Korean Life and Adventure: Halla Mountain and Horse Meat

Random Korean Cultural Trivia

Kimbap - "Korean sushi" seaweed wrapped ricerolls that has assorted veggies and meats for stuffings

If you come to Jeju Island, the main attraction is to go up Halla Mountain (한라산). The volcano is Korea's 2nd tallest mountain (after Baekdu in the North) and the South's national natural monument. Apparently it's a rare opportunity to go and not many are able to do it, including the island locals too.

Anyway along the way near the base of the mountain is another of the island's strange mysteries. There's a particular road that goes down into a countryside area. If you put your car in neutral, the car will automatically start moving UP the slope no matter which way you face. It's an unexplained mystery and it's one of the main attractions before you climb up. At the time we tried it there was about 10 cars all doing it.

To begin the climb up you have to drive half way up on this highway that goes up, otherwise it would take you forever. The climb up takes about 3 hours and the climb down takes an hour and half, all in all about 5 hours including a 30 minute break. The climb is divided into two sections, the first half is a forest and the second half is a mountain valley. It was decided that I would be carrying our supplies, about 15 rolls of kimbap and about 5 litres of water plus some other stuff. (Roughly 35lbs in a bag)

Anyway, let me tell you about the path up Halla Mountain. It is the cheapest, most twisted, cruel and most unfair path you can ever walk on. To begin with there was heavy snowfall and strong freezing winds, that alone is a pain in the ass. The first part is the forest section, basically you climb up what is possibly the longest set of stairs in the world through a forest scenery.

Because of the heavy snowfall the staircase isn't a staircase anymore. It's become a slippery ice slope that you have to walk up praying not to slip, fall and slide all the way back down. Oh yeah, the slope you have to walk up is on an 80 degree angle, I'm not kidding the slope is THAT steep. It's not a straight path up either, it's a twisted path which makes moving difficult and there are random points where a fallen tree log obstructs your path.

Halfway up you reach a mid resting point, where you can drink clean mountain water and take a lunch break. A lot of the people brought gas cookers and they use the mountain water to cook ramen noodles. They say that the mountain water makes the noodle soup taste a lot better. By this point my legs are dying and I can barely walk as it is. So to lighten my burden we took a snack break and drank our fill. In the end the bag weighed about 10lbs and my dad carried it for the rest of the journey.

By this point the air really starts to thin out so breathing gets a bit difficult, especially in the cold wind. The second half of the journey is on the mountain slope itself. By this point we're in the clouds so the area is all gray and snowy making it really hard to see where you're going. The path is now guided by these red flag markers. There's also warning signs telling people not go by themselves. About 20 or so meters from the path, there's the edge of the cliff where you'll fall to your death.

This time the steepness is a lot more lenient (probably a 50-60 degree angle). To make up for it, there are random sections of the path where there are sharp bulgy rocks that you have to step on in order to continue. There are also areas where you have to jump down a ledge and climb back up another ledge, all roughly a meter in height. The worst part of the whole thing is probably the snow pitfalls. Since we're so high up, the snow falling is massive and it quickly built up patches of light snow where if you step into one it'll suck your leg in completely. I swear I must've fallen in like 50 times before I reached the summit.

Well finally after 3 sore hours of climbing we reach the summit. There's a rest house that doesn't really serve any purpose. It's just a wooden shack with tables/chairs stuck to the ground. No restaurant or workers, just a small cafeteria and washrooms for people to rest and eat.

Well technically this isn't the summit since there's an extra 2km left, but this is the point where everyone turns back. The path up here was about 5km and the real summit is on the 7km point. I'm gonna call it the summit, I don't care what any of you guys say, you can call it w/e you want but I'm gonna call it the summit. Fuck you. =)

On the way down, it's a lot faster and easier but it's still annoying because of the terrain. The whole time I'm trying not to slip and fall otherwise I'll go sliding and crashing down the mountain. On the forest part we found out that a girl had a wipe out and had to be taken out by a stretcher with ER people.

For dinner we had horse meat at a local bar. It came in a variety of forms: raw, cheese steakburgers, grilled, rib stew and soup. The meat itself was quite good and melts in your mouth every bite. (drool) The amount of protein they say nearly doubles that of beef or chicken. It's also good for your body joints apparently and strengthens your leg muscles. (Most of it comes from horse leg) The restaurant also had a service where it takes you back home for free. o_O What kind of restaurant does that?