First off, I would like to apologize for my lack of updates on my blog throughout my Korea trip. Living there and enjoying the short amount of time there rendered me with little time and energy to open up my blog. Instead, I will now be recollecting the memories that I have in the next few posts…

After have a couple of days to explore Seoul, it was already time to meet up with the staff members of Yonsei International Summer School (YISS) and approximately 130 students for our 3 days and 2 nights trip to Jeju Island (제주도). One of the guys working at the hostel I was staying at helped me & my friend (Alina) flag down a taxi and sent us to Yonsei’s East gate (연세대학교동문). Alina & I checked in with the Yonsei staff, got our packet, and stored one of each of our suitcases in a room in New Millennium Hall (NMH). After waiting for a little bit and going through orientation, the 130 students that were present filed onto the 3 buses and began our trip to Jeju Island. We got to Gimpo International Airport, rushed through the chaotic process of checking in our luggage,  and finally boarded our plane to Jeju Island after going through a flight delay.

The airline that we took to & from Jeju Island is Jin Air (진에어), a subsidiary of Korean Air. The atmosphere that Jin Air gave was completely different from that of Korean Air. Jin Air had more of a casual, “neighborhood-friendly” feel to them – probably contributed by their casual uniform. On the other hand, Korean Air had a more of a classy and elegant feel to them with their pretty uniform. The Jin Air employees reminded me of the convenience store employees because of the uniform – slacks & a polo. I actually really liked their uniform and the environment that I was in while I was on that less than 2 hour flight to Jeju Island.

Momentarily, we landed at Jeju International Airport only to find out that the island had experienced a downpour prior to our arrival. That explains why our flight was delayed earlier!  Everybody once again filed onto the bus that we were assigned to and set out for our next destination!

I was on bus A with Alina and our tour guide was Sujin Jwa. She’s a really funny and cool person, and reminded me of my Korean professor from UC Irvine. I think her catchphrase for the trip was “special generation” – that’s what she would call us. Her personality isn’t something that can be described in just words. You have to hear her and talk to her in order to grasp her personality. I enjoyed my trip in Jeju largely due to her!  Below is a picture of me with our tour guide on some bridge during our last day in Jeju.

Jeju is truly a beautiful place and I can understand why it’s the number one place for (Korean) newlyweds to choose as their honeymoon destination. No matter where you look, it’s nature! Many may say that Jeju Island seem “rural” or very “country-like”, I personally think that the green-ness and natural wonders are what set Jeju apart from the mainland and other islands. It’s a nice place to relax, get some fresh air away from the busy metropolitan life, and enjoy the scenery.

On our first day in Jeju, we went to a Chinese restaurant, Jeju Folk Village Museum (제주 민속촌 박물관), Seongsan Sunrise Peak (성산일출봉), and a Jeju Pork Bulgogi restaurant. We were able to eat jajangmyun/black bean noodles (자장명) along with other Chinese fusion delicacies at the Chinese restaurant and black pork at the bulgogi restaurant. Both meals were heavenly. Nothing so far has topped the taste of these 2 particular dishes.

jajangmyun

various Chinese fusion dishes

black pork

I love looking at architecture, especially “old buildings”. I may not know much about history or architecture, but buildings and lifestyles of earlier centuries and dynasties fascinate me, particularly the ancient empires and dynastic era. Going to the folk village was another heaven for me.

We also got to watch a special performance at the folk village. I’m not sure of the difference but I think they performed Hansori and/or Pansori for us. It was really enjoyable! Below are clips of my exploration of Jeju Folk Village! Please bear with the shakiness and lack of editing. You will also get to occasionally see the appearance of our tour guide in the videos!

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 1

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 2

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 3

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 4

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 5

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 6

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 7

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 8

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 9

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 10

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 11

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Jeju Island Folk Village part 12

We were also scheduled to go see the Jeju Island Female Diver Diving Show but due to the flight delay, we had to opt out of it. A fact of Jeju Island is that since most men had to work at sea and were lost at sea, many women were forced to look into other means of living and went into the diving business. These “mermaids” are called Haenyeo (Korean female divers) and dive into the ocean without any special tools to gather clams, abalone, or seaweed.  In order to keep up with the schedule, we moved on to Seongsan Sunrise Peak. Our tour guide said that there are exactly some hundred number of steps (I already forgot how many). Our tour guide opted out of the hike up because she has done it “many” times already. Nonetheless, I hiked up the peak with my friends.

I made it to the top of the peak but was dead exhausted from that 25-30 minute hike up. VICTORY! At least going back down wasn’t as bad as going up. Tired and hungry, they took us to the bulgogi restaurant that I mentioned earlier. MAYBE that’s why the black pork tasted so good… I kid! The black pork really was very delicious~

After stuffing ourselves with all the black pork we could, we were taken back to our hotel – Ocean Suites Jeju Hotel. We were told our room assignments and given our room keys. My roommate was Cynthia Ma from UCLA!~ She was a new friend that I would be hanging out a lot with for the rest of my trip in South Korea. Below is the view from my hotel room window.

On our second day in Jeju, we went to O’Sulloc (오설록), Jungmun Daepo Columanar – Jointed Lava (중문대포해안주상절리대), a roasting mackerel restaurant, Cheonji-yeon Waterfall (천지연폭포), Seoguipo 70-Li Cruise, and I-Ho Beach.

O’Sulloc is the largest tea field on Jeju Island. It is a museum where “you can find information on the 5,000 year history of green tea as well as the culture of tea drinking”. The fields looked never ending and I wanted to frolic in the field!

doesn’t the picture below remind you of Waiting for Godot?

is the picture below of a tea canister or milk canister? o_o

After our adventure at O’Sulloc, we went to the Jungmun Daepo Columanar – Jointed Lava. At first I wasn’t sure what it is but take a look at the video I took! Once again, sorry for the shakiness and lack of editing!

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Journey to the Top

Of course, you cannot miss out on my selca with the famous guardian grandfather of Jeju Island! I took it when I was heading back to the bus after seeing the jointed lava.

Hungry from our hike up to see the jointed lava, we headed to a local restaurant to eat some roasted mackerel! It was another scrumptious meal that we had in Jeju.

After eating our hearts out, our tour guides led us to our next destination – Cheonji-yeon Waterfall. From the restaurant we ate at for lunch, we walked for what seemed like forever to get to the waterfall that was hidden away in a corner of the mountain. It certainly wasn’t as grand or magnificent as the Niagara Falls but it was a beauty in itself. If there weren’t so many people there, I felt like I could have sat down and meditated while listening to the pounding roar of the waterfall.

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Waterfall

After enjoying our time at the waterfall, we progressed to the Seoguipo 70-Li Cruise. I don’t know what bridge we went to but it looked awfully familiar. It then clicked in my head that I saw it on the MBC variety show “We Got Married” when 2PM’s Nichkhun and f(x)’s Victoria shot an episode there!

The cruise was nice until the waves got really strong and the boat was rocking like crazy! People were flying (well not literally…) everywhere! It started to rain too… so we were glad to go down into the bottom level of the boat when it was time for the Beggar performance. The performance was very enjoyable too! We all had a good laugh during his performance~

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Cruise part 1, Funny Rocks

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Cruise part 2, Titanic

[EAP] Korea 2011 – Cruise part 3, Beggar Performance

Our last destination of the day was the I-Ho Beach. I’m not much of a beach person and my allergies go insane when I’m at the beach so it was the least desirable place for me. However, it seemed like all of my friends were having fun playing with the water!

After everybody had their hour break at the beach, our tour guides took us to Pizza Hut for dinner. I was expecting some crazy bizarre Korean pizza but we were fed cheese pizza. I guess having had 3 awesome meals cancelled out this one not to awesome meal. Nonetheless, it was another new experience for me, Pizza Hut in Korea!

It was finally our third day in Jeju. Before catching our flight back to Seoul, we went to the Lava Cave (만장굴), Jeju Stone Park (제주돌문화공원), a Jeju beef bulgogi restaurant for lunch, and a grotesque-looking sprite road (도깨비 도로).

The Lava Cave is a retired lava cave that doesn’t spurt out lava anymore. It’s underground and actually very cool (cold). Water drips down from the ceiling and sides of the cave and the darkness gave me kind of an eerie feeling – considering I couldn’t really see where I was going despite the presence of light bulbs.

a rock in the cave that resembles Jeju Island (not made by man!)

the end of the cave… we get to see some colorful rock (colors provided by humans o.o)

Our next adventure was to the Jeju Stone Park. One of the three things that Jeju Island is known to be abundant of is rocks/stones. It was interesting at first but we soon discovered that most if not all of the exhibits were closed. It was also a one-way route – we couldn’t turn around to go back. We also saw a lot of “mounds”, which we found out later that they are actually tombs (of royalty or aristocrats). As much as I liked Jeju Island and its history and architecture, by the 3rd day, stones were just stones to me.

Since we had time in between the Jeju Stone Park and dinner, we decided to go to the grotesque-looking sprite road first. At first we couldn’t see the trick that was being done right in front of our eyes but once we got off the bus and stood on the road, we were able to see the wonders of optical illusion.

I am actually looking downhill & that car is actually going uphill…

Finally making our to the bus, we headed to a Jeju beef bulgogi restaurant to re-energize ourselves. Once again, it was another magnificent meal organized by our tour. Jeju sure is full of delicacies!

Our lunch was done and it was time to head back to Jeju International Airport for our flight back to Seoul. I had a fantabulous time in Jeju and I hope to come back (not on a tour) to enjoy the local life. I’m certainly craving all the delicious food I had in Jeju right now, while sitting in my chair and typing this post. Bye bye Jeju Island! See you again someday!~

P.S. Seoul was experiencing the beginning of the monsoon season and so our flight back was delayed…