Outdoor, Cultural, Sabbath excursion (12. May)

This past weekend (May 11- 13), I had wonderful guests over from Seoul--well, directly from Seoul, but from other countries as well. My friend from Germany (I visited her this last December in her hometown near Frankfurt) and a friend of hers who is Chinese-American were my wonderful guests.
After Sabbath lunch, one of our Weekend Activity regulars took us in his jeep and drove us to a few sights as we made our way down to Seogwipo (where my guests were going to spend Saturday night). Here are the pictures I want to share from that Sabbath afternoon.



*Just for the record, I don't post pictures of my friends (at least, not their faces) in order to protect and respect their privacy.

1st Stop: (만장굴) Manjanggul--Lava Tube

This is the only picture of the cave I was able to get. It was too dark for my camera.

Korean, Chinese, English, and Japanese . . . which language do you prefer?

This is just 1 part of the cave. It's 1 km long.

The apex of the cave.

2nd Stop: (성산일출봉) Seongsan Sunrise Peak

From the car.

Who knew it'd be part of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World?

I couldn't wait to get there.

Alright, we parked the car, now let's go!

I couldn't stop taking pictures of this place.

Oh! We can ride horses!
Too bad I didn't.
I don't think we really had the time.

Just look at all the green . . .

I'm excited and ready.

Ok, last picture here. Let's get some more further up, shall we?

A view from about half-way up.

I'm excited.

Looks like a face emerging from the cliff.

Our driver/guide/photographer caught us unawares.

Looking behind us.

Priceless

Now, we need to get down.
It's not as bad as it looks.

Just check out the green!

That's a good idea.
But we had places to go.

Udo in the distance.

Looking back up.

Ah, the sea!

Ah, you can check out the women divers working down there if you want.

I can't get enough of this place.

I just really love it!!

Let's try another point of view.

I want to go . . .

My humble attempt at a stitched panoramic shot.

Down to the women divers.
We didn't go.
We left to go somewhere else.

3rd Stop: (성읍민속마을) Seong-eup Folk Village

We checked out a typical Jeju house from times unknown. This simple contraption caught my attention.
This was how they collected--and filtered--rain water.
Genius.

All over Jeju, you can find statues of women carrying a huge pot in a basket on their backs.
Well, I decided to try it for myself. Didn't quite get the correct pose, though.
It was pretty light (it was also empty).

The sign (and map) of the folk village.
It's quite big and there are people who still live here and use some of the same methods from centuries ago.

The rest of the weekend wasn't as eventful, but it was nice. One had to leave for Seoul Sunday night and the other left Monday early afternoon. I was glad to have my German friend around--and finally practice some German with someone who can and did correct me. I was also glad to meet her friend.

I wish them all the best.