Lava Tube Cave
It was drizzly in Jeju city. I was unfazed and took the bus (and walked 2.5km) to Manjanggul, a lava-tube cave … that’s a caved formed through hot molten lava flowing through the rock.
BTW, Jeju island is very volcanic … there’s lots of black rock everywhere.
Back to the lava tube cave, it is 13.4km long, with a maximum height of 30m and width of 23m. It’s very well sign-posted with geological insights about how various features were formed (eg. drips that form stalactites, stalagmites or columns; swirls on the wall, toes etc).
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- It’s very green with lots of rock walls … could be Auckland or Ireland?
-
- Inside Manjanggul lava tube.
-
- Inside Manjanggul lava tube.
-
- Inside Manjanggul lava tube.
-
- This column is caused by lava dripping from another tube above it.
-
- Emerging from the lava cave.
Volcanic Crater
Seongsan is actually more famous for Ilchubong, an extinct volcano crater. The crater is porous and doesn’t contain a lake … but it is beautifully green and forested. The summit at 182m proved more conquerable than it first appeared, despite not having had lunch.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Seongsan Ilchubong looks pretty daunting to climb.
-
- Seongsan Ilchubong looks pretty daunting to climb but it only took 25 mins.
-
- Ilchubong crater from the air (photo of poster). I couldn’t see much of the crater due to the weather.
-
- Ilchubong crater in poor weather.
-
- Looking down on Seongsan.
Bareback Divers
From there I continued to Seongsan which is home to Korea’s women divers … or as I call them, “bareback divers” as they do not have any tanks … free-diving is probably the more conventional term.
They dive without tanks up to depths of 20m and hold their breath for up to 2 minutes. Errr … in that kind of timeframe they obviously don’t do the slow descent/ascent prescribed by PADI.
What do they come up with? Armed with knives, spears, nets and polystyrene boxes, they collect seaweed, shellfish, sea cucumbers, urchins and squids. I’m not a fan of raw seafood so I didn’t eat at their restaurant.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Women divers of Seongsan (photo of poster).
-
- Women divers of Seongsan, coming back with their catch.
-
- Coming home with her catch.
Where have all the whities gone?
Travelling around Korea, I couldn’t help noticing the absence of Westerners. The few Westerners I see appear to be:
- Americans rather than Europeans,
Teaching English in Korea (sadly, some look a bit down-and-out), - Over-dressed and accompanied, perhaps sightseeing briefly while on a business trip, or
- Married to Koreans.
Most visitors appear to be Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian or Singaporean. Many announcements are made in Korean, English, Japanese and Mandarin to accommodate these visitors.
At one hostel, their kitchen fridge has a special halal compartment, and they also keep separate crockery/cutlery to avoid contamination with pork. They also sell halal chicken. I should congratulate AirAsia X for bringing in many Muslim guests from Malaysia and the region.
Halal-only fridge in the hostel, along with halal-only crockery and cutlery.