The beautiful island of Jeju

My mom and her friend Marilyn came to visit us in June.  It was the perfect excuse to travel to parts of Korea we hadn't yet explored.  We chose Jeju!  It is a good size island south of the Korean peninsula.  Only a short 45 minute flight from Gimpo airport to Jeju City, we stayed there 3 nights and had a total blast!

Our Special Pension was so close to the 2 marked beaches on the North side, that the symbol for it is not visible on the map.  A "pension" is another word for guest house in Korean lingo.  It was basically a big open room, with a small kitchenette, a couch, and a TV.  The 'beds' were floor mats that we pulled out of the closet each night and made little pallets on the floor with pillows and comforters.  Mom and Marilyn were nice enough to give Eric and I the one bed in the whole place.  Everyone else slept on the floor.

Our first morning we went to Manjanggul Cave.  It is the 12th longest lava tube cave in the world at 7.416km and contains the largest lava column in the world at 7.6m high.  It was formed between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago.

Having been in many caves around Missouri, this one felt very different because of its smooth walls and floor.  

There were sections of the tube with grooves cut into the wall made by the lava as the flow level decreased.  They looked entirely man made and it was hard to imagine it being created naturally.

Flowlines

It was fairly dark.  We were glad we had a few flashlights with us.

A ceiling of lavacicles, a type of stalactite

Family shot in front of the world's largest lava column

The section of the lava tube that we were allowed to walk was 1km in length.  Charlie had had enough by the time we reached the lava column at the end.  He was not happy that we had to walk another 1km to get back to the entrance, hence the grumpy face in the pic above.

Once out of the cave, we drove to the Haenyeo museum.  Mom had read the book The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See and I had been reading about the Haenyeo women in Moon Tides: Jeju Island Grannies of the Sea by Brenda Paik Sunoo.  We were very excited to go to their museum and learn even more.

The Haenyeo women are free divers that collect different kinds of seaweed, sea urchin, abalone, conch, octopus, sea squirts, oysters, sea slugs, and top shell.  They can hold their breath up to 3 minutes and can dive down 30 meters with no equipment.  It is a skill they start to learn at age 11 and can continue to do into their 80s.  Unlike mainland Korea, on Jeju the society is matriarchal, with the Haenyeo women being the major breadwinners of the family.

They would sit around the fire to get warm again after swimming in the frigid waters.

Now that times are more modern, they no longer dive in simple cotton outfits.  They have been outfitted with wetsuits and weight belts.  This allows them to stay in the water much longer before coming in to dry off and warm up.  This is a significant jump from only diving one hour in a cotton suit; now they can last up to 5-6 hours in a wetsuit.
The respect I have for these women is immense.  As a scuba diver myself, I can totally relate to how exhausting being in the water is, with your body trying so hard to stay warm, even in a wetsuit.  Now, remove the SCUBA equipment and the wetsuit, I am just left in awe.

Quick pause to admire the beauty of the Jeju coastline:

After we left the Haenyeo museum, we went to see the real Haenyeo women in action.  They do a demonstration daily at the base of Seongsan Ilchulbong, and I was determined to see it.  To me, these women are living legends.  Some people might get excited to meet a professional athlete, like a baseball player or a football player.  To me, these women are the ultimate professional athletes.  They take it to a whole new level.  The history behind the Haenyeo culture and this sisterhood of women with their incredible bond is so remarkable.  They have been officially recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

a sample of what they collect/harvest

the base of Seongsan Ilchulbong

After the demonstration, Eric, Charlie and I hiked to the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong.  It is a tuff cone formed by a volcanic eruption.  At the top is a huge crater 600m across.  Eric and I had watched a TV show showing the crater from a drone flying above it and we just had to see it for ourselves.  It was a lot of stair climbing to reach the top, but totally worth it.

photo credit: http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=4197

view of the town of Seongsan from the top of the tuff cone

view looking across the crater

super windy up there!

the crazy steps going down from the top

Not going to lie, my legs were like jelly by the time we got back down.  We caught up with the rest of the group and drove to Ojo Pasta and Pizza for lunch!  Jeju is known for its amazing fresh caught seafood, but since most of my family avoids eating seafood at all costs, we searched hard to find a pizza place.  No octopus for us!

Later, since we had walked a tremendous amount already, in the cave and up the side of the tuff cone, we decided that the beach was calling us and we needed to relax.  We drove to a beach on the north side of Jeju, Gimnyeong Seonsegi Beach.  The winds were strong and the water was cold!  There are many wind turbines on the north side of Jeju and we experienced why, first hand.

The kids playing on the left while a just-married couple gets their photo taken on the right

A windsurfer in the background

there were many of these little creatures scurrying around on the rocks

After much playing in the water and climbing over the lava rocks, we retired to our pension to get cleaned up for dinner.  Again, we chose a Western style restaurant, this one called News Boy Burger Pub.  Ironically, a few folks in our group did order fish and chips, which is the only seafood any of us ate the whole trip.  We finished up the night with ice cream sundaes at Luffy Cafe, across the street from our pension.

Morning of Day Two we took a walk to the Gimnyeong waterfront from our pension.  We saw many onion fields around with the most gigantic onions just sitting on the dirt waiting to be gathered up.

The villages on Jeju are known for their lava rock walls built to block the wind.  The lava rocks are just stacked, with no mortar to hold them together.

The waterfront was very beautiful, but again very windy.  We would discover later in the day that you have to drive to the southern side of the island to find the calm.

Seongeup Folk Village was our first official destination of the morning.  This village dates back to 1392 and it is still in its original state.  Stone houses with thatch roofs and pig-feeding outhouse toilets.  The village is still a working village, in that people still live there.  It is not a ruin or a 'living museum' with actors.  The village used to be an administrative seat during the Joseon dynasty and there are still remnants of the Jongeui fortess and its entrance gate.  There are two original grandfather stones guarding the gate.

West Gate

Grandfather stones guarding the gate

Hand-spun straw rope tied to the beams holds the thatch roofs down in strong winds

Top of the South Gate

We bought mandarin oranges from the lady behind Willow.  So sweet and juicy!

Millstone

Willow is demonstrating the pig-feeding toilet by squatting over the hole in the outhouse.

This is the back of the outhouse, where the excrement falls into the pig sty to become pig food.

We met a villager who had an amazing garden.  She makes traditional omegi liquor.  She had us try samples and then we bought a bottle.  It is a millet liquor made from glutinous millet flour and malt from barley and/or wheat.

This tree is called the Zelkova Serrata.  It is one of the last remaining from what was once a large grove in the 1300s.  It is estimated to be around 1000 years old

Before we left the village, we found an old Confucian school dating back to 1420.

From the Seongeup Folk Village, we drove to Seogwipo, a rather large city on the southern coast of Jeju.  We located Arang Joeul Food Street where we sampled Jeju Black Pork, a famous local dish in Jeju.  We made it easier on ourselves by going to a restaurant that only served the one dish.  That way we wouldn't have to worry about translating the menu.

Instructions on the wall tell you what to do with all the ingredients they bring you in separate bowls.

 So, even if we never ate any fresh caught seafood from Jeju, at least we can say we tried the Jeju Black Pork.

The Seogwipo area has 3 famous waterfalls in it, but 2 require much walking to see.  We weighed our options and decided the one at the coast was the best choice.  Not only does Jeongbang Waterfall hold the distinction for being the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean, it also is a short flight of stairs down from the parking lot.  My legs were still pretty sore from the previous day's hiking.)
On our descent down the stairs, we spotted the orange buoys in the water that are the telltale sign of Haenyeo diving.  You can make out their yellow fins in the pic below, just next to the orange buoys.

The waterfall is 75ft (23m) high

We got close enough to feel the spray and it was freezing!

We clambered around the rocks for awhile, watching the Haenyeo in the water.  It's a truly beautiful spot.  Back in the van, we drove a little further west, to Jungmun Saekdal Beach.  This beach is part of a resort area, a huge sprawling tourist complex.  This is known to be the surfer spot and we definitely saw a good number of surfers in the water.  The water was still frigid here, but at least there was no wind.  The kids played in the sand and got good and dirty.

Getting the sand off was next to impossible.  It had to be the stickiest sand I've ever seen.  Brushing it off didn't work, rubbing it off didn't work, spraying it off in the shower didn't work.  There was sand everywhere, since they had buried themselves in it, and no practical way of removing it from their bodies.  We hoped eventually it would just fall off.

We left the southern coast just before sunset and drove north to the foothills of Mt. Hallasan. Then we swung east and drove parallel to the coast, so that the peak of Mt. Hallasan was out our left window and the coastline down below was out our right window.  Gorgeous views in both directions.  We stopped to eat at Hwanggeum Big Burger.  It was a very cute little place attached to a hotel with a pool, set in the wooded mountainside.  So picturesque.  The burger was big, but not what we think a burger should look or taste like.  And by big, I mean one burger feeds 4 people.

The next day was our last morning on Jeju and we had just enough time for a quick trip to Dolharbang Park.  If you remember the 'grandfather stones' from Seongeup Folk Village, the Korean word for 'grandfather stones' is Dolharbang.  They are carved from the lava rock and are meant to ward off disasters and virulent diseases.  It was also thought they could help infertile women get pregnant if they cut off a bit of the Dolharbang's nose and mixed it in water and drank it.
The park is the product of one man's artistic musings.  He has carved many Dolharbang in many funny poses all set in a forest setting with paths leading you around. 

Charlie had soooo much fun posing with all of them, although many times he has a serious face.  Maybe he felt the Dolharbang looked serious, so he should too?

A poem taken from a plaque in the park:

Jeju, an island of peace, 

And Dolharbang, the face of Jeju,

Born with peace, welcomes all of you.

Dolharbang tells you that all the short but precious moments of life,

Pleasure and happiness of daily life, care and gratitude for others, 

And everyday life that is taken for granted

Are, in fact, all true beauty.

Jeju presented us with so much to do, including so many unique phenomena that cannot be found anywhere else in Korea.  We could have easily spent another week there, exploring more of what the island has to offer.

I'll just leave you with this funny cartoon: