Chuncheon and Gangchon

Simon is currently visiting in Korea after three months of travel around south-east Asia. I've happily given him full access to my apartment, and more beneficially to me (aside from scintillating company of course), my limited kitchen facilities.

After much deliberation and scouring of the guide book, this weekend we decided to go to Chuncheon (춘천) - a city just north-east of Seoul and conveniently accessed by train from Cheongnyangni station. Living in the suburbs in the north of Seoul, travel in Korea has so far necessitated a lengthy journey to Seoul Station or the Express Bus Terminal, so finding a close by exit is proving the prospect of further Korea trips a lot more convenient. The Sunday evening trafficked trip to Gangnam followed by a multi-transfer subway journey home was never the most appealing end to a weekend away.

Anyway, we took a taxi from Namchuncheon train station to the love motel we had unnecessarily phoned ahead for. This "Ritz Motel" was described in the Lonely Planet as having an underwear vending machine, which I believe was a big selling point for Simon. On arriving, this proved to indeed be no lie, along with the optional orange glow lighting and the complimentary toothbrushes and protection on arrival. As the man behind the counter made numerous phone calls, rifled through several directories and gave us no less than two maps to find our way around this easily walkable town, we figured he didn't usually get many questions regarding the tourist sights from his usual clientele.

Indeed it is worth mentioning how positively ridiculous the number of motels Chuncheon houses. If we hadn't already pre-booked our very respectable seedy accommodation, we most definitely would have easily checked into one of the other hundreds of motels we could see. Apart from the regular convenience stores and churches dotted around, on first impression Chuncheon didn't seem to be offering a whole lot else than cheap sleeps for the couples of the area.

So anyway after detailed directions, on Saturday morning we got a bus to Gangchon (강촌) - a small neighbouring town. Now although neither of us are nursing broken hearts (and thus not gagging at the couple culture of Korea), there was an incredible number of couples in his-and-her motorcycle helmets - presumably rented from the dozens of bike rental shops interspersed among all the dak galbi (닭갈비) restaurants - riding past us as we opted to walk the alleged 2km to Gugok waterfalls (구곡폭포). This definitely seemed to be a popular weekend activity among courting young people. The waterfalls themselves were made beautiful by the array of reds and oranges that autumn has brought, but the walk at any other time of year may have been deemed unworthy. Still, it certainly made us feel better about our fitness as we ambled past a pair of panting Korean enthusiasts, who had no doubt taken their car to the entrance.

This said, walking the 530m up Kumbong mountain (검봉산) put me straight, but I never like to be outdone by the old people in excessive hiking gear. Not being anywhere near 1000m Simon decided it was less of a mountain and more of a hill, but not being an avid hiker a 530m-high hill was mountain enough for me. We had actually intended to hike up Bonghwasan, but Simon assures me that climbing the wrong mountain is a becoming a regular feature of his travels.

Back down the mountain, though the waterfall entrance, back along the 2km to the center of Ganchon with a unpalatable iced coffee break, followed by a long wait at the bus stop watching an old man sporadically falling asleep and dropping his bus money, seeing the train go both to and from Chuncheon and debating the wear of couple clothing in the UK, we finally got back to Chuncheon eager for a shower and a re-coop. A mis-read of the map led us to go straight to sampling the local dak galbi (spicy chicken barbeque) down Dak Galbi Street. It got the thumbs up from Simon.

On Sunday, after a leisurely start and a long breakfast, we took a wander by the lake from the sculpture park to the war memorial. Despite being Chuncheon's probable only real activity, we opted out of taking the ferry/swan pedalo across to the not particularly exciting looking island. Still, the prospect of a relaxing weekend away with minimal sight-seeing to do and more book reading/blog writing opportunities sounded very appealing, and indeed all requirements were fulfilled. Simon's off in Gyeongju now for some more actual sight-seeing. Our weekend away was definitely enjoyable, but it's probably only a recommended destination if you, like me, live in the north of Seoul and are looking for an easy escape out of the big city.