Jeju-do

This past Sunday, my closest friend came to Daegu with her boyfriend. We showed them around the paltry sights of Daegu, the highlight of which was a gyrating Minnie mouse in the middle of an underground shopping mall. Melissa and Joe thought this was hilarious, while Bobby and I discovered that we don't even notice these things any more.

The following day, we headed for Jeju island, which is Korea's premier vacation spot. Fortunately, it was the off season, so there weren't too many people there. Unfortunately, it was cold. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, particularly at the Hyatt where we stayed. Jeju is a volcanic island, and has lush vegetation and lots of volcanic rock formations, not to mention the clear blue sea.

We ate lots of black pig, which is Jeju's specialty. We eventually saw the toilets in the traditional folk villages, which emptied into the pigsties. This did not lessen our enjoyment of the dish. We visited a wide variety of restaurants, from a hole in the wall barbecue (delicious) to a “fusion cafe” decorated like a crazy old lady's bedroom, which charged a fee for hanging around and enjoying the decor (creepy). We ended up at many of these places because the GPS in our rental car had a hard time finding restaurants.

We did a lot of sightseeing, covering the island in our white Sonata (for some reason, all of the rental cars were white.) We saw lava caves, a picturesque waterfall, the largest temple Bobby and I have ever seen, a huge caldera, an erotic sculpture garden (hey, how often do you have a chance to see one of those?), and two folk villages, each one claiming more authenticity than the other. We walked on the beach by our hotel, and gawked at all the couples in matching outfits. Matching outfits are huge right now, and Jeju is Korea's honeymoon destination.

Jeju is kind of far from mainland Korea, and prides itself in being independent. They have their own heritage, which is just as much Mongolian as Han Chinese, which is what mainland Koreans are. They were originally their own kingdom, and were only conquered by mainland Korea a little over 1,000 years ago. As a result, they are fiercely proud of their unique heritage. There were lots of “traditional” statues—at this point it's hard to tell which ones are old. All of the attractions had the label, “Jeju self-governing province” on them.

Bobby and I got a kick out of being allowed in and on the architecture. Normally, we have to stop at the door when we see historic buildings or temples. In Jeju, we were free to walk around traditional houses and wander the cathedral like temple taking pictures, without our shoes of course. In the temple, we were encouraged to buy three bags of rice, which we offered up to the three Buddhas. I guess someone has to pay for all that upkeep.

Like most vacations, it was too short. Jeju is one of those places in Korea we have been meaning to visit, and it lived up to its reputation. I'm hoping to go back for a weekend sometime when we can go swimming.

The beach outside of our hotel

The only shot I have of the lava caves.  My camera takes shoddy dark pictures

The "authentic" folk village.  Many people still live in these houses--well, the ones with plate glass and cars parked out front

The Jeju Statues.  The one with his right hand higher than his left is a professor, and the one with his left hand higher is a soldier

Huge caldera

Awesome bathroom sign

Cheonjeyeon falls

Melissa and me on a bridge overlooking the ocean

Huge temple

The three Buddhas.  See the rice bags in front of them?

A traditional Jeju woman.  She's carrying water on her back.   This perhaps explains all the hunchbacked old ladies in Korea.

The main room of the house.  The other two rooms don't have a floor.

My best attempt at capturing the toilet.   On the right side is an outhouse structure.  The hole empties into this pen, where the pigs would live.

Bobby in the middle of some statues.