It's been a couple of busy and tiring days. Jeju has come and gone, but the experience will remain. Our arrival in Jeju was something to remember. We didn't know where to go, so we rode a bus into the city, but rode back to the airport because we didn't know where to get off. In the end we took a taxi to a landmark hotel. From this landmark hotel we looked around for an hour or so for accommodations, and finally found one. All of us thought it was a good place to stay...more on this later.
The next day, we were off to Hallasan, South Korea's tallest mountain. Alex's Korea guide stated it would be an easy climb...yeah that was a lie. Hallasan was the toughest thing I have done since climbing Mt Fuji in Japan. It took 7 hours to climb and descend Hallsan, and I hurt my foot on the descent. But we did meet the other students from UOS that went to Jeju, a group of Chinese students. So that was fun meeting them while climbing Hallasan. Anyway, for what remained of the day, we went to a chicken and hof (beer) place to eat, everyone was sore but it was good.
I can't say alot for the next day besides my legs were sore and tired as hell. But still we left Jeju city for another world heritage site: IIchulbong, a dormant volcano on Jeju's east coast. By this time, the weather was cloudy and rainy and would remain like this for the rest of our trip. Also since the town that IIchulbong was in didn't have anything else to see, we moved onto the southern city of Seogwipo. In Seogwipo we saw a famous waterfall and tried Jeju's famous black pork. The black pork bbq dinner was disappointing. We were first handed another table's meat and then the staff weren't too friendly, and to top it all off it was very expensive: $60 for 3 pieces of meat and a small pork chop...Oh and Seogwipo was getting hit by a severe thunderstorm at this time. Massive amounts of rain and constant thunder for 8 hours or so, all through the night. A good and free "light" show. I don't know if that storm was actually the remnants of a tropical storm or typhoon that fizzled out, felt like it though.
As for yesterday, we headed back to Jeju city since our flight would leave Monday morning. We tried to visit the lava tubes/caves that were next to Jeju, but because of that storm that dumped all that rain, it flooded the caves and was closed...The rest of the day, just lounged around and didn't really do anything else.
Jeju was a good trip, it was very different from Seoul and the other major cities in Korea. I want to return there some day and hopefully the weather will cooperate this time. At the same time, I want to stay there longer have a Korean friend come along since I'm sure we would've had a better time if we could've understood some of the things that were said to us. But I bid farewell to Jeju its countless grandpa statues.
Oh before I do forget, about that first accommodation in Jeju we stayed at. The first thing on the TV set when I turned it on was a porn channel...that should've said something but I thought "ok that's a nice feature..." Well turns out we stayed in a love motel and to make things worse, I shared a room with Alex. No wonder the lady at reception thought we were gay when checking in...
Places visited in Korea: Gwanghwamun, Banpo bridge, Itaewon, Gangnam, Gapyeong, Namdaemun, Chyeongyecheon, Seoul City Hall, Jeju Island (Hallasan, IIchulbong, Jeju City, Seogwipo)
No comments:
Post a Comment