Jeju is a Volcanic Island off the southern coast of South Korea. I have been wanting to go visit for several years but it can be challenging to get tickets during our regular school breaks. I booked these tickets last April knowing that things would be booked up for Chuseok if I waited too long.
I flew down on my own on Saturday evening, Sept 14th, but Sarah and her mother picked me up at the airport and we spent two days together, exploring the island. Sarah had been there a few times before but this was her mother's first trip out. Sarah rented a car and found the AirBnB. This was a nice change for me! I am usually the one doing the planning and making the reservations. This time I just had to get myself there and help to pay for things.
We spent the first day visiting a waterfall and this volcano, Seongsan Ichulbong, which is an extinct tuff volcano on the northeastern shore of the island. It was a pretty day but very hot outside. There are stairs and trails going all the way up to the top of this volcano and it is possible to hike up there, but the heat made it really hard to do anything. We opted to walk down to this bay and wander along the sand.
We cooled off with a special tangerine drink in the local Starbuck's (Hallabong special, only served on the island) and tried to go swimming at a beach just south of the volcano, but the beaches were covered in stinking dead seaweed so we opted for a swimming pool close by. That was very refreshing, actually. We also wandered around at the Jeju Folk Museum as the daylight was fading. I enjoyed the UNESCO sites (both the volcano and the village are designated as UNESCO sites). We were exhausted by the time we had dinner after that village walk.
On Monday we started at a different set of waterfalls near the AirBnb. These cascade directly into the ocean.
It was an overcast day and we got rained on a few times, but this was much cooler than the day before had been so it was actually nice. I loved seeing the columnar basalt along the cliffs at these waterfalls. I do not remember ever seeing that before.
We spotted some haenyeo divers on both days, but the water was pretty rough so they were on shore (not diving). They had their diving floats with them though. And they were all my age or older. Haenyeo divers are also a UNESCO heritage tradition. Malala Yusafzai just
produced a film about the haenyeo divers. It will be released next month on Apple +.
After we saw these amazing waterfalls we spent a couple of hours in the interior of the island visiting the Jeju Stone Garden. There were many interesting things to see, but I was excited about all of the Dolhareubong (Stone Grandfathers). These guys decorate every attraction on the island. They have become an expected feature. But the first ones are about 500 years old (below left) and no one really knows the story about why or how they became popular. They are not quite Easter Island amazing, but they are fun and interesting.
It was raining as we wandered around the very large Stone Garden. I would love to go back on a clear day. You can see the raindrops in my dolhareubong row photo (above right). We ate at a Texas Barbecue place really close to this Stone Garden and it was fantastic. Tasted just like Franklin Barbecue in Austin.
Our last few hours in Jeju were spent at a beach on the north side of the Island. We sat in a cafe and watched the tide come in while sea bathers frolicked in the waves. We were getting on an airplane so we did not want to join them due to the inconvenience of getting ready to fly, but it was tempting.
Here is the YouTube link to the 12.5 minute video of this Jeju adventure:
If anyone wants to go to Jeju with me before the end of my stay in Korea, I am ready to go again! There are lava tube caves there as well - the longest ones in the world, in fact, but we could not visit them on this trip because they are being restored due to a collapse. Open again in August of 2025 (we think).
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