Jeju Island!!!!

This past weekend me and Minjae went to Jejudo Island. For those of you who don't know, Jeju is an island off the southern tip of Korea. It is considered to be the "hot spot" of Korea; its almost tropical, and definitely the warmest place in the country. It is also one of the prettiest places in Korea, and one of the most famous places in Korea. Most people I have talked to that have lived in Korea say you have to go to Jeju at least once.

While we were driving around the island, we actually heard on the radio that Jeju is nominated to become one of the "new" seven wonders of the world. According to:

http://www.new7wonders.com/archives/wonder/jeju-island

Jeju island is one of the 28 finalists. While I am not sure that the world needs "new" 7 wonders (I still haven't seen any of the original 7 wonders, let alone a whole new list!!!) it is kinda great to see Korea recognized like that.

Our trip started off a bit rocky. Or should I say rainy. There were typhoons sceaming through Korea. Never having experienced a "typhoon" before, it was hard for me to distinguish this from a raging rainstorm. But, it was actually a deadly storm, killing 13 people, so they shouldn't be taken lightly. The winds were strong enough to delay our flight for two hours, but once we were off, the plane ride was smooth. It is only a one hour flight from Seoul.

Thankfully the typhoons had not made it down South. While it was cloudy it was super humid!

Jeju is a volcanic island, so the beaches and shores are full of dead black rocks and white sand. Quite the beautiful contrast.

We went to Hallim Park, which is like a giant environmental area. You walk around, and there are caves, and animals, and all sorts of plants. My Grandma, Dad and Trev went there on their trip to Jeju, and it is one of the tourist hotspots.

Minjae and I stayed at a "Guest House". Its very close to a hostel. We stayed at Joseph Tree Guest House, which I would recommend to anyone who is planning on going to Jeju. There is one room with bunk beds for the boys, and one for the girls.

If your looking for cutting costs, Guest Houses are the way to go in Korea.  It was less than 15 dollars a night, super clean, and we got free breakfast (and a semi-western one at that- toast and eggs, not rice and kimchi!!)!!

Our second day was definitely the best, weather wise, but it started off not so good. We wanted to go to Udo island. I know what your thinking... you go to an island, just to go to another island? But this island was only 20 minutes away by ferry and you can rent bikes and ride around the whole island in about 3 hours. But our first attempt to catch the ferry was shut down, because of high winds, so we went for a hike instead.

 This place was used to film a popular Korean drama, "All In" and so has become a popular tourist place in recent years.

After our walk, the ferries were finally running! We went to Udo and rented bikes, and before you lecture me (mum) I realize that I am not wearing a helmet. I do not condone riding bicycles without helmets. But.... they do not give you the option to wear one. Not a single rent place had helmets available for bicycles. On Udo the path along the shore of the island is filled with mostly bikes and scooters, and we were extra careful. It felt really weird though, and I knew I was doing something "wrong"!

As we were riding around the island we saw scuba divers. Why do I mention this? Well, in the picture below you can see the small figures coming in from sea. As it tuns out, Jeju is famous for this type of work. Apparently, Jeju was an island that was known for women working, and men not. The women go out to sea, diving, in the mornings, and work, catching fish, getting shellfish and grabbing seaweed. They swim on shore with giant bundles of their goods, and then sort through them, dry the seaweed, etc... And yes, the men do nothing. Its funny though, because even though men now have jobs on Jeju, this particular type of job is for women ONLY. Men are not allowed to do this job on Jeju island. 

This statue is the symbol of Jeju, and the job of the women divers.

After riding for about 2 hours, we stopped at a seaside restaurant. Since I got food poisoning during my first few months in Korea, which I think was from seafood soup, I have been apprehensive about shellfish and octopus in my food. But, this restaurant catches the food literally 100meters away. You can't get much fresher then that!

Minjae had fish, while had the soup. Hands down, best seafood soup I have had in Korea!

After we finished riding around the island, We went back to Jeju and went to a maze. Actually, it was accidental. As we were heading to the Manjanngul Lava Tubes, Minjae saw a sign for the maze and we decided to stop.

There is a bell that is your goal, and ringing it means sweat victory! And we made our way through he maze no problem!!! Okay. Not really. So we kind of cheated. The maze was actually really hard! 5% of people need to be rescued! We may have followed around a woman who was getting directions from her husband who was on a balcony over looking the maze. But this was only after almost 45 minutes of walking around, literally, in circles!

Our ast stop of the day was the Manjanggul Lava Tube. This is an underground, 1km cave, that was formed by flolwing lava.

The pictures are a bit blurry, and definitely does not do the tube justice, but it was absolutely incredible to be walking through this really dark, bitter cold, and soggy tube.

On our final day it rained. And I mean, it really rained. But we were still determine to keep most of our plans. So we went to the most famous waterfall on Jeju.

Yes, I was determine to get a picture in front of the waterfall, even though it was a complete downpour! The water was murky because of all the rain, but normally the stream is so clear you can see down to the bottom, and the countless fish swimming in the river.

We also headed on another mini hike, this time to the coast where the lava had formed these cylinder rocks.

The cylinder rocks are the ones jutting out on the left

The waves were crashing, the rain was pouring, but the black rocks are freakin' awesome!!!!

Our final stop was O Sulloc Tea Farm. It is the main tea farm on Jeju, and I was really surprised about what tea plants actually look like. They had  museum of tea pots, which I loved- I took about a million pictures of tea pots to show my ceramics teacher when I get om, they were so cool.

You can't go to a tea farm without having some tea, but we decided to skip the drink and go for the icecream. Green tea icecream. If you haven't tried it, you must! Its not too sweet, and has a really nice mild flavour.

Our trip was wonderful, despite minor weather setbacks. I am slowly crossing off my "List of Things to Do While I am Korea" and Jeju was definitely one of those that was worth the trip!!!


Oh..... and because I laughed for about 20 minutes, and because I told her I must inform Bud about this, I leave you with the wonderful parking techniques of Minjae Yu: