Continuation from Incheon + Jeju-do Self Drive Day 1: MAS, Car Rental & Jeju Cherry Blossom Festival
On day 2, we have a really important mission in the morning. We are going to climb Mount Hallasan 한라산 at Hallasan National Park via Yeongsil Trail. However we will only climb up to Witseoreum Shelter which takes about an hour and the half trekking to reach. Ain’t gonna go up till the peak since my mom is following. Yeongsil Trail is by far the easiest trail in Mount Hallasan.
The road to our trekking trail. Plenty of cherry blossom trees! It was indeed a very pretty sight.
As we go inner, the trees are all ‘naked’. We did not see many cars.
Reached Yeongsil Trail Management Office at 7.40am. We had to pay 1,800 won (RM5.40) for parking fee. But then this is not the place to park our car. We have a few kilometers to go still.
Road become more windy and narrow as our car climb slowly upwards to our destination.
10 minutes later we reached Yeongsil Rest Area. Looks like there are many people who are earlier than us! There’s a restaurant and toilet here.
Yes, your eyes ain’t playing any tricks on you. It’s -3oC outside. The wind was blowing like crazy too.
Look at the GPS… we’re middle of nowhere! Scary and exciting. Haha
So this is me with a wind breaker and jeans plus 3 layers of clothing and a scarf which explain my expanded body. We’re in no way dressed appropriately for the climb seeing the weather is that cold. I expect it to be cold but not in minus Centigrade. We’re getting ready for the climb and also taking shelter in the toilet because the wind was howling like crazy.
We made up our mind to just walk the trail about a kilometer since it was so cold. Before that we have ventured into the restaurant which also happen to sell some winter gloves and other mountaineering stuff. The gloves cost me 15,000 won (RM45). Gulps.
The start of Yeongsil Trail.
We’re at 1,280m at the start of the trail.
Ahhh the beautiful trail. Although it is bare, I love it.
This trail remind me of my climb to Mount Kinabalu 7 years ago!
Where are we? Ohh we’re only at 500m. Hahaha Witseoreum Shelter is the dot where the green, yellow and orange line meet.
Mom and sis. All these while the wind was blowing and yes very cold.
We passed by this area without realizing there’s ice. The large white patch on the right is ice! Not long after we realized it and that’s where we decide to turn back. Sob sob.
Ice at Yeongsil Trail.
As we look around we soon realized there are some ice patches here and there. We just didn’t noticed it at first.
We realized further away the vegetation is all white in color. And can you see the waterfall? It’s actually frozen!!!
My sister swear that few minutes earlier it was still moving. I didn’t believe it was frozen so I take some shots and compare it. Yup, it was FROZEN!!! So cool and exciting. And unfortunately our trekking mission has to end there. Some trekkers who passed by us earlier had also turned back.
My mom who is no fan of trekking and want nothing to do with mountain was the excited one in our lot when we started and she’s sad too. Tsk you don’t know how hard I convinced her to climb this mountain with me. Hahaha But finally it was us who convinced her to turn back as she wants to go further. LOL
Soon we’re back at the rest area.
Decided to have our breakfast here.
Spoke Korean to order our food. Hehehe
Our breakfast at Yeongsil Rest Area. On the left is perilla seeds sujebi and on the right is pork soup with rice. Banchan from left is sliced green chilies, kimchi and radish kimchi. The chili paste is for the pork soup.
 @ Yeongsil Rest Area, Hallasan National Park, Jeju-do.jpg "Pork Soup with Rice (Gogi Guk Bap) @ Yeongsil Rest Area, Hallasan National Park, Jeju-do")
Pork soup with rice (고기국밥 gogi gukbap) at 10,000 won (RM30). So so delicious.
Perilla seeds sujebi (들깨 수제비 deulggae sujebi) at 10,000 won (RM30). Sujebi means hand torn noodles. The perilla seeds is what makes the soup this color. On top is some floating seaweed.
Perilla seeds sujebi. Basically this hand torn noodles is like mee hoon kueh only cuter in size. Another stunning dish. Both breakfast were so yummy. This was in fact one of the best meal I had in South Korea.
As we head to our next destination, we stopped by an observation deck which boost some really nice view. No idea what’s the name of this observation deck but it’s on the way down from Yeongsil. I even saw Jeju World Cup Stadium… it’s where our accommodation is located. 🙂
More cherry blossom on the way down.
So that’s it for day 2 part 1 of this trip. Stay tuned for the continuation.
Btw I will be back, Mount Hallasan. Maybe in autumn or summer one fine day when the weather is less colder. 🙂
Photos from Nikon D80 and Panasonic TZ-7.
20 Comments
I would love to go climb this Mount Hallasan but gasp….at minus 3 degrees?!!!
That’s crazy right?
Wow! Frozen waterfall – that’s nice! Too bad you had to turn back.
Ya lor… too bad.
You are praising the food again. Seems like you are mostly enjoying the food for this trip 🙂
Wait later in the series… some of my meal so-so only.
really too bad you all had to turn back…should persevere and go farther 🙂 did you put on thermal wear under your jeans? Jeans does not tahan cold at all.
I do love the the bare winter trees….amazing how they spring back to life in the spring. Yeah do go back in fall to see the fall colors.
Too cold to persevere. Hahaha I only had a legging under my jeans. I think my mom and sis wore a layer of pants only.
Yes most probably will be back for fall. I wanna see autumn leaves. 🙂
what season was it when you trek Mt halla? we are heading there in early Nov (autumn), thinking of what to wear and prep!
Hi Lee, I went to Mt Halla in spring (April).
hi i just want to ask for yeongsil trail how long the duration u take to reach your destination?
Hi Hida, can I know what destination you’re talking about? From where to where?
Hello, just wondering how do I get the GPS coordinates for the Yeongsil trail start point. Thank you
Hi Chris, you can copy this: 영실휴게소 (it means Yeongsil Rest Area) and enter into google map. At the location, right click it and select ‘what’s here’. You’ll see a card at the bottom of your computer screen with the GPS coordinates. When I was going there, I entered the hangul (Korean alphabets) in the Korean GPS provided by the rental car.
Dear Che-Cheh,
might i ask during which month of the year u get -2 for the temperature there?
regards
Hi Tang, it was in April. If you want to climb Hallasan, best go during summer.
Hi there
what address did you enter to the GPS to go to the car park?
Hi Samantha, if I’m not mistaken I key in 영실휴게소 (Yeongsil Rest Area) into the Korean GPS. You can also input the phone number.
and also is the meal you had in the rest area ?
Yup. At the rest area.