2 Day Trip To Soraksan

Sokcho is a small town in north-eastern Korea which is famous for its beautiful beaches, lush green valleys, waterfalls, Buddhist temples and shrines. It is also the gateway to one of Korea's most beautiful national parks, Mount Soraksan National Park.

Soraksan range as from the bus.
soraksan is a nature's wonder and its assigned as unique biological reserve zone of rare life's habitat in Korea on Aug.12, 1982 by UNESCO.
Soraksan is most beautiful in fall.
so this autumn we decided to see the beauty of Soraksan with our own eyes.

we reached Sokcho on 7th afternoon by bus . It took around four and half hours from Suwon intercity bus terminal till Sokcho bus terminal . On the way we could see the huge granite mountain ranges . The fall colour of the leaves was not that visible since it was very foggy . The bus was moving through a very narrow two way road through the mountainous terrain and descended to western coastal plains.

As the bus descended more and more we could get the view of whole city .

we got down the bus and took another one to reach our condominium.

Excited Kunjal on her way to the condo. The Ilsung Sorak condo where we stayed.
the condo was in a very beautiful natural location
Settling down inside the room

Next day morning we reached the Sokcho city early in the morning .

Sokcho city.

Sokcho is a small town where people depended on fishing and tourism. the city was very quiet compared to Seoul.
we first went to the expo park which held Gangwon International Tourism Expo in 1999 . In front of the expo tower.

The expo park surrounding the Cheongchoho lake is very beautiful.
Taking a walk

It also has an expo tower from where one can get idea of the whole city. One can rent bikes to go around the park and also take a boat ride to the lake and the east sea nearby.
On the boat.

The city from the bridge.

We could see the fisher men's village at the sea shore. This place is also famous among tourists as its also the location of famous Korean drama Gaeul Dongwha


The Abai(father) village
There is also a small village called Abai village where north Koreans settled after Korean war.

Our next destination was the Sokcho sea beach.
The entrance of Sokcho beach.
At the beach.

the beach had a deserted look as it was autumn.it was warm as it was mid day.
Kunjal played with sand .

Kunjal playing with sand.

very near to the Sokcho beach is the sunrise park . sunrise festival is held here every year on the new year.

Inside sunrise park

the park is full of many beautiful sculptures and gardens.

since the park faces the east sea its really refreshing to sit there and watch the endless sea.

After having lunch we started our journey for Soraksan national park.

The lunch (roasted fishes with stone pot rice).

As we reached nearer we could see the crowd . the roads got jammed and we could see countless hikers of all ages walking along the road . there were many old people (over 70) too.

The beauty of Soraksan can be enjoyed as one go higher and higher There are many paths leading to the peak called Taechongbong 1,708m.At the entrance there are many shops selling all kinds of souvenirs and tourist items but yes with huge price tag. there is a huge Buddha idol at the foot hill. Every nuke and corner was filled with dense forest with coloured foliage. it was really amazing. we went to a Buddha temple .
The Buddha statue at Soraksan .
There is also a cable car which takes you to certain height from where one can start hiking for the peak.
On the trails of Sorak mountain.

our baby and her stroller limited our hiking . so we decided to call it a day and go back to the condominium.

The next day we went to visit the teddy bear farm very near to our condo. As we entered not only Kunjal we too were overjoyed. Teddies of all possible sizes and costumes are displayed here under one roof

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The teddy family and us

The living room of Teddy's house.

Attending Teddy's birthday.

We checked out of the condo and went to Sokcho terminal to catch the bus back home. We had half hour to look around the area nearby terminal. The park near by was the one surrounding reclamation monument. The monument was erected to console the sorrows to North koreans and also the desires of reunification

The monument of reclamation.

Our bus started from the Sokcho terminal around 2 pm thus bringing an end to our wonderful two days tour of Sokcho city and Soraksan. We wish to visit the place again sometime.

Few Moments To Cherish In Korea

Happy moments: Some of the beautiful moments of our life while during our stay in Korea.

Moments of Year 2005

This is a page from Samsung electronics monthly magazine of month of June Year 2005 in which I got interviewed.
This is the link to the online version of this magazine : Click Here

A meeting with the owner of Samsung groups, Mr Lee Geun Hee inside the Samsung Electronics campus Suwon.

Moments of Year 2004

SBC Anchor: Samsung Broadcasting Centre is Samsung's own broadcasting channel which broadcasts internal company related news every morning for half an hour to all its employees. I was guest anchor for SBC for one day. This photo is an Samsung internal online publication giving information about my anchorship on the channel the next day.

A page from the august 2004 issue of Digital E-Valley magazine. It was a short interview about me and John discussing about our life and work in Korea



A poster inside Samsung electronics campus, Suwon me and John with our products. Right side top corner.



I participated in Korean song competition on 2004 . The photo above shows the coverage of that event by Samsung magazine .

This page is from "Naeil shinmun"a local daily in of Suwon province which published an interview of my wife Chandra (Right) and her friend Dipti about their culture exchange programs in different Korean schools and also about their life in Korea.


Moments of Year 2003

This is the front page of October 2003 edition of digital e valley magazine. I participated in a Korean song competition on HOF day inside the Samsung Suwon campus and was awarded the third prize. My prize was a Samsung camera phone. You can see me and my wife in third from left oval shaped picture.

Well are you curious to know how I might have sounded while I sing the Korean song.Please visit the below you tube link to watch.

The Song Video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYSqCpO_BWE

These pictures are from the Samsung Electronics monthly magazine edition of may 2003. It was an event arranged by my computer division.

Moments of Year 2001



This is a page from Samsung electroncis global annual report of year 2001 in which I showcased the product named 'home manager'

This is the link to the original Report on Samsung Electronics Website : Click Here

World Ceramic Biennale 2005

The Journey :- Third world ceramic biennale 2005 started on April at three places Icheon , Gwangju and Yeoju simultaneously in Korea.
we planned to visit Icheon which is famous for its ceramics. we started our journey from Suwon inter city bus terminal .

waiting for the bus .

Inside the bus

Ceramic biennale organization started free tour buses for this event we got into the bus and it took around 2 hours to reach the spot.
The Event :-
As we got down from the bus at the event ground we could see many beautiful ceramic sculptures all around .

The ceramic butterfly.

Ceramic love

The sculptures around the entrance.

People were busy taking pictures .
There was a huge earthen kiln in which the pots of different periods were on display.

Inside the huge kiln.

also it showed the way of burning the pots inside a kiln.

The art of burning pots.

as we got down the slope slowly we saw a beautiful display of different kinds of flowers cactus and crotons .
Cactus on display

Flowers all around .


Flowers for sale.

Icheon is also famous for flowers and it was very visible in the exhibition there was also an exhibition for wild flowers. at the main festival ground there were many places where amateurs can learn making pots under the supervision of experts.

we saw some very rare kinds of pots and ceramic items being given shape by some famous ceramic artists. it was awesome to see how a lump of mud turns into a master piece.
This tea set cost 2000 dollars

A dinner set on display.

Some special ceramic items at the research center building.


At ceramic research center building some of the most expensive potteries were kept on display. the whole building was full of all kinds of ceramic items.

After looking around for some more time we went to folk food village inside the event area for lunch.
Our lunch bhossam (a pork recipe)


after lunch we saw a traditional performance .
Traditional turtle dance

Our next stop was the pavilions for shopping daily use ceramics.
there were four pavilions showing different varieties of pottery in all shapes sizes and colours.

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We ended up buying few potteries for personal use.

After seeing so many ceramic items it was now time to refresh our eyes with the natural beauty of the lake and the fountain .

Near the lake.


It was indeed refreshing to sit on the benches near the lake.

We were very tired but our eyes were not so we decided to visit again next week.
Next week:-

Next week we started early so that we can see the exhibits at Gwangju and Yoeoju .

There were free shuttle buses for those destinations from Icheon. we first went to Gwangju

Gwangju exhibition area entrance .

It took just 15 min to reach there. Gwangju exhibition area was not as big as Icheon but it had its own charm.

there was a park with illusions and a maze .

The maze.

Looking around for some time we came back to Icheon. had lunch there and again started for Yeoju.

Yeoju was half an hour away by bus from Icheon
Entrance gate at yeoju exhibition area.

Just near the entrance hall of Yeoju there were some shops selling potteries and other cermaic items at very reasonable rates and we ended up buying few items.

Buying the cute looking pots.

A shop at yeoju.

Inside the main attraction was acrobatic performances by young chinese kids which can make your jaws drop .
Chinese acrobatics.

The organizers also asked the audience to perform just a simple stunt ( that the acrobats did ) for 10 sec and they will give huggggeee prizes . I think the prize amt was so big because they were very sure that no one can do it.

It was very nice experience for us.

we came back to Icheon and then took the bus back to home very satisfied that we have seen almost all varieties of ceramics