Korea Part 2: Jeju Rocks

The next day was a deliciously slow start: the extra sleep was very much welcome, and made for a far perkier group.

Our first stop was Hallim Park, a garden famed for it's lava tube caves and Jeju Island's famous dolhareubang, or 'stone grandfathers'.  The caves were fascinating, full of telltale signs of Jeju's volcanic genesis, with equally interesting mythical explanations.  The grandfather statues are equally mysterious, mainly because nobody knows what they're for: Korea's very own Easter Island-esque enigma.  Their real appeal, though, is that despite their age they're downright adorable, with oversize expressive faces.


The park also had a little folk village, with huts recalling the lifestyles of a bygone era.  You could play simple games that were also played at the time, such as tossing bamboo sticks into urns.  Less authentic but just as much fun was a huge block of ice: bragging rights go to whoever can keep their hands on it longest (Jonjon, in our case).

The meal was a pleasant surprise.  Having had a late breakfast, we were after a little bite to eat to tide us over, nothing more.  What we ended up with was a gastronomic epic, with an army of side dishes (all refillable for free, as per Korean custom), two huge plates of pork, and beer.  All for the price of 'a little bite to eat'.  Although it's a hard call on what was the best meal  in Korea, I look back at that one as the most memorable, because that's when it hit home how, in Korea, one cat eat like a King for the price of a pauper.

Next up was the visual icon of Jeju, Ilchulbong, a volcanic bluff on the eastern tip of the island, now long extinct.  It is famed for it's views of the sunrise.  Luckily for us afternoon arrivals, it offered much else besides, and the climb up to the crater was made more palatable by the curious rock formations on the way up.  The crater itself wa covered in a wild meadow and a singular tree, the sea stretching out beyond - beautiful, but at this time of day the sunset in the opposite direction, with the hazy outline of Hallason (South Korea's highest point) in the distance, was the choice view.

We descended right down to sea level, to a little inlet where the was a hut dedicated to the fabled women divers (a cunning form of tax evasion turned tourist attraction) we were too late to see the diver's in action but it was still a great place to do a bit of rock-pool spying and take some moody photos for an art rock album.

Then it was back to Jeju City for the evening's feeding and drinking.  Once again it didn't disappoint, and by now I was able to hold my own with Grant and Marco's more spice-atuned taste buds - just as well, because I mistook the chilli paste for tomato sauce at first.


A pleasant, well-earned drowsiness set in, and we took a far less heart-pounding taxt back to the guesthouse.  That evening, we cracked open a bottle of Blue Label whisky and had a suitable refined conversation about alcohol.  At least, that's what it felt like.