A mini trek to Seongsan Ilchulbong, or Sunrise Peak

Although the recommended course is to trek the Sunrise Peak to check out the sunrise from high above, I was not in top form to wake up before dawn 2 days in a row. So on Tuesday morning, the alarm went off at 7:00am again and I had noone but myself to blame for wanting a full day. By 8:00am I was showered and dressed and trying to engage conversation with a different receptionist of the hotel to get some information on how to get to Seongsan Ilchulbong. It didn't help that he spoke very little English and that I could not pronounce the name witht eh right accent. Fortunately 2 other Malaysian young tourists were headed the same way and had a better pronunciation than myself. So the receptioninst managed to point out on the map where it was (with Korean characters) and where the bus terminal was so that we could catch a bus.

By 8:10am, the 3 of us walked uphill in the direction pointed out, passing by a convenient store where I topped up my T-Money finally and grabbed breakfast, orange juice, and a bottle of water. The 2 ladies were staying for 4 days in Jeju and were enjoying their 2nd day. They apparently went to the Jeju Loveland the day before and were kind of freaked up by the amount of couples wearing couple outfits there (no surprise there) as well as the displays as well. So they bought a couple tees...HAHAHA. They also walked through the Jungmun resort, the Teddy Bear museum, and the Ripley's Believe it or Not.

At the bus terminal I impressed the green couple tees Malaysian girls by speaking in Korean to buy the tickets (even understood the price!) and eventually revealed my secret weapon: the phrasebook. Another couple of ajhummas showed us the bus stop since it apparently didn't have a number and didn't depart from the bus terminal. Instead it had a bus stop along the road.  At 8:40am and right on time, the bus 600 showed up, debited my T-Money and drove around counterclockwise around the island. The same ajhummas walked us to the Seongsan Ilchulbong trail entrance an hour later.

The peak appeared against a backdrop of morning clouds, and flaked with a parking lot full of tourist coaches. For 9am I found the place a bit crowded.

I lost the 2 Malaysian girls while I was taking the entrance ticket.

There were hoards of tourists from China, Japan and children on school-trips.The procession of visitors appeared like an ant trail on the flank of the mountain. The path was paved and delimited with ropes, with beautiful green grass and the blue sea on the sides. I was dressed with long sleeves and walking shoes since I planned to hike anyway, but other visitors were in flip flops, breezy dresses flapping ridiculously in the wind, high heels, sandals. Some even carried their babies out of the strollers. As the path became steeper, the trail became a two way path: one side for going up and the other side to come down. It was really a head to butt procession. Stopping to turn around and take picture was an inconvenience and blocked the whole procession. The view was pretty though, with a pretty contrast of colour.

There were places where only one person could go through between rocks or at a sudden turn in the path. Even for experienced hikers, the climb took longer than 15min due to the crowd. At the top of the peak, the traill ends in a wooden terrace over the crater.

It was difficult to get the full circle 3/4 circle of the crater given the wide angle needed, but it was very pleasant to be dried by the strong wind and the whooshing of the long grass in the crater. There were more schoolchildren taking a rest and sitting on the stairs while a guide or a teacher were trying to lecture them on something lost in the wind.
After 15min trying to imprint the sight in memory and taking in the wind, sun and smell of the crater, it was time to trek back down, moved by the wave of people climbing down. It was impressive to see the landscape and the crowd below.

The path split to the right towards the black sand beach besides the peak. It was on that beach actually that they usually hold the show about the female divers that harvest abalone in apne. There was a little hut to rest and wash up and a great view of the sea and black rocks with their own weird wild fauna. While walking on the black sand, I found out there were all sorts of crawly things quickly moving everywhere so I was soon creeped out and climbed back to the wooden path.

Then it was time to continue on my tour of the island, after grabbing an onigiri and dried meat snack from the street vendors catering to tourists. I caught the same bus counterclockwise as soon as I arrived to the bus stop, and my volcanic rock day continued...