Korea's crown

From hiking up volcanic peaks to exploring a seabed and witnessing the skills of an indigenous group of female divers, Chiranjeevi Kulkarni gets the essence of life in Jeju

How many died? Were there survivors? What happened here exactly?” I had questions after seeing a sunken boat. The answers came from a loudspeaker but in drawn-out Korean and clipped Chinese. “You are now 39 metres under the sea,” the only announcement in English came after five minutes.

The submarine trip is catching up with tourists who land in Jeju, the tiny volcanic island situated 120 km from South Korea. English is yet to find a foothold here but the influx of Chinese — tourists and investment — has given Mandarin the second language status. The exceptional hospitality of Koreans, however, bridges all the gaps.

Back in the submarine, as an Indian tourist bubbling with questions in English, I was at a loss for a moment until I saw a school of fish circling around the railing of the sunken boat covered in moss. The boat was green with algae but had retained its shape. My tour guide later told me that it sank in the 1950s.

Inside the ship, it was almost dark except for the dim glow from the windows to which we were glued. Floodlights washed the stern of the sunken boat. Soon, the fish twitched and abandoned the iron rail. Only the boat remained on the scene where time had frozen and space allowed only decay. The Seogwipo seabed exploration trip ended with a flash of half-digested existentialist wisdom.

“We are children of the sea. I used to finish school and run to the coast, put my bag away, out of waves’ reach and swim to my mother sitting with her friends on a small hillock a 100 metres in the sea,” said Peter, our tour guide.

We had just witnessed a performance by a team of woman sea divers. Known as haenyeo, women divers make their living by swimming into the bottom of the sea to catch crabs and other seafood. Now they are an essential part of the island’s culture and history.

Their valour and suffering are subjects of many books and documentaries. Peter’s apocryphal story was more interesting: when rulers of Joseon Dynasty came to Jeju in the 16th century and ordered men to supply abalone, a sea snail considered as a delicacy, all the men fled, leaving women to bear the burden.

“Since then, woman has been the boss,” said Peter, providing a basis for the island’s matriarchal society. The Jeju Haenyeo Museum traces the history of women divers and has artefacts dating back to 16th century.

Host of museums

There are museums for almost everything, from art and folklore to tea and chocolate and yes, sex. Of the more than 100 museums in the island that is just 1,800 sq km in size — just a little bigger than Delhi — at least 10 have a serious approach to their subject, showing the Koreans’ high regard for culture and history. The rest are dioramas on map drawn to cash in on the tourism boom.

At the K-pop gallery, you can watch and dance with PSY — the only Korean pop singer I knew — and other top singers, as they come alive in a hologram concert. Tread slowly on the digital walkway and listen to the music of different genres in Korean pop as you activate the music with each step. But Jeju doesn’t get the 1.3 crore footfalls (as per 2015 data), mainly of South Korean and Chinese, because of K-pop alone.

Tourists are soon drawn to places like Loveland, one of the three sex museums on the island where a little ‘adventurism’ is assured. A six-foot phallus breaking out of the ground and pointed to the sky welcomes you to Loveland. Inside are statues of couples engaged in man’s ‘oldest occupation’. There is a huge gallery devoted to erotica. For those who want to take titillation to the next level, a shop stands at the end, offering all kinds of sex toys for both men and women. As I scanned the shop, a saleswoman came forward to show a dildo keychain. I retraced my steps quickly, before she could see my red face.

Push aside all things man-made and nature stands in full glory. As a volcanic island, Jeju has as many as 360 parasitic volcanoes, all of them dormant. The lava tubes have brought fame by becoming a UNESCO world heritage site. Geological scholars and enthusiasts crowd Seongsan llchulbong and Sangumburi, the two famous volcanic craters in the shape of upturned bowl. At Halim Park, you can even walk inside the volcanic tubes and admire the twists and turns of the lava underground.

The beaches, with volcanic rocks strewn around like a child’s forgotten toys, offer serenity and, at several places, some space to relax and have a drink. Soju, Korea’s most popular alcoholic beverage, looks like gin and tastes like gin, but is somehow categorised as a Korean variation of vodka. There are several coffee shops at Aewol-ri, north Jeju. Get a bottle of soju, a couple of shots, and you are ready to speak to the waves and embrace the sea.

Culinary treats

Next on the table was some authentic Korean cuisine. Our local guide took us to restaurants that were both on and off popular apps like Zomato. The Korean seafood stew comes in a hot pot, but unlike the ones you get in Indian coastal cuisine, spice doesn’t overpower the taste of abalone and octopus meat; Black Pork Street offers a variety of pork, and at the BBQ restaurant, you can cut marinated pork and grill it on coal stove; the king crab, with its one-and-a-half-foot pincer, was a considerable challenge to finish. The abalone soup with rice is Jeju’s special delicacy, but it is more of an acquired taste.

The island is also famous for its horse meat, which was too much for me. Though mainland Koreans’ vegetarian menu has a long list of dishes, thanks to the Buddhist tradition, hotels in general in Jeju, just 120 km away, offer only one or two of them. So vegans need to do a little research to find good vegetarian hotels, which are few.

On the map, Jeju is a dot. And I was invited by Korea Tourism Organisation for a visit. As the flight circled the island two or three minutes before landing, it didn’t seem any bigger. But five days were not enough to explore the experiences it promised. Conversely, Jeju has experienced misery that is disproportionate to its size.

While the kingdoms that ruled the Korean peninsula suppressed the aspirations of the islanders, its modern history is punctuated by pain inflicted during its Japanese occupation and the Korean War. But the island continues to uphold peace and tranquility, which are frequently disturbed on the mainland by North Korea.