So it all began from Denver on a clear Saturday morning. A malfunctioning phone charging point in the rented car, meant we got a free upgrade to a Volvo S60. Till then, I had only traveled in Volvo buses. But this, was pleasure to the ass!

Colorado is beautiful. The landscape is heavenly, and empty roads add just another level of charm.

This place, was our first stop: Steamboat Springs. It is one of the most famous Ski Towns in the US. At an altitude of 6500 feet, it is a very very pretty little town.

It was getting quite difficult to take pictures with so much sunshine. We literally had to grab any opportunity with clouds covering the sun!

Steamboat Springs is named so because one of the black sulphur springs here sounded like a chugging steamboat to early settlers. Thanks to some landscaping and construction, that sound has almost disappeared.

Even a town with barely 8000 people, had perhaps the best Indian restaurant I have so far been to in the United States. It was also the largest, the spiciest and played the best music inside (AR Rahman!!!!).

This is me and Patrik Da, in perhaps the one standard pose I click of myself wherever I travel! This, is Vail. At 8000 odd feet above sea it is yet another ski resort, highly commercialised, and built in a pretty European style.

When the snow is not enough for skiing, some other activities are biking, or golf…

Anando and Patrik Da, with the bigger da… Einstein Da!

A brilliantly worked out 2 days trip, covering over 500 kms and traveling over highways at an altitude of 11,000 feet, this was a superb trip. I cannot thank Patrik Da enough for this :) Btw, he calls me Anando… ask me why? He also becomes the only other person after Roshnai to understand my camera and take my pictures :)

Patrik Da, I could not capture the hours we spent in the Strawberry Hot Water Springs bathing and jumping around the hot water pools and the cold water river, or the awesome photography sessions we had by the pseudo railway station and in Vail, or those tiny little towns like “Bond” and State Bridge… but I can surely leave this blog to aptly end with this song… (click here)

At that moment I thought it to be just a banner placed in the country side, but that place is actually Pyeong Chang county itself! And I wondered what the construction work all around was about!

Gangneung and Pyeong Chang will be hosting the Winter Olympics 2014, if they are selected tomorrow. Lovely place and it deserves to host the games…

Here are the pics once again :) These are the slopes that are fully covered with snow during winter. This place receives the highest snowfall in entire South Korea, and is a natural ski resort.

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And my train, listed on the chart as train number 1661. A normal express, not superfast :)

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And the Sunrise Express: This train is run at a specific time, such that it reaches Jeongdongjin (my destination) before the sunrise.

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Pretty people in pretty clothes :)

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I reached the destination well on time, 4.05 am. And this is what I saw. This is the horizon… all you can see is the horizon… thats the Face Of God :)

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Waiting anxiously for the sun to rise and show me its brimming face…

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Aah…. here it is… almost there!

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Hello, hello, where are you?

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Ooops, something that I feared, the cloudy monsoon sky, hid the sunrise :(, and the sun could only be seen a few degress higher, a few minutes later :(

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Oh, btw, here is the beautiful Pacific Ocean, my first view of crystal blue waters :)

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I am a hero, aren’t I? PHBBT—

Clear waters and clear sand…

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This is the whole beach and the Jeongdongjin railway station. This station has an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, as the railway station closest to a beach. Well, its almost on the beach! The stairs from the platform, end up on the beach. This was a lovely sight from a high hill near the beach.

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This, is a resort, at one end of the beach. Its a hotel made in the form of a huggggggggggggge Ship.

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This is a pretty famous icon in Korea, and this led to the beach becoming a national attraction. This is a sand hour glass, but its time period is not one hour, its ONE YEAR. On every New Year’s Day, this hour glass or YEAR GLASS is rolled about and restarted. It was installed and is maintained by Samsung.

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Jeongdongjin Beach Town – Pretty structures all around.

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Aahhh… let me come to the point… A Choding (term’s meaning explained in earlier post) introduced me to Jeong Hwa in the bus from Jeongdongjin to Gangneung Terminus. And we ended up being good friends. She offered to show me around a truly wonderful hill station city Gangneung.

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And this is Gangneung…

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These are: Na Hyae, Me, Jeong Hwa and Hyeon Yeong… had a cool time with them around :)

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Spotted some Wind Turbines :) !!!!!!!!!! Really happy to see them in action since my internship research is on the same :)

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This is a typical Korean train: KORAIL—

On the way back to Incheon…

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Through the tunnels, cutting the mountains…

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Through the clouds, cutting the air…

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And some more…

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Wonderful pine trees all around…

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Korean country-side… Gangwon Province

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Pyeong Chang is a city on the north eastern coast of South Korea, and is competing to host the 2014 Winter Olympics :) Incheon has already won the bid to host the Asian Games in 2014…

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Awesome… Simply…

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At the end of the day, I would like to preserve my two tickets from this special trip!!

And, will you believe me people, if I add that the whole green cover that you just saw turns red and yellow in Autumn, completely! And white in winter, completely covered by snow! This province of South Korea receives the maximum snowfall and becomes a natural skiing resort!

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Sorry folks… there are too many nice pics to post… but most of them are private ;)