Seoul Autumn DAY 2

Day 2

16 October 2014.

It was suppose to be rather cold this morning.
It was the day that I dreaded.
It was a dooms day.

WHY?
 It's the day for Bukhansan hike.
Wow, never in my travel history that I include mountain hiking(it's climbing!) into the itinerary.I actually did some research as soon as they suggested this hike. I saw these....

Image Source: http://globitrotter.files.wordpress.com

Image Source: http://flyerizer.com

... I know I am doomed. After seeing these pics, I immediately buy gloves and tracking pants, which is an absolutely RIGHT choice..

I keep on wishing that they will gave up, stop halfway up the mountain and go back to the city for a relax lunch/tea/coffee and do some shopping. So with this hopeful wish, I woke up and we had a great breakfast at Paris Baguette. Love their Green Tea Latte. Seriously nice!



and it come in a cute cup.

After the fulfilling breakfast, we went take the subway and then the bus to get to the national park. On the way there, even in the train, we can see a lot of ahjumahs (auntie) and ahjusshi (uncles) in full hiking gear.



at the bus station, a small stall selling hiking gear. We took the bus to the main entrance of the national park. It was a windy, cool and bright day despite it rained in the morning.


more shops that selling hiking gear on the way to the entrance. There's some roadside stall that sell food as well.



I was happy that I finally see the Fall Foliage. I was worrying that what if we climb all the way up but didn't manage to see any of these beautiful fall colors? after all, the main purpose of this hike is to enjoy the autumn scenery.



There we go. In fact, the traveling partners doesn't see "those pic" I googled. So, they expect that this will be some hike alike to those hike of FRIM or Broga. However, I am not convinced of it even though my traveling partner ensured us that we pick the easiest/beginner trail.



So, from the beginning, it all looks good and easy, right? Perfectly paved road, lined with beautiful trees and good weather.


Then we saw this. One of the partner, "We aren't going to that top right?"
another replied,"Of course not!"

In my thought, "no, not this one, BUT it wouldn't be any better than this one, though"


So after all the picturesque scenery we passed, we reached some stairs and then to dirt path and to rocks..

Rocks, big ones, where we have to use hands to hold one and climbed through it. It was then, I feel extremely lucky I bought the gloves. It did help a lot.

However, we did stopped and rested a numbers of time on the way up. So it make the hiking experience not too bad.



On the way, we saw many of these stones pile (I googled and found a term for it, Cairn)

So here's the question, what are these for??

I googled and come upon this,

"The purpose of the rock piles is to act as signals for alien spacecraft to land, so they can take you onto their ship and probe you several times, then show you where they live on a map and send you on your way." 

 by Tryptamine 

Source:http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=99076

Good try. I hope it can summon Do Min Joon ssi.

Source:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCQnkFkGHAlxvQyaqyLuAgwCHn5DQjsVhTyYD-oqRFvZCOW9WL4KIM81k5uOXc7-DfTy7n7vQux75Gi8e_lXNzHfaB1t1F601tEBTs2SSXewPsLc0NQEZMPVLexrMPxNNoIDgVFJPJsc/s1600/Man+From+Star+9+(154).jpg

a more practical reason is to mark the trails. However, some Koreans do this to ask for good fortune Something similar to why people throw coins into the water fountain.

So, we don't miss this of course. We picked some real good stones on the way, we washed it with the pure mountain water and pile it up at the highest point we can get. For sure, we have better luck than those that pile at the lower spots..hahahaa.. *kiasu*





It was here, that we stopped for a light lunch with the food we packed the day before. Beautiful scenery with tasty gimbap and sweet water. It was then, we took a look at the map and found out that we took the wrong trail. o.O

I mentioned earlier that we will take the easiest path but from the map, we, somehow, took the wrong way and we are halfway up using the "ADVANCED" trail. *smack forehead*.

Now we only have one choice, which is to move forward up because if we gave up and return, we have to go through the same advance trail. It will be dangerous. Since we are like at already 80% of the trail. We just move forward and perhaps when we reached the junctions we can decide to go up to the expert trail up to the peak OR we can give up and change to an easier trail there to go down.

So, after lunch, we marched forward for about 30 more minutes. We saw the gate, we passed the gate, we saw stairs, we walked up the stairs and here where's horror happen. I personally thought the stairs is more difficult than climbing those rocks. Then when we climbed to the end of those stairs, there a steep incline rocks. with no carved path. Just a rope. I remind you that we are just wearing normal jogging shoes. In our mind, we are almost there, just a few minutes, we will be at the top... So we literally dragged our self up. Our life depends on the rope and our hands. If our hands slipped, then that's the end.




We were all able to make it to the peak, thankfully. We were rewarded with this view. It was about 4pm when we reached the peak. It was starting to get seriously windy. The wind was ferociously blowing at us, we have difficulty standing there even holding the rail. I don't even care to take my phone/camera out for a selfie.

We stayed there and took a few groupfie then start going back down. Going down is another difficulty. Going up I have to use all my arm strength to hold on the rope, but going down, I have to keep sliding on the rocks because my shoes isn't meant for hiking. Furthermore, it was very windy while we going down, so it was equally dangerous.


When, we reached the gate, we used our limited Korean to asked the locals for an alternative trail to go down that is for beginner.
Then the good ahjussi showed us this way. This path was covered by 70% yellow and red color foliage. At least, we meet the purpose to come here.




After the hike, everyone was so tired and looks like zombie. We reward our self with a good ddoboki meal at Sindandong. We dined at the Makborim restaurant, which is the most famous from the information we get from internet.




But it tasted like a big pot of instant noodle. Looks like one as well.
The tastiest thing in this pot was the fried wanton. There are 3 pieces of it in one pot.



After dinner, we went to Dongdaemun because it just on the way. Of course, everybody is so beaten up that we only walked 5 shops then back to the guesthouse and zzzzz.
Thus, my most dreaded day just passed. If this day is the hell, the rest of the trip will be heaven.

Cheers~ ♥