Fish pictures without snorkling

Colorful, isn't it? This is a replica of the historic government building that was the center of administration of the island during the Joseon dynasty. The originalbuildings were destroyed by the Japanese when they invaded all of Korea in the early 1900s. My guidebook said there would be a martial arts demonstration, but with only about 6 visitors on the entire grounds, we decided the show wasn't going to happen, so we just walked around the displays.

This was the first museum/exhibit location that had mannequins, so I was actually startled when I stepped to the doorway of the first hall and came across guys like this.

After touring the historical displays and buildings, we walked to the ocean and  "Seafood Road." In old town Jeju City, one can find "Noodle Soup Road," Black Pork Road," and this one, "Seafood Road." Each building was a restaurant with tanks in front displaying the fish you pick out for your dinner. Since I won't be posting any snorkling pictures, here you go for fish pictures (abalone is the above shellfish):

Octopus is usually served raw or in soup here. Too chewy for us.

This one in the middle has a ferocious set of teeth. He wasn't smiling at us. I think he was snarling, if fish can snarl!

This tank had three pieces of PVC pipe in it where the eels went to hide. They looked like tubes of snakes.

After Seafood Road, the road transitioned into a pier with a pedestrian walkway, so we walked to the end, watched a few fishing boats come back to their dock, and then came back and walked along the seawall. A lot of Jeju families were walking, biking, and playing basketball along the promenade and seawall on this Sunday afternoon. For dinner, we stopped at a small restaurant and had kimbap. We just ordered two rolls each, but the owners also brought us soup and kimchee! Our snack turned into a full meal, for less than $6 USD for both of us.

We took it easy yesterday, relatively so anyway. We still walked a lot more than we do at home, but we didn't visit any mountains. Today (Monday), however, we traveled to and climbed to the top of Seongsan Ichulbong. Seongsan Ichulbong is a 182 meter tuff volcano (extinct). It is so large that we saw it clearly from the airplane when we flew into Jeju. It is also one of the three UNESCO World Heritage sites on Jeju. (The other two are the lava tubes we visited and Hallasan, the mountain in the middle of the island that we see from everywhere but did not climb as it takes all day and would have been the steepest hike yet. We admired it from afar.)

These are the stairs near the beginning of the hike up to the top. The stairs do pretty much go straight up the volcano. The base is much wide than the top, so the stairs do not have to wind around to the summit.

It was fairly windy at the top and rather chilly. I had unzipped my jacket during the hike up, but on the summit, I needed it zipped.

This is the view into the crater. I'm not sure what the pattern in the center is... alien landings? or maybe cultivated fields.

This is a view back toward land and the town from which we'd started our climb. The volcano is right next to the ocean. According to the signs, that land you can see actually came from the volcano when it erupted. The volcano had been totally in the water, but the flowing lava formed the land mass that joined it to the rest of the island.

And what goes up, must come down. So Phillip and I trekked down the stairs and headed back to the city on the bus. We're glad we made it here. UNESCO World Heritage designation does have meaning with us - usually it is something spectacular or unusual. We try to visit them if we are near them in our travels.

Tomorrow, we fly to our next destination, Busan, for a four night adventure.