Summer Vacation Part II: Jeju-do

Jeju Island is the southernmost point of South Korea. It is it's largest island and is considered to be the "Hawaii of Korea". Though comparing it to Hawaii is a bit of a stretch, it is indeed a beautiful island with lush greenery, beautiful waterfalls, and clear water beaches. Unique to Jeju are its stone statues of bug-eyed men called dolharubang. They have acted as guardians of the island for centuries.

Art, Stacy and I arrived in Jeju City on Monday evening after a pleasant 5 hour ferry ride. Though the ferry was full, the city seemed like it was empty. There was a nice boardwalk along the seawall and a brand new huge Ramada Inn right next to it. It was a beautiful building, but there was only one person in the foyer and about 5 in the casino. It was actually kind of creapy how empty it was. And this was supposed to be high season?! Several bars we walked into were also empty.

The next day we waited for Tanja to fly in and then our group was finally complete. We then headed for the south of the island where we stayed the next 5 days.

We all shared one tiny room of our hostel. Our sleeping arrangements were cramped to say the least. The four of us shared double bed. How'd we do it you ask? We all slept the width of the bed and propped our feet on chairs. It was rather amusing actually. The "Monkeys in the Bed" song comes to mind.

While in Jeju we took full advantage of the beach, which was the only crowded place on the island. The water was a pretty aqua color- was nice and warm and fairly clear too. Jeju has several nice waterfalls. One of them empties right into the ocean. It's apparently the only on in all of Asia that does this. Standing by that fall was just gorgeous. The wind and mist that came off were so neat. There was a second falls that we saw at night, since they had it lit up. Twice we simply sat in front of it for hours sipping beers and chatting about life. So relaxing!

We also took to the water for a cruise of the coastline and the harbor of Seogwipo, which were beautiful. Then Stacy, Tanja, Mark, and I went parasailing. (I forgot to mention that Mark, Stacy's friend, joined us for 2 days.) Parasailing was amazing. It was so much fun! It's very quiet when you're up there with a nice breeze blowing on your face as you look down at the water. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it yet. Coming back to shore we noticed what we thought were small birds flying quickly just above the water. They flew for about 10 seconds, dove into the water then jumped out again. Then were realized they were flying fish! They truly do fly. They don't just jump.

One night we also had a great time at the noraebong. Art and Tanja did memorable renditions of Eminem. I sang Bon Jovi and Stacy and Tanja belted out Pink. If anyone ever visits me in Korea we will definitely do noraebong. It's one of the best times you'll have in Korea because it's a room where you sing only to yiour friends, not the whole audience, so you don't care if you sound stupid or not. Since most people can't hold a note anyway. We were there until 3AM.

On Saturday Stacy and Mark parted for home and Tanja, Art and I explored the eastern part of the island where we saw some lava tubes and Ilchulbang (Sunrise Peak) which is a cool volcano crater. Apparently good for watching the sunrise.

Sunday Tanja headed home early as she had an early flight. Art and I stuck around for a few more hours on the beach. Those hours cost us both dearly though. Right as I was sitting on my towel, looking through my camera lens to take a picture of the incoming waves, a huge one washed right up on us and all our belongings. It killed both our phones and soaked everything else. Luckily I had my camera in my hand and was able to raise it above the water, otherwise it would have taken that too, along with all my photos! Of course, if I hadn't been playing with my camera at that moment I might noticed the wave coming and been able to save our stuff in time. Whatever. I got a cool new phone out of it.
This is the World Cup Stadium in Jeju that was built for the 2002 World Cup. It's shaped like a giant sail. Quite impressive actually. Interestingly the Under-17 World Cup is going on in South Korea this month.

Summer Vacation Part 1: Wolchulsan National Park

So last week was my long awaited for vacation. And it's already over. Funny how that goes. Art and I left on Saturday for the southwestern city of Mokpo. It was our jumping off point for Wolchulsan National Park. Wolchulsan is the smallest national park in Korea and my goal was to hike clear across it in one day. Which I succeeded in doing. It was only an 8 kilometer hike anyway.

After much huffing and puffing, and several stops, Art was able to finish the first leg of the trip which ended at the highest footbridge in South Korea. After seeing it in a travel book one day, this his bridge became the impetus for my visit to Wolchulsan in the first place. It soars between two mountain peaks about 450 feet from the ground. It was very pretty but still mildly disappointing. I was hoping for something along the lines of a swaying Indiana Jones rope bridge. Instead it was really sturdy and concrete. Nonetheless, it was worth the trip out there anyway.

I left Art at the bridge and then made my way down and then back up to the highest peak in the park, Cheonhwangbong. It was stunning. As high as that bridge was, I was looking down on it from the Cheonhwangbong. I was all alone on the peak and besides a nice breeze it was silent as I looked down on the world. I pulled out my phone to text someone and the beep when I pressed the buttons sounded like thunder. It was really quite startling.

After hiking back down from the peak I hiked along the ridge of the mountains, for the most part alone. There were plenty of beautiful vistas to take in and I took my time. On the other side of the park I dipped my weary feet in a cool mountain stream and then finally made it to the other entrance where I got a cab home. My whole trek lasted about 7 hours and by the end I was exhausted and so soaked in sweat I wrung it out of my clothes.

The next day Art and I made our way back to Mokpo. We wanted to see a "quaint" little village along the way called Gurim. We had to take a cab there and the driver looked at us like we were insane when we told him that. Finally he dropped us off in the middle of a tiny, sleepy town, shrugged his shoulders and said "Gurim, here you are. Suckers!" (I added he suckers part, but I bet he was thinking it.) He was quite right; there wasn't much there. We finally found the pottery cultural center that we wanted to visit but there was nothing there either. The two story visitor center that the website bragged about was indeed there. What the website failed to mention, however, was that it was still under construction. There was a gift shop, however, and the nice lady there called a cab for us. Back in Mokpo we were joined by Stacy who had taken a bus down that day, and then we went to the ferry terminal to buy our tickets to Jeju Island for the next morning.

When we got there we found that the ferry was leaving that afternoon at 3:30. On a whim we entirely changed our plans and left right there for Jeju. To be continued...