Jeju to Suwon by Ferry and Car

It was Monday morning of 05 May 2014, and we had to be at Jeju international port by 7 am to put our car in ferry. Our navigator estimated that this journey from our stay in Seogwipo to be of approx 2 hours. So we aimed to start by 4:50 am from Seogwipo, which is next to sea in the south.

We woke up at 4 am and we were ready by 4:45 am. We had purchased some Ramyan (राम्यन) cup noodles day before from the e-mart; we added hot water to these cup noodles before starting the journey at 5 am. 

It took only a little more than 1 hour to reach Jeju port. There, we ate Ramyan noodles, drank some coffee. We people wanted to prepare tea, but no milk was available in the shops of port at that time.

We took our car to cargo area to park it in first floor of the ship at 6:45 am. After that, we started our sight-seeing of the harbor area.

One of the ropes which is holding our ship.

These motorcycle and car guys are waiting to park their vehicles in the ship.

Ship is parked just next to the floor. Another ship is visible at distance.

Cargo loading area

Bow of the ship. This is designed to reduce the resistance of the hull cutting through the water and is designed to be tall enough to prevent water from washing over top of it.

Another ship bound to the shore

Jeju port is international port, and they do the immigration check. There was separate line for foreigners  taking the ferry, and it was good for us because it meant easy and early way out of passenger queue.

PS: According to wiki page on Jeju, mainland Koreans considered Jeju people foreigners, before foundation of modern Korea in 1945, had to suppress the uprising of 1948 by death of tens of thousands and torture and rape of many Jeju people. Jeju had matriarchal society and their language was distinct enough from Korean language according to linguists.

Finally, we boarded on our ship at 8:30 am. We met same set of crew members whom we met while coming to Jeju from Wando 4 days ago.

View from our ship of nearby area

Many aeroplanes took off or landed on nearby Jeju airport.

Captain gave order to remove the ropes one by one, and our ship started to sail away from Jeju

Sailing away from Jeju

Jeju port from distance

Another plane 

The big ripples created by ship

Another ship in distance

Something and an island

Wando from distance

Parking area in the ship

Jeolla-nam-do is really beautiful

Somewhere in Jeolla province

Roadside view

Beautiful Gunsan port

In Jeolla

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Journey from Suwon to Jeju

It was April 30, 2014 night, and we started preparation for our trip which was all the way from our home in Suwon  to Wando port in Jeolla province by car and then from there by ferry to Jeju.

We woke up next morning early at 4:15 am, and at 5:40 am after light breakfast, we left to pick up our friends living in apartments near Newcore outlet.

By 6 am, we were out of Suwon on road leading to Osan(ओसान), Pyeongtaek(फ्यंगथेक), Cheonan (छनान), Gongju (गोंगजू), Gunsaan (गुनसान), Mokpo (मोकफो) and finally to Wando (वानदो).

At 8 am, we stopped at rest area made next to highway. We had our home made tea and noodle (तकबोगी रामयन) ordered from restaurant for breakfast. I tried to get coffee, but it was too early for coffee-shop people, and they had only pure black coffee which I don't drink.

By 11:30 am, we were some 60 km from Wando, and we started seeing road signs leading to Jindo. Jindo has become famous these days because , a month ago, a ferry sank near to it killing around 300 passengers on it.

We had more than 2 hours time to reach Wando, hence I decided that we can better go to see some nearby attractions. I saw road-signs for Daeheungsa temple being 9 km away, and turned the car into that road.

At parking lot in the base of mountain where  Daeheungsa temple is.

It was a very beautiful road with lots of scenery and traffic.

Just some 2km from temple, I found ticket gate at base of mountain . I was not sure if everybody in car would agree to pay entry fee to see the temple whose reason of fame we didn't know at that time.

Therefore, I parked car in parking lot next to ticket gate to allow us to take rest.

everything was beautiful there

I talked with old-lady at ticket gate, and came to know that she had come from Seoul and was in the ticket gate as part of doing temple service.

Later, on wikipedia, I found that Daeheungsa temple might have been founded around 514 AD (1500 years ago) that is the time when , in India, Sanskrit epics Mahabharata and Ramayana were being edited by writers under patronage of Gupta emperors. If I had known this, I would have forced myself to take walk to the temple :)

There are many such bridges at the base of mountain of Daeheungsa temple

After spending 40 minutes, we started for Wando.

A bridge on the road to Wando

Beautiful roads of Jeolla province

At 1 PM, we were in Wando. We first reached Bus-terminal there, guessing it to be Wando port, but man there smilingly gave us directions for Wando port which was 1 km from there.

After doing lunch, I took my car to cargo loading area, and parked my car in parking lot inside the ship which you see below. Parking lot was amazing with hundreds of cars and trucks parked.

Wando port: cargo loading area

Then, we walked back to passenger terminal.

Below I am with statue of the god (called 'Stone Grandfather') of Jeju people who believed that this god protected from spirits/demons travelling to real world.

Our group and Stone Grandfather protecting us from demons :)

Climbing to the ship

Ship was like a building with four floors: first two floors for cargoes, and top 2 floors for passengers. We roamed around here and there, took coffees, talked and spent our 3 hours like this on the ship.

Wando port and city

It was amazing and pleasant experience to be inside ship.

In the middle of sea, you can see only see a circle of water.

At 7 pm, we were in Jeju.

Finally, in Jeju port

Trip to Sunrise Peak in Jeju

As mentioned in cave blog, we visited the Seongsan Ilchulbong on the way to Manjanggul cave on Sunday 4th May '14.

Seongsan Ilchulbong from 2km distance

On the way, we saw a crowd on a farm where people were taking photographs. On reaching there, we found that one farmer has invented a way to make money from tourists going to the  Seongsan Ilchulbong by offering them to enter his farm at a fee.

in the farm

 He had decorated the farm by placing some items as seen below :)

All the fruits seen are actually hooked to these trees/shrubs by the farmer :)

Below you can see the cars parked next to this farm.

 There is one buddhist temple next to parking lot for visitors of ‘Sunrise Peak’.

It was a cloudy day, raining once in a while.

After purchasing entry ticket, we started climbing the hill.

 There was a cave after some way up.

Geologists say that volcanic eruption some 5000 years ago on sea-bed here created this Seongsan Ilchulbong.

Ok, it is the same time when the first city civilizations started around Indus river in Indian subcontinent and around yellow river in China, and perhaps a thousand year after start of Sumer civilization in Iraq. So perhaps either no human beings lived in near-by area to witness this creation; or they were stone using primitive humans incapable of recording this event for future generations.

 It is amazing experience to climb this cliff and to witness the natural beauty surrounding it.

The above mentioned farm and the whole town and port is visible from here.

UNESCO has designated this Tuff Cone as World Natural Heritage site.

Below is the bowl-like crater of this creation of volcanic activity. It is 600m in diameter unfilled by scoria or lava.

Out of 8.7 million (87 लाख) tourists to Jeju in 2011, 2.4 million (24 lakh) visited this crater site. So, by their approx. entry fee of 2 dollar per person, the local gov't easily earned 5 million (50 lakh) dollar from tourism to this site alone :)  25 crore INR every year :)