Jeju do

carla mccoy
July 29th 2006

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me and my goony face squinting in the sun

So its summer vaction time in the wonderful world of korea, a whole 5 days, your truly spoiling us. So I decided to venture over to a little island by the name of Jeju which is just off the coast of south korea. We arrived and the original plan was to rent scooters, but we decided to go for car hire, cheap and small was key. Cheap is the price we got, however the car was no smaller than an army truck, always good fun to drive around! Anyway as designated driver I had alot of responsibility, ie our lives, mental note to self dont drive on the wrong side of the road!
So upon our arrival we checked out Iho beach which was right next to the airport. Not bad at all, had a good bob around in the sea, and spoke to some funny chinese men, who were very short. The parts I could stand in, he obviously couldnt and was nearly drowning while trying to have a conversation with me, of course this amused me, so we floated out deeper in order to watch him struggle more, iVE never seen anyone swallow so much salt water mwhaha ,

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moi on Iho beach

no i'm not usually so mean (yeah right I hear you cry) but his friend was insistent on teaching me how to swim, even though I informed him several times that I am more than capable of swimming and was certainly not in need of his assistance. I think he was just finding an excuse to put his grubby paws on me, and they kept telling me I was pretty and would be successful in china, I'm not sure if he meant as a teacher or implying I change professions! hmmmmm

After the beach we mooched around Jeju town, watched a live music performance in the centre which was good, the market was slightly disappointing, just fruit and veg not quite camden market but hey. We decided the trip would be cheap as possibly, not realising how cheap hotels were (7.50 a night each oops) so thought we'd crash in the motor. We found a quiet little road by the sea and our own little outhouse equipped with urinal , porcelain throne and washing facilities, so were set.However wary that we didnt want to drain the battery we couldnt keep the air con and radio on all night, but

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the heat was immense so we slept with the windows open. This is when the mossie massacre began.
LIz counted 30 odd bites, I had a not quite impressive ten or more, but the little gits dont give up, by the morning the windscreen had so much blood on it it looked like a slaughterhouse. The little beast were obviously ravenous and feasted on us, and the car interior now incorporates blood red into its colour scheme. So decisions were made to make a hotel reservation for the next few nights.

Waking up at half 5 in the morning due to the attack of the killer mossies, I tried in vain to start the engine, which just kept chugging but just wouldnt start. We tried and tried and tried, sob oh nooooooooo, so we tried to flag someone down to help but I think they just thought I was a random stray trying to hitchhike. A few calls to the car hire company didnt work, I think the nice korean voice message was saying it wasnt open at such an hour. Luckily a man on a little scooter pulled over and tried the engine, and it wouldnt start. Then

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he kind of looked at me and i Could tell he was thinking, you numb bitch! and he pressed a button to the left of the wheel and the car started. Hallalujah!!! haha it was a bloody circuit breaker switch thing, the people at the car rental didnt inform us about ,. How stupid did i feel ahh numpty dot com

Hyeopjae beach was beautiful clear water white sands just beautiful especially at 7 am with nobody on it. We ventured over to the peace museum, which was showing pieces from the Japanese and korean war, there were miles of tunnels that the Japanese made KOreans dig under the island, a huge network of them, and then loads of war pieces. Was really interesting to see and also quite sad. The tour guide was excited to practice his english so gave s a guided tour of the tunnels. Then we ventured onto the Cheonjeyeon falls, which were really beautiful, not quite niagara but it was nice, and the Yeomije Botanical gardens. The heat was sweltering , scorchio
teddy bear museum was next, which was mega cheesey but fun! They had the worlds most expensive bear which cost 125 k

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our little wash house

!!! Decked out in louis vitton , and a savorski ( spelt wrong eek) crystal dress on for 25k , scandolous ! eRM what else did I do, just random beaches, and crusing around the island, saw seongsan mountain which was col. A huge sungumburi crater in the mountains , erm went in the longest cave in the world which was erm very ........... long.

We also took the ferry over to Udo island which had a white sand beach and was stupidly hot so we just sat in the shade and also checked out the poltergeist park. I t had tonnes of statues of ghosts and little buildings you go through and people jump out on you needless to say I squealed far too loudly and nearly cAcked myself! mwhaha was really good fun even though the park is aimed at children, but I can definately say it appealed to me.
On the last day we checked out the folklore museum which had far too many stuffed whales/ eagles etc for my liking but hey. OK thats bout it. ENjoy the stupid amounts of pictures I'm adding

We also ventured over to u - do which is

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we got bored trying to sleep after the mossie attack, so took some amusing pics on the porcelain throne

a little island, with a nice beach but the weather was stupidly hot and so we just sheltered ourselves under the precious little shade the island ofered. I was craving some alternative cuisine to korean or my teas which consist of beans on toast and we came across a mexican restaturant in jeju, which was beautiful and much needed. mmmm well i didnt get too sunburnt and had a nice relaxing few days. Now im heading back to gwangju to work as usual, sob sob sob , only 9 weeks till japan thats what will keep me going!

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again it was quiet so we were taking dumb photos, i probably oput a huge dent in the bonnet and the car and tyres buckled under my weight haah

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coast

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our rental car - small motor my tharse

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stupid o clock in the morning overlooking the beach

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lots of little islands just off the beaches

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lots of little islands just off the beaches

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seongsan illchulbong mountain

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teddy museum

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elvis is still alive

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oh smickles it john lennon n the gang

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25 k dress bling

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who remembers RUXPIN well took me back to my childhood

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big mofo bear

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me pimpin out me two bears, apparantly we all have a similar IQ, who knew I was so intelligent!

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i dunno the name of this beetle so i will christen it the mingbeetle it was huge and ugly

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africa museum

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