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Published: December 22nd 2006
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The honeymoon continues….and more in the standard honeymoon style. No more yaks, dust, ice and horse milk for us…this time it was the proper sunshine, white beaches and palm trees.
By volunteering to work 8 days in a row, we managed to swindle a 6-day break. Well worth it, especially considering we’re now in the middle of our third day back, and the extra work has been almost a holiday in itself. Meaning that you get to hear about our latest escapades (on company time…shhhh).
So, as soon as we scored these days off, we became quite taken with the idea of the semi-tropical paradise that is Jeju Island . It’s been many months since we’ve seen anything resembling warm sunshine, so we booked up some flights and spent the night at our favourite 5-storey jjimjilbang (sauna and bathhouse) in Seoul . Sunday morning we roused ourselves from the floor and were soon on a plane to Korea ’s top honeymoon destination. With only 5 days to spend there, we had no time to relax or drop our bags anywhere. We were straight on a local bus from the city (with the help of one of the very friendly
locals) to Sangumburi - a 100 metre deep volcanic crater, and one of Jeju’s 360 ‘parasitic cones’ or secondary volcanoes. To reach our next destination we had to bus back to Jeju city, head out again on a slightly different route, and then walk 3 km from the main road…carrying out packs still, remember.
Manjanggul (gul means cave) is the world’s longest lava tube and is obviously very cool (and wet inside too). We were able to walk a kilometre up and back inside the tube. Our photos are not great, but inside you can see fab layers and big blobs of hardened lava. Sadly we didn’t get any warmer after leaving the cave, as we sat stranded at the bus stop in the freezing rain for an hour.
Our big day continued, with another bus to Seongsan and the famous Ilchulbong. We found a lovely old couple to stay with for the night, and when we asked where we could find a local specialty dish, they phoned their friend who picked us up and drove us to his restaurant. The food wasn’t exactly what we were after and “haemul dolsot bap” continued to elude us until the
very last meal we had on Jeju, but it was scrum-diddly-umptios nonetheless. With all that action and bellies full of good food, we slept quite soundly on the cosy heated floor at our minbak (guesthouse).
The famous Ilchulbong lured us the next morning to make the steep climb to the top of yet another volcanic crater. This one is a little different in that it sticks out into the sea making a most spectacular peninsula, surrounded by sparkly blue water and fields sporting Jeju horses. A fine spot for breakfast, though all the gorgeous flowers had both of us a bit sniffly and itchy.
We walked around the coast from the Ilchulbong, past some of the diving ladies…more on them later, past some horses and a soldier toting a big gun and finally to the ferry terminal. From here we boarded a boat over to Udo - a little island off the east coast of Jeju. As our boat pulled in we spotted an irresistible gimmick…QUAD BIKES! They were shiny and red, and had matching red flags and red HELMETS. How could we resist??? After paying up for one hour and getting a map, we were off, following
the 17km coast road, and entering into our own personal Bermuda Triangle. At every opportunity to turn, we continued along the coast. We had a map. We should have had no problems. But after hooning (excuse the boganism) around for about 45 minutes (and yes, Mel was girly-screaming on the back), we conceded that we were undeniably lost, so we stopped to ask a gathering of local men to point out our location on the map, and were horrified to see that we were at a lighthouse about a km further on from where we’d started. A little nervous about the possible astronomical overtime fees we looked set to pay upon our eventual return, we hit the gas…at least so much as our oversized lawnmower would allow, certainly not stopping for the luxury of taking in the sights. A few minutes later we tidily pulled back into the harbour hire place, still completely baffled as to where we’d been and how we’d got there.
Don’t get us wrong…despite the total disorientation we couldn’t wipe the silly grins off our faces. But, having seemingly missed all the major sights, we hopped on a shuttle bus that took us back to
some of the nicest places. We stopped for lunch at a small beach of black sand and a cave where a whale once lived, according to local legend. And over lunch we worked it out…
Despite the quad bike hire lady having given us a map, shown us which road to take, CIRCLED the harbour we started at, and added an arrow, we’d somehow thought that we were based at an entirely different harbour. Our stupidity astounds us sometimes.
So as it turned out, we had seen every lighthouse, beach (black, white and coral) and coastal village there was. Now we’d like to go back so we can appreciate it. It really was a beautiful place.
One thing we did have the time to appreciate on Udo, and elsewhere on the main island was the presence of ‘haenyeon’ - the famous diving ladies of Jeju. Kitted up in black wetsuits, flippers and goggles, they spend the day diving up to 20 metres (with no diving exquipment) for stuff that looks a lot like seaweed. They dive with a basket attached to a buoy, and there are statues paying tribute to them all over Jeju. Deservedly so, too,
because they’re old. The youngest of the ones we saw was probably 40ish, but they keep going until age 75 sometimes. They’re jolly folk too…we watched them hauling their full baskets out of the cold cold water, all chortles and smiles.
After Udo we picked up our bags from our cheery old couple of the night before, then hopped on a bus to the other side of the island. We walked 3km in the dark, and found somewhere to stay (a 70000 won waterfront holiday flat for 30000 won!) and slept very soundly again on the heated floor.
Our next day was probably the most relaxing of the trip. We spent the morning taking in a cave temple (with an impressive normal temple attached), a Dutch-style tall ship (with a shrine to Guus Hiddink in the bowels of the ship), and the Yeomeori coastline. It was so nice to be by the sea again after so long. We spent the afternoon checking out two of Jeju’s famous waterfalls - Cheonjeyeon and Cheonjiyeon. So pretty, and crawling with matching couple honeymooners.
We stayed that night and the next in Seogwipo, host city for some of the 2002 World
Cup games (In case you’re wondering, we ARE getting excited about Germany 2006. We got our flight tickets in the post today!!!) It would be the base for our summit attempt on Korea ’s highest peak - Mt Hallasan. Having had spectacular, sunny, warm days all week we were a little disheartened to wake to an overcast sky but decided to troop on regardless. Unfortunately rather than clear up, the weather set in, leaving us with a 20km hike up the side of an extinct volcano in, at times, driving rain and freezing wind reminiscent of Mongolia . Nevertheless, summit we did and then we were out of there as quickly as possible (much to the detriment of Mel’s old lady knees).
Our final day was spent hobbling to another nearby waterfall, enjoying the local cuisine and then back to the airport and 8 days of work.
Thus ends this epic. Be sure to watch this space as Switzerland / Germany looms and many more Korean adventures.
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