Friday, November 1, 2013

Sea Woman In Jeju

'Haenyo', literally meaning sea woman or female diver is famously found in Jeju, Korea. As told by the tour guide, there are only two countries have haenyo today. One is in Korea and another in Japan. However, the sea woman in Japan tends to retire earlier in the age while the average age of sea woman in Korea is around 90 years old and only the elderly woman in Jeju becomes a sea woman to earn for their living. The sea woman becomes a breadwinner on the island while their man would stay at home, taking care of the house and children. Because of the hard work and feeding on the horse's meat/bones, the sea woman in Jeju tends to live longer and healthier than the sea woman in Japan.

The elderly woman plunges into the cold sea, disappear for minutes and return to the surface with their captures such as octopus, sea urchin, seaweed and shellfish. Quite interesting to learn the fact on sea woman.

We bought some of their captures for an amount of 50,000 won, estimated around RM200 and ate freshly on the spot. My dad and brother said that it was considered cheap already. If ate in Malaysia, it will cost more than that.

 This plate cost 50,000 won

 Pretty scenery 


Sleep Like a Korean

Annyeong!

Visiting to Korea is like a dream comes true to me. 
Korea is in my list of 'Must-Visit' Countries in this lifetime. 
If there is a chance, I would like to go to Korea again. I love their country, people as well as their culture and food. 

Anyway, one of the experience I tried when in Korea was slept like the Korean - 'Ondol' which is a underfloor heating. Often saw in the K-drama but now I had the chance to sleep like them. Pretty cool! Honestly, it was not comfortable at all. I still prefer to sleep on the bed with a thick mattress. Getting up from the mattress on the floor is another problem even for a young people like us, not to mention the elders.