Jeju #4: Green Tea and Erotica

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Another earlyish start. At least this morning wasn't too early and I was able to take advantage of the hostel's free breakfast again. I love me some eggs toast and peanut butter. My first port of call for today was the O'Sulloc green tea fields. I headed to the bus station and caught the bus, I can't remember how it took but it wasn't too long, maybe 30-40 minutes and took me to a different part of the island. I had read someone's blog about visiting the tea fields and was prepared to be underwhelmed. The bus dropped me right in front of the museum. I headed across the road to the green tea fields. After having visited the beautiful green tea fields in Boseong, these ones were a bit pathetic in comparison. The road runs through them and there are lots of overhead cables, ruining the photos. It definitely didn't feel as magical as Boseong. I took some pictures and the sign warning people that there were snakes in the fields, well and truly put me off from wading into them.

I then headed over to the green tea museum. There was a nice viewing platform spread out over the top top floors, one indoor and one outdoor. I only wish that the weather had been better as it was a pretty overcast morning. I had a look around the museum, it was pretty small and mostly in Korean, so didn't take up too much time. There were some pretty tea pots and cups. I also loved the packaging on the different boxes of tea from years gone by. I tried to get some photos of them, but with the reflection on the glass they turned out pretty crappily. I had a look around the store and purchased some tea. I picked a nice fruity one and this other one that smelt like chocolate. The fruity one is delicious, but I still haven't tried the other one yet. The shop and cafe were heaving with Chinese tour groups, O'Sulloc must give some major kick backs to the travel companies as it seemed like every tour bus had stopped there. The cafe is famous for some green tea roll cake, I think there is a black one and a white one. I didn't really fancy any cake, so I opted for a green tea ice cream instead. It was okay, not as nice as the one I had in Boseong though.

After finishing my ice cream, I headed to have a look around the gardens. They were quite pretty and well tended to. I saw the snake sign again, but luckily no snakes. There is a fancy glass building where you can do a tea tasting session. I bet that would be amazing, there was a session in progress when I walked past. I headed to the Innisfree House, which was near the back of the gardens. I have to say as a huge Innisfree fan, I was pretty disappointed in the place. You could do stuff like make your own soap, but the exclusive stuff they only sold there was pretty mediocre, and they had no make up at all, only skincare products. They did have a very nice looking cafe selling organic stuff, which was pretty empty, as everyone was in O'Sulloc instead. If I had had more time, I would have had a drink there, but the bus was due soon.

I took the bus back to the city and had about an hour's wait until my next bus was due. The places I was travelling to today had pretty infrequent bus services. I was feeling a bit hungry, so I had a wander along the street to see what I could find. There was a Paris Baguette, bog standard Korean bakery, so I had some kind of pastry and a coffee, while reading. I headed back to the bus station and found the bus I needed to take me to my next destination. I really like that on Jeju Island you can use your t-money cards, so you don't have to faff about with money. Only problem is that the bus driers have to calculate the fares when you get on the bus, so you have to tell them your destination, not like Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, where it is tap on and off, and the fare correct fare is taken. I innocently told the bus driver that I was going to the 'Art Museum' bus stop. I wonder if he believed me. The bus ended up pretty full, this route goes past another entrance to Hallasan National Park and I lot of people were going there. The bus left on time and we drove out of the city. The journey was pretty quick and I was deposited near the Art Museum, along with an older Asian couple. I was hoping that they were heading to the same place as me, but they were heading to the Art Museum.

A two minute walk up the road left me outside of Loveland, a place I had been wanting to visit for years. I had wanted to come last time I was in Jeju, five years ago, but there were no public transport links, and I didn't want to fork out for a taxi. Thankfully, there is now an infrequent, direct bus service. Loveland is a sculpture park, that specialises in erotic sculptures. I paid my entrance fee, which was 9,000 won and entered the park. It was pretty quiet inside, there were no Chinese tour buses here. Loveland opened in 2004 and 140 sculptures depicting sexual organs and people doing it. When I posted the pictures on facebook some of my friends commented how funny it was, as Korea is a pretty conservative country, yet they have this sex theme park, and also the Penis Park in Gangwon-do. The sculptures were designed by graduates from Hongik university in Seoul. I think one of the reasons Jeju has this sculpture park is that it is a popular honeymoon destination for Korean couples.

It took me about an hour to look around. This place was hilarious! Giant penis', boobies and vajajays everywhere. Some of it is tasteful, some is crude, and some just comical. There is a giant penis in the middle of the park, that water spurts out of, and it has the name Monstercock! There was also a couple of exhibition halls, one had loads of little models of people in different place, having sex, a kind of history of Koreans having sex through the ages. There was also a shop selling all kinds of adult goods. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the other people at the park. They were all quite uptight, no one was really laughing or joking or posing with the sculptures. I was gutted there were no dirty minded ajummas about. I would have love to have seen some of them posing with and cackling at the statues.

The bus dropped me back off at the bus station. I decided to head to CGV and see what movies were showing. I don't go to the cinema very often,but since I was tired, I felt like chilling and watching a movie. Luckily the cinema is in a great location between the bus terminal and my hostel. I'm afraid the film choices were slim pickings and the next English language movie showing was San Andreas, not my usual cup of tea, but it was a couple of hours of implausible escapism. I spent the evening packing up my stuff at the hostel and then had a final meal at the Cheonguk, another one of my favourites, Omurice, which is fried rice wrapped in an omelette. I grabbed a beer from the convenience store and an ice cream from Baskin Robbins and headed back to the hostel. I sat in the lounge area, reading and got chatting to some other travellers, who were staying there. I was envious of those doing longer trips. I also received some good news that evening, a message from a colleague to say that our Merscation (MERS + vacation) was being extended for another few days. Assah!

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Photos

Argh!
O'Sulloc