Last Updated on March 30, 2022
Let me start with a big happy birthday to my hubby, who turned 32 years old last week! Wow, he’s old! And he was happy to point out that he upped our “average age” to 30 years old. Nah, I think I’ll stick in my 20’s for a while, thank you. To celebrate his special day, we headed up north to northeast South Korea (don’t worry, we didn’t go too far north)! The hubby took a few days off of work so we could go camping in Yangyang.
Day 1: Drive to Osan Air Base
We hit the road on Saturday morning to head up to Osan Air Base for the night to break up the drive a bit. Osan is about a two-hour drive. Once we arrived, we did some shopping at the BX and then met up with some friends for dinner at Chili’s. Afterwards, we wandered the small strip right off base called the SED (Songtan Entertainment District), which has a bunch of restaurants, cafes and shops. We stopped for an affogato (ice cream drizzled with a shot of espresso), before heading back to the hotel to get some zzz’s before our adventure started the next day. (And yes, writing this now makes me realize that we had a shot of espresso right before bed… probably not the smartest idea, but we did get a decent night’s sleep).
Day 2: Head to Northeast South Korea
Sunday morning, we got up and headed to the commissary to do some grocery shopping for our camping trip. I’m calling it camping, but technically, we will be staying in cabins with a bed, kitchen, bathroom and AC (so maybe “glamping” is a better term). We were informed that we are able to grill our own food at these cabins, so we bought enough groceries for us to cook two dinners for our stay. Once we were stocked up, we got on the road for our three-hour drive to Yangyang.
Rest Stops and Walnut Balls
Midway through our drive, we both needed to stop to use the restroom. I’ve probably mentioned it before, but Korean rest stops are pretty nice. They usually have restaurants, cafes, food vendors, little shops, and more. To give you a better idea, the restrooms at this stop had a big TV monitor before entering that gave a layout of the restroom. This monitor indicated what type of toilet was in each stall (squatty potty or bidet) and which stalls were occupied or available. On the actual doors of the restroom, there were little lights next to each that either lit up green (available) or red (occupied). Maybe a silly thing to be impressed by, but I’ve never seen Americans put that much effort into their rest stop restrooms – it’s quite refreshing, if I do say so myself.
After ooing and ahhing over the restrooms, we passed a food vendor that was selling walnut balls. There was a machine in the window that showed them being made. The machine would plop some batter into a metal mold, and another tube would drop a plop of a chocolate-looking mixture into the batter. We were intrigued and needed to try some. We got a small bag and took a bite, expecting ooey, gooey chocolate to pour out. Instead, we ended up biting into a piece of dough with sweet, red bean paste and a small piece of walnut in the middle. Not quite what we were expecting, but it was good nonetheless.
Arriving in Yangyang
We got back on the road and soon enough, we were in Yangyang. Our first stop was Hajodae Beach. There was a pub-type restaurant here called, Singlefin Aleworks we were thinking of having lunch at before checking into our cabin. We were bummed to see that it was closed from 3-5pm for break as it was just about 3:00 PM.
Burgers, please!
We opted for plan B: burgers. Plan B wasn’t a bad plan at all. Right down the street a bit was a burger spot called, Burger Stage. We ordered at the counter and were told that it would be about 30 minutes before our burgers would be out. Rather than sitting and waiting, we strolled down the street to check out some of the cafes and shops. Most everything was surf-related, as this was a pretty popular surf area. We stopped in a cute café/surf shop to grab a coffee while we waited for our burgers before heading back to the restaurant to grab a seat. Lunch was delicious but definitely not the American gourmet-style burger that we love.
Surfing in Korea
After eating our late lunch, we walked around a bit, stopped for some frozen yogurt at Yogurpresso, and then headed down to the beach. It was pretty chilly and windy out, but the beach was jam-packed with surfers. Everyone was in wetsuits and there were tons of Koreans in the water bobbing up and down on their surf boards. Every so often, we would see a Korean start paddling towards shore to try to catch a small wave.
To the cabin we go
It was about time we headed to the cabin to check in and unpack our car for our mini “glamping” trip. The cabin was about a 20-minute drive from the beach situated along a river. It was a bit tough finding the place, as you practically had to off-road down a steep hill to get to there. Trying to check in was a hassle. We had to keep using Google Translate in order to communicate. Luckily, we had a Korean translator from the hubby’s work help make the reservation prior to our stay, so they knew we were coming. They also only accepted cash, or a Korean credit card, so we had to make sure we had enough cash with us to cover our stay and any additional charges.
The owner/manager showed us to our cabin, which was directly next to the river. As you entered into the foyer, there was a table with a grill in the middle and a small fireplace next to the table. He took his shoes off before entering, and we followed his example and stepped into the cabin. The cabin was 1-bedroom-style with a small dining area that shared the same space as two twin beds, followed by the kitchen, and the separate bedroom with a queen bed. The bathroom/shower was at the back of the cabin combined in a small room. When I say combined, I literally mean combined. If you wanted, you could easily sit on the toilet and shower.
The most interesting part about the cabin was the huge brick hot tub in the middle of the room kitchen/bedroom/living room. This hot tub took up at least ¼ of the cabin. It was completely empty, but the manager showed us how to turn on the water to fill it up. I could only imagine how long that would take to fill up and completely disregarded it from being in the plans for our trip.
We unpacked our car and then realized the grill in the table on the porch/foyer did not have a grate. We headed back to the front to ask the man for a grate for our grill but he had no clue what we were saying. After about 15 minutes of Google Translating back and forth, we came to an agreement that at 7:30 PM, he would bring us a grate but would have to charge us 40,000 won (about $40). This seemed a bit ridiculous and we weren’t sure if we got our point across or if he was coming with meat to cook for us, but at that point, we were exhausted from trying and just agreed to whatever it was he had in mind.
Down to the river
Before dinner, we decided to kill some time down at the river. There were a few people in the river next to a little waterfall jumping off rocks and swimming. We headed upstream a bit further to dip our feet in and enjoy the sunset. The water was cold, but after a while, it began to feel pretty good.
Dinner time
We headed back up to our cabin and soon the manager came and started setting up a grill outside of our cabin at a picnic table. Not what we had in mind but it was a nice evening out and we figured this would work just perfectly. The manager provided us with a little grill, got the fire started, and then cleaned off the picnic table and put a clean plastic over top for us to eat on. I’m not sure if this service was necessarily worth $40, but it accomplished what we were asking for.
Since the price to use the grill was so expensive, we decided to grill up the meat for both nights we would be staying there. The hubby marinated and grilled some beef bulgogi in a Korean BBQ sauce and also some in a fajita seasoning. With the Korean BBQ beef, we cut it up into small, bite-sized pieces, mixed it into a bowl of white rice, added fresh cucumber and carrots before adding a dollop of Korean soybean paste on top. This was our makeshift bibimbap – one of our favorite Korean dishes. After dinner, we sat outside a bit longer to play some card games before the bugs got too bad and forced us inside.
Day 3: Hiking Seoraksan National Park
After a restless night’s sleep, we finally managed to get up. Korean beds are hard as rocks! This bed was essentially a wooden bed frame with a very thin mattress pad on top and a light blanket to cover up with. I was freezing all night long. Granted, we did have the AC on, which was blowing right at us, but I was too cold and tired to get out of bed to turn it off.
The lack of sleep made it hard to get moving but we eventually were able to get ready, eat some instant oatmeal, and pack up for a day of exploring. We drove about 30 minutes north to Seoraksan National Park, where we would hike around for a few hours. We arrived to the park around 10:30 AM – a little later start than we had wanted, especially with the heat of the day already creeping in.
We purchased tickets to get into the park and then started wandering around. Since it was already getting pretty hot and humid out, we opted to take the cable car part-way up to hike from there. We purchased cable car tickets, but rather than just going to wait in line to get on the cable car, each ticket had a boarding time. Ours wasn’t for another hour. Thankfully, there was plenty for us to go see down where we were so we wouldn’t have to sit around and wait.
Big Buddha
Our first stop was the Big Buddha, also known as The Great Unification Buddha. This is the largest bronze seated buddha in the world and was created in hopes for reunification between North and South Korea. I guess it wasn’t big enough? It was very impressive and crazy to stand next to it and see how large it really was (photos don’t do it justice).
Sinheungsa Temple
Shortly past the Buddha was the Sinheungsa Temple. I’ll be honest, most temples in Korea all start to look the same, but this one was very picturesque with the mountains in the background. Though, I still think the most beautiful is the Haedong Yonggungsa in Busan, which is right on the shore of the East Sea.
Up we go
It was about time to head back to the cable car station to catch our ride up towards the top of the mountain. The ride was quick, only about 3 minutes or so. Once we got to the top, the view was beautiful, though, unfortunately, not much cooler out. We spent about an hour hiking around a little and taking pictures before deciding to head back down.
And back down
There was a ton more we could’ve seen, had we spent more time there, but I think we would’ve had to have gotten there a bit earlier to avoid the heat. We made it back to the cable car station and treated ourselves with some Dippin’ Dots before taking the cable car back down. On our way out, we stopped at a gift shop to purchase a little Seoraksan souvenir magnet. We usually get an ornament or keychain from everywhere we visit so we can eventually use them as Christmas decorations for our Christmas tree. The gift shop here didn’t have any keychains or ornaments, so the wooden magnet we purchased, we figured we would be able to drill a hole in the top of it to make into an ornament ourselves!
Sokcho
We weren’t quite sure what the plans for the rest of the day were, so we decided to head to the small town of Sokcho to cross off one of our Korea bucket list items: order McDonald’s in South Korea. Don’t ask.Apparently, the McDonald’s in South Korea does a much better job of making their burgers look more “appealing”? Anywho, the hubby had been wanting to take me to one since we got here and now was the chance. I, personally, didn’t notice much of a difference (and my stomach didn’t either… it still got a bit upset).
After getting nice and bloated from McDonald’s, we figured it would be a great idea to go to the beach next. The only thing we happened to forget to pack was towels, so we walked over to the store, Daiso, to look for some. So, here’s another quirk with Koreans. They don’t use full-sized towels. Maybe it’s because they’re so tiny and don’t need a full-sized towel, or they just air dry? Regardless, their full-sized “body towels” are a tiny bit bigger than a hand towel. This was the best we could find, so we got them.
Surfyy Beach
We headed back to our cabin to quickly change into our suits before heading to the beach. We didn’t make it to the beach until close to 4:00 PM, but were glad we still went. We went to a different beach this time, called Surfyy Beach. The beach was so cute with little beach shacks to rent out surfboards, wooden canopies with white beanbags under them, and a cute beachy restaurant with umbrellas and couches on the patio.
Sitting in the sand
We attempted to set out our “towels” to sit on in the sand, but got told that we could not set out towels or blankets to sit on but could just sit in the sand if we wanted. I have a feeling this is because of “Instagram” reasons. Koreans are all about aesthetics. Looking around, there were tons of Koreans doing mini photoshoots with their Instagram boyfriends. Literally, some brought actual changing tents to change their outfits. It was slightly ridiculous but very entertaining to watch.
We spent a bit of time at the beach and even grabbed a cocktail from the beach bar before making our way back to the cabin to heat up our steak fajita dinner. We spent the remainder of the evening playing some card games and figuring out plans for our last day (and the hubby’s birthday). Soon enough, we were (once again) tossing and turning on our hard, wooden beds.
Day 4: Surfyy Beach and the Hubby’s 32nd Birthday!
Happy birthday to the hubs! Technically, it was his birthday in South Korea, but since we are 16 hours ahead of the states, it really wasn’t his birthday until later in the day. It turned out to just be a 48-hour birthday celebration instead. We really didn’t come up with a plan for the day the night before, since the weather was a bit unpredictable. We were happy to wake up to sunshine and warm weather, though!
We started the day by heading into the river behind our cabin first thing. It was such a beautiful day and the cold water felt very refreshing. We didn’t go all the way in, but just got in about knee-deep. Here, we talked about what the hubs wanted to do for his birthday, and we came up with a plan. Try surfing at Surfyy Beach.
Since it was a nicer day than we had expected, we thought another beach day could be fun – especially to try to surf. We messaged the guy in charge of surfing lessons at the beach (who was actually a Canadian who lives here). We didn’t hear back from him but decided to just head to the beach.
Surf’s Up
We packed up our cabin, had an oat bar for breakfast, and checked out. Then off to the beach we went! We were both excited but also pretty nervous to try surfing here. It was both of our first times, but we didn’t think it could be that difficult since the hubby loves to snowboard, and I’ve done gymnastics, figure skating, paddle boarding and other balance-heavy sports.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get surf lessons, since it was the instructor’s day off, but we rented surfboards and wetsuits and decided to give it a go ourselves. The first challenge was getting the wetsuit on. I managed to get it on alright, but zipping it up in the back was not an easy task. I have a very broad back, and getting the zipper past my back took a few tries, though, I finally got it zipped up.
I met the hubby outside of the changing rooms, we watched a quick YouTube video on how to surf, and we headed to grab our boards. We made our way down to the water and started paddling out into the East Sea. This was my first time wearing a wet suit, and I was fairly impressed with how warm it did keep me. Though, after a few paddles, the back zipper completely popped open. I spent a few minutes bobbing in the water trying to zip it back up and tuck it into the suit in hopes that it wouldn’t do that again. (Thankfully, it didn’t).
Catching waves
It was time to try to catch our first wave. We turned around and paddled hard towards shore, and like the YouTube video advised for beginners, attempt to just get up onto your knees rather than standing for a while. So, I focused on doing that. Whereas, the hubby just kept trying to stand up (and then wiping out) haha. We spent a few hours in the water observing the Korean surfers and trying to mimic what they were doing. Eventually, I got a few waves where I was able to stand up for a few seconds, but always lost balance and crashed into the water.
After a few hours, we were exhausted. We didn’t even realize how much upper body strength it took to surf. We were both pretty sore for a day after that experience, but it was totally worth it! We had an absolute blast and are completely hooked on wanting to surf more.
Lunchtime
We had to start heading back to Osan Air Base soon, but wanted to stop and get lunch at the first place we tried going to when we arrived that was closed called, Singlefin Aleworks. We got there just in the nick of time to order before they were closing for break. This place was known for their deep-dish Chicago-Style pizzas, so we went with their original pepperoni pizza to split.
The pizza came out and was a cheesy mess. It was good, but I hate melted stringy cheese for some reason, so picked the pizza all apart to get to the crust and sauce. Once we finished, we headed to a café nearby for the hubby to open up his birthday gifts. I got him some clothes from a local Korean store and an IOU for a new golf club of his choosing that he can order once he’s back in the states.
On the road again
We stopped at a convenience store to grab a popsicle and water for the road, and then headed back to Osan. About an hour into our trip, we went right through Pyeongchang, where the 2018 Winter Olympics were held. It was really cool to see, but apparently, South Korea built up the town expecting it to be a big tourist attraction, but is now a ghost town.
After making it back to Osan, we stopped at the hubby’s favorite Korean restaurant for dinner and then got Baskin Robbins ice cream for dessert (yes, I stuck a candle in there in sang to him). Though, during dinner I was pretty skeptical of the chicken we ate – it didn’t look cooked all the way through. I didn’t eat a ton, but the hubby did and has now been feeling sick for the past few days (I only felt sick that night).
The following day, we headed back to Kunsan and spent the rest of the evening unpacking and recouping from our long weekend getaway. We had a ton of fun and really enjoyed exploring another part of South Korea. We are starting to get sad about leaving here in a few weeks, but at least we won’t be able to say that we didn’t make the most of our time here.
That’s all for now, Drifters! In the meantime, stay safe, stay sane, and keep catching the drift (from home… or with a facemask on).
Ta ta for now, drifters!
XO,
Kylie
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