Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Canuck Teacher]

Greets:

I thought I�d share some info/experiences on diving in and around Korea for anyone interested.

I have found scuba diving to be a great weekend option in Korea, and a truly excellent way to travel (dive shop hoping) around Asia. From my experiences in Thailand and the Philippines, dive shops tend to attract social, relaxed, confident people who seek adventure on their trips. But, back to Korea�

With little effort and much enjoyment, I acquired my Open, Advanced and Rescue Diver levels in Daegu city from a peerless Korean Course Instructor (also a doctor and now a good friend) who is fluent in English.

While the east and west coast of Korea does contain some dive locations, the visibility is usually poor and the marine life is less than spectacular. This combination makes it suitable for beginners who are doing training dives and extremists who just "need" to dive, regardless. Cheju-do, however, with its warmer waters, better visibility and adequate marine life, does offer a good, and relatively cheap experience for all. I had one this weekend.

I traveled to Woo-do (Cow Island), which is just a 15 minute ferry ride from Cheju-do. While lacking in beaches, this small and sparsely populated island has some very scenic bluffs and panoramic ocean views with a nice hike option available to a light house and marine museum which overlook the bay area.

The diving around the island contains many relatively shallow (15m depth) caverns, shelves, and trenches that twist and turn. The diving highlight, however, was a cave dive that got the heart racing as we approached the large entranceway cavern (filled with marine life seeking shelter) that I could see soon narrowed to about 2 m wide and a 1m high. Yikes. A large crayfish (12inches) stood watch at the cavern entrance, smiling (or was it laughing) as I swam past into the darkness of the passageway that I knew extended some 20m before it would open again into a large, air-filled cavern, complete with a beach, deep in the island�s core. Following the thin, white guide rope that was anchored to the sandy bottom and snaked away into cave, we went in with flashlights on�

The apr�s-diving was relaxing and did much to restore my foreinger-in-a-korea-city batteries. Woo-do is very scenic and great meals (relative to Korea) were had on the patio with the ocean and rolling green hills just moments away and in view. Only thing missing was a bottle of red and�.

For anyone interested, here are the prices and itinerary:

plane: daegu to chejudo, round trip about 50 min flight - W150,000
taxi: cheju airport to the cheju ferry terminal, about 30minutes - w25,000
ferry: not sure, my buddy paid.
dive package: includes 2 boat dives, a two day-one night motel stay (clean and simple), with all meals provided at the adjacent restaurant - 150,000