Mundong Waterfall - Geoje

A few days ago I decided to take time to pay a visit to the Mundong Waterfall. Let me start off by saying that I enjoy waterfalls, almost everything about them makes me happy. There are two main reasons for this, first, I like water and almost everything to do with water. Swimming for example, is kind of fun sometimes; showering is another water activity that I can be convinced to do. Second if it has water in it's name I will probably like it look at watermelons, watercolors, waterfronts, watermarks, waterwings, waterskiing, waterfalls. Nothing in that list is has a negative vibe to it, they are all things that I would feel perfectly comfortable talking about in front of my mother.

Now for the waterfall, from the first time I opened the tourist map I knew that I must see, even if it was the last thing I did in Korea. As it turned out, it almost was, but that is a story for another day. A few months ago I made a weak attempt at reaching the falls but I had wisely decided that we didn't need a map. We ended up completely missing the exit and going on a much longer and more adventurous ride than we had planned. Since the first trip I had seen the sign for the falls, it was much closer than I expected it to be but I lacked the time to go and explore them.

To get there it is pretty simple, just take the main road south through Gohyeon(BangBang Street) till you see a big blue building with large pictures on it to your right. About 100 meters from there you will see, on your left, a sign and the turn off for Mundong Waterfall. Depending on the lights it should take less than 10 minutes from the harbor. Parking is 5000 won for the day(I think), I went with Annabelle and so parking was free.

The path leading to the falls starts across from the parking booth, to my surprise it was paved all the way the the falls. In addition to that it was not very long or steep and it was tree covered, making it a gentle, easy, relaxing walk.

The path follows the stream, crossing over once or twice, allowing you to watch the water as it plays through the rocks on it's gravity powered journey to it's resting place. You will also get to witness the rare phenomenon of Korean's participating what some people call leisure time. There are many small platforms all along the stream for picnics, camping, barbecues, naps or anything else you can find to do on them.

As I said earlier it is a fairly leisurely walk, but I forgot to mention how safe it was all thanks to CCTV. Every 50 meters or so there was a stand in the forest beside the path with a camera facing down the path in two directions. Fantastic...

The falls themselves are about a 10-15 minute walk from the parking lot depending on the pace of your amble. The pace of your amble also determines the amount of breath that is taken away by the falls, if you amble at 15 km/h the falls will take much more breath away than if you amble at 3 km/h. Let's just say for the amount of effort needed, it is pretty alright.

Having taken the "classic" picture that looked just like the signs, minus some water, I wondered if there was more to it. I spied a path off to the left of the "classic picture of mundong falls bridge" leading upwards and because one of the best things I have heard of is up(Ever heard of heaven?) I started in that direction. The path forks after 100 meters or so, I can't comment on what is to the left but the right path crosses the stream about 25 meters above the falls. This is what it looks like from the top.

Again well worth the walk. Having seen the top I made my way back to the bottom of the falls and to immerse my self in the cleansing waters before I started the long gruelling hike down.

According to me, Mundong Waterfall is a fantastic way to make use of time, be it 15 minutes or 15 hours, and I would recommend to everyone coming to Geoje. After all, what is better than seeing water fall? Being able to tell someone else that you saw falling water...