Jeju Island Day 2 Part 4: Dragon Head Peninsula Rock Formations

Across from the temple and grotto was a replica of the ship of Hendrick Hamel (1630-1692), a Dutch sailor who was one of the survivors of a shipwreck on Jeju as the boat was headed to Japan. The survivors were marched to Seoul to see and then serve the king, and none of them were permitted to leave the Hermit Kingdom. He lived in Korea for thirteen years before escaping to Japan with seven other crewmates, and he was the first Westerner to write about Korea. Simon Winchester, who I've mentioned before, planned his walk across Korea as a journey following in Hamel's footsteps. The replica ship was amusing, filled with life-sized crew members, except in the bottom of the three floors, which was a display about a Dutch football coach who lead a Korean team to victory. Apparently the ship was really a monument to all things Dutch-Korean. Near the ship were some Jeju horses and some lava rocks with tubes the width of my arm in them, through which I could look back up at the temple.

After taking my picture with the statue of Hamel, I walked along Yongmeori, the Dragon Head coast, which was riddled with wavy holes and twisted into arches and odd shapes. Ajimas (old women) sold live sea life for consumption. The walk finished by going through a natural arch and up some stone steps. On the peninsula there was also an old smoke signal mound, which was used to broadcast messages across the island. One wonders if the volcanic nature of the island ever interfered with the messages...

Pictures for this section start here.