The Trek

A work well started is half done, and what about the one started poorly? so poorly like this..
I was supposed to get up at 6am and was to reach at a place 10mins by walking nearby my apartment and then all were supposed to leave by 7...and I got up at 7. What happened I did not know; may be the ghost of Souron came and put off the alarm or may be the trumpets and horns by Gondor warriors were louder than my alarmclock, but then what happened to my roommate? Why was he late, i asked him to wake me up, why didnt he? What am I supposed to do now? Then suddenly an absurb idea crept into my mind. What if I do not go at all? Tiwari was telling me that it could be done and in any case I was not going to make for it in time. Time? you are already 10 mins late...NO! You are more than half and hour late. OH GOD! what to do? What about the stuff I will take with me? What about the shoes? What about my camera? bullshit..where is the camera? Why isnt my apartment mate coming out of the toilet? is he asleep? Where is my jacket? OH shit!!! Where are the checklist and the telephone list? Dammit! Why didnt I arrange everything in the night itself?



Anyway, having thought about all the possibilities of doing things as fast as I can and once even thinking of the time machine to go back the time I some how managed to get out of my apartment at 7:25. Full of doubts I gave a call to Mr Woo. After that what happened I did not know. All I remember was that I was crossing the marvelous bridge of Goeje city that connects the island with the rest of the peninsula with Mr Woo and 2 other team members. At that moment only the idea of sharing this experience struck my mind.


At the base:
There we were at the base of the mountain called SongniSAN (san=mountain). It was 1058m high from the sea level with a walking distance of 14kms round the trip. Thats big!

The tale of hiking
We started quite well with rapid steps and high spirits. I was in a group of four. But only after around 200m I was staggering well behing them. They waited for a few times and then they moved on. I was tottering laggardly again but on my own and alone. The path was rocky and there were steps sometimes big enough to leave me fully exhausted and that was why I was taking short breaks also. After about 700m I was completely exhausted and I didnt have enough energy to hike further. At that point I thought of dropping the idea of reaching upto the peak. Already 3 of the team members were behind me and may be they had started descending. My mouth was completely dry and I needed some water and there was none. I cursed that moment when I handed over my bag with bottle of water to someone else who was quite ahead of me. What a fool am I? OK! Forget about reaching the top.. I thought and sat down on a rock. I planned to start desceding in a while when I saw an old couple passing by me. NO! I will not give up whatever the reason is. really???? oh yes!!!
I started again but my body was not supporting me. My mouth was dry and my head had started spinning. I needed some water quite badly. I finally decided to look up and see the top if I can and then give up. Looking up I saw a large number of people, young and old, kids with their folks, beautiful chicks with their boyfriends, groups of young guys etc and I thought.. KASH!!! I was also among them. And at that very moment I saw a man some 50m above me. He was carrying a green bag, my bag, my bag with water. WOW!!! Thats it. I closed my eyes for a while and started again. Having seen my bag with water filled me with some extra energy and I dont know in how much time I caught that fellow (ofcourse he was very slow). I gulped down half the bottle and starting again I finally reached the top.


The Yell!!!
The first thing I did was to look for my team mates and I found them having a group photograph...without me. I ran towards the group and seeing me they called my name. I was more than proud of myself and was grinning upto my ears in that photograph.
And then we all turned around and facing towards the whole range of mountains...we Yelled on top of our voices...."Yahooooo!". The sound died rapidly but I heard a faint "congratulations".

The pagoda:
The tallest (Buddha) statue I ever saw: Read about this here, I have nothing more to say except that the statue is really big (30m) and is made of bronze.
http://www.buddhapia.com/buddhapi/eng/temple/korexp/html/bu21.html
http://www.greasyelbow.com/korea/songnisan/