A day to remember...

It all began when my partner received news that his conference this year is in Korea... What it meant, was time for me to tag along and enjoy my holidays in Korea, oops I mean, accompany him! As the dates grew nearer, we started planning for the 10 day trip and decided to have Jeju island on our itinerary for at least 2-3 days. Soon, the day came and we set off on our journey! Oh, what an awesome country she was, brimming with energy and all the food that we could eat, mostly revolving around Korean Barbecue. Literally, every single day! I could expand a lot more on the delicious food and our adventures but that... is for another day.

Let's get back to the main story, and for that, we have to delve deeper into our adventure to Jeju island. With the pretty scenery gifted to us in Autumn, we decided it would be amazing climbing Mount Hallasan, the highest mountain in South Korea! You know... since we are already here in Jeju, why not? The night before, we started to pack for our trip up the mountain. For some reason, now that I thought back about it, it was weird how it did not register in my mind how long the trek would be. Google told us it would be about 6-8 hours return. Thus, when my partner asked if I had packed some food for the trek, I happily replied yes and chucked in 2-3 chocolate bars and a couple of small packs of chips. In my mind, it would be a short, perhaps half day trip... Some snacks and water should suffice... Oh, how wrong I was!

On the day of the hike, we decided to go up the Gwaneumsa Trail. You could trek up the mountain via different trails and Gwaneumsa was said to be the most picturesque, though more difficult route up the mountain. We set off into the mountain really early, about 6-7am. It was still a bit dark at that time but you know, if we wanted to make it out of the mountain by nightfall with my short legs, it's good to start earlier right? Just in case... And thank gods we did!

As we started trekking up the mountain, it was really full of rocks! Every single step forced my ankle to strain itself due to the unevenness of the loose rocks along the trek, and as my ankle was prone to giving way, having twisted it multiple times throughout my early years... it was not fun. But the scenery was beautiful. There were so much colors everywhere!

Hiking was not for me though; within a couple of hours into the trek, I could start feeling the weight of my bag. My body felt heavier and my breath felt faster. I started to pant. Poor guy, my partner had to carry my bag as the higher we go, the louder my pants. According to him, he thought that I was not going to make it at one point of time... But once my body started to accustom herself to the trekking momentum, my pants started to get better. Quieter, but still panting. My fatigue was building. At one stage, we passed a warning sign that mentioned there are wild boars in the mountain and I thought to myself, "That's pretty cool!".

More hours passed, we finally made it to the designated shelter around noon. We had a rest and we were allowed to ascend to the summit! There are cut off times where you would not be allowed to ascend as there is a certain time you have to descend from the summit (2pm in our case).

It was a struggle and a race to try and reach the summit before 2pm. I had to take a lot of breaks, but we did it! We reached the summit at around 1.45pm! At that point of time, my stamina has all but ran out. I sank into the ground and enjoyed the wondrous feeling of rest, while my partner went walking around the summit for some photos of the crater.

I must have looked really tired as a nice lady offered me one of her mandarins. Our snacks had already been depleted in the first couple of hours of the trek. I happily accepted it with thanks. All too soon, one of the officers in charge started yelling into the loudhailer to get us moving down the mountain. It was time for the descent! As I took so long to get up to the summit, we did not really have much time to enjoy the view or had a proper rest before having to start moving again. Perhaps a 15 minute or half hour in, I needed a break again... I sounded so pathetic here, haha, but it's true; my stamina is pretty bad.

Anyways, we saw a group of people sitting around on a clearing and we decided to join them. There was plenty of space in the clearing without having to sit side by side, in case you are wondering. The different groups of people started taking out their food and now that I think back, I wondered how I looked to them. I remembered vividly that there was a group of three 'ajusshis'; korean for uncles. This one ajusshi took out his lunch and I remembered looking at the gimbap rolls, wrapped in aluminium foil, and thinking to myself, "That looks so delicious..." Perhaps my expression gave me away, or perhaps I looked so faint and frail, something must have shown as the ajusshi took one of his wrapped gimbap roll and offered it to me!

I was stunned, my stomach growled. He put the roll into my hands and turned back to his friends. That act of kindness filled me with thankfulness. It was an indescribable moment. At that time, in that place, the gimbap glowed. It was the first and most delicious food I had ever eaten in that moment. Apart from the few snacks that I put into our bag, that was the first bite of real food I had on that day. I shared it with my partner and felt energy returning to my body. After we finished the gimbap and felt more rested, it was time for a race back to the foot of the mountain! As we continued trekking and the people around us started getting sparse, we started to worry if we would get out of the mountain by nightfall..

As the light slowly started diminishing and the shadows lengthened, we heard a rustling somewhere in the forest around us. It was in that moment when something clicked in my brain; the warning signs of boars in the mountain. That was when it finally registered in my brain, "Mountains are dangerous, especially at night." For some reason, it just did not felt real before. Perhaps, having spent most of my life in Singapore, a bustling city with no or little sense of danger, had diminished any survival instincts I could have.

We started walking faster and faster, hoping to see the lights which would signify that we were close to getting out of the mountain. At last, we reached the exit point and heaved a sigh of relief! It was around 7-8pm in the evening. This whole trek took us about 12 hours and injected a sense of awe and fear for nature in me. However, it also became the most memorable part of our Korea trip. Every time I saw a gimbap, I would look back fondly with a smile how that one, small, kind act of the ajusshi meant so much to me. It may be a normal gimbap to him, but at that point of time, to me, it was the gimbap of light. :)