Friday, June 4, 2010

South Korea: Seongsan Ilchulbong

In South Korea, I did not manage to witness the sunrise as the sun always woke up earlier than I in this spring season. Nevertheless, I was glad that our group members had got up earlier than other groups of tourists and first arrived at the parking of Sunrise Peak in Jeju on that final Wednesday morning of May.

Rose from under the sea in a volcanic eruption, the peak is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. There is a huge crater at the top.

We hiked towards the peak by the northwest side.

At first, Mum was energetic to mount the stairs while admiring the verdant grassy hill.

As she grew tired, she took a rest at a stop. So I continued my journey and met two siblings from our group who were in front of me.

Very soon I overtook them and had wonderful views between rocks

and on the sea.

The panorama became more and more magnificent

as I climbed higher.

When I achieved my target, our tour leader Addy was already there taking pictures. He was amazed at my stamina. Being used to climbing stairs, conquering Seongsan Ilchulbong had not taken much of my physical strength.

The elder of the siblings was another one to join us. As our meeting time at the parking was approaching, I had to abandon them to rush down to look for Mum.

I could not help capturing one image after another

every few minutes.

Mum was already waiting for me in a local product and souvenir shop. Did she care if I had reached the top?

Sorry, she only bothered whether I was going back on time to pay for the chocolates.

1 comment:

albert peh said...

Korea is beautiful. I want to gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo