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On the rocks
Edgar Allan Zeta-Yap sails off the beaten map to the
South Korean volcanic mystery island of Ulleung-do
UPON SIGHT OF A MAP
,
my eyes
instinctively wander beyond the
edges of land masses to the outlying
islands. Despite cartographers of old
creatively appropriating these vast,
open waters with menacing drawings
of sea monsters, I have always found
them to be the most intriguing. As
was the case with my recent forays
to both the Batanes and Perhentian
islands, and most recently Ulleung-
do, distant allotments of earth never
fail to rouse my wanderlust with their
sheer isolation.
The first time I laid eyes on Ulleung-
do I was quick to discern that it was the
quintessential escape, a nondescript
yet intriguing fleck of land some 120km
from the Korean peninsula, in the
middle of the Sea of Japan — or what
Koreans call the East Sea. There was
enough room around the lonesome
73
km
2
dot for a mapmaker to conjure
a pod of fearsome leviathans. I was
thrilled and immediately compelled to
discover what this remote and rugged
island had to offer.
From the heritage city of Gyeongju
on the east coast of South Korea, I
detoured northwards to the industrial
port of Pohang and boarded a massive
passenger catamaran for the island.
Ulleung-do is a sought-after nature
retreat for domestic tourists, especially
during the summer months, but
extremely low-key in comparison to the
mass tourism getaway of Jeju-do. And,
unlike the famous holiday island, this
was certainly off most foreign visitors’
radar. Escaping their fast-paced,
hi-tech lives, Koreans young and old
retreat to Ulleung-do to commune
with unspoiled nature. They fish, hike,
savor fresh seafood or pumpkin candy
—
the island’s best-known products
—
or simply enjoy some of the most
impressive seascapes in their country.
