[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] "Seogwipo" April 19th-21st

Aside from the usual manmade structures Seogwipo also has much more conventional scenery. Pictured above is the Cheonjiyeon Waterfall (천지연폭포). It's surrounded by a huge park (Chilsimni) to the southwest corner of the Seogwipo's main urban center and, as you can see, even in April it's a popular tourist site. The scope of the Cheonjihyeon Waterfall is impressive enough up close, but I prefer looking at it in wide angle for the sake of seeing how well it fits into the broader landscape.

What's really nice about this kind of greenery is the way it can provide a lovely backdrop (or frontdrop) to pretty much anything. This is what the main city center of Seogwipo looks like from a high point in Chilsimni. It helps that Seogwipo is itself relatively sparsely populated, so the ocean is easily viewable from multiple points. From the mouth of the river, to the wide open sea, to the harbor, Seogwipo simply looks very well-designed.

On to food! This is Ugeojiguk (우거지국), which is a variant on Haejangguk (해장국), commonly seen as a hangover cure although it's perfectly delicious eating in its own right. What really caught my attention at this particular restaurant was that they offered hard-boiled eggs as a side dish, which is not something I have seen before or since. This is one of the joys involved in searching out random restaurants instead of more well-known ones- I just wanted something cheap for lunch and ended up finding one of the best restaurants I've seen in Jeju yet.

Then, of course, there's the challenge in trying to find the place again...I know the resaurant's general location. It's on a little hill to the east of the Cheonjiyeon Waterfall Fourway Intersection (천지연폭포 사거리), with a bunch of hotels nearby. The sign prominently says 소고기국밥 (beef stew), although the actual name of the place is 살 맛나는 집 (meet-eating joint). Funny. I thought at the time that this was a vegetarian dish. Now I'm not so sure.

And now, for the other main waterfall in the Seogwipo area. This is the Jeongbang Waterfall (정방폭포). It's distinguished from Cheonjiyeon Waterfall by being on the opposite side of town (southeast), and also by being much closer to the ocean. It's in more of a cliffy area rather than a park although beyond that the basics are the same. A waterfall is a waterfall, and they're pretty to look at.

Somewhat more intellectually interesting than waterfalls are grave mounds. These are not tourist monuments, and they are not located in the main town either. I typically run into these when I get lost. There's a proper trail for going up Mount Halla, and then there's the way I do it- by whipping out a compass and going north until I get tired and want to go back down, not having actually climbed the mountain but just by running into a dead end. Usually some farmer's property.

And on this property there are often mound graves devoted to some ancestor or another. Worry not- they're typically visible from the road, and I always do my due diligence and bow before taking a picture, which I hope keeps the enterprise from being too morbid. Mound graves are, I think, a big reason why rural Koreans can get to be rather touchy when it comes to land issues. Scattering ashes is one thing, but a mound can actually be destroyed by some unscrupulous developer.

Lastly, this friendly man repaired my shoes. No, he did not do so out of the kindness of his heart. I had to pay ten dollars (ten thousand won) for the service. Which was fine by me. This man may have repaired my shoes to perfect condition (by using nails), but I had already wasted three times that quantity way back in Susaek with a man who used glues and threading. The moral of this story is, while you can easily get your shoes repaired or cleaned in Korea, it's always a good idea to pay attention to the tools being used.

Article by William Schwartz

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