Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Jeju Island! (Korea's Hawaii)

I had an amazing weekend trip to Jeju Island last weekend. It was so exciting and tiring and fantastic, and I know you're dying to see pictures :)

We left EARLY Saturday morning (after about 4 hours of sleep)... Here's Jordan and I waiting in Gimpo Airport (as the name suggests, it's basically Incheon International's lesser second cousin):



We made it to our hotel (definitely hasn't been updated since the 70's, but it was a good location) and, after some Chinese food, we were ready to hit the beach! We took a back walkway from the Hyatt hotel (NOT our hotel, haha) and this is the view that greeted us:


We had a fantastic afternoon on the beach. The waves were pretty intense - the ocean kicked my butt and knocked my face in the sand a couple times, hahaha. Then I got in some good beach-reading and a beach-nap :)

After heading back to the hotel for a shower, we headed north to Jeju's Loveland. This is a park devoted entirely to fairly graphic sexual statues. I can't post many (or any) of the pictures on here, because I'm fairly certain this is a family blog :) But I can give this little preview of a bench I saw there:


...And if you want to get more of an idea what I spent Saturday night ogling, just GoogleImage "Jeju Loveland" :)

The next morning (or what felt like that night) we got up at 3:15 am to go hike Jeju's Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak). This is an old volcano with a huge crater on top, that eventually formed a landbridge to Jeju Island, and is purported to have the best view of sunrise on Jeju.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't know about that. Here was our view:


It was FOGGY!!! A bit disappointing after booking it up this volcano at 4:30 in the morning to be sure we wouldn't miss sunrise! Here's proof of how wet it was up there and how early we got up - Me, soggy and sleepy:


But so you can see what we missed, here's a couple pictures of the mountain without a cloud cover:




After the volcano, we took a bus to visit some old lava tubes. These are places where, thousands of years ago, hot lava flowed through underground on its way to the volcano. It was pretty cool to see (and fortunately, cold inside, as we had to walk about a mile and a half from the bus stop to get there, haha), but we weren't allowed to take photos.

Our next stop was a waterfall right on the ocean. Apparently it was discovered by a Chinese man who was sent to collect "the elixir of life" from its waters... it was beautiful, and I made sure to soak my toes in it, just in case :)



Proof I was there (and still damp - what a wet, misty day!)


The inscription left by the Chinese man:


The waves over here were awesome... the sound alone made me want to move near the ocean:


Can you see the Ghost Ship in the distance?


After the waterfall, we were exhausted. We made it back to the hotel (yay late checkout!) for a nap, shower, and time to pack. After such a busy 48 hours (with little to no sleep) we were ready to be back in our own beds.

And, in just a few short weeks, I'll be traveling again! Kuala Lumpur, Bali, and Singapore! Can't wait!

Bonus pics:

The crazy-high and extremely frightening ride we rode at Lotte World a couple weekends ago:


Our (former) class pet, Diggy - A beetle we raised from a larva...who recently escaped. I've got the whole school on lookout, but I'm afraid he won't be returned alive. So

IN MEMORIAM
KIM HYUN DIGGY
A GOOD BEETLE
HE LOVED HIS BANANA JELLY



Love you all!

3 comments:

Jalayne (Emily's momma) said...

NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT OPEN UP PICTURE OF DIGGY WHILE EATING LUNCH....
Yes, I still have a very weak stomach and the black olive in my taco kinda reminds me of diggy...

audra said...

RIP Kim Hyun Diggy! Your hair looks really cute in all these pictures.

Bree-da-dee said...

Mmmmm... banana jelly! What a beautiful island! I'm so happy that you're traveling so much! You better buy a giant photo album! I totally want to see your passport when you get back!