Our day 2
on Jeju Island was jam-packed. We got up early and headed to the town of
Seongsan to visit the UNESCO World Natural Heritage site of Ilchulbong or “Sunrise
Peak”. Jeju is the first place in the world to receive the UNESCO triple crown. After some dolhareubang
chocolates, a quick stop at a black sand beach and breakfast at Starbuck we
started our trek up Sunrise Peak.
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Many mandarin oranges grow on the island so there are many orange flavored chocolates
and other goods. Oranges weren't in season when we visited but they hang fake oranges on the trees for
photo opportunities (of course Korea). |
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| A black sand beach with Sunrise Peak in the background. |
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| Our neat little car. |
Sunrise Peak is a cone type mountain that really looks
amazing from aerial views but you can hike up 180m to the crater to look over
Seongsan and Udo Island in the distance.
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| The busy walk up to the top. |
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| At the top-looking across the crater. |
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| Looking across to Udo Island. Although a really popular island in Jeju, we didn't manage to visit it. The side of the island looks like a baboon face doesn't it? |
When we
were in Seongsan we were lucky to see some of the famous Jeju diving grannies. These
women dive for shellfish and urchins without any breathing equipment for many
minutes. The tradition started when men found loopholes in the law that they
would not have to pay tax if their wives did the work. So instead the wives
would dive for food and the men would look after the children. Some of these
women are as old as 70. The tradition of the diving grannies is fading and so
we were lucky to see some.
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| Getting ready to go diving. She wouldn't let us get a proper picture of her. |
We had a
most enjoyable visit to the Jeju Maze Park. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a
real maze and it was good fun trying to find our way to the centre to ring the
bell. The Jeju Maze Park was actually developed by a western man who loves
living in Jeju. He must also love cats because the park has a bit of an
underlying cat theme and there are about 20 cats hanging around the entrance.
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| Styling in raincoats. |
Around the
corner from the maze is Manjanggul Cave, another UNESCO World Natural Heritage
site. The Majanngul Cave is a long (13km but long about 1km is open to the
public) underground cave formed by volcanic eruptions. It is a famous example
of lava tubes and it is one of the longest in the world and has many lava
features. The cave is quite deep underground and it gets pretty cold (poor Dean
didn’t have a jersey and was shivering the whole time). You walk 1km to the end of
the cave before you turn around and walk back. The cave really is amazing. It’s
difficult to capture the experience of the cave on a camera because it is dark
and water droplets sometimes mist up your lense.
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| At the end of the 1km tunnel walk. |
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| Umbrellas are useful to avoid the water drops falling from the cave roof. |
Our last
stop on our second day in Jeju was Yongduam or “Dragon Head Rock”. The rock
formation is along the seafront of Jeju-si and is a big tourist attraction. We
visited in the evening and it was very busy. I’m not quite sure what the hype
is about but it is clearly very popular.
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| Walking along the promenade. |
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| I'm not quite convinced I can see the dragon... |
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