Friday night, lying down on the bed with my mom, I was watching a TV program that introduced various happenings in Korea. One thing that caught my eyes was the Snow train trip to a countryside in mountain. The snowy mountain through the window of a train looked so serene and beautiful that I immediately booked the trip from a website that organized the train tours. (www.ktx999.com- for a day trip the price was not so bad as well, around W50000 excluding meals) There were many programs to choose from, so I selected the one that had the least hiking since hiking in a cold weather with temperature around zero to negative degrees sounded pretty scary. Finally the day came, and one thing was I had to get up at 5 and go out by 6 just to catch the train in Seoul at 9. (which I happened to arrive at 8!)
The (unfamiliar) view in the early morning
Once my friend and I got on the train, we took out all the food we brought, and started the best multi-tasking combination ever: eating and talking. I think it's a really good chance to have a private quality time with your friend, sitting comfortably on the train, watching the outside view that looks quite cold, making you, in turn, feel lucky about the whole situation somehow.
Beautiful plants out there, which I suspect to be rid. (?)
This was our first stop at Chu-jeon station, supposedly the highest station in Korea. Nothing much to see, and short stopover. Just for the name sake, I think.
And here we go again to the next stop!
When I got out at the next station, Seung-bu, the breathtaking view caught my sight. Along with the beautiful sunlight just above the tip of the mountain, this whole small valley kind of place looked so idyllic.
There was a traditional Ice sledding area as well, with the totally frozen river. It had looked soo fun but when we actually got to try, it felt like a complete workout for biceps and triceps. :)
The view from the far. Geez, just look at that smoke coming out from the tiny market with the Sun shining from the side!
Winter paradise (though have never heard of such thing)
Just a market for us. We had a yum Ukeoji Soup, fabulous!
Cute bridge that my friend was too scared to cross
There was a sledding area as well! Brought me the memory from Korean Folk Village :)
After that we came back to the train. The scenery outside was beautiful.
Couldn't decide which was the better picture
All it all, it was a lovely day trip that let me experience so much of snow with warmth despite the killer schedule (out at 6am and back at 12am) that without my youth, I may not have had survived!
Seeing Korean Folk Village (KFV, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, Korea) entrance fee along with snow sledding, slashed by 50% on groupon at W10000, my friend and I immediately decided to go there.
It's been a long time since we've been to KFV even though it's nearby, and on top of that, I love sledding!
Bus, on the way to the KFV
Thankfully the day was milder than the average, and though it was Saturday, there were not so many people.
Winter trees shivering in cold weather
Snow lingering on the roof
Beautiful, crisp sunlight shining
They had many interesting things to see such as traditional (T) instruments, T horse riding, T games, T performances, and so on and on with traditional everything!
Traditional way of wishing - Writing a wish on a Traditional paper and tying it on the knot around the tree. What I wrote for a wish is a secret! ;)
Traditional cloth hanging from the tree and traditional gazebo
Traditional cow..!
<Beware of loud sound!>
And just!! amazing tight rope walking.
My personal favorite was the last part :)
It also seemed like they had most of the historical drama series filmed here, including Moon covering Sun(?), Dr. Jin, Arang story, etc. Maybe if you are lucky, you may be able to bump into the filming in action! (Though apparently I was not..)
Beautiful, unfrozen river glistening under the Sun
Supposedly famous bridge(in KFV) that was featured in many dramas (though I didn't recognize it :s )
There were some ducks living here as well! So lovely
And finally! Our beloved sledding session! It took quite a while to find this (somehow hidden) area, but we managed it at last, and had a blast!!! There were many family and also some couples. There were two courses: one for kids and the other for.. the others!
The longer and steeper course for adults and kids above 120cm
<Beware of loud sound!>
After doing this for like 20 times, we couldn't climb up the hill any more. Maybe we grew too old for this. (According to my mom, maybe not!) Really sweet part was, officially it was supposed to end the service at 4:30pm, (starting at 9am, I think) but even after 5pm it was still running well! Lovely :) After fun fun sledding which made me feel like a child once again, it was already getting dark, and we went to eat. There was this old, run-down looking restaurant right across the street, that specialized in traditional (once again!) bean dish, and without much thoughts, we got in.
OMG meal
And OMG. Seriously..?!?!
It was one of the best meals ever in life, and so cheap as well!
The portion was huge with so many course dishes- kal-guk-su(noodle), chung-guk-jang(bean soup), bizi(bean leftover from making tofu), cashew nut pancake served with bean meat, mukbap and 5 refillable side dish! And everything for W10000 per person!! (10000 X 2 = 20000)
It was an amazing and lovely end to our fun-filled day.
