Mystical Jeju Island (Part 2 – The Cliff and the Fall)

October 19, 2016 JR Gat

If you’ve missed Part 1 – The Rainy Arrival, you can read it here.

Welcome back to my South Korea trip… if you’re following this series, be prepared to read more of these because fortunately, I’ve visited quite a lot of sites, and condensing them all in one post is a grave injustice.

For this post, I’ll specifically talk about two of the natural wonders namely the Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls and the Jusangeolli Cliff – both of which were breathtaking to see. One of them took my breath away with its splendour, and one took my breath away with the huge amount of effing tourists taking pictures and bludgering other tourists in their path. Sufficed to say, I really need to start getting away from the common tourist trails. What a f&cking nightmare to squeeze myself amongst the stampede of people with their selfie sticks. The line traffic will make you feel you’re in North Korea instead. It’s guaranteed you won’t be able to appreciate the site at all. (Hence, if you’re planning on visiting these sites, I suggest you come early.)

Let’s start with the Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls.

Nope, that’s not it. This Wawa falls looking clone can be found halfway and is just the prelude to the main falls 5 minutes away.

By the way, throughout these series, you’ll be seeing a lot of these mushroom-looking stone people:

They’re called harubangs; they’re everywhere.

They’re considered a sacred idol for the Jeju people. They’re meant to fend off bad spirits. Also, the arrangement of their arms have a certain meaning which is best discovered there. (Tip for the ladies: Jeju Island is very popular for honeymooners because of these idols. It is said that if a woman touches the nose of the idol, she will have a boy. 😉 )

The falls is a 10-minute walk from the checkpoint. Just prepare 2,000 KRW for the fee, and you’re good to go.

Since I couldn’t find a money changer anywhere, I missed out on splurging on souvenir items which I think worked out in my favor eventually. Most of the items were chocolates that the guide told us were substandard. Essentially, if they cost 10,000 KRW and below, they don’t taste that good. There were also a large arrays of the miniature stone idols to take home. They were quite expensive, so I settled for a miniature stone ancient Korean couple instead.

(The cat on the roof had zero f&cks to give.)

As I explored the shit out of the place, I noticed Confucianism symbols on the lamps, a detail I think lots of people overlook.

There were also Chinese writings carved on rocks scattered around the area. I could only read a few characters so making sense of them was moot. At the very least, I learnt that they’re ancient since carving on rocks is no longer allowed in Korea. 🙂

Once I reached the falls, it was, well, beautiful. Here’s a shot.

And here’s a shot without the annoying tourists…

The guide was adamant in taking a photo of me even if I was reluctant. She couldn’t believe I was glad to just take photos of the surroundings. ‘Something to show your friends!’ she exclaimed. Hence,…

Also, yes, that bird is frozen mid-air on the shot forever, as well as that mother and her kid, or at least, I think they’re related.

Apart from the falls, the area features a variety of other attractions as well. For example, there was this amphitheater, strategically walled by the surrounding hills to make sure the sound was trapped within.

Overall, this site is a must whenever anybody would visit Jeju-do. The only thing I would’ve liked to do there was swim, but there was no swimming allowed. Oh, well.

Now let’s talk about the Jusangeolli Cliff, another heavily advertised attraction in this island.

After paying the fee, (roughly 2000 KRW) there were mini attractions like a sign post with directions to various places in the world. There was also this big ass snail shell.

This place had a lot of tourists, so it was a struggle to get a decent picture of the surroundings. However, I managed to take a couple of shots of the rocky shores, live evidence of the volcanic origins of the island.

Also, if you see pictures of this cliff with the stones shiny and all light, they’re all a lie. The cliff formation, albeit quite beautiful, are black AF.

I mean, they aren’t shiny; they’re just black as they should be. They look slightly brown in the photos, but they’re as dark as the night in a pitch black forest in person.

(Just another big ass wishing well, no biggie.)

Our group was joking around that if we jumped the cliff and swam forward, we’d reach Japan. It felt so near. There’s, of course, the border patrols, but it would’ve still been quite a feat.

Overall, the place is still worth a look-see. I really like the pine trees since I’m not used to them. Despite the endemic spiders all around the area, I think seeing the cliff is an integral part of the Jeju experience.