5/18/11: Tour of Jeju-do Continued

We started off today with an elephant show. Similar to the glass museum and yesterday’s circus, it was basically a tourist trap with no relation to the historic or natural assets of Jeju, but it was engineered for a good crowd reaction. I do tend to question the use of animals in circuses, but I can also see the viewpoint that when done well, it’s not more objectionable than, say, training horses to compete in dressage. The elephants did seem well-cared-for and relaxed, and they definitely liked receiving bananas from the audience (if you gave the elephants money instead, they passed it on to their riders).

A couple of cranes at EcoLand.
Can you tell they aren't real? ;)

We then took a forest train tour of the EcoLand theme park. Some of the scenery was nice, but as the tour was only in Korean, I missed the explanations of the features of the preserved forest. There wasn’t much to speak of in terms of fauna, and it seems the park management tried to compensate by putting in fake animal models (!).

After EcoLand, we visited a horseback riding operation, where members of our tour group got to ride a few laps around a small field. The horses seemed to know their job extremely well, going automatically in a group around the same track that they always did, but I had to feel bad for their rather rote existence. At least they all appeared to be in good condition physically. Perhaps to differentiate between the tourists and staff, all tourists had to wear bright red vests and black cowboy-style hats, which were pretty silly looking (and had no protective value whatsoever; I was very surprised they had no helmet requirement, but perhaps Korean culture isn’t as sue-happy as American culture). 

An original dol hareubang

After the horseback riding, we headed to a preserved traditional Jeju village, including thatched buildings and original, several-hundred-years-old basalt statues known as dol hareubang (돌 하르방); the name means “stone grandfather” in Jeju dialect. The statues were intended to protect against demons, and similar dol hareubang are still found commonly throughout the island, to the point of being an iconic feature. While at the village, we also got to try a drink prepared from ohmija (오미자), the berries of Schisandra chinensis. The drink supposedly has health benefits, but at any rate, it was delicious – somewhere between cranberry juice, grape juice, and honey.

A painting inside
Micheon Cave.
(I like the reflection.)

We also visited Micheon Cave (미천굴), a lava tube of which only 365m (out of 1.7km) is open to the public. Though not quite pristine and secluded (having been well-developed as a tourist attraction), it was a pleasant walk, especially as the cave was a cool refuge from the increasingly warm and humid weather outside. The surroundings above ground had also been developed with various gardens and a collection of interesting stone statues, including a ~5m tall dol hareubang.



A view from near the top of Sunrise Peak.

Our last main stop of the day was Seongsan Ilchubon (성산 일추본), aka “Sunrise Peak” (it offers a spectacular view of the sunrise, which we unfortunately didn’t get to witness). Sunrise Peak features a large crater at the top and nearly vertical cliffs. The climb is fairly steep and takes about 20 minutes at a good clip, but it has a good staircase all the way up – no real hiking or rock climbing. The view from the top is breathtaking in every sense of the word, and more than worth the exercise it takes to get there.

Dinner was at a seafood shack right next to the ocean. The main dish was a kind of seafood rice porridge, which might not sound particularly interesting, but was actually very delicious and hearty.