Samcheok (삼척) - Caves and Virile Statues

We used Samcheok as a base for visiting two tourist sites on the east coast - Hwanseongul Cave and Haesindang Park.  Hwanseongul Cave is a large limestone cavern with kitchy neon lighting.  We were advised by the local tourist office to visit Haesindang Park, because most Westerners think it's funny.  The park memorializes a maiden lost to the sea through the demonstration of numerous phallic structures.  No worries, all pictures here are PG-13 at worst, and there were numerous families with their children at the park.

Samcheok's mascot.  Less cute than Sokcho's.

The city of Samcheok was interesting. Our hotel was right by the bus station, and surrounded by several streets full of shopping and restaurants.  We stayed at the Kukje Motel (International Motel), which, ironically, had no English speaking staff and no foreigners in sight.  

After checking in, we caught the first bus to visit Hwaseongul cave.  It was a 40 minute bus ride up to the cave through a very scenic valley.  At the park entrance we were able to catch a  monorail up the mountain to the mouth of the cave.

Can't have caves without running water!

mmm soybeans (or something)

We were lazy and took the monorail up...and the steps down.

The cave itself was very impressive.  There is a long (2km) steel walkway through the cave.  There was good signage in English to help you better appreciate what you were viewing.  The Koreans flew through the cave, as they have tended to fly through all the museums and parks we've visited, but we took our time and were here quite a while.  Paul got lots of good pictures of flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites and waterfalls.  Some of the pathways had neon lighting for effect.  We weren't sure what kind of effect they were going for, but it definitely catches your eye.  To add to the kitchiness,  there was also a giant open platform area outlined in red rope lights shaped like the Korean peninsula, and a rainbow bridge.  Mario Kart anyone?

Eerie!

Even the Bridge of Hell has an adorable mummy mascot!

Waterfall

Dear Korea, please tone it down.  Love, David and Paul.

We made it back to Samcheok after dark and went out to find dinner.  The city is compact so there were lots of restaurants in a small area of town.  We walked around the markets and shops for a while, looking for a restaurant that served mandu guk (dumpling soup). We found one with a picture of a dumpling eating another dumpling...  it had absolutely no English on the menu, but David ordered us some mandu guk and some kimchi fried rice.  Yum!

Apparently, the conventional  market in Samcheok has a lot of middle-class gays.  We didn't see any though.

Korean national motto #164: Everything is better with a whole fried egg on it!

The next morning we were up early and off to Haesindang Park.  It was another 40 minute winding bus ride south of town along the coast.  In addition to the interesting artwork, there were some great views of the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea as the Koreans call it), a fishing village museum and about 1 billion spiders.  The most interesting artwork we found was the Chinese zodiac!

Waiting for the bus.  Our bus was filled with soldiers, and you see them all over Korea.

Chinese Zodiac

At Haesindang Park

Early morning at the East Sea

It was as big as it looks and had about a thousand friends per acre

From here we're bound for Gyeongju, the ancient capital of the Shilla Dynasty that ruled Korea for a thousand years. We have less than a week left in Korea, then off to Japan we go!  And just when we're getting the hang of playing charades with garbled Korean phrases!