Jeju Island - vol 2

Klaudia had a plan to climb the Hallasan Mountain in the Hallasan National Park - the biggest mountain exactly in the centre of Jeju! However, after reading about the level of difficulty on the Seongoabak Hiking Trail, she decided against it and joined me see the East of the Island instead.

We boarded the bus and headed to Seongsan Illchulbong Peak, or Sunrise Peak. Two hours later (yes, the bus took two hours), we arrived at the destination. The Peak is an archetypal tuff cone formed by hydrovolcanic eruptions around 5000 years ago. And yes, you can climb it! It is a thirty minute walk to the summit; a steep set of steps leads up to a 182m high viewing platform at the top. Unfortunately it is not possible to hike around the rim, but the views are amazing nevertheless. Seongsan town and Udo Island are visible below and the topography of the surrounding area (hard to judge from ground level) reveals itself. It is a truly stunning place!

It is a port area with a lot of harbours, which made Seongsan a perfect place for lunch - fresh fish, grilled fish, seafood, everything we wanted. Again in a truly Korean style our dishes arrived with complementary sides and took the whole table. Oh, what a feast it was!

 

The next stop was Hamdeak Beach - finally the weather was nice enough for us to enjoy some rest. The emerald blue water, fine sand, sun and us. Couldn't get much better!

Finally when we got to our hostel, we spent the evening heavily drinking soju. I'll only say that we paid for it the next morning and regretted the heavy night! Who would have guessed that soju can give such bad hangovers! Fortunately we spent the next day traveling, which made it slightly more bearable;)

Next stop Sokcho!