For our first full day in Jeju-do, we decided to tackle
Hallasan which, at
1,950 meters, is
the tallest mountain in South Korea! Hallasan stands in the center of Jeju-do in Hallasan National Park. Took a 1.5 hour bus ride from Seogwipo City Station to Seongpanak on the eastern side of the mountain. We were completely surprised to see how many people were there! Apparently, Koreans like their hiking, as there were group of people impeccably attired in hiking boots, long sleeve shirts and waterproof pants, hats, gloves, day-packs, and hiking sticks! We spent a good part of the way up the mountain hiking in line. Once, about halfway up, two girls asked if they could take their picture with me! I didn't know I looked
that funny...
The last ~2 km involved climbing up stairs. I absolutely
hated stairs after that climb, but
we were above the treeline and above the clouds, so the view was great. I could see the outline of the entire island. Escaping the noise and really experiencing the wonder of nature was a bit difficult, though. The peak was covered with people, some of whom even
hiked with
portable radios!
Walking a short bit away from the summit, however, provided enough silence for me to view the top of Jeju-do with awe. While I was sitting on the stairs apart from everyone, eating a packet of precooked rice with some dried seaweed (makeshift
kimbap),
two Korean women stopped to look at me with shocked looks upon their faces. One took a picture of me, sitting there confusedly, while the other woman rummaged through her backpack. She pulled out a cylindrical shape wrapped in tinfoil, forcibly pushed aside my lunch I'd been eating, and then strode off, all while talking quite loudly in Korean. Opening the packed, I found a roll of homemade
kimbap! (
Kimbap consists of seaweed wrapped around rice with meat and vegetables in teh center - it's like Korean sushi.) People here are so nice to me!
We all finished eating lunch, goofed around for a while, then climbed back
down all the stairs.
After
19.4 km of walking and about 8 hours, we finally reached the bottom again and celebrated with a victory Cass! A long, hard day, but beautiful scenery - I even saw two deer! Completely exhausted, sore, and disgustingly sweaty, we caught a bus for home with a great feeling of satisfaction.
We conquered the highest peak in South Korea!
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| At the trail-head, eager to go! |
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| CAUTION: SNAKES! |
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| They monitor ascents so that no one gets stuck on top. |
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| Stairway to heaven? |
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| volcanic crater lake, at the peak of Hallasan |
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| the very, very crowded peak - you can see some of the awesome hiking outfits! |
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| I could see the coasts of the whole island! |
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| Gerchie, Chinese exchange students, Sejin, me, Seungmin, Marina, Max |
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| escaping the crowds |
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| I'm excited to be on the way down! Only 5 kilometers to go! |
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| Waiting for the bus at the end of the day - tired and smelly. |
Wow, aren't you adventurous! That volcanic lake is so beautiful, I think that would be worth the climb right there. Although I didn't have to climb all those stairs, so it's easy for me to say, haha. Glad you're having fun!! And that's hilarious about the kimbap. I guess they wanted you to have an accurate picture of Korean cuisine.
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