Chu-Suk

Fall has finally arrived and fortunately the cooler weather has arrived too. We were getting extremely tired of the heat, humidity and mosquitoes. However, we have been told to enjoy these few weeks of Fall weather because Winter apparently hits hard and quick here.
Fortunately, Korea recently had its Thanksgiving holiday called Chu-Suk, which meant that we got the entire weekend off! Yes, we got an entire Saturday AND Sunday off. While that seems like a very short holiday to most, to us it was unbelievably amazing and seemingly long. Since the big city wears on us a bit, we decided our holiday vacation would be spent venturing outside of Seoul.
Since most of the two-way train tickets out of Seoul were booked we decided to try our luck with riding a bus. After reading through our Lonely Planet Korea, Ian decided we would attempt the hour and fifteen minute bus ride to the town of Chuncheon. So, in the morning we made ourselves a tasty lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two cookies and two apples. Excited and a bit nervous we set out on our adventure!
In order to get to the bus station, we had to take a bus ride and then a thirty minute subway ride. We actually found the bus station with considerable ease and were able to buy our tickets without any trouble. Spending only 9,000 won for the bus ride was a little disconcerting at first, but to our surprise it was clean and the seats were very comfortable!
Driving to Chuncheon was extremely relaxing. Korea’s landscape consists mostly of very densely forested mountains. The trees almost look like a mixture of pine trees and oak trees. The mountains aren’t huge, but are relatively big. The foliage is so dense that hiking within these mountains seems impossible.
After an hour and fifteen minute bus ride we finally arrived! Our first stop was to the Tourist Office. The employee knew a small amount of English and was able to give us a Korean map of the city. We eventually took a public bus and a taxi (definitely got a bit lost) to one of the four lakes that surround the city. Fortunately, there was a walking path around the lake, so we took full advantage of it.
After walking along the lake and seeing parts of the city, we decided it was time to make our way back into the depths of Seoul. Since getting to Chuncheon was so easy, we figured that getting out of Chuncheon would be just as easy! We learned very quickly that was not going to be the case. We asked the ticket office employee for two tickets back to Seoul. She proceeded to tell us something in Korean and then gave us two tickets for the total price of 3,400 Won. Remember that we were a little concerned only paying 9,000 won to get to Chuncheon. Paying half of this amount made us even more concerned. So, we immediately thought she gave us the wrong tickets causing us to ask one more time “Does this take us to SEOUL?” Again, she rattled something off in Korea and motioned us to get out of the way for the other customers. In a mild panic, we decided to ask the employee at the Tourist Office. We very slowly asked if these tickets would actually take us all the way to Seoul. She also nodded her head and said in broken English to take bus 3.
Before getting on bus 3 we saw a sign above the bus that said “Seoul” but it also had two other destinations below it. We were immediately relieved and thought “Of course! This bus must stop two other places and then proceed to Seoul. It must just take longer.” We were then very pleased that we only spent 3,400 Won to get back to Seoul.
While getting comfortable in the bus and enjoying the scenery Ian and I relished in the fact that we were able to get to and from Chuncheon with very little hassle and spending very little money. Boy, were we wrong! After fifteen minutes of driving the bus abruptly stopped on the side of the rode and the driver proceeded to yell something in Korean towards our direction. He then opened the door and pointed outside. In a panic, we got up and showed him our tickets. At this point other Korean tourists are yelling in Korean to get off the bus, and to tell us that our 3,400 won tickets are only going to take us this far. We attempt to give the bus driver more money, but he shakes his head and points to the door.
So, we were left on the side of the rode near the outskirts of a town we didn’t know the name of or where it was. Fortunately, I saw a sign that said Station, so we made our way there. We were able to find a train station, which had two available seats for a train that left in an hour. Relief finally set in again and we walked around the town. To our amazement the town was very quaint and had delicious dakgalbi (a Korean mixture of fried vegetables and a spicy red pepper sauce). We then sat out in front of a convenience store, had some drinks and people watched.
Surprisingly, the best part of our entire adventure started after getting kicked off the bus. Enjoying our dakgalbi, drinks, and people watching was definitely not part of the plan, but was well worth the mild panicy feelings! While our trip didn’t go as planned, we found a new town that we will definitely be visiting again and have learned that when you think you’re getting a great deal you’re either going to be kick off the bus early or going somewhere not expected.