12 November 2014
Abai Village is now the hometown to many people of North Korean ancestry. The word Abai means “an aged person.” Many elderly people fled here from North Korea during the Korean War and remains stuck here after the war.
After exploring Sokcho town, we made the Gaetbae boat crossing into the Abai Village. The boat is human-powered and the passengers are expected to lent a hand to pull the boat across the water. I naturally did my share of the pulling. The process goes like this: Using an iron rod with hook to snag the steel cable at front end of the boat. Then pull on the cable and walk to the other end as the boat slides along the cable in the opposite direction.
Each passenger was charged a fee of 200 KRW for the trip, whether you supplied labour or not.
Abai Village was the filming location of a popular K-drama “Autumn in My Heart”. The Gaetbae Boat was featured in that drama, as well as a small shop within the village where the lead actress stayed in that drama. There were many symbols and signs to remind visitors that this was the filming location of the drama near the landing location of the boat.
The speciality food of Abai Village is the Abai Sundae and Squid Sundae. We walked around the small village and several shops selling the above were opened. The Abai sundae used pork intestines as the casings while the typical Sokcho squid sundae uses squid for the casings. Rice, squid, seasonings and vegetables are stuffed inside the cavity of the squid, which is then cooked whole. Then the squid 'sausage' is sliced, dipped in egg and fried. Quite unique and tasty dish.
Abai Village is quite small and after our meal, we headed out to view the lighthouses (red and white) marking the entrance to the port. Then we walked across the red Seorakdaegyo to Sokcho beach. The sun was setting behind the Seoraksan mountains as we walked across the bridge.
By the time we reached Sokcho beach, about 1.5 to 2 km away, we were pretty tired. Nothing really much to see on the way there and also nothing much to see at the beach really. This place would be very different in summer. It was cold and deserted in autumn.
At this point, we decided to go eat the Red Snow Crabs again at Daepohang Port. After a 10 minutes taxi ride, we were back at the restaurants of Daepohang Port.
This time round, we wanted to try the King Crab and walked around looking for a restaurant with a small sized King Crab. An aggressive ahjumma soon climbed all over her tanks to fish out a King Crab and a Red Snow Crab and made an offer to us. 110,000 KRW for both, with a free service dish (live squid). The King Crab was more expensive compared to the Red Snow Crab. Since this was our last night in Sokcho, we decided to splurge on a good meal. Besides, a similar meal like this is not easily available back home.
From this: 
To this: 
I was expecting the squid to be steamed but it came as a sashimi. We only finished part of this. 
We wanted to compare the taste of the King Crab and Red Snow Crab. The cooked flesh of Red Snow Crab was delicate while the King Crab was more textured. Both were extremely tasty! On hindsight, we should had just stick to the Red Snow Crabs.
The stall owner then took the large shell of the King Crab and use the stuff in it to cook up a dish of fried rice with chopped laver. The fried rice was then served within the crab shell. There was a mouth watering fragrance while the rice was being cooked. It was delicious too. But by then, we were too full to finish all of it.
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