Photos as promised! This weekend the girlfriend and I made our way to Korea's most popular tourist spot Jeju Island, dubbed by the govt. as "Asia's Hawaii," rather dishonestly, though cleverly. It is somewhat of a topical place, but not much at all like Hawaii. All in all, it was a wonderful, albeit short, vacation! We stayed at a small lodge, one of those wood floor, wood wall, wood ceiling kind of places, near the water. Here's the balcony view:
Surrounding the coast are a dozen or so relic 'smoke signal statues', right out of Lord of the Rings. They served as a defensive communication measure several hundred years ago:
The island has a number of rather... cheap... tourist traps. I saw a number of those dinosour parks you tend to see out on the highway, and a lot of go-cart tracks. Here's a horse ranch/go-cart track/theme park place. The giant boat is a restoed relic of some sort. On the property is a nice point, around which we walked.
On Friday, our only full day in Jeju (we arrived thursday afternoon and left saturday late evening), we went to a number of places including Asia's largest botanical gardens, according to a proudly-displayed guiness record certificate on the wall near the entrance.
Fake snowmen between sunny palms... it reminded me of a trip I took to California several years ago during the holiday season.
The gardens were separated by glass into several exhibits. Among them were 'water gardens,' 'tropical fruit trees,' jungle gardens,' and most notably a section devoted to cacti. It was pretty cool if I do say so myself.
The view from the observation deck above the gardens:
A nearby natural attraction. This is a volanic pool. The water was smooth and aquamarine in colour, and the borders of the pool unusually circular:
A few hundred yards downriver:
On saturday we awoke to a snowstorm! Luckily, the weather was several degrees above zero, so while it snowed almost all day, nothing stuck past late-morning:
I've yet to have a haircut in this country.
The island is, in terms of geological time, very very young, and one can see the evidence in the sharpness of the rocks even right against the smashing waves. Older coastal land will always have smooth stones and well-carved formations, but not here on Jeju.
Surrounding the coast are a dozen or so relic 'smoke signal statues', right out of Lord of the Rings. They served as a defensive communication measure several hundred years ago:
The island has a number of rather... cheap... tourist traps. I saw a number of those dinosour parks you tend to see out on the highway, and a lot of go-cart tracks. Here's a horse ranch/go-cart track/theme park place. The giant boat is a restoed relic of some sort. On the property is a nice point, around which we walked.
On Friday, our only full day in Jeju (we arrived thursday afternoon and left saturday late evening), we went to a number of places including Asia's largest botanical gardens, according to a proudly-displayed guiness record certificate on the wall near the entrance.
Fake snowmen between sunny palms... it reminded me of a trip I took to California several years ago during the holiday season.
The gardens were separated by glass into several exhibits. Among them were 'water gardens,' 'tropical fruit trees,' jungle gardens,' and most notably a section devoted to cacti. It was pretty cool if I do say so myself.
The view from the observation deck above the gardens:
A nearby natural attraction. This is a volanic pool. The water was smooth and aquamarine in colour, and the borders of the pool unusually circular:
A few hundred yards downriver:
On saturday we awoke to a snowstorm! Luckily, the weather was several degrees above zero, so while it snowed almost all day, nothing stuck past late-morning:
I've yet to have a haircut in this country.
The island is, in terms of geological time, very very young, and one can see the evidence in the sharpness of the rocks even right against the smashing waves. Older coastal land will always have smooth stones and well-carved formations, but not here on Jeju.
On the way to another waterfall spot, I saw this road sign. It is one of the more alarming signs I've seen while driving:
Jeju is known as the land of "rocks, wind, and women," by Koreans and tour pamphlets alike. I don't know about the women, but I can vouch for the rocks and wind. There was scarsely a wood fence to be seen around the coast, in spite of most of it being farmland. There were countless stone walls, statues, small mountains, and carved volcanic figurines at the gift shops. As for the wind, there was a strong breeze from the moment we arrived until the moment we left.
Also, awesome ducks. Evolution is pretty awe-inspiring, if you really think about it.
The waterfall, recommended by various travel guides:
Jeju is known as the land of "rocks, wind, and women," by Koreans and tour pamphlets alike. I don't know about the women, but I can vouch for the rocks and wind. There was scarsely a wood fence to be seen around the coast, in spite of most of it being farmland. There were countless stone walls, statues, small mountains, and carved volcanic figurines at the gift shops. As for the wind, there was a strong breeze from the moment we arrived until the moment we left.
Also, awesome ducks. Evolution is pretty awe-inspiring, if you really think about it.
The waterfall, recommended by various travel guides:
We stayed on the south side of the island, opposite from te populated Jeju City and the airport. On our way back we decided to cut through te middle, driving up probably 1000m in altitude and back down along the way. The whole island is simply one large dead volcano, with slow slopes down to the coast on all sides. As we drove up toward the middle, the snow was sticking and the wind really picked up.
At the highest point, we stopped to check out a 'small' crater, neighbouring Halasan, the main crater in the middle of the island. It was very, very cold and windy, so we lasted for about fve minutes before scurrying back to the car. I am now fully convinced that I'll need a windproof jacket if I intend to hike any high mountains this winter. Here are the two photos I took in those scant five minutes, the first of the crater, and the second of some unidentified structure nearby:
While the rocks were different, the coast still reminded me very much of Victoria. It was quite literally a breath of fresh air (many in fact) to take in the ocean and the humidity. Seoul has been terribly dry all winter, so Jeju was a welcome respite.
Clouds raced across the sky all day and evening on Saturday before we finally got on the plane.
At the highest point, we stopped to check out a 'small' crater, neighbouring Halasan, the main crater in the middle of the island. It was very, very cold and windy, so we lasted for about fve minutes before scurrying back to the car. I am now fully convinced that I'll need a windproof jacket if I intend to hike any high mountains this winter. Here are the two photos I took in those scant five minutes, the first of the crater, and the second of some unidentified structure nearby:
While the rocks were different, the coast still reminded me very much of Victoria. It was quite literally a breath of fresh air (many in fact) to take in the ocean and the humidity. Seoul has been terribly dry all winter, so Jeju was a welcome respite.
Clouds raced across the sky all day and evening on Saturday before we finally got on the plane.
Sunday was my birthday, back in Seoul. As it turned out, Sean's girlfriend Cia has the same birthday as I do, so we got together with the usual suspects and had sushi. Below you can see the appetizers. You wouldn't know by the picture, but the red seafood on the botton right was so fresh that it still moved when touched. It was some sort of mollusk with such a simple nervous system that it would twitch and squirm even several minutes after being sliced into five or ten pieces. It was certainly the first time I've ever had still-moving food.
And the main course. Great stuff.
And the main course. Great stuff.
Here's the group. It was a fun birthday all in all. Afterward, I went back to Jordan's house and we gorged on ice cream cake and had a taste of the 12-year whisky I picked up at Jeju airport's duty free shop the day before.
Best wishes to everybody back home!
Comments
If they deteriorate anymore and test launch their long range missile will you be going back to Canada?
NK breaks international agreements with cheap missile displays and peasly nuclear operations so that it may sign new ones in exchange for desparately-needed food aid. This cycle has been going on for decades, and I am convinced the despotic regime has nothing in mind other than keeping its extremely tenuous grip on power. Honestly I feel the only serious risk is that if NK does collapse to revolution, so will SK's economy and then I would probably have to go back home. But that's unlikely in the next few years at least.