Seoul - Day 7 (Trip to Jeju)

On Jeju-do, we stayed at the Hyatt Resort in the Jungmun Resort on the southern part of the island (opposite of the airport). We didn't take advantage of the spa or casino. And in fact, we barely saw the resort in the daylight. But here are a few views outside on the other side of the resort.

And from our hotel room, we caught a glimpse of Mt. Halla (Hallasan) and to the side of our porch, we snuck in an ocean view. Hooray!

Our morning started off on the later side for us 8:30ish as we had been waking up closer to 7am, so it was nice to get closer to normal Scottie and Lindsay hours! In an "attempt" to save some time, at about 9:30am, we departed for the Dunkin' Donuts around the corner from our hotel to grab a quick breakfast, but much to our surprise it was closed. Wow. Thus, we drove outside the Jungmun resort area to find a breakfast spot (with Western-style breakfast), but only really found a grocery market (which turned out to be convenient as we found some strawberries and trail mix for later that day). I didn't want to eat just bread or something light knowing we would be out all day, so we returned to the Hyatt to just do their brunch. On our way back, I told Scottie to check the DD again to see if it maybe opened at 10am. Sure enough, it was just opening. It was another cluster of confusion to try to put an order in. Goodness.

After that wasted time, we were finally on our way to the Cheonjeyeon Waterfall located near our resort. We couldn't quite understand why in our travel books, they mentioned that the waterfalls each cost about $1-$3 to enter until we realized that there were either multiple waterfalls or some sort of scenic views/parks along the way to the waterfall to experience. The Cheonjeyeon was located in a U-shaped valley made of lava and through sedimentation and uplift, it has subtropical evergreen forest within its gorge of 3-tier waterfalls.

We started off at the first waterfall, but there wasn't much to see, so we made our way through the trails to the second waterfall where we were rewarded on our hike down by an actual waterfall. From there, we walked across the Seonim Bridge for some excellent views of the coast, Mt. Halla (Hallasan), and to the second waterfalls again. We also saw the Fountain of Five Blessings. Longevity represented by the tortoise, wealth by the boar, honor by the dragon, love by the mandarin duck, and sons by the carp.

On our way to the third falls, we passed the Seongcheondap Irrigation Monument. The Seongcheondap irrigation canal was completed in 1903 and the land was turned into fertile and profitable rice paddy fields thanks to this canal which extended 1889 meters in length.

We were quite happy to arrive at the third falls to see some spectacular views before hitting the road back to Mt. Halla (Hallasan) for our main event.

Our plan for the day was a long hike along the Yeongsil Trail, one of the five trails to the summit (Baeknokdam) where a crater lake can be found.  The Yeongsil Trail is on the southwest of Mt. Halla (Hallasan) and is 3.7km (2.2miles) upward. It is said to take 3 hours roundtrip. I think we did about just that.

For the first half-hour, we hiked about .8km along snow-covered stairs and the air was cold and windy.  We were certainly thankfully that we decided to change out of our shorts and into jeans before starting the trek.

We were headed for the Witse Oreum shelter, which was very close to the peak, but visitors weren't allowed to go further than this.

We passed what we assumed was the Obaek Nahan (the "500 Disciples" said to represent the followers of Buddha) but I don't think I captured them. I was too busy trying to photograph the clouds coming in across the Yeongsil Valley

We finally figured out what we were looking at in the Yeongsil Valley which was the Yeongsilgiam Rocks. They are one of the 10 most scenic view on Jeju Island. In the summer, showers create a scene of water flowing between the strangely shaped rocks and cliffs.  It was a Winter Wonderland!

At the 1 hour point, I was thinking, "Are we there yet?"  However, after 15 minutes of more hiking up, we finally hit a plateau where we had to cross these rocks.

The path opened up to about a 1km open air trek to the Witse Oreum shelter. We thought no problem until the wind came like nobody's business. It was fierce, biting, and probably the coldest I've ever been. My fingers and half my face were numb it seemed. I tried to protect my face and hands which were the only exposed body parts. Both Scottie and I were relieved to see the shelter ahead.

Scottie promptly purchased us some hot ramyeon and coffee. I was impressed they had food at the summit but wasn't complaining after the 15 minutes of walking through the biting wind.

After warming up in the shelter, we could take our summit pictures at Witse Oreum (1700meters). Unfortunately, there was no access to the very peak of Mt. Halla (Hallasan), which contained the Baeknokdam, the crater lake.  It certainly was warmer and faster going back down!

After the hike, we headed to much warmer adventures, hitting up the remaining waterfalls on our list starting with Jeongbang Falls. We certainly started breaking off our layers of clothing.  These falls plunged 23m from a cliff 10m wide to a pebble beach along the sea. Jeongbang Falls are one of the 10 Scenic Wonders of Jeju.

Last stop was the Cheonjiyeon Falls, located in a U-shaped valley made of lava and through sedimentation and uplift, it has subtropical evergreen forest. These waterfalls were hopping! I was lucky to get this picture squeezed between a bunch of tourists.

To continue our afternoon, we headed over to the Olle Route 7 to see the Oedolgae and the Subong-gyo (which we never found).

The Oedolgae Rock sits in the Sammaebong near Seougwipo City. It is 10 meters in circumference and 20 meters in height. There was a really cheesy story here of its origins that grandfather went to sea fishing but never came back. His wife cried and cried until she became this rock. See, cheesy.  The more real story is that the rock was formed during volcanic activity as a geyser-like eruption spewed forth from beneath earth's surface and solidified.

Continuing along the Olle Route, we walked beyond these trees in the distance. We walked along he trail that passing the island of Seopseom (to the far left) and Munseom and Little Munseom. In the distance, I could get a good view of the Wimi Hang East Breakwater and West Breakwater Lighthouses.  I think we even passed Beopseom Island. We took some stairs down to the rocks along the shore, but never quite made it to the Subong-gyo (bridge).

On the return trip, we stopped in Sammae-Bong Park for a quick work-out. Every park usually came equipped and this was no exception.

For dinner, we decided to just eat near our resort at the Jeju Mawon.  After our long day outdoors, we were ravenous, and the menu didn't present too many options for Scottie's shellfish allergy, so we opted for the kalbi (Korean marinated short ribs).  I wasn't going to complain as I could eat this meal every night especially after Scottie coined it the Korean taco. 

We took a piece of lettuce, added some rice, onions, garlic, and dipped the kalbi in some soybean paste for flavor.  Then, it was shoved into our mouth oh so graciously! That is the nice thing about Korean meals is that there is a lot of slurping and shoving, which is probably considered polite as long as you clear your plate.