Day 3 dawned super foggy, but sunny, so we decided to make this our hiking day. We jumped in the car and headed ten minutes out to Seongsan Ilchubong, also known as Sunrise Peak. It is a tuff cone created by an underwater volcanic eruption about 5,000 years ago. It's about 180 meters high and a pretty cool looking landmark on the east side of the island.
We bought our ticket and joined the trail of people climbing that morning - young and old all mixed together.
The path startsed out simply, with a stone walkway among the greenery.
And then the stairs started (because, it is Korea, after all)...it got quite steep at times, but overall was quite manageable.
And the view looking back wasn't bad either:
We made it to the top and rested while viewing the crater. Peaceful and immense.
The way down...
At the bottom we paused to watch the famous Jeju women divers (Haenyeo, or Jeju Mermaids) as they dove into the water for abalone, octopus, and other poor unsuspecting sea creatures.
Those tiny specks are the divers...
I also really liked this island plant and managed to capture a good shot of it here:
We had some ice cream as a reward for our hike and then headed back to the car.
Since the hike had taken less time then we thought, we decided to head south a bit and visit the Jeju Folk Village. We had a leisurely stroll through the large complex of traditional Jeju buildings and craftsmen showcases.
Michael was amused, and then scared by, the chickens hiding amongst these wood carvings.
The village was also a botanical garden of sorts, with many beautiful flowers and
native plants throughout.
We stumbled upon a samulnori performance, which I am partial to after my drumming class, so here is a short snippet of the show, complete with an enthusiastic audience member. :)
We had some random fun as we exited before heading off to have a lunch of Jeju's BBQ black pork.
We ended the day with a quick trip to a small local beach...which had a LOT of seaweed that had washed up recently.
We managed to add some cool local shells to our collection:
Then it was time for dinner (pizza!), relaxing, and finally trying out some Korean spa products!
Braaaiiinnnnsss... Ha ha!
Next up - Jeju Days 4 and 5.
In case you missed it, here's Jeju Days 1 and 2.
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