Day ten

I Arrived in Seoul from Okinawa yesterday and picked a hotel close to Bukhasan National Park, just nort of Seoul, with the intention of climbing the highest mountain in the park: "Baegundae Peak”.

I woke up early, and after a coffee (there are a million coffee places near every Seoul metro station), I hit a convenience store for snacks, lunch, and drinks for the hike: Onigiri triangles for snacks, Gimbab "Sushi rolls" for lunch and Oreos, because I like em. The drinks of choice were iced tea and, of course, "Procari Sweat."

I took the metro a few stops towards the city center and switched to a bus that would take me to one of the many entrances of the park.

There are a couple of routes to the peak, and I picked the most challenging route, assuming it was also the quietest route (I was right!).

The route contains parts where you have to make your way up giant rocks without any help or stairs. This is not a course for beginners.

I met a few friendly hikers, one offered me some chocolate to keep my energy up and took a few photos of me with my camera, so I have proof I was there this time :P. I just absolutely love this friendly hiking culture in South Korea and Taiwan.

After a while, the environment started to change, and suddenly, I was walking in the snow—quite the contrast between the 25+ degrees and sun of Okinawa just one day ago.

This was also the most boring part of the hike, no fun rocks to climb, just endlessly going straight up the side of a mountain.

Luckily, the end was in sight, and rounding a corner, it suddenly was a lot busier on the trail; this is where the easier parts merged onto the last stretch to the top. Among the newly joined crowd were a few hiking groups and some live-streamers.

It was time for lunch! After the obligatory photo at the top, it was time for the Gimbab roll and some iced tea before heading down.

On my way down, I noticed a sign to another mountain top, and having an hour or two to spare, I opted to take the detour.

It offered some lovely views of Seoul and my route to the peak.

At the bottom, I took the same bus back to the metro station and the train to the hotel, where I had dinner in the surrounding neighborhood.

This was quite the challenge as most places were Korean BBQ joints, where the minimum number of people is usually two, which is not great for a solo traveler, but I found some delicious BiBim Kogi Guksu (Cold noodles with meat).