I will highlight my time in Sokcho. Posts on Gangneung and Seoraksan will be coming soon~

My cousin and I had a really rude awaking to Sokcho. We rode the intercity bus from Gangneung to Sokcho. This was my first time on an intercity bus and it was a really bad experience. The bus driver drove super fast, we almost got in a crash, and there were some road rage. We also didn’t know that the bus was going to stop at a regular bus stop and so we missed our bus stop and the bus driver got pretty upset with us. But the funny thing was that the only girl who got off the bus at the Sokcho Intercity Bus Stop (속초고속버스터미널) (a little past the bus terminal), literally jumped up and got off the bus before it completely slowed down. The bus was literally still moving when the girl jumped off the bus and he sped off. There was also no announcement so my cousin and I had no idea what the stops were. The thing about intercity buses is that it only stops at one stop in the city. So we were going to go to a new city for the next stop. But, although the bus driver was mad and a bit annoyed at us for missing our bus stop, he let us off at the next regular bus stop. This left us with a bitter experience but it was a good learning experience. Now we know haha.

We couldn’t hail a taxi and the next bus wouldn’t come until a long time so my cousin and I decided to walk some 30-40 minutes to our airbnb. This was a great decision on our part. Sokcho and Gangneung are pretty much centralized in a smallish area because the mountain takes up a big space and the East Sea (동해) was on the other side. So we were able to walk around Chungchoho Lake (청초호) and get a better understanding of the city. The coolest part of this walk was the 엑스포 잔디광장 “Expo Grass Square”. There were people of all ages practicing sports, police officers to make sure everyone was wearing masks and that the place was safe, and it was just a really great community. I wish there were more of these in Korea. I think it was really a great idea! There were even tracks that people walked around/jogged around! And the Expo Tower was in the corner of the park.

After arriving at our Airbnb, my cousin and I decided to wake up early and go to the nearest beach to watch the sunrise. I was super excited since I lived on the west coast of Korea and I can see the sunset, but I have never seen the sunrise from the sea before. So we woke up at 4-5am the next day, got ready, and walked 20-30 minutes to Gani Bathing Resort. We had to cross Sokcho Bridge (also known as Geumgangdaegyo Bridge [금강대교]). We made it to the beach just as the sun was rising. My cousin and I were shocked to see so many tents set up along the coast. I guess, camping by the sea in Sokcho must be a popular thing to do. But we were able to sit in the sand and watch the sun rise at around 6:20AM.

After watching the sunrise, my cousin and I decided to walk around the area. To be honest, I just chose this spot because it was the closest beach to our airbnb. However, it turned out that Abai Village was literally the beach over. My cousin was talking about this village and wanting to visit here but I didn’t know anything about it haha. All I knew was that it was a village composed of North Koreans. It wasn’t until I came home and did some research of the places we went to that I found out that some scenes from my favorite childhood Korean drama, “Autumn in my Heart” [가을동화] was filmed here! The infamous raft scene was filmed here! Also, Song Hye Kyo’s house is here! I really wish I was able to visit it. But I didn’t know it at the time that I was there.

Abai Village really gave the drama the industrious, culturally-rich, and run-down feeling that was so essential to building of the character’s backstory. I am so thankful that my cousin and I accidentally made the trip here. I wish I took pictures of the actual village but I was too excited about the beach, the lake, the sea, the tents, the people on the beach, the buildings, and the mountain so I failed to capture the town. 😭😭

Thank you for reading! And stay tune for the next post about the famous Chilseong Shipyard Cafe in Sokcho. The cafe is really close to Abai Village. It is just across the lake!