Well, busy times have led us to skip posts about fun times in Apgujung (Korea's Rodeo Drive) and the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival, but hopefully we'll have time to revisit those adventures. Last weekend was one of the best times I've had since coming to Korea, as Mel, Shaun, Hannah and I flew to Jeju Island for a mini-vacation.
Jeju is known as the "Hawaii of Korea", because of it's beautiful beaches and palm trees. With only half a million residents it has half the population of Suwon, though it is a huge draw for Korean honeymooners and Japanese tourists. In fact, we had to wait nearly three months to get plane tickets to Jeju because the planes were all booked up on the weekends. We left last Friday, which was also my birthday and a it was very exciting way to spend the evening. The trip was smooth- the flight was less than an hour and we found our nearby hotel easily. At only $30 a night our rooms were fantastic, and we spent the night looking around and having some drinks at a local brewery which fermented and lagered on site.
Jeju is known as the "Hawaii of Korea", because of it's beautiful beaches and palm trees. With only half a million residents it has half the population of Suwon, though it is a huge draw for Korean honeymooners and Japanese tourists. In fact, we had to wait nearly three months to get plane tickets to Jeju because the planes were all booked up on the weekends. We left last Friday, which was also my birthday and a it was very exciting way to spend the evening. The trip was smooth- the flight was less than an hour and we found our nearby hotel easily. At only $30 a night our rooms were fantastic, and we spent the night looking around and having some drinks at a local brewery which fermented and lagered on site.
Saturday we awoke to gail force winds and buckets of rain which persisted for the remainder of the weekend! Nevertheless, we pushed on and headed directly to Korea's one and only sex-themed park, Love Land. Love Land opened a few years ago and all of the statues and artwork on the property were created by a group of Hongik University students who obviously have a good sense of humor. The grounds were quite impressive, with loads of humorously sexy statues and innuendos. No need to go into graphic descriptions, but it definately went against anything I'd ever seen in conservative Korea, and the ajumma's visiting seemed to like it too.
We then took a cab from the sexy park to the southern area of the island where our hotel had been booked for the second night. The drive was amazing and I saw the most green I'd seen in months and months. After checking into the hotel, we walked to nearby Cheonjiyeon waterfall. The walk to the waterfall was nice, especially since the rain had let up for a bit.
After that we walked about 5 minutes to the harbour and watched the big waves created by the storm. I'd never seen such huge waves in my life, and they looked so purty in the emerald green water against the grey sky. It had stopped raining for about an hour or so, but it picked back up again so we decided to partake in an indoor activity...
...a teddy bear museum. Hannah had suggested this place a few weeks back and we'd been obsessed with the idea of it ever since. The museum basically retells historical events using teddy bears. Above is the teddy Last Supper, but they also had the first teddy on the moon, teddy's bringing down the Berlin Wall, teddy Titanic, teddy hippies, and so on and on and on. It was awesome. Highly recommended if you feel like a laugh.
Hungry, because the food choices on Jeju were much more limited than on the mainland, we bit the bullet and went to a horse restaurant. The main dishes on Jeju are black pig, fish, and horse- three things I had little interest in as I am lame and unadventurous in the realm of food. I'm pretty sure I would die of scurvy if I was working on Jeju lol. Mel pointed out, and I agree, that Jeju was probably very similar to the Korea of 10 years ago. No western chains or products whatsoever (not even a McD's! Probably a good thing...) and a much simpler way of life. Ah, but back to supper. Hannah and Shaun had the horse and enjoyed it, Mel and I had bulgogi which was *meh*. Mel tried the horse though- go Mel! I settled for beef and putting my big melon head through the wall (above). That's what you get when your walls are made of paper.
Fed, we cabbed back to our hotel for drinks and then ventured out to the bar scene which was nonexistant, probably because of the weather. We did find a few places that were open and had a laugh by ourselves anyway. The next morning we awoke to... rain! We decided to go check out the beach anyway and by the time we got there the rain had let up for a bit. The weather actually got pretty agreeable for the two or three hours we spent at the beach so we were very thankful for that. I think we'd all been hoping to swim a little. Unfortunately swimming was not allowed because the waves were too strong. But it was a pretty big beach and there weren't many lifeguards, so we got in the water anyway- every now and then getting whistled at by a lazy korean in orange. It was impossible to swim because of the waves but they were definately fun to ride! There was a picturesque waterfall on the beach and the water was warm.
After we'd finished at the beach we got a taxi and headed to a north-eastern part of the island where we visited the Manjanggul lava caves. Jeju is a volcanic island, and we were able to walk through one of the tunnels created by the lava. It was cold and damp (as caves are), and the imprints left by the lava on the walls of the cave were interesting and unique. It was a massive, tall cave and we learned quite a bit about lava balls from the information booths within. The cabbie that drove us to the caves stuck around and gave us a ride to the airport as well.
There was a rainbow to see us off, but we would've felt much safer had we stayed on the island! We boarded our plane to go home, but then everyone was asked to get off and return to the airport. We had to wait another hour before it would take off and there was nothing to do at the airport at all besides suck on some kimchi :P When we did take off, the turbulance reached a point where the plane just shook in every direction and all the passengers screamed. Hannah was sweaty, Shaun was gripping his chair and my head was in my hands. Melodie was securing an exit plan as she's the decisive one in the group. It was a scary situation! When we landed, the runway was so wet that the plane skidded around. Needless to say we were so happy to be on the ground and I am not looking forward to any on the 5 flights ahead of me in the next 30 days!! Help!!! Somebody book me a ferry to Canada!
So Jeju was really awesome and I'm really glad we were able to visit the island before we go home (in only 20 days- ahhh!!) In my opinion, it was the most beautiful part of Korea I've seen to date. If you like, here are some albums of pix from our trip- definately worth checking out for the Love Land pictures alone!
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