Hiking in Korea (Hallasan and Bukhansan)

Hello my reader!

It has been 5 months since I returned from Korea and I have decided to stop procrastinating & start writing this post. One of the many things that Korea has and Singapore doesn't is MOUNTAINS! I managed to climb 2 mountains namely Hallasan in Jeju and Bukhansan in Seoul.

I feel that the best time to hike is during the transition from spring to summer or during autumn. I climbed Hallasan in mid June and Bukhansan in late July (yes it is summer but it wasn't as warm as I thought it would be).

I felt that the last 15 minutes trail to the peak of Bukhansan was the hardest because it was very steep, but the rest of the journey was quite easy. This is coming from someone who have not exercised since NAPFA test in JC2. For Hallasan, I felt that it was not as bad because we cheated on our way down. I'll talk about this "cheating" story below.

Hallasan 

Initially, my friends and I had plans to climb the Gwaneumsa Trail, but we parked at the wrong place and we ended up at the carpark beside Eoseungsaengak Trail and Eorimok Trail. 

Then we decided to climb the Eorimok Trail but we had no idea where was the starting point and it didn't came to us that we can ask the staff at the visitor's centre for directions. So we ended up climbing Eoseungsaengak Trail. We randomly followed a Korean family (I vividly remember one of them wearing sandals to climb!) up the starting point of Eoseungsaengak which was beside the visitor's centre. Although the tourist information on the internet said that the trail takes 30 minutes, we took about 1h to reach the peak. 

We estimated the climb to be at least half an day up and half a day down, so there was something wrong with reaching the peak in 1 hour. Unfortunately, it was only at the peak where we discovered that we were on the wrong trail. But okay at least I took some photos.  

We rented a car and followed the GPS to get to the carpark. I was not paying attention to where we were going but the road was just bumpy, curvy and uncomfortable. After a long drive, we finally reached the carpark.

Eoseungsaengak Trail 

It was quite foggy but my phone didn't manage to capture it

Pano of the peak using my iPhone 6

My friends chilling at the peak

I feel that if you just want to try out mountain climbing for a short while, then this trail is a good experience. If you are not spending much time in Jeju yet want to experience mountain climbing, this trail is also suitable as it is not time consuming.

Eorimok Trail

When we descended from Eoseungsaengak Trail, we had cup noodles for lunch at a small minimart beside the carpark. Then we went to ask the staff at the visitor centre for the correct trail up the peak. We were trying to speaking basic Korean to the staff but it wasn't working out, luckily she spoke Mandarin (not fluent but understandable) so we managed to communicate. She said the closest trail to where we were at was Eorimok. 

The staff at the visitor centre recommended us to take the eorimok trail up and Donnaeko Trail down, then take a public bus to somewhere near the carpark and then hike up to the carpark; But the frequency of the bus was extremely discouraging. Alternatively, we could hire a taxi and come up to the carpark. We decided that the both options were no-no, so we were going to hike up and down the same path and back to our car.

Okay I was ascending but I pretended to be going down for photography purposes

Mysterious aura, foggy area ft. my friend far away

There was a checkpoint kind of place where there was a bridge like platform and a fake crow. I felt that this is the place to take insta-worthy photos.

Here is me trying to be a crow whisperer

The roads changed from rocky to muddy to wooden platforms to rocky stairs.

Rocky

Wooden platform

It was estimated by the visitor's guidebook that the climb would take about 3 hours, but I remember we took close to 4 hours. Most of the people climbing were Korean and I manage to meet some families from China and Indonesia. It was easy to talk to strangers because every conversation begins like "How long more does it take to the peak?". Furthermore, the hikers I met were very friendly, even when I spoke broken Korean that I learnt from the many K-dramas, they managed to understand and answered me.

After what seems like forever, we finally reached the peak. There ware instant noodles, bottled water and chocolate bars sold at the the top. The things sold at the peak were very limited, but we were so hungry, everything tasted nice. Additionally, when we made our purchase, there was a plastic bag provided for us to bring the trash down to the bottom of the mountain to throw. I finally understood why everyone who were descending the mountain had a plastic bag on their hands!

There was also a toilet which had no water to flush or to wash your hands. So we bought bottled water. to wash our hands. I never felt that water was scarce in Korea until I climbed Hallasan.

The peak

Here comes my cheating story that I mentioned at the start of this post. As we started the ascend on the trail after lunch AND we took longer than average to reach the peak, by the time we descend, it was already 4pm and the park was supposed to close around 5pm. On top of that, my friend kept experiencing leg cramp (You know who you are, bro). It was then we decided that we will call the emergency hotline that were written on thick poles that were stationed at selected intervals of the trail. Unfortunately, the SIM cards we all bought were for unlimited data only, so we could not make any phonecalls or send any messages at all. 

At that point in time we realised we were in deep trouble. Suddenly, the park ranger appeared on this train-like transport. When we ascend, we noticed there were tracks along the road but we never knew the purpose. We were definitely saved by the park ranger. There were only 3 seats on the train and another box like structure to transport goods. Initially, the park ranger only allowed my friend who had leg cramp to board, but at the end, he allowed us to sit on the box like structure to take the train (thanks to our leg cramp friend).

Here is me on the box like structure

All in all, we took 4 hours to ascend and less than 1 hours to descend. 

Bukhansan

There are enough blogposts on how to get to Bukhansan so I will skip that part. I remembered my friends and I skipped the graduation ceremony to climb Bukhansan and turns out that we were not the only ones who did that. We met and chatted with a few NUS and NTU students from Hanyang Summer School who skipped grad ceremony too. I even met a girl from NUS who was climbing the mountain alone. She didn't know Korean but managed to navigate her way.

Below are just some photos I took on my way up and down the mountain.

Bukhansan at a distance

The roads are mostly rocky, sometimes sandy.

The road for the last 15 minutes up the peak was very steep and slightly slippery. I was so glad it was summer and not winter.

Look how steep it is ft. my friend

Cats at the peak!!! 

On our way down, we went to a shop/house that sells water, ice cream and cup noodles. Things sold there were very limited but the prices were reasonable. The owner also had some dogs and one of them even ushered us down the mountain for a good 10 minutes.

Dogs

Dog ushering us down the mountain

Tumblr worthy staircase photo

I am ending this post with my learning points:

What I have learnt climbing mountains in summer
1. Bring your own water
2. Bring your own tissue paper
3. Wear comfortable closed-toed shoes that is not slippery
4. Bring a light bag
5. Don't bring a jacket