Scuba diving in Sokcho

Video coming soon.

Over the weekend Lisa and I went SCUBA diving in Sokcho (속초), South Korea's smallest and northern-most city.
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About 50 miles from the border with North Korea, Sokcho lies at the base of the Seorak Mountains (서락산), a famous mountain range that attracts thousands of visitors in the fall, when leaves are changing color. On the other side Sokcho abuts the East Sea (Sea of Japan).

We signed up for a dive trip with Deep Blue Quest, a dive company run by Russell Krogh out of Seoul. Since we were coming from a different direction, we opted to ride up with our friends Ara and Ruthie, and meet up with the company at Mun-Am Resort (문암 리조트), the dive site. They were bringing a team of 4 Open Water dive students who would be completing the open water portion of their certification requirements. The four of us, plus one of DBQ's DiveMasters, were the only fun divers for the trip.

About halfway up the coast the weather changed dramatically, and snow began to fall. By the time we arrived in Sokcho about half an inch of powder and slush covered the ground, and it was continuing to shower. We considered the weather ruefully for a moment, but decided to make the best of the situation and ago ahead with our scheduled dives.

The water was COLD - from 3 to 5 degrees - and, though relatively calm, visibility was atrocious. On our first dive Saturday afternoon visibility was less than 1m. There was a lot of sediment from kelp plants floating suspended in the water. We didn't have much time to look around anyway. Within twenty minutes of our descent one of us was too cold to continue, and we would rush back to the office to warm up with coffee by a space heater.

warming up

Cold-water diving was a first for all of us, and after our first dive we weren't thrilled about it. Lisa, whose hands and feet get cold even indoors, decided not to go on a second dive on Saturday afternoon. Though visibility was better on the second dive, we still didn't see a lot of animal life. There was a variety of starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea slugs, but the fish, octopus, and nomura jellyfish we were hoping to see were absent for the duration of our visit.

getting the gear in order

the view from our minbak

We were scheduled to complete three dives on Saturday and one on Sunday with an optional 5th dive Sunday morning. As it turned out we barely squeezed in all four dives. DBQ seemed a bit disorganized. The four of us were sharing equipment with the dive students (although we had paid to rent our own gear), so we had to wait for each other to finish diving, strip gear (and in some cases wetsuits), and hand it over before we could head out for our next dive. We didn't even get in the water on Saturday until after 2pm.

dive briefing in the snow

beach dive

We were forced to abort a boat dive on Saturday afternoon as well, in a controversial turn-of events that ensued when aKorean dive team was sent to anchor the buoy line to the seabed. We sat in our wetsuits inhaling carbon monoxide fumes from the boat engines as the snow continued to fall around us. We waited for 20 minutes until we decided we were too cold to even get in the water at that point, and told the boat captain to take us ashore. He yanked on the buoy line to alert the divers below (who were nice and toasty in their expensive drysuits), and they surfaced five minutes later with an octopus in hand. Though we never got the full story out of them, they claimed that they spent the 20 minutes searching in vain for the line anchor.

Though Deep Blue Quest was competent and professional, their services were on the expensive side. The trip cost 350,000 won/person ($310) for four dives, minbak accommodation (our room was SWEET, with a balcony overlooking the ocean, but cost only 40,000 won), and three meals. We never got a cost breakdown, which would have been nice. I can only hope that we had top-of-the-line insurance (damn, I guess I should have asked about that in advance).

geared up

fishermen preparing their nets

Philippines Part I

I'll never trust weather.com again. Not that I really did to begin with, considering they get the weather forecast for Pohang wrong about 98% of the time, and the other 2% they get right only because they pick the same weather from the day before.

A day or so before we left I checked the weather report for Bohol, the island we chose to visit out of the Philippines' 7,000 or so, and before I could help it a feeling of dismay set in. I don't like being disappointed before I even depart on a trip, but in the split second before I could convince myself that rain wasn't such a big deal and that I could have fun in any weather condition (why did I even check the forecast, then?), I saw two weeks' worth of tell-tale thundercloud and lightning bolt icons and 80% chances and my heart sank.

That's the chance you take when you plan a big event, though, and I knew it and I couldn't be mad. Besides, we were scuba diving the first four days of the trip, and a little rain wouldn't hurt if we were already submerged underwater, right? And apart from diving I would sit under an umbrella on the beach getting shitfaced on pina coladas and san miguel and I would play cards with my friends and have a blast.

We took the KTX to Seoul, Korea's high speed train system that runs slightly in excess of 300km/hr (186mph). It takes 1 1/2 hours to get to Seoul over a distance that a bus would cover in about 5. The rain droplets sped along the window like silent glass bullets.


The cheapest flight into the Philippines was to Manila - and once in Manila, inter-island flights were super-cheap; $20. I had booked a connecting flight to Tagbilaran, the capital of Bohol, and a scenic 30 minute tuk-tuk ride from Alona Beach, our diving destination. There was only one travel hitch. You get what you pay for, and as it turned out we paid for a 6-hour layover in the Manila airport at midnight. I thought at the time that the airport would be deserted and Lisa and I could curl up on a padded bench and catch some shuteye until our 6am boarding time. Was that so unreasonable? Apparently the Ninoy Aquino International Airport is the place to be on a Tuesday night. Every Filipino and his mom was there, and they had taken every available inch on every available bench scattered throughout the terminal. Lisa and I curled up on the cold ceramic floor and after four hours and a fitful 25 minutes of sleep I saw airline attendants scurrying about the ticket booths and I figured we might as well check in.

We arrived at Tagbilaran's tiny domestic airport at 7:30am under a sky of light wispy clouds and no trace of rain anywhere. Maybe the 80% applied to the afternoon. We got a bottle of the Philippines' beloved Tanduay Rum for the grand total of 50 pesos (1USD), a can of coke, and a motorcycle taxi (200 pesos) to Alona Beach. Half an hour later, tired but wired and quite tipsy, we left the remaining rum for our driver ("This is for AFTER work!") and skipped along the white sand beach under the clear blue sky to Oops! Bar.

Forecast: Dust

I checked the weather forecast for Pohang yesterday, with an unusual prediction:

And although it was a bit hazy, we didn't notice any more dust than usual.

Winter's envy

In Korea they believe that Winter envies the coming warmth of Spring, and that its jealousy brings a bout of fierce cold in the middle of a warm spell. This bout is called 쏯(flower) 샘(jealous)추위(cold) (kot-sem-chu-wi). It lasts for two to three days and makes the spring blooms wither slightly.

A couple of nights ago a cold, fierce wind whipped through Pohang. Lisa and I were blown home from dinner - it may have been the strongest wind I've ever felt, and it lasted most of the night. We could hear canvas flapping and doors banging outside on the street. Last night, perhaps in consequence, I had a dream about a tornado. Just in case you were wondering.