Scuba Diving for the First time in 제주도

The week after hiking Bukhansan with Teddy 선생님 and with the CIEE Program, I was invited by a group of friends that they were visiting Jeju Island the week after. This was a decision I did not regret. 

Here is a small vlog of my adventure in 제주도! 

Looking up the prices, the flight between Seoul to Jeju takes roughly an hour. I went ahead and decided to buy the tickets and this marked my first domestic flight in Korea. I was notified that the group that I was with was an eleven person group including myself. Surprisingly, the airbnb that we reserved was for ten or more people. Since this was a four-day weekend trip, we had decided to spend the first two days on the north side of the island in Jeju City, and the next two days on the south of the island in Seogwipo City. On the day of the flight, this was right after our CIEE Intercultural communications course where we decided to meet each other to get ready to go to the airport. When we arrived in Jeju it was raining, but thankfully the weather was beautiful during the other days of our trip. 

Here I would like to highlight the exciting trips that we planned!

1. Manjanggul Lava tube (만장굴) 

Since Jeju is an island, it made sense that there were no subway stations and that buses were not as common as compared to Seoul. So the best way to get around was either having your own car or by calling a taxi. The first area that we visited was an underground lava cave which was formed around 200,000-300,000 years ago when Geomunoreum volcano erupted. This goes along for about 7.4km but visitors are only allowed to travel 1km long. Within the cave, there are very informational landmarks along with signs explaining how each part of the cave was formed. 

2. Kimnyoung Maze Park

Right after visiting 만장굴, there was a famous maze nearby that is known for having around 50 cats just hanging around. Here, you are first given a mission to feed a cat and to complete the maze. My group of friends decided to race each other and time ourselves on who can finish the maze the quickest. If you are a cat lover, I definitely recommend visiting Kimnyoung Maze Park as there are so many cats just laying around! 

3. Hamdeok Beach

If there was a place I would visit again in Jeju, Hamdeok Beach would definitely be number one. There are so many things to do when visiting a foreign country and since this was a four day trip, we weren’t able to visit exactly everywhere on this island. When we arrived, the view of the ocean was amazing with the warmth of the sun gleaming into direct sunlight. There were so many people, you can hear the excitement of children running down to the shore, the splash of the waves, the sound of the sand as you walked down the beach, and even the screaming of children but yet filled with joy and happiness as they run back and forth from the shore trying to avoid being touched by the ocean’s water. We ended our day with a nice cup of ice cream from Baskin Robbins.  

4. Cliff Jumping in Seogwipo - 천지동

This was my first time cliff jumping ever and I was scared, nervous, but wanted to experience and face my fears -hight. As I watched everyone, even the locals jumping into the body of water, a part of me wanted to jump too. I guess you can say that if I saw my friends jump off a cliff, I would too (literally but not literally). As someone who isn’t able to tread well, the second my legs left the cliff, my soul left my body. All I saw in my eyes was the body of water with my hands in front of me getting ready to gasp for air. I felt the splash of water as my body sinks through, slowly floating to the top, I looked around and was proud of myself! Of course I quickly went ahead and swam to get to land. 

5. Scuba Diving 

There are so many other things I did in Jeju that I want to include on this list, but scuba diving was the highlight of my time in Korea. There is a place in Jeju that allows people with no experience and certified scuba divers to go scuba diving. The name of this place is called AllBlu. When we first arrived, we were given a lecture on how to use the scuba gear and how to breathe properly through the diving regulators. Next, we received our wetsuit and headed directly to the diving location. The name of the place we scuba dived was called 숲 Island, but an interesting thing I learned was in Seoul, forest in pronounced as 숲, but in Jeju it is pronounced as 섶. Which makes sense because the island that we were near was filled with trees. This was a moment where I compared this to Avatar the Last Airbender when Aang was on the Lion Turtle. Before going underwater, we reviewed our breathing techniques and what we would do if anything were to happen. Afterwards, we all descended slowly, it was important to note that as we descend, the change in pressure is also going to increase. For the people that didn’t know how to scuba dive, we were grabbed by our oxygen tanks, and this made the experience more of a sight-seeing experience. We were only allowed to descend to the depths of around 12m where we were able to see clownfish and a school of anchovies swimming across our eyes. This experience of scuba diving for the first time was unbelievable. Just even being told that if I wanted to go scuba diving, made me hesitate but was all worth it in the end. 

Traveling tip: This is my first time ever traveling abroad and even being in South Korea. What motivated me to decide to embark on this trip to Jeju was that who knows if I would ever be given this opportunity again. So! The lesson here is that if you are ever given the chance to travel and experience something different than normal, don’t ever hesitate to try something new! Visiting 제주도 was one of the best experiences I had while in South Korea.