Day 470: Dirt Cheap

Dirt Cheap - the cost of a train ride in Korea, or the price to get me into the sack?

You better have chosen the former! ;-)

Today my friends and I took a train ride to a city called Chuncheon for a weekend getaway. Chuncheon is a two-hour train ride east of Seoul about mid-way between the capital and the East Sea. And best of all, the train ride only costed 5,000 Won! (About $6 Cdn!) Damn that's cheap! For the price of a sandwich you get to coast along through lush green hills and valleys to another part of the country. Living in Asia rocks!

The train ride was really beautiful, slowly winding its way across river gorges and through tunnels, past small towns and flooded rice paddies terraced on the gentle slopes. It was hot but smooth and sooooo relaxing and scenic. We arrived in Chuncheon in late afternoon and after a quick taxi ride through the city we realized it wasn't really what we were looking for. Nature and solitude was the order of our agenda, and the city proved to be a little too big and touristy for our liking. We got back in another cab and took a ride about 20 minutes outside the city to a valley in the hills just outside Chuncheon. It was an area called Ganchon and although it was still rather touristy, it was in an incredibly beautiful valley and seemed to have lots of opportunities for outdoorsy activities.

Michael and I found ourselves a cheap hotel, and since Pauline and Tim weren't arriving for a few hours yet, we decided to rent some bikes and ride along some of the trails that run along the river. It was SO GREEN and beautiful out there, but unfortunately my bike broke half way up and we had to walk it back. By the time we got back it was time to meet Pauline and Tim. We all grabbed some dinner later and had a delicious meal of dakkalbi (spicy chicken), a popular Korean dish that this region is famous for because it originated there. After dinner we had a few drinks and then relaxed in our hotel room. We played cards, sat arund and chatted, and watched The Tuxedo (a truly bad movie) before going to sleep. It's so nice to be outside the city!