Jeju-do Vacation, Day Three

Today I slept in until 7 AM. It felt great to get 10 and a half hours of sleep! I could tell as soon as I woke up that all the muscles in my body were complaining about the hike up Hallasan yesterday. I ached even though I was just lying in the bed! I finally did drag myself up on my sore feet.

I walked about two kilometers from my motel to the Jeongbang Waterfall. It wasn’t even 8 AM, and there were only a couple other people in the park. I had to walk down a steep flight of stairs to the beach, and that was when I realized that my “going down” muscles were worse off than the others. Here's the view from the top of the stairs.It was a painful walk down. From the bottom of the stairs, I walked (hobbled) along the rocky beach to the base of the waterfall, but the view was well worth the pain. The Jeongbang Waterfall falls directly from the land into the sea. I made myself as comfortable as I could be on one of the large rocks and just sat and watched the waterfall and the gentle waves of the sea. From the rock, here's what I saw to my right:And here's what I saw to my left:On the rock cliff next to the waterfall is some historical graffiti. Apparently in ancient times, an envoy from China traveled to Jeju-do looking for the elixir of eternal life, which was apparently to be found on Hallasan. When he returned to his ship, he engraved his name on the rock cliff next to Jeongbang Falls. According to the legend, Seoguipo City’s name is derived from the graffiti. There is a whole museum at the waterfall park dedicated to the legend, but it wasn’t open yet when I was there, so I didn’t have a chance to go in.

The Chinese graffiti:After seeing the waterfall, I went back to my motel, studied my map and travel literature, packed up my things, and checked out. It was a good little motel for a couple days--clean, warm, and about $30 a night. Plus, my room had a decent view: I stopped a restaurant and ate a bowl of hobakjuk--pumpkin and rice porridge--for breakfast, with side dishes of kimchi, of course. Yum. Then I walked on to the bus terminal to head to my next destination—the little village of Seongsan-ri in the northeast corner of Jeju-do. I got there at about noon and found a little minbak to stay the night. A minbak is a private home in which the family has rooms to let out to travelers. A minback is typically inexpensive, but things that you take for granted in a motel (hot water, cleanliness, private bathrooms, etc.) can all be wildcards in a minbak! Fortunately, mine was excellent. I had a private room with a large bathroom and hot water. For $20 a night, it was very clean and quiet and had a fantastic, in-your-face view of the old volcanic crater Seongsan Ilchulbong, which means “sunrise peak.”I got myself settled and then headed out for lunch at a nearby restaurant. I ate ddeokbokki--rice cakes cooked in a spicy red sauce with a hard boiled egg, ramyeon noodles, and processed fish, with side dishes of kimchi and pickled radishes, of course. Yum! After lunch I walked around the little village. Down on the black sand beach, I was lucky enough to see some of Jeju-do’s famous haenyeo, women who dive for sea creatures for a living. It’s a long tradition on Jeju-do and Korea’s other islands, but it’s dying out. Today, there are about 3,000 haenyeo in Korea. They wear wetsuits, masks, and fins and carry a basket for their catch. Some can hold their breath for up to 2 minutes and dive up to 20 meters. Some haenyeo continue to dive well into their 70s. I watched the women for a while but didn’t take any pictures because it seemed somewhat intrusive.This is near the area where I saw the haenyeo. Looking one direction toward Seongsan Ilchulbong:And looking the other toward Udo, "Cow Island," on the horizon:From the beach I walked along to Seongsan Harbor and bought a ferry ticket to Udo (“Cow Island”), just off Jeju-do’s northeast coast. There was a line of people waiting at the dock, so I got in it. When the boat was ready to be loaded, I handed the man my ticket, and he told me I was at the wrong dock, that my boat was two docks over. I walked over there to see my boat pulling away. I went back to the ticket counter. They told me I could take the next ferry, but then I would have only had one hour on Udo before I’d have to catch the last ferry of the day back to Jeju-do. It wasn’t worth it, so I got a refund for my ticket and walked back to the minbak.

On my way to the minbak, I saw this road sign, which made me laugh. You'd better have a ferry if you're planning to go to Goseong by driving straight from there!I was extremely sore and very tired, despite the 10 and a half hours of sleep I got the night before, so I lay down on the bed to rest my aching muscles. The next thing I knew, I woke up, and it was 7 PM! Now I’m eating some dinner, and I plan to go bed early. Tomorrow’s plan: climb Seongsan Ilchulbong and watch the sunrise from the top, then attempt Udo again.