Last week my host here in Korea went to some conference in
Moscow or some such place and I took the opportunity to go on a mini-vacation.
I decided to go to Jeju Island, the largest and southern most island in Korea.
This place is amazing! It’s a popular destination for Korean honeymooners as
well as Chinese and Japanese tourists and I can totally see why. It was also voted one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature and boasts multiple UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
They have mountains, beaches, caves, and waterfalls all over
the place. The island is reportedly famous for an abundance of 3 things: waves,
wind, and women. I can definitely attest to the wind and waves but I didn’t
notice any particular abundance of women. Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.
At any rate, here’s what I did on my 3 day, 4 night tropical
island getaway (besides take pictures that is!)
Day 1 – Climb the mountain
Jeju is home to Hallasan, Korea’s tallest mountain. It was
once a volcano that, presumably, formed the rest of the island. At the top of
Hallasan (1950 m up) there is a volcanic crater lake and some amazing views.
You can see ocean from pretty much all angles! It took me a little over 3 hours
to hike the 9.6 km trail to the top. The last few kilometers took a
disproportionate amount of time because it was all stairs and I hate stairs. The
lake was kind of dried out and, honestly, a bit disappointing. When I was up
there I was thinking “Yeah, it’s nice, but Seven Wonders of the Natural World
nice? I’m not so sure.
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| See? Anticlimactic. |
I took a different trail down the mountain, however, and
that was not at all disappointing. Stopping every 50-100 m to revel in the
breathtaking scenery made for a slow descent, but I can now say I agree with
the whole ‘Seven Wonders of the Natural World’ thing.
The 8.7 km trail down
took close to 5 hours (1) because I kept stopping to look at the scenery and (2) because those stairs on the way up murdered my knee so the numerous stairs
on the way down had to be taken somewhat slower than I would have liked. The
weather was so beautiful though that I didn’t really mind.
Day 2 – Tourist Trap Town
The second day I spent mostly at the Jungmun Resort area.
It’s one of the most touristy places on the island making it convenient to do a
lot in one day. To my everlasting shame, I could not resist going to the Teddy
Bear Museum. It was adorable beyond reason but really not worth the $8
admission.
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| At least Teddy was able to get reacquainted with some long lost relatives |
I spent about an hour giggling at the bears before heading to the
beach. Supposedly, Jungmun Beach is one of the most crowded beaches on the island but I
didn’t think it was very crowded at all. Anyway, I had some fun splashing
around and falling over in the waves.
I thought the waves were pretty intense
but in the states I live >1000 miles from the nearest ocean so my experience
is limited to say the least. I’m not a huge beach person so when it started to
get hot I packed up my towel and headed out. I think I chose a good time
because quite a few people were coming down to the beach as I was leaving, the
anticipated crowds I suppose. I hid in a café for a while to escape the sun
before spending a pleasant afternoon in the Yeomji Botanical Garden. They have
both indoor and outdoor gardens as well as this tower thing (observation
deck?). I sat behind the giant fountain in the Italian style garden reading for
the majority of the time. Almost no one came to the outdoor gardens because of
the heat so I had the tranquility all to myself for the most part.
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| It was really comfy in that brick building behind the fountain |
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| View of Hallasan (I think) from the botanical garden's observation deck |
My last
adventure for the day was finding the Cheonjiyeon Pokpo (waterfall). The maps
cleverly have it marked where it actually is and not where the entrance to the
trail so you can see it is. I ended up walking a nice piece of the Jeju Olle
Trail which my knee did not appreciate but my eyes did. I got to the waterfall
around sunset so it was starting to fill up with honeymooners (they’re so
cute!). Supposedly Cheonjiyeon is one of the top waterfalls in Jeju and I have
to say it was pretty nice. Again, I don’t have much experience with waterfalls
but it seemed like a good one.
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| View from afar (before I found the trail) |
Day 3 – Caves and Art
For my last day I went to the north side of the island to
see the Manjanggul lava tube. It was cool, literally. The cave is a consistent
10C year round so I was glad I had my rain coat on me. It was over 30C outside
so the chill was at first refreshing but soon became uncomfortable. I had never
heard of a lava tube before coming to Jeju, so I took the time to read all the
signs talking about the features of the cave and how they were formed. Probably
my favorite one was the part about lava balls, yes that is a real thing.
Apparently, when big rocks break off the walls or roof of the cave and get
swept into the lava flow (at this point they’re called lava rafts) they often
settle to the bottom of the lava river and stop. If they get coated by lava in
the process they become known as lava balls. Awesome. I am also a big fan of
lava stalagmites which form when the heat of the lava river melts the rocks on
the ceiling and they drip down. The most famous feature of the Manjangful lava
tube system is this lava column that was formed when the roof of one tube broke
creating a hole in the floor of another tube that lava then leaked into. After
hiking through the cave and reading all the lava related signs I am now
physically terrified of lava instead of just abstractly/conceptually aware of the
potential horrors of lava. Let’s just say I would never make it to Mount
Doom.
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| The famous lava column |
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| Some melted rock on the cave walls |
The other thing I did that day was go to two art museums
that are conveniently located next door to each other. The Jeju Museum of Art
is a typical art museum with some galleries and special exhibits. It was kind
of small but had some work by this famous person who once lived on the island
that was a little different from other things I’ve seen. The other museum, Jeju
Loveland, was a wonder to behold. Jeju is home to 3 sex museums and Loveland is
the second best one. It mostly contained lots of penis statues and boobs but
there was actually some pretty informative exhibits as well. If you can read
Korean, you can learn all about vibrators, dildos, and lube and then buy your
own in a conveniently located shop. Definitely the most interesting museum shop
I’ve ever seen.
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| Jeju Museum of Art |
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| The only PG view in Jeju Loveland |
I was originally hoping to get to the Jeju Stone Park on that
last day as well but it didn’t work out so I spent my last night strolling
around Seogwipo harbor area and eating an octopus pancake. Time well spent, I
can assure you ^_
^
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| Octopus Pancake!!!! |
