Sŏngsal-li

Today I joined another day tour, this time exploring the highlights of Eastern Jeju.

First location of the day was Jeolmul Natural Forest. It is an area of 300 hectares filled with many cedar trees. We walked a short track seeing a pond and the reconstruction of a temple.

Next was a quick stop to a distillery where I tried a drink made from millet. It was strong like sake but tasted more like a fizzy white wine. I also had a nice red bean snack!

The third stop of the day was Seongeup Folk Village, where a number of people still live. This is a small village with many traditional Jeju houses, gates and some temples. Each house has a traditional gate with three logs. Depending on how many logs were fixed into the gate, Jeju people were able to tell if and or when the homeowner would return.

Next up was a quick stop at Gwangchigi Beach. There was a nice view and heaps of different crabs!!

We then drove a bit further to Seongsan Illchulbong to see Haenyeo, the women diver show. This is a historical practice where women free dive for abalone, conch and seaweed. They perform a dance before each dive. Many of these divers are aged between 60 and 80, with fewer younger generations choosing this job.

I then joined a couple of others from the group and walked up to Seongsan Illchulbong Peak (aka Sunrise Peak). It took about 20 minutes to hike to the summit, there were a lot of stairs and although the track itself was not very hard, it was fully in the sun and very very hot!! It was 32 degrees (with Google saying it felt like 39!) It was worth it for the gorgeous views! I treated myself to an ice-cream afterwards.

The final tour stop of the day was to Manjanggul Lava Tube. The whole tunnel is massive and stretches close to 7.5km, the 12th longest in the world. 1km is open to the public, this section is roughly 20m wide and 20m tall. Inside the tunnel it was very dark, wet and cold (only 10 degrees). Here we saw a 7.6m lava column, the tallest known in the world.

It was then about a 1.5hr drive back to downtown Jeju and I briefly walked through the Dongmun Markets before making my way to the hostel.Read more