South Korea

torsdag 17 juni 2010

Hiking Dobongsan 2/6

Var iväg på bergsvandring med Meika från Tyskland. Vi besteg toppen på 740meter.

The last day we went to the Seongsan Ilchulbong, another amazing volcano crater. But our main object for this place was to walk on the first Route of the Olle-road. There is 13 routes in total around Jeju island, and everyone is a trip for around 6 hours each. We just walked maybe 1 or 2 hours on the first path along the cliffs and to get a feeling of the Olle walking paths.

As absolutely last thing before leaving to airport we went into Jeju-si and found Yongduam Rock and the Hancheon River inside of big park area. We spend some time here just walking around and to realize this is the last moment of Jeju this time. But I think both of us will go back one day to this amazing island.

Here comes some random pics from the last day:

Jeju vulkanö dag2 30/5

Day 2 we went up to the Hallasan mountain. We stopped several times on the way to Hallasan because the roads were very beautiful and the view very cool. Finally on the 1000-meters level we left the car and started to walk up on the Yeongsil trail. After some kilometers we reached the level above the trees and could see far, far away around Jeju island. Hiking in Korea was not the same as I am used to. Here the trail was full of Koreans and other tourists. You had to stop and wait at some places because of too many people.

One really amazing place is Jusangjeolli Rocks in Jungmun. Here Korean couples are everywhere holding hands and kissing each other under palm trees. The atmosphere is amazing and you just want to kiss your own girlfriend in this place. At the rocks lava has made some hexagonal rocks because of reaching of water.

After lunch we drove north to the O´Sulloc Tea Museum. Big green fields of tea plants were everywhere in the area. The smell in the air is also about tea. Inside of Museum we tried green tea ice-cream and there was also a huge shop with everything about tea.

Close from the Tea Museum there is a free-coffee place, 오월의꽃. Here it is up to you if you want to pay or not, no one is there checking. We went here and atmosphere was amazing. Everything was in white and with lights and nice stones. And they even had some snacks to have with the coffee or tea.

After this we just drived to the coast again and found 금릉해수욕장. A really nice beach, sand was so white and water was quite warm for May so I decided to try swimming. Along the beach side there was these Harubang statues, made of volcano stones. And in background of beach there was a green island. It looked more like being in Thailand than actually Korea. Beside the beach there was Koreans trying to catch small crabs and it seemed like they found a lot of it.

Jeju vulkanö dag1 29/5

Directly from airport we went to the market looking for the Hallabong (한라봉), famous fruit for Jeju island. The fruit comes originally from Japan and has the name Dekopon. Taste was more or less like a normal Orange, but it looked funny and when you are in Jeju you should try it. Also perfect to have in the car when you travel in the countryside far away from restaurants and when you get hungry.

Next stop was Sangumburi volcano crater.
You can walk around this crater and see what happened here long time ago. It is amazingly deep and environment makes you feel you are far, far away somewhere peaceful.

Another attraction is the mysterious road. We tried this and it feels like car is going up but it slowly goes down without you put on the gas-pedal. This phenomenon is because of the surrounding trees and environment that makes you feel you actually going uphill, but you don’t. The thing was discovered by a taxi-driver that drived tourists around the island.