Can't Believe My Eyes!!!

Mysterious Road--DOWNHILL!!!

We continued to drive South across Cheju Island and happened upon one of three 'mysterious roads' of Cheju. These are stretches of roads that due to their unique circumstances offer optical illusions of things that appear to roll, unaided, uphill! It was so bizarre.

When we first explored this stretch of road--I didn't really see the illusion. I walked the stretch of it and then as I turned around to retrace my footsteps--it all hit me! I watched cars in 'neutral' roll down the stretch appearing to be moving 'uphill'. How bizarre? Then I tested the theory by placing a level on the road--what my mind told me was uphill was actually down. Then we poured water on the road's surface and it appeared to drain uphill!

Very interesting indeed!!!We continued on our cross island drive and drove through the 'public cemetery' as we somewhere took a wrong turn on our drive to our resort. It was this lush green place high in the foothills of Hallasan (Mt Halla). Mt Halla is to Chejudo what Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa is to Hawaii--the mountain is the island and the island is the mountain. The cemetery consisted of myriad happy mounds surrounded by rectangular lava rock stone walls. Occasionally, there were pagodas and stellae within these walled sections. This sight was breathtaking--you could see down the lush slopes of Mt Halla and in many places all the way to the Yellow Sea. I rarely get upset when we take a wrong turn knowing that more often than not the deviation may lead to a unique unplanned adventure.