Korean Road Trip Day 12: Jirisan National park back to Seoul

I woke up this morning and took Brandon for a walk. We walked down the road and to the river. I now found a few Pensions in the area, much easier at a very slow pace, and they were not well signposted.

The owner made us breakfast, egg, tomato mashed potato and some cooked spam. We also had some kim (seaweed) and bap (rice). It was sad to be leaving and the family had been so accommodating and friendly. In the morning Brandon was having a great time playing with the family, he has really been enjoying the attention since we have been travelling.

We left to some hugs all round and were given some directions to get back on the road to Seoul. It was around 300km to go, so we set out and put some miles under the wheels.

We arrived home at around one o’clock. It was really sad to be heading into Seoul from two weeks away. As we were driving towards Seoul, you could see the air becoming hazy with smog and the traffic backing up. Back to reality.

Well we didn’t get to make the full trip, mainly focused on the East Coast. We will have to do the West and South Coast and some of the interior sometime, the only question is when. The trip has been fantastic, and I would recommend anyone who is Korea to take the time and drive around the country, it will give you a very different view and perception. All along the way the people have been wonderful, always friendly, always providing us something extra. I would definitely recommend to try and stay at pensions or minbaks, at these there is always and experience you will have, at the motels and hotels, it is generally all the same.

The cost of places during the trip were :
Gangchon / Chuncheon KRW55 000
Inje KRW50 000
Hwajinpo KRW60 000
Sokcho / Seorak KRW110 000
Jeongdongjin KRW60 000
Samcheok KRW50 000
Hosan KRW60 000
Gyeongju Day 1 KRW40 000
Gyeongju Day 2 KRW90 000 (included snacks and breakfast) KRW60 000 just room
Busan KRW70 000
Jirisan KRW75 000 (included dinner, breakfast, tea)

It has struck us as strange how dead most of the places were, at restaurants we were generally the only people, same with the hotels. I do not know how the places survive. The coast line is fantastic, just a pitty that almost every part is fenced off with barbed wire, I guess that the necessity when bordering an “axis of evil” country.