Polar Express

This past weekend we made plans to go see a couple of unique things in Korea.  One is the sunrise on the east coast, best observed at a place called Jeongdonjin, which, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, has the closest train station to the sea in the world.  The other thing we wanted to do was go to the town of Taebaek at the foot of Taebaeksan (great white mountain) to see a phenomenon known as nunkkot, or snow flowers.  The way the wind blows there shapes the ice and snow into clumps that look like big blossoms.  We found out that there was a Korean tour that would give us the chance to see both of these things in one trip, so we decided to be brave and (with the help of Korean friends) booked the tour.  The plan was to leave late Friday night on the train, arrive at the coast in time for sunrise and a Korean seafood breakfast, and then head to Taebaek for the snow flowers.  We and our friend Tracey bundled up and headed out!

We started by taking the metro about 9:30 p.m. from the station near our house to the station in Seoul.  It was a crystal clear and cold night - here is the moon shining through the roof opening at the metro station.

At the metro station, we had to transfer from the metro level to the train level - loved the clearly labelled buttons - no doubts here - choo choo on three!

We arrived at the station in plenty of time to meet the tour group by the designated time of 11:10 p.m.

Layden and Tracey in the train terminal.  This terminal was completely unheated, and doors directly across from each other at either end created a chilling breeze  - brrrr.  (This is what Layden looks like when he is cold.)  Well, 11:10 came and went and nothing looking like a tour seemed to be in evidence.  We finally got a call from the guide who spoke almost no English saying they thought we were boarding at Seoul Station, but said it was ok to get on at this station and to just wait for the tour person.  We did, and they showed up and we got our seat assignments and headed for the platform.

On the way to the platform we walked across this sign in the floor - how fun!  It was the only security checkpoint we had to go through.  We got seated and were on our way by 12:10 - next stop, Jeongdonjin at 5:30 a.m.  The seats were pretty comfortable - way more room than the airlines - lots of legroom, a footrest, and they reclined.  We figured once we were underway and everyone was settled in, they would turn off the overhead carriage lights and we would all get a good nap.  Not so - the lights stayed on all night, and so did most of the people!  Oh well... 

By 4:30 we had made it to Taebaek.  We stopped here, not because we were scheduled to do so, but because an unexpected snow storm had closed the tracks ahead!  Yikes!  We waited to see what would happen next - and waited - and waited. 

We watched the snow fall and cover the tracks.  We waited for the snow to stop - it didn't.

Eventually, our tour guide explained that we couldn't go on with the tour and we would have to head back to Seoul.  It was a lengthy and apologetic speech.  Luckily Tracey understands some Korean, so we were able to figure out what was going on.  Apparently, we will get a full refund of our ticket price - not a voucher for a future tour, or a partial refund less the cost of the train ride, but a FULL refund.  Wow - only in Korea!

So, no sunrise, no seafood breakfast, and no snow flowers, but we had a great time anyway.  We had a "dining" car, which offered us delights such as dried squid, chestnuts, pork jerky, pre-packaged sausages, ramen and udon "cup-of-noodles" and banana milk.  And, we had the treat of seeing some truly spectacular winter scenery.  The snow obscured the distant views most of the time, but I took pictures anyway - they don't convey the true beauty or the very rugged terrain, but here goes anyway...

A house in the snow with mountains rising behind.

A man heading out with a shovel - you can see how deep the snow is, and it was still falling.

Mountain stream.

Snow-covered trees on a steep hillside.

View from one of the higher points into a valley.

As we got to lower elevations the snow stopped all together, but there were still things to see, like this frozen ice fall.

Buddhist shrine and really neat tree. 

Well, we wanted an adventure, and we sure got one!  It wasn't the adventure we had planned, but it turned out to be lots of fun anyway.  We may not get to see the snow flowers, but we are planning to get back and see the sunrise - maybe when it is warmer.