Diving with Heanyeos
Wow. So much has happened in this last week and a half. Let's get started. So last Saturday (Sept. 22) my friend, Jamie, brought us to this small town that is famous for it's mountain. Just below Mountain Sanbang lies a wonderful little town that is a mix of farmland, the Dragon Head Shore and random little tourist trinkets for purchase. Word can't really describe how beautiful the island is. You just have to look at the pictures.
So diving with the Heanyeos. What an experience! First we arrived that the diving place and they were closed. We were a bit disappointed, but we also knew this could be a possibility because we didn't call before. Anyways, we were just kinda hanging out by the shop and some old women saw us. We asked them when the diving shop is open. All of a sudden, one of the women is on the phone yelling and telling the divers to come and open the shop for us and take us diving. So there we were, 7 North Americans preparing to take our first dive. Wetsuit, flipper, mask, gloves, net and weight belt; we were ready to jump in the water. Now these diving women are famous on the island. They are also called the "Mermaids of Jeju." The average age of a heanyeo (woman diver) is 65 yrs. old and they have been diving all they're lives. They are known for being able to hold they're breath underwater for 5 mins, and they don't use any breathing equipment. Amazing stuff I tell you. Know we young folks look like fools swimming with these experienced divers, and we are at least 40 years younger! They put us to shame. I don't know what it is we were diving for, but it was some sort of shell. Some of the people in our group got the hang of it really quickly and were able to spot these shells easily on the bottom of the ocean. I had great difficulty. My mask was foggy and I had water coming in it as well. It wasn't going to well, and after an hour I still didn't catch anything. At one point, I had one it my hand but then it fell out and it was lost forever. So for me, diving was kind of a failure if you are going to count diving success on the amount of shells captured. So the heanyeos caught so many of these shells, that her net looked like it was about to break. As agile as she was in the water, it looked like she could hardly walk getting out. Plus she insisted on carrying her extremely heavy net of shells back. After we were all done diving, the heanyeos cooked for us what we had just caught. I have to admit that I didn't eat any of it. It look real scary. These ladies seem to be having the time of their lives just sitting around, diving, laughing and eating. I could tell that they have all be together for years and are possibly their family. Over all it was a neat experience.
Manjanggul Lava Cave
This past Saturday, my friend Jade and I headed to the north part of the island to check out the famous Lava Cave. I don't think I fully understand how this cave was made, but somehow the lava from the volcano mad a cave, and today it's pretty cool. This is the largest cave with in the series of lava caves on the island. Jeju is the home of one of the largest lava tube systems in the world. So basically, you take a bunch of stairs and walk into this dark cave. It is really dark and the temperature is much colder than outside. There are light throughout the cave to help you through. This isn't a small cave, that's for sure. It is really big. We walked as far as they allow us with the grand finally being this neat formation that the lava has made. After exploring the lava caves, we wanted to check-out the hedge maze just down the street. It was a bit of an Alice in Wonderland moment. It was a tricky maze. We ended up just following this family that looked like they knew the way out...and sure enough they brought us the the end. You can't end a wonderful cave and maze experience without some ice cream, right? Right, so this is what happened and I don't regret it one bit.
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| The "Alice in Wonderland" Maze |
Jungmun
Now this is truly an amazing place. Jungmun is the main place for tourist. There are many fancy resorts and one of the beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It is like when you are looking for a place to travel online and you see the most amazing beach and say "We need to go there!" This beach is that good. The whole town is such a lovely place, and it really feels like you are on vacation. Bonus, it's only a 25 min bus ride from my place! I think I will be spending my days off here.
Chuseok Holiday
So this weekend was Chuseok. This is the most important holiday in Korea and is celebrated for three days. Therefore I had an extra day to my weekend. I am just going to add this link that talks about the holiday if your interested in learning more about it.
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=811650
So diving with the Heanyeos. What an experience! First we arrived that the diving place and they were closed. We were a bit disappointed, but we also knew this could be a possibility because we didn't call before. Anyways, we were just kinda hanging out by the shop and some old women saw us. We asked them when the diving shop is open. All of a sudden, one of the women is on the phone yelling and telling the divers to come and open the shop for us and take us diving. So there we were, 7 North Americans preparing to take our first dive. Wetsuit, flipper, mask, gloves, net and weight belt; we were ready to jump in the water. Now these diving women are famous on the island. They are also called the "Mermaids of Jeju." The average age of a heanyeo (woman diver) is 65 yrs. old and they have been diving all they're lives. They are known for being able to hold they're breath underwater for 5 mins, and they don't use any breathing equipment. Amazing stuff I tell you. Know we young folks look like fools swimming with these experienced divers, and we are at least 40 years younger! They put us to shame. I don't know what it is we were diving for, but it was some sort of shell. Some of the people in our group got the hang of it really quickly and were able to spot these shells easily on the bottom of the ocean. I had great difficulty. My mask was foggy and I had water coming in it as well. It wasn't going to well, and after an hour I still didn't catch anything. At one point, I had one it my hand but then it fell out and it was lost forever. So for me, diving was kind of a failure if you are going to count diving success on the amount of shells captured. So the heanyeos caught so many of these shells, that her net looked like it was about to break. As agile as she was in the water, it looked like she could hardly walk getting out. Plus she insisted on carrying her extremely heavy net of shells back. After we were all done diving, the heanyeos cooked for us what we had just caught. I have to admit that I didn't eat any of it. It look real scary. These ladies seem to be having the time of their lives just sitting around, diving, laughing and eating. I could tell that they have all be together for years and are possibly their family. Over all it was a neat experience.
This past Saturday, my friend Jade and I headed to the north part of the island to check out the famous Lava Cave. I don't think I fully understand how this cave was made, but somehow the lava from the volcano mad a cave, and today it's pretty cool. This is the largest cave with in the series of lava caves on the island. Jeju is the home of one of the largest lava tube systems in the world. So basically, you take a bunch of stairs and walk into this dark cave. It is really dark and the temperature is much colder than outside. There are light throughout the cave to help you through. This isn't a small cave, that's for sure. It is really big. We walked as far as they allow us with the grand finally being this neat formation that the lava has made. After exploring the lava caves, we wanted to check-out the hedge maze just down the street. It was a bit of an Alice in Wonderland moment. It was a tricky maze. We ended up just following this family that looked like they knew the way out...and sure enough they brought us the the end. You can't end a wonderful cave and maze experience without some ice cream, right? Right, so this is what happened and I don't regret it one bit.
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