Fun Fun Fun: Day 2

This morning we woke up as the sun came up over the ocean. I put on my running shoes and headed out the door. The other end of the bay looked inviting. I ran along the shore road and passed a long beach. At the other end of the bay, I found some luxury houses with big windows overlooking the ocean. I also ran by a UN World Heritage Site. That place was special for the women divers. The women go dive down for a minute or two and come up with delicious sea urchins. A few hundred years ago, the women wore white shirts and the men were forbidden to look. About 60 years ago, more than 30,000 women were employed in the skin diving industry. Now, only a few thousand still practice the art, and the vast majority of them are over 50 and many are over 70 years old. After visiting all of the interesting places I could find, my run ended up being nearly an hour long. It was a good start to the day.

After a shower and some breakfast, Rie and I took the bus to Manjang-gul. Manjang-gul is a really long lava tube. Over 100,000 years ago, hot lava flowed along the ground. The outer edges cooled first and the molten interior continued to flow. Once the inside flowed out, a tunnel was left. It is about 10 miles long and is about the size of a subway tunnel. A half-mile long section is open to the public and we walked the end of the public section. At the end we saw the tallest known lava column in the world - over 20 feet tall. It was formed when lava flowed along a tunnel above ours and then broke through the floor and poured down. Pretty impressive.

After the lava tunnel, we visited a maze built out of living cedar trees. We wandered through the maze and eventually made it to the end and rang the bell to tell the world of our accomplishment.

A short bus ride later, we were at the ferry port and took the 15 minute ride to Udo (Cow Island). The mongols brought horses to Jeju and Udo over 700 years ago, but the island is named after a cow because some people think its shape resembles a cow. We climbed part-way up the grassy caldera at one end of the island. We also stopped by a rock tunnel over the sea and then went and sat at the beach for a while. Most of the beaches we have seen have black lava sand, but this one was made up of big grains of white shell.

We got back to Jeju Island around 5 pm and relaxed before having a great fish dinner. I like eating in the more rural restaurants in Korea because the offer so many fresh vegetables as side dishes. We polished off a bunch of spinach, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and fish cakes. I had a bit of raw fish and Rie had a nicely grilled fish.

After our evening stroll, we bought a few things from the woman with the abacus and are now back in the room, looking forward to tomorrow's excitement.