Jeju Island- South Korea's Hawaii so they say

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We boarded our quick flight 50 minute flight from Gimpo airport in Seoul to Jeju Island. It was up, serve you a drink, then land, almost like San Diego to Vegas for those of our friends in So Cal.

When we arrived we planned on meeting up with Pete's friend from college, Emma, who he had reconnected with on Facebook after not seeing her for 8 years. We thought we would call her once we got to the hotel. Even better, Emma was waiving her arms in the air like crazy at us from the baggage claim area. I asked Pete " Is that Emma?" cause she was the only white girl in the crowd waving her arms at us. In the US this would be crazy but in Asia you can pick us out in a crowd easily. We were quit shocked she came to the airport to get us, even more shocked when we didn't take a bus or cab. Emma owns a Daewoo Tico that she bought for $400. It is a tiny car and it gets her around the island.

We found the hotel and got settled into our suite that had an ocean view on the 8th floor. Nothing too fancy but it was only $50 each night. We were excited it had a real shower, not just a shower head in the bathroom like our apartment and hostel in Seoul.

Then Emma drove us to her favorite beach, Hamdeok. We relaxed for a while on the beach and circled lots of things on the map that we should see and do over the next few days on the island. We then traveled back to her place and met her boyfriend, Mike. He is from England and has been teaching English in Korea for 2 years as Emma has been there for 2.5 years also teaching English. In Korea all foreign teachers work 40 hrs per week and make more money than us in China, but we only teach ten 40 minute lessons a week.

We went to a traditional Korean BBQ restaurant for dinner and got to cook our own pork. It was so tasty and we sat on the floor. In Korea you don't wear your shoes inside a restaurant, house or hotel room similar to Japan but China doesn't have this rule at all. Then we headed to the local convenience store to buy some beers and hang out. Strange you may think but we do this in China also.

The next day Mike picked us up and took us to a scooter shop. We rented a 125cc scooter for Monday-Wednesday to get around the island to view all the sites. It cost us 35,000won per day so a total of 70,000won=$58 total. I was worried at first since my father NEVER approved of me being on the back of a motorcycle. I even searched online for a car rental(no ERAC in Korea) but they were all sold out, scooter it was. Now looking back I would have never done it any other way. It was a blast having the island breeze in our face and cruising around seeing all the sites.

We headed out to the east on Monday around 11:30am when we left the scooter shop. We drove for about 30 minutes to the Manjanggul Lava Caves. We toured the 1km of cave that is open to the public and also had lunch there(Korean style). We then rode the scooter about 45 seconds down the road to the Maze Park that was suggested to us. When we entered it said about 65% find the bell at the end to complete the maze, 30% never complete it and 5% have the rescue squad recover them. Since Pete is directionally challenged(REALLY bad with sense of direction) I gave him the map and told him this was his challenge, I would just follow instead of lead. I was very happy that we completed it in less than 10 minutes with his guidance. Emma told us about 25 minutes we would complete it, so Pete beat the expectation of 25 minutes and SHOCKED me.

Then we got on the scooter and took the shore road along the coast further east on the island. We road along and found squid hanging on lines drying. Quite the sight in the photos, I made Pete stop so I could take a pictures since we didn't know what it was and never seen anything like it before. Then we continued on to Sunrise Peak. Once we walked around Sunrise Peak we decided we would come back and watch the sunrise one morning on our vacation, so we hopped back on the scooter and drove for another hour to the south side of the island. We found some waterfalls and then decided we better head back to the north side of Jeju over the mountain. The center of the island is Mt. Halla, a volcanic crater, 1950 meters high=5850 feet there are two roads over the mountain, one on the right side and one on the left side. So we took the right side since it was closer to where we were at. We knew it would be colder at such a high elevation and didn't want to be out in the dark on the scooter.

We made if over the mountain and back to the hotel around 6pm as the sun set around 6:45pm, just in time. For dinner we met up with Mike and Emma for some fabulous Indian food. Pete and I hadn't really eaten much Indian food, none since we even dated 3.5 yrs, but were open to anything. It was the BEST food ever, we will eat Indian food any chance we get now. We were exhausted that evening and knew we wanted to see the other half of the island tomorrow so we went back to the hotel around 8:30 to relax for the evening.

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Photos

Jeju Airport
back to palm trees, we always know we are someplace warm when we see these

Korean BBQ
Emma, Mike, Pete and I

Inside the cave
Largest lave something in the world that has been discovered.

Us at Kimnyoung Maze Park
Owned by a retired American professor from Bellingham, WA. This is his retirement a maze park made out of hedge

Squid
We drove along the shore road when we could to take in the little villages and we found this. Squid is a common dried snack in Korea. We didn't try it.Cool pic though.

Seongsan Illchulbong-Sunrise Peak
Eastern most part of the island has this awesome volcanic crater we later came back to watch the sunrise a few days later

Dolharubang
These statues come in all sizes around the island, they are grandfathers to watch over and protect others.

Small Jeongbang Waterfall
It empties into the sea

Small Jeongbang Waterfall
This is the part that flows into the sea

Comments

[Mom]

Jeju
Dried Squid????? I could not try that!!!! Otherwise looks like a great adventure!!!! corn maze in IL.....hedge maze in Jeju Islands !!!!

[Staci and Martin]

sounds like an awesome time! and how funny that you would visit a park created by someone from bellingham washington, i looked up the guy since thats where we went to school:)

[ElyseandPete]

He was born in Bellingham, WA and taught in Korea I believe. I will bring the flier to class.

[Staci and Martin]

yeah, you can look him up on wikipedia, he went to our school as an undergrad also:)

[paulette]

Jeju Islands
What a beautiful place and the girls would love the scooters....Your Mom's comment about corn maze and hedge maze reminds me of a story Dan's uncle told about Hawaii - his aunt was commenting on what a beautiful moon there was and she just wanted to sit and look at it - his uncle said I don't know what the big deal is - it's the same moon that hangs over the Esso STation at home!!!