Monday, April 24, 2017

Sanbangsan Ferry Ride

*Photos from August 2016*

Address: 서귀포시 안덕면 화순해안로 106번길 16
Address: 106-16 Hwasunhaean-ro, Andeok-Myeon, Seogwipo-si
Price Range: Under 20,000 per person
Times: 11:00, 14:10, 15:20
Facebook: Unofficial Link
Parking: Parking available in the Harbour and back toward the beach area if you are willing to walk more
Looking around the side of Hyung Jae Some toward SanBangSan.
 As winter releases its windy hold upon Jeju and the sun begins to bring colour back to the neighbourhoods, all I want to do is be outside. (Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have gone into Outdoor Ed instead!).
SanBangSan and Hyung Jae Some from the south side
Today, instead of a restaurant or cafe, here's information on how to take a mini cruise--in case that wasn't obvious by the pictures... The ferry boat goes past SanBangSan (산방산), around Hyung Jae Some (형재섬; I'm really not certain if this is how you would spell it in English, but it fits the pronunciation best) to the point of Songaksan (송악산; pronounced with a long O sound like Song-ahk-san and not Son-gak-san) and then back again. The whole trip takes about an hour and if you are lucky enough to have clear weather, you get a killer view of Hallasan in the distance.While my friend and I couldn't see the summit when we went, the cloud art made up for it.

We're on a boat!
I stumbled into this trip by accident. I follow a couple local Korean instagram accounts and during the summer one of them posted a video speeding along the coast. I sent it to my Korean friend asking if she knew how to do something like this. I was both surprised and pleased when she said that it was easy and fairly inexpensive.

In Korean, the cruise is called called 산방산 유람선, romanized as San-Bang-San You-Ram-Sun.

Here are some key things to know before you go:
1. Make sure you have your ARC card or Passport with you. Whenever I've taken a boat trip from Jeju, I've always needed to show my identification.

2. You may need to go early to get your ticket. Popularity depends on time of year and day of the week, and I've found that some ferry rides fill up fast. If you have a Korean friend who can help you, I think you can reserve tickets online, but I don't know how. My friend and I went about 30-45 minutes before the departure time and we were okay.

3. Throughout the ride, an announcer tells you different things--probably about SanBangSan, the islands and history, but naturally if you can't understand Korean (like me), you will miss that part of the experience.

4. I didn't get nauseous, but if you get seasick really easy, maybe think carefully about going.
SanBangSan and Dragon Head Rock (Yong-Meori; 용머리)
I really enjoyed the ride because it offered a new perspective on one of my favourite parts of Jeju and my favourite lump of rock (I'll leave it to you to figure out if I mean SanBangSan or Hyung Jae Some ㅎㅎㅎ). And naturally a huge photo-op for our camera-addicted society.
Close up of Hyung Jae Some (형재섬).
It was also really cool to see Hyung Jae Some up close. I never realized that the small islands had such vibrant colours!
Rounding the little islands.
All in all, this is a fairly relaxing outing that would be fun if you're just travelling through or if you've lived here for a while and looking for something new to do.
Looking back toward Jeju~~
Happy Spring Adventures!

Love and Hugs 

No comments:

Things I've learned about France (or at least Normandy)

Well there we go, my second European country. In some ways, very similar to England (a lot of meat and potatoes, fancy churches, pay toilets...