Seafood dinner at Sokcho’s Daepohang Port after a day out at Seoraksan National Park

11 November 2014

From the entrance of Seoraksan National Park, we took the local bus No 7 to Sokcho city for dinner.  I had mistakenly read somewhere that T-money card could be used to pay the fare. I was wrong. So, cash was needed. 1200 KRW per person. 

By now, the sky had turned dark as the bus sped along the road towards the town. I followed the progress of the bus using the GPS on my smartphone and knew we were coming close to Daepohang Port, a place known for its seafood restaurants. We alighted from the bus, together with some other Koreans hikers, and headed towards the bright lights of the restaurants by the sea.

The restaurants were all lined up inside several single storey buildings, along a small bay. The first building that we entered was selling fried seafood and squid sundaes. I would loved to have these for snacks or lunch but not tonight. Tonight, we were craving for some Red Snow Crabs, a Sokcho speciality and apparently Daepohang Port is the place to buy and eat these.

Stall selling fried seafood and squid sundaes. Pick your food and eat in the small table inside or takeaway.

Fried prawns in tempura batter. Sign in Korean and Chinese language shows the prices of the items.

Sokcho speciality – Squid Sundae. The squid sundae consists of whole squid, stuffed full of pig’s blood, barley, cellophane noodles and other goodies, boiled, then sliced up, covered in egg yolk and fried.

We browsed through a few blocks, each containing many shops cum restaurants. Each shop has tanks of live seafood for customers to pick and choose what they fancy. Crabs, various types of fish, squids and other strange sea critters. We spent some time observing the sale process and seafood on displayed before selecting a restaurant for our dinner.

Rows of shops selling live seafood at Daepohang Port.

A customer selected a live fish and the staff expertly turned it into sashimi for takeaway or consumption in the restaurant area behind.

Tanks of Red Snow Crabs and King Crabs. The greyish King Crabs are more expensive by weight and is also larger.

The red snow crabs came in various sizes. We chose a restaurant with larger and liveliest crabs, manned by a young man who understood English. We were offered 2 large red snow crabs for  60,000 KRW, plus a “service dish” which was free of charge. The stall offered us a live squid as a service dish.

The restaurant/eating area was located behind the tanks. Once the live seafood were selected, price negotiated and agreed, we were ushered to our seats. Seating was on the floor, traditional Korean style ondol. The ondol was heated (electrically now in modern times) and it actually felt very good since the night air by the sea was quite chilly, even without the wind.

The first item served was the steamed whole squid, sliced, with its insides still intact. We asked the ahjumma if we are supposed to eat the jelly-like stuff inside. She says “delicious” in Korean which we understood from the many K-dramas we watched. In any case, we ate just the squid and left most of the insides aside.  The freshly steamed squid was best eaten on its own to taste the sweetness of the flesh or it can be dipped in the hot spicy sauce provided. We did both since the squid was quite big. Seafood is best eaten with soju, the Korean rice wine, served chilled.

The squid was steamed whole and served sliced. Freshest squid I ever eaten. It was swimming in the tank about 15 minutes ago.

Seafood goes down well with soju.

When we were about to finish the squid, the red snow crabs were served. Steamed and expertly cut up into pieces for easy eating.

Red Snow Crabs is one of the recommended dish in Sokcho.

The ahjumma showed us the quickest way to get the meat out from the legs of the snow crab. Need to know the sequence and where exactly to break the legs.  We certainly needed more practice to perfect the skill. 

After our meal, we spent some time exploring the port at night. Weather was nice. Cold but no wind. 

Rows of seafood restaurants along the bay at Daepohang Port.

Calm waters on this windless night.

Enjoying the night view of Daepohang Port after dinner. Bright lights of the seafood restaurants in the back.

Besides live seafood, there were many shops selling dried seafood along the main road. On our way to the bus stop, we stopped to buy 2 bags full of dried cuttlefish, dried pollack fish and crispy seafood snacks from one of the shops. The lady stall-owner was pretty pleased with us since there was not many customers on this night. She told us where was the nearest bus stop for the bus back to Seoraksan. Fortunately, we did not have to wait long for the bus.

A row of shops selling dried seafood along the main road. The cuttlefish and stuff hanging outside looked like some monsters from outer space.

The bus passed through a few small villages along the road to Seoraksan. We were the only passengers left on it by the time the bus reached the Kensington Stars Hotel. Seoraksan entrance would be the next and last stop. The bus stopped outside the driveway entrance to the Kensington Stars Hotel for us to alight.

A cheery “kamsa hamnida” to the driver as we got off the bus and he responded with “An Nyeong Hi Ga Se Yo” or goodbye.

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Hiking Seoraksan in Autumn – Trail to Yukdam Waterfall and Biryong Waterfall

12 November 2014

This was our last day at the Seoraksan National park and we planned to do a relatively easy trail to the Biryong Waterfall in the morning, followed by a visit to Sokcho town in the afternoon.

From our breakfast table in the Kensington Stars Hotel, we could see that the weather was quite different from the past 2 days. Although it was a bright sunny day, strong gust of winds were blowing and the Seoraksan Cable Car was not in operation.

We took about 5 minutes to walk from the hotel to the entrance of the park. We could see leaves raining down from above and swirling on the ground as we approached the park. I was glad we had done the Geumganggul Cave trail and taken the Cable Car up to Gwongeumseong walking course already in the past two days.

The start of the trail to the Biryong Waterfall is near the Cable Car Station. There was some construction taking place in that area and we had to walk through the construction area to get to a stone bridge ( Biryonggyo Bridge) that was the starting point of the trail.


Biryonggyo Bridge at the start of the trail to Biryong Waterfall. Ulsanbawi Rock can be seen in the background.

We crossed the bridge and started our 2.3 km walk to Biryong Waterfall. A nice view of Ulsanbawi Rock could be seen from across the bridge.

The initial part of the trail is quite flat and level along the banks of the river. Although the wind was quite gusty, we were walking on the lee-ward side of the mountain and not really affected by the strong wind blowing above us.
Turning right and going uphill, we soon came to a rest area with stalls selling food.

A cheery Ahjumma came to ask us if we were interested in the pajeon or vegetable pancake she was cooking. We declined but told her we would be back later, on our way out.

Food stalls long the trail to Yukdam Waterfall and Biryong Waterfall.

Gentle uphill trail leading to the first waterfall.

The trees seemed to be more bare on this trail.  We met groups of hikers. We could tell who were the Koreans and who were the visitors by their hiking gear.

Wooden bridge that we need to cross.

We soon came to a waterfall. It was quite small and not impressive. The rocky path continued uphill with the waterfall on our right. Lots of fallen leaves floating and swirling around in the stream below.

Rocky and slippery path next to the stream. The waterfall is just up ahead.

First waterfall on this trail. 

We then came to the next waterfall. There was a resting platform and also a suspension bridge where we could view the waterfall.

Suspension Bridge along the Biryong Fall Trail.

On the suspension bridge looking back.

Biryong Falls as seen from the suspension bridge.

We crossed the bridge and continued up a flight of metal stairs to the top of the waterfall.
Stairs leading to the top of the Biryong Falls.

Leaves waiting for their turn to glide down the chute at the top of the Biryong Falls.

The trail continues on a flat path hugging the stream till we came to a another small bridge. That was when we decided to turned back as the trail continued further uphill into the woods.



On the way back, we stopped at the food stall for a meal. We decided not to have the pajeon but ordered a simple “dried pollack hangover soup” dish or HaeJangGuk.


Perfect meal after a nice walk on a windy autumn morning.

After our simple meal, we made our way back to Sowongon area.  This was when we encountered very strong gusts of wind and were really glad we did all our walks on the past 2 days with better weather conditions.

Here is a video of the strong wind that day.

Trip planning: A hike like this at the Seoraksan National Park could be done as a day trip from Seoul too. Check out these Day Trip Packages from Seoul. It includes direct round trip transportation from Seoul to Seoraksan National Park, commentaries from English speaking guide.

If you are planning to stay a few days to hike the various trails at Mount Seorak National Park:

Kensington Stars Hotel is the hotel closest to the entrance of Seoraksan National Park and a few minutes walk to the park entrance. The bus terminal just outside the park provides convenient access to the nearby Sokcho city.

Beatles fans would be thrilled by the hotel’s Abbey Road Sky Lounge featuring some original Beatles memorabilia.

Check the latest availability and prices of this hotel.

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