18 Oct 2015 - 정말 힘트러....

18 Oct -  Happy Birthday to you if you are reading this ㅋㅋㅋ

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bought the earliest bus ticket for a day trip to Odaesan National Park 오대산국립공원.

I have to take a bus to Jinbu Bus Terminal and change to a village bus to reach Odaesan National Park.

I was so happy to be able to reach the Dong Seoul Bus Terminal in time for the earliest bus ^^
Waited at the bus platform 1,2 and 3 at around 6.19am.
Unfortunately, the bus drove off right in front of me without me realising it...
Wasted my time to wake up so early...zzzz
Anyway, I went back to the counter to get the staff to change to the next available timing.
The next bus leaves at 7am and followed by 7.30am.

This was the bus..It drove off at 7am sharp and reached Jangpyeong Bus Terminal at 8.46am. Initially, not many people got off the bus but most of them got off the bus and changed to another bus after the bus driver announced something. I did not catch what he said and remained in the bus with two other passengers. I think I need not have to change bus but to be sure, I checked with the bus driver and he told me to remain in the bus. 

The bus drove off again at 9.14am. Wasted some time waiting on the bus and this was the first time that I encountered such thing. We reached Jinbu Bus Terminal 진부공용버스정류장 at around 9.30am. I saw a small bus near the entrance of the terminal. It had a paper pasted on the windscreen, stating 상원사 (Sangwonsa Temple) and 월정사 (Woljeongsa Temple). I quickly hopped onto the bus becos I will have to wait for a long time for the next bus to come. Unfortunately, the wordings on the paper was written in Korean only. 

The bus fare was 3000won. The bus drove off at 9.40am. There was a slight jam and the bus reached Woljeongsa Temple at around 10.06am. More jams along the journey to Sangwonsa Temple and we reached the stop for Sangwonsa Temple at 10.38am. I did not know that we have reached. I got off the bus becos everyone got off hahaha

Not sure how accurate is this...

I think this is the reason for the traffic jams...
I didn't know about the festival until I saw this.
It happened that 18 Oct was the last day of the festival.

This was the bus stop where everyone got off. 
It was also to be the last stop for the route.
Again, I followed the majority as shown.

My plan was to get to 비로봉 Birobong Peak.
Actually 3.3 km is not very far for me but............................

So lovely to walk in this colorful foliage ^^
It was about 10:45 when I started my journey.

This was just 0.01% of the steps. 

Hmmmm....only 0.001% of the steps...

I think I have reached Sangwonsa lol

Go Go Go!

비로봉 Birobong Peak is 1.5km away.
It does not look far but I felt its beyond reach as I was hiking up ㅋㅋㅋ
The uneven slope and steps made the hike more strenuous...
It was 12:16 when I reached here.

Dropped by at 적멸보궁 Jeongmyeolbogung.

Many Koreans brought their own trash bags to put their trash after picnic ^^
This guy has a bag full of empty makgeolli bottles ㅋㅋㅋ
There is no trash bin or toilets up in the mountain but I saw a few eateries near the bus stop.  

12:43 - Left 0.7km away from 비로봉 Birobong Peak! 

화이팅!!!

Although this was not an easy hike but it was fun.

I met Koreans and along the way, people encouraged each other. 

It was also only then, the Koreans realised that I am not a local hahaha

13:29 - Finally reached 비로봉 Birobong Peak!!

Rest time before making their way down.

Long queue to take pictures to mark that you have reached 비로봉 Birobong Peak.
I didn't join the queue.  I cut queue hahahaha

Yeah I cut queue by taking a picture from where I was standing to take this picture.
That piece of rock with the word "오대산 비로봉" is the most important landmark.
 I don't care who is standing beside the rock.
I just quickly snapped a selfie with the landmark behind me ㅎㅎㅎ

성공!!

Its kinda of depressing to start the journey down...
It feels like starting the journey all over again....
It was 13:47. 

So pretty ^^

As I was making my way down, a few Koreans asked me how long more to reach the 비로봉 Birobong Peak. Actually, it was not far but to me it felt damn far becos of the surface of the slope and steps. So I told them very very far ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ One of them speaks fluent English and he came with his elderly father. *Woww  He was surprised that I came alone to hike and said I was very brave ㅎㅎㅎ  "Brave" sounds strange to me. Fear never cross my mind when I travelled in my second home ㅋㅋㅋ

It was 15:26 when I reached Sangwonsa Temple 상원사 again. A Korean man requested me to take a picture of him with his family.  He speaks fluent English and again was surprised that I came alone and how I got to know this place has beautiful foliage. I told him "Sporean 지금아주 힘트러" Means Sporean is now very tired  ㅎㅎㅎㅎ

Anyway, I got back at the bus stop where I alighted in the morning. There was a long queue and I assumed these people were waiting for the village bus to go back to Jinbu Bus Terminal. 

The village bus arrived at 16:20.  It was a small bus and I prayed hard that I could get onto the bus. Thank god, I managed to squeeze myself onto the bus. The journey back to Jinbu Bus Terminal was badly delayed by the traffic condition.  It was a two way direction road. It seemed like only one vehicle at one direction can be moving at a time becos the road was narrow. Our bus had to stop very often. On top of that, there was an accident which brought the traffic to a stop.  Fortunately, there was no injury. We couldn't move at all for at least 15 mins. Some passengers decided to walk and they got off the bus. I couldn't cos it was still a long way back to the bus terminal.  Our village bus reached Jinbu Bus Terminal at 17:50. Everyone quickly rushed to the ticket counter to get a ticket back to Seoul. The bus back to Dong Seoul Bus Terminal arrived at 17:53 and drove off at 18:00. We reached Jangpyeong Bus Terminal at 18:16 and drove off at 18:22. At 20:38, the bus stopped at a rest area for a toilet break.  You can buy some food and drinks at the rest area but I didn't. The bus drove off at 20:56 but it was supposed to drive off earlier becos one passenger couldn't find the bus and everyone waited for her. Our bus reached Dong Seoul Bus Terminal at 21:38. I was so hungry and tired by then..

So hungry and exhausted that I could only think of grabbing an ice latte with whipped cream the moment I reached Seoul!!
*Heck the calories
This was my life saviour at that point of time ㅋㅋㅋ