Jeju-do

Jeju was my first venture outside of the Seoul area. It's the country's largest island located off the southern most tip of Korea. I took a bus and then a ferry there with the "Seoul Hiking Group". here are three spots we checked out:

Seongsan Ilchulbong

The Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak is a land mass that rose from under sea as a result of a volcanic eruption about 100,000 years ago.

It was pretty foggy when we got to the top, so looking back down on Jeju had this kind of edge-of-the-earth effect. All these jagged rock shapes jutting out into a gray abyss

This dude was waiting at the bottom to lick the sweat off me:

Man Jang Gul Cave

At 13.4km(8.4 miles) in length, Manjanggul Cave is the longest lava tube in the world. It has many interestingly-shaped lava stones and pillars along its length.

Here's a light-up placard showing you what you'll see in case for some reason you are still hesitant to check it out while standing at the cave's entrance:

cave ceiling:

A log of dried lava coming through the ceiling:

Mt. Hallasan

Hallasan is a shield volcano. the top was like a giant valley:


We heard a wild boar at one point. It sounded like a wounded bronchial dog. It was definitely saying something along the lines of "fuck you guys". I also saw a cloud of flies swarming some kind of fungus. Not especially noteworthy, except for the fact that I love the drone that a bunch of flies make. The plant life on this mountain was very different from the mountains I'm more familiar with in northeast America. For example, almost every square inch of the ground was covered with this stuff:


I would have taken more at Hallasan, but my camera died. Definitely the most fun I've had since getting here. More soon.