Jeju Do

Jeju Do is an island off the southern tip of South Korea, and it is the most popular tourist destination in Korea. I went for a weekend with Adventure Korea, and it was such an amazing trip. It was a small group, only 15 of us, so we all got to know one another pretty well. That was unusual and made the trip even better than my other AK trips thus far. We had a jam-packed schedule, but I'm so glad we got to see and do everything as it is unlikely I will make it back in my short time remaining in Korea.

Our first stop on Saturday morning was at a horse ranch of sorts. They gave us these silly "cowboy hats" and we went around the ring a couple of times. There was a man leading me and another girl the first time around, and he would not let us ride on our own. There were plenty of people (men) riding solo in the ring. I definitely make an effort to acclimate in this culture, but I will not budge when it's something specifically because I'm a woman. I was so upset! After getting off and making a bit of a fuss, they let me ride again, solo this time. I was so happy afterwards. I forgot how much I love riding.

This was our lunch one day, which is very typical in Korea. They serve lots of onju (side dishes) for everyone to share. It is very common to get an entire fish or entire animal of any kind served at the table. It always reminds me of the last scene in A Christmas Story with the full duck on the table. I will say I have gotten used to it though, and have no problem eating off a fish with its eyes still in tact. Never thought that would be the case...

One of the stops was at a Teddy Bear Museum, which I was not particularly looking forward to. I have mentioned them before in my blog, but they are a pretty big form of entertainment out here, and I just find it to be so odd. At this particular one, they had different areas of a zoo when we first walked inside the building. There were so many different kinds of exotic stuffed animals in a zoo-like atmosphere. The picture above was in the "Art Section" and I thought this was the most ridiculous of everything. They took famous paintings like this one and glued three-dimensional bears on top of them where the people are supposed to be. 

I didn't really take any pictures of the room, and I should have. Everyone came in our room, because it was the largest. Basically, there was one bed, which you can see in the background, and a pallet on the floor with 4 pillows for the rest of us to sleep on. The floors are heated, and I thought it was more comfortable than my bed in my apartment. That is just sad. It was really fun to have everyone get together like this though. We all spoke English, but were from many different parts of the world. I have enjoyed having the opportunity to make friends from such different places. 

This was at the Botanical Gardens on our first day. I have never seen cactus like this before; they look like giant worms! There was an entire cactus house with many different species that were new to me.

More cactus.

At the entrance to the Botanical Gardens they had a waterfall. It was so pretty to see the rainbow.

We took a ferry from the island to an even smaller island, called Udo. This island is famous in Korea for the women divers. It is a really old custom on this island that is slowly dying out, as none of the younger women want to do this for a living. You can see the woman right by the buoy; it was interesting to see something still in practice that has become so outdated. Apparently they dive all year round.

This was on one side of the island, and the sand here is precious to them. I believe it is coral sand, and if you take any off the beach they will fine you. It was actually just really small pebbles instead of what I would consider to be sand. It was very pretty with the volcano in the background. The mountain is on Jeju, and we were supposed to climb it on Sunday. A large part of our group still did so, but I chose not to because of the heavy rains. I definitely made the right choice for me, as many of them said they were afraid they were going to die with the wind and poor weather conditions. Not my idea of a good time.

This was a beach on the other side of the island with some caves on the water. This area was my favorite place I've found in Korea thus far. It was cool to see the black sand and be able to explore around the rocks and in the caves.

This is a view from inside a cave on the other side of Udo Island. They only gave us fifteen minutes to look around here, which was no where near enough for me. This was by far my favorite place that I have found in Korea. I was discussing with a friend before leaving how everything in Korea is set up for you to find. It's not generally possible for you to go out and explore something new on your own; they have everything mapped out and prepared for you. This cave felt very fresh and untouched. It was a very relaxing and calming place for me.

From the outside looking in the rocks appeared purple. It was really beautiful and unusual. A couple of us went off exploring and found this area, our tour guide didn't even know it existed.

This was another stop on Udo Island, the tallest point. It was a great view of the island itself and out over the water. It felt very much like the countryside in Europe to me (saying this without having ever been), and it was like I could have been in Ireland or something from pictures I've seen. A couple of the women from England commented on how it reminded them of home.

Our first stop on Saturday was at a Korean Folk Village. Basically we walked through several different houses with things set up from the past and present of Korea and even a bit of other cultures. It was interesting, and I loved these shoes.

I would assume this is the traditional Korean dress, called Hanbok, but it doesn't really look like the one's I've seen. To me, this looks more like a Japanese traditional gown. Not too sure why that would be here.. 

I don't have any pictures of the airport, but our departure from Jeju gave us all a real taste for the negative side of Korean culture. In spite of it all, I still had such a great trip, but man, what a night. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:25 pm and we did not board the plane until 11:30. There were four flights going to our airport on Sunday, and one at 5 pm was cancelled. The people on that flight protested, and managed to keep everyone from leaving the island. It was a mess. There was no explanation for it; all the planes except the initial cancelled flight were sitting outside, and we were stuck. They completely allowed this group of people to bully them into shutting down the entire process of running an airport. It was mind boggling. Something like that would have never happened in another first world country; they truly have no comprehension of organization or damage control. Everything ALWAYS turns into a hot mess. They seem to really feed off that kind of drama.