It's crazy how many people you see hiking around - and it's quite easy to spot them, as they are all wearing high-end hiking gear like they would climb in the Himalaya - nevertheless it's actually only a 'casual' climb they're doing.
But it's very funny watching them in their colourful shirts, poles and big hats walking around.
As we are not avoiding the sun as they're doing and as mentioned, it is very warm and humid here, we tend to wear a bit less than they do when climbing up :) But when passing them topless, they normally laugh and roll their eyes a bit. The cultural differences and preferences seem pretty obvious :)
The picture above was taken on the summit of Mount Hallasan, the highest peak in South Korea, located on Jeju Island, and actually another vulcano. The height is 1950m, and you have to climb around 1100m before reaching the top - and then of course down again! This makes a total length of around 17Km and took us 4.5h (and approximately 2 liters of sweat!) to hike, which was quite fast compared to 'normal' tourists. E.g. it took our roommate from Taiwan in the guesthouse 8.5h and cosequently, he looked 'slightly' exhausted when returning to the hostel later in the evening! I think he was writing mentally already his last will, haha.
The sunrise on the other vulcano the day before was nice too, however, the real highlight in my opinion were the tons of Koreans already showing up so early in the morning! I guess this shows a very distinct characteristic of Koreans: when they do something, they do it with a lot of effort and seriously!
As a fact, the platform on the volcano was already quite crowded at 5.30am! Really insane seeing so many tourists so early in the morning!
And appology to those again who thought that they were the first up there at 4.15am and then had to find out that we were already there and thus, they came in only second, haha.
Following some more impressions from the East on Jeju-Island and the South (credits to Beni for the pictures - his doing a great job so far).
In the afternoon we will head back to the mainland again... stay tuned - over and out!
