Halla San

The highlight of a trip is not always the best thing, it’s sometimes the worst.

It was the mountain.

Halla San is right smack in the middle of Korea’s Jeju Island and is the highest mountain in South Korea. Its 1,950m above sea level and is supposed to be very beautiful.

Nobody said anything about climbing it. With ages from 5 to 76, our party was just going to sort of skirt around it. You know, take some photos and say we were there but not actually sweat.

Then Teng got a bee in his bonnet. He had to climb it. We decided to split. The very old, the very young, the females and the sick would visit museums and drink coffee in warm cafes.

Teng, KK and Day would climb the mountain.

The big day, the boys emerged at 6am. The lady owner of our hostel Sylvia eyed the trio suspiciously, unsure if they were serious about it.

Outside it was freezing and was about to rain. KK was clad in bermudas, a polo shirt, long-sleeved inner wear and thin-soled shoes completely unsuitable for a mountain trek. Day had nothing but a T-shirt and a jacket with brand new thin-soled shoes bought the day before.

In his hand, KK originally clutched a NTUC plastic bag filled with isotonic drinks, chewing gum, beef jerky and chocolates, the entire sustenance for him and our precious son for their estimated eight-hour trek. Teng looked like a nerd.

The real-time webcam on the summit of Mount Halla showed nothing but white. It was covered in cloud. It would be a fool’s journey.

Still, they went, after Sylvia insisted on foisting a backpack on KK. 

The boys took a bus to the bottom of the mountain. It had started raining, and it would rain for the entire duration of their climb. They bought blue ponchos.

Teng had picked the longest hardest route which goes to the top, the 20km Seongpanak Trail.

* Checkpoint 1

The ground was rocky. As they skipped from one wet rock to another, ponchos flapping uncomfortably around them, they got wetter and wetter. Shoes, socks, pants, clothes. Teng’s black fleece soon became water-logged and ironically icy. Occasionally they stopped to drink from mountain streams. Nobody talked much but KK dutifully whipped out his iPhone to take photos and videos. They were old men, aunties with plastic bags, well-equipped mountain trekkers with poles and Goretex. But no kids. So Day got a lot of attention (many thumbs up and one disapproving trekker who scolded KK for letting his son trek in unsuitable shoes).

* Maybe four hours into the trek...

KK says that was the easy part. The crazy started after they passed the 1,800 metre mark (vertical distance). Because that’s when the trees died out (too high) and they got the full force of the storm.

* Day chewing his gum, which KK thinks sustained him for the entire journey

The poncho flapped around KK’s head so hard his ears became swollen. Day swears he was hit by hailstones although it was probably the stinging rain. Teng was blown off his feet twice. He said his fingers were turning blue. (Day was ‘covered’ by KK). KK thinks Teng got altitude sickness. Everybody couldn’t hear each other in the screaming gale. Climbers were clawing onto stabilizing ropes hammered into the rock to stay on their feet. The temperature at their last check-point was 9 degrees Celcius.

* Ponchos flapping. That handbag!

At this point, Teng, who had always been in the lead, dropped back. KK looked back at Teng’s sickly mien and made the decision. They were so near the top, KK was sure he could have dragged Day there, but he turned around.

As KK puts it, he was in a great position of responsibility: Anything happens to Day and I’ll kill him. Anything happens to Teng and his in-laws will kill him.

So they turned back.

They arrived back at the hostel at 5pm, about 10 hours after they started out.

Did they see anything? Not really. The entire time everything was shrouded in icy mist. Even if they had reached the top, they would have seen nothing.

But when I got back from the museums, KK and Day were beaming and hanging onto each other like lost loves, repeatedly scrolling through the photos and videos of their Halla San Adventure.

KK says, I’m so proud of Day. He’s got good stamina. (He’s normally a whinger) but he never complained once.

Day says, Papa took care of me. He never let go of my hand.

The boys will never forget this. Talk about bonding. Hey its Father's Day!