Jeju Island

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August 16th 2011

Published: August 23rd 2011

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Tink And Laura

LOVE

Team Kongland showing the love.

Dear Blog Readers,

The school semester is over and the rest-bite for the students lasts all but a couple of weeks before they’re back in school for English Summer Camp. I learnt a lot from my Winter Camp so I tried to give the students a bit more structure and made them prepare a folder to take home with them. They also were given daily spelling and dictation tests and their worksheets were marked daily so they had a sense of achievement by the end of the camp.

The first week was a murder mystery where the students progressively discovered I’d been brutally bludgeoned to death with an English textbook by my co-teacher. The second week was a Space camp with some experiments and activities which they seemed to enjoy. I particularly liked the natural disasters lesson where they came up with the word ‘snowslide’ for an avalanche and used the words ‘alive, sleeping and dead’ to describe ‘active, dormant and extinct’ volcanoes.

I loved the Summer Camp and the students responded really well with the activities and lessons. It was quite emotional on the final day knowing that it would be my last time teaching students but

Gowee, Byee, Bo!

Rock, paper, scissors on a plane!

we all had a great time. My sadness at finishing was countered by the excitement of going to Jeju Island!

Day 1

Carrie (my co-teacher), Sunny (an English teacher who used to work at my school), Yuni (Laura’s co-teacher), Laura and I have wanted to go to Jeju together for a long time. We’ve made such good friends here and it seemed fitting to have a final holiday altogether. Admittedly, Carrie, Sunny and Yuni did a lot of the organisation. This was good because they knew where to go, when to go and how to get the best discounts!

After camp finished on Friday we gathered our belongings and made our way to Cheongju airport to catch our flight. We got some cheap tickets with Jeju Air. Their tagline was probably, ”We’ll get you there in one piece…maybe two.” Yuni was pretty apprehensive about flying but her panic soon went as the cabin crew decided to play a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with everybody on board the flight. It was fascinating. Unfortunately my aircraft game winning streak of 1 from the Cebu-Manila flight stopped there and I didn’t win an inflatable aircraft. A baby crying behind

Caves

Kongland visiting the caves.

us got a balloon-poodle made for her by one of the staff which was cool. I thought about crying to get one too but my thoughts soon turned to panic as we came into land. The plane took a worryingly long time hovering above the runway and when it finally came down it was possibly the bumpiest landing I’ve ever experienced.

However, we made it. Jeju Island. In line for becoming one of the new 7 Wonders of The World. We’ll see if it manages to knock Machu Picchu or the Taj Mahal out of the top 7! Our hotel was close to the airport. We knew this because of the 10 minute taxi ride and the planes flying just above the roof every minute. Carrie and Sunny had bought some duck so we sat down for our first meal. A beautifully prepared Vietnamese dish of duck wrapped in wetted rice paper stuffed with cabbage, peppers and chilli sauce. We settled down for the evening and got some sleep.

Day 2

We woke pretty early and Laura and I went out to buy some milk for our cereal. When we got back, Yuni had prepared breakfast –

Rain

We brought the English weather with us!

duck, wetted rice paper, cabbage and chilli sauce. We guessed it was going to be a weekend of cultural differences! We rented a car and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of leg room. We drove to Eastern Jeju-do to Manjangul (만장굴) which is the world’s longest system of lava-tube caves. They were amazing! The sticky heat outside soon turned to refreshingly cool once inside the caves. The evidence for the ferociousness of the natural forces that created the tunnels was evident all around us. The 1km walk brings us to a huge lava pillar where we were able to take some photos.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t improve and the rain continued to fall. Ironically, it was the first day of the third and final part of the summer. Koreans eat samgetang (삼가탕) on each of these ‘first days’. Samgetang is a whole chicken in a soupy broth with rice and other ingredients. It’s delicious and we were starving so it went down very well!

We then visited a place called EcoLand. It had a small narrow-gauge railway running through a scenic route lined by trees and lakes. The landscape and scenery was beautiful and there were plenty

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of stops to get on and off to take photos. Luckily the sun had come out for us so the views were particularly good. At one point it felt like we were in Holland with a huge windmill encompassed by rolling fields and still water lakes.

We then made our way to our hotel. The owner was an English university teacher and he cooked us our samgyeopsal (삼곂살) that we’d bought earlier on his own BBQ. He planted his own pine trees and took the leaves to add flavour and the meat was from the famous black pig of Jeju. This was without doubt the best samgyeopsal I’ve had in Korea and it was even better eating it outside in the heat of the evening. After a few drinks, a Korean name giving experience (Laura is called 노수아 and I am called 사임원 ) and a play on the piano inside the lobby it was time for bed.

Day 3

Another early start and we were in the car racing towards Southern Jeju-do to Jungmun. Overlooking the beach is Pacific Land which is an aging complex containing probably one of the worst aquariums I’ve ever seen. It

Aquarium

Worst aquarium in the world?

contained some strange looking fish in murky containers and a multitude of dead fish with their innards on show. I felt more sorry for the fish that were alive rather than dead. We then went inside the complex to see a show which we thought was a dolphin show. To our horror, the opening act was 4 monkeys doing all manner of uncomfortable to watch acts. The seals were next followed by some dolphins. We were ‘impressed’ for all the wrong reasons.

We got back in the car and made our way to a port stopping off at a black sand beach nearby. It was our first experience of a Korean ‘beach’. The sand was an amazing colour but there were hundreds of people on a small stretch of beach. It was crammed! The life-guard was having a time trying to keep everybody into the cordoned off area of sea where people were allowed to swim. We hopped onto a ferry and went for a tour around parts of the island and see some huge rocks off the coast. The volcanic structures on show were outstanding. The sea was pretty choppy and the music playing over the speakers was

Tea Fields

I went to pick some tea leaves but I found Laura instead.

suitably cheesy. At one point, Celine Dion’s, ‘My Heart Will Go On’ started playing!

We then went to O’Sullo Tea Museum on the rolling plantation of Sulloc. It is one of the largest areas of green tea in Korea. We strolled through the fields and took plenty of photos before making our way inside the teacup-shaped museum. We got some free tasters and the museum contained an interesting collection of ancient tea implements from around the world. I was disappointed at the quality of the England tea cup. I was hoping for a large, porcelain white builder’s mug. We made our way to the top of the museum for some views of the plantation fields too.

For a spot of dinner, we visited a restaurant which boasted the biggest burger in Jeju. The pizza sized burger was shared between the five of us and tasted pretty good. We then found an awesome seafood market where they had a whole range of freshly caught fish. We decided to get some fresh raw fish from a popular shop with a huge queue outside it. About an hour later, we finally got our food and made our way back to the

Sashimi

Sashimi at 1:30am!

hotel. It was now about 1am and we set up our raw fish dinner in the middle of the room. At first we were absolutely shattered, but after eating the phenomenally good food and playing some drinking games we didn’t really want to go to bed!

Day 4

Laura and I woke early to prepare breakfast for everybody – bacon ‘n’ egg sarnies. They went down well although it probably would have been better with a bit of kimchi on the side. We packed up and left the hotel to catch a ferry to Udo Island (Cow Island). The route was lined with Korean flags because it was a national holiday – Liberation Day. The island is only 15 minutes from the main port in Jeju and it manages to be rural and relaxing despite all the tourists flocking there.

The main attraction is the beautifully white coral beach at Hongjodangoe Haebin Beach. We dumped our things and lathered up the sun-cream. I’ve never seen anybody put on as much sun-cream as Carrie, Sunny and Yuni in my life! Getting a tan is a Koreans worst nightmare. Yuni was also out of her comfort zone because she

Sun-cream

Laura can't believe how much sun-cream Yuni is putting on.

couldn’t swim. The water was quite chilly but very shallow. The weather was great too so we didn’t feel too cold. Yuni thought it was a perfect opportunity to learn to swim and after about half an hour and the use of an empty water bottle as an inflatable, she was swimming up and down like a fish! It was very impressive!

After a nice swim, we relaxed on the side of the beach. Yuni stayed covered from head to toe and ever got her umbrella out! Carrie, Sunny, Laura and I took a quick nap after our excursions. When I came to, I realised my mistake. I’d been concentrating so much on making sure my back was covered in sun-cream (after the horrific experience in the Philippines) that I’d forgotten to do my front!

We hoped we could hire a golf cart to go around the island but they were all sold out so we settled on one of the tour buses. The tour bus was great. We could hop on and off and see different parts of the 10km wide island. The driver informed us of some useful facts and pointed out Udo’s only petrol station

Diana

Me doing the Diana for Pete.

and the highest building on the island – the post office. We walked to a nice viewing point which overlooked the island. The clouds were really low and the steam gushed up the cliffs and over the crescent where were standing. As if by magic, the clouds departed just in time so that we could see the famous volcanic punchbowl crater at Ilchulbong in the distance.

We made our way around the island and finished with a bowl of jajangmyeon before getting the ferry back. We got in the car and headed to the Jeju Folk Museum. The museum had beautiful gardens and waterfalls with places to sit and relax. It also had reconstructions of various houses and recreated the history of the island in an authentic and tourist-friendly way. It showed the difference between the mountain, hill-country and fishing villages and the types of houses associated with each of them.

Our final hotel was called Ire House. It was a beautiful place with loads of character. After having a quick shower we ate some ramyeon. Yuni and Sunny told us about a song that they know about kimchi and ramyeon being best friends and that they can’t

Love Land 2

Not a willy in sight.

live without each other. I will try and get the lyrics off them! Apparently everybody in Korea knows it!

Our evening jaunt was to go to the infamous Jeju LoveLand. The erotic park was created by art students and graduates from Hongik University in Seoul. It’s popular with South Korean honeymooners looking for inspiration/education. The place was really funny and we all had a good time. There were phallic objects pretty much everywhere. My favourite was a sculpture of a golfer whose golf club has been replaced with his own penis. Superb.

Day 5

After packing in so much in such a short space of time, waking at 9am felt like a lie-in! We gathered our things and applied bite cream to the numerous mosquito bites which we’d all got from the previous night. We decided to go snorkelling at a place near the airport. The snorkelling was great fun. Yuni, now swimming like a fish, couldn’t get enough of it. Laura and I were able to compare with our experiences in the Philippines. The sea-life was great and the rock formations were so much different because of the volcanic activity associated with the island. It was

Gom Se Mari

Team Kongland with the three bears.

a great activity to end the holiday.

We got to the airport and went to the Duty Free. I’ve never seen such a busy Duty Free. At home, we normally have one or two people being catered for by 10 staff members. Here, the people outnumbered the staff 10-1! Carrie, Sunny and Yuni stocked up on their presents before we boarded our flight and said goodbye to Jeju!

Tink and Laura

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