It was a gloomy, rainy day so we nixed the beach idea and went to the lava tubes. My guidebook said it was like Indiana Jones. Well, my guidebook lied. It was like any natural underground cavern you've been to. Still, it was pretty neat to walk through. However in the picture they showed an underground lake but we weren't allowed to go that far. I was bummed when our trail just stopped because I had been really excited about the lake. Alas.
For more information on lava tubes and what they are and how they are created, please go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_tube There's a picture of the Manjuggal Lava Tubes (where I was) third down.
After the tubes, we made our way to the maze but by then it started to pour so we found a taxi back to the bus stop where we waited, wet and tired in a leaky bus shelter. We tried to keep each other entertained. Tex sang, I danced. The rain was nice. It reminded me of home. But after awhile, when everything is wet and your shoes squish and you wonder if the bus will ever come, you want nothing more than to get out of the rain.
We took the bus to Ilchulbong where we went to climb the crater. No one was around so we set up the path. It went like this. CM would say let's just go up these steps and see what's there. We'd do that, gasp, take pictures, wonder if we should go back down because it was grey and starting to get dark, then I'd say let's just go up here and see what's there before we head down. It went on like this until we got about halfway up and then it really was dark and they saw spiders and I saw caves, so we decided to head back down. My fun fact of the night was that volcanic rock absorbs water better so that's why the steps weren't slippery.
Please note: No high heels. They have to mention this because in Korea women wear high heels everywhere. Seriously. There were still women at the cave in heels. And climbing the crater. Everywhere.
Descending into the cave.
A very popular attraction.
A cavern in the tubes.
Cool rocks. Actually it was about 20 degrees cooler in the tubes. The walls were smooth and damp. Yes, I felt them. Wouldn't you?
So cool. Ceiling.
You can see the different levels of where the lava flowed.
In front of a rare rock formation: a lava pillar.
My shirt from The Running Store in VA. I was/am on a mission to take this shirt to the coolest places. Instead of the traveling gnome, it's the traveling shirt.
A pathway lit up.
We walked on the ground for most of the tube but at the end there was a path.
Seongsan from Ilchulbong Peak
A wet view of the city
Pretty soon it was night
and we made our way back down...
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