The day before we left, Kenneth and I went to a bridge in Seoul that used to be a subway line that they turned into a living bridge. In my head there was moss and grass on the ground, but there were just planters. It was still cool, though.
Great name for a burger place
Amongst the plants there was a foot dipping pool.
I for sure took advantage of that!
Seoul from above
Book art
Later in the evening we went to The Global Seoul Mates Floating Island Party. It was way outside of my comfort zone as it involved:
- getting wet in public
- an hour away from home and having to subway it home
- being with hundreds of strangers (They said there were about 1000 people there)
But, we wanted to do it because we were on vacation and on vacation you do some things you might not normally do. We headed to the store to buy $2 water guns which actually worked quite well for the cost. When we got there I bought water proof cell phone cover so I could take some pics. As soon as we got in people started spraying us with water guns so we hit them right back! It was a lot of fun! On the first floor was a bar, some food, and a DJ with a dry area where all the swanky people were sitting. They had table service down there. Upstairs was a better DJ, another bar, and the foam machine.
Putting that free drink ticket to use!
Umm...hi
Pew pew
Foam is flying!
The next morning Kenneth said, "We played like children!"
The next day we flew out to Jeju Island. I made sure to book us mid day flight both there and back so we didn't have to wake up early. The flight is only an hour from Seoul, which is the perfect amount of time for me to be in a plane! I told Kenneth I am not great during take off and landing. He did his best to comfort me on take off he asked me my favourite movie and to describe it in detail. Now he can't wait to see Sister Act 1 and 2.
They say Jeju Island is the Hawaii of Korea and as soon as you land you realize why. It is so lush and humid with palm trees everywhere! Jeju is known for three things: mandarin oranges, green tea, and chocolate. A good climate for delicious things! We hopped into a cab to our hotel.We could have taken an airport shuttle, but the hotel website said the cab was around $30 which we thought was worth it. Turns out it was $40 so on the way home we took the shuttle. But arriving at our hotel was glorious! I booked the flight and hotel through Travelocity and we got a good package at the Howard Johnson right along the harbour. It was so beautiful!
The hotel has 5 rooftop jacuzzi tubs you can rent for 2 hours at a time. We did it twice in the morning and it was awesome!
By the time we had settled in it was time to find some dinner. Caitlin had been to Jeju twice and told me that there is a lot of seafood there and I might have trouble finding something to eat. But I never thought it would be that difficult. Oh Lordy! Right along the harbour is a street full of restaurants. That's all it is. just blocks and blocks of restaurants. ALL SEAFOOD. Not one piece of chicken, pizza, anything. Finally we asked a local to tell a cab driver to take us anywhere with pizza. He took us to Mr. Pizza which was closed. But, we walked some more and found a burger place. We instantly knew this wouldn't be a food holiday. As we walked around we found some places to go back to, but it honestly was a struggle. Sometimes we'd just get into a cab and say "McDonalds" and either eat there or knew we could find something near there to eat.
Kenneth thinks I'm weird because I love to be near water but I don't like seafood. Multiple times I'd be walking along the shore or looking out into the sea and exclaim "I love being near the water!" And he'd say: "But you don't like seafood." and shake his head.
Anyways, that was our biggest problem: finding something for me to eat. Kenneth is the best travel partner for me because he keeps me calm. At certain points he'd say: Let's find something for you to eat. I don't want to you to start acting that way (he means hangry).
Our first full day there we went out after our morning jacuzzi and walked towards this bridge to a small island we could see from our window. Turns out that's where 1/3 waterfalls on Jeju is located and we didn't even know it. (I knew it was in that general direction but didn't know it was that close!) We just saw a sign that said Waterfall 500m ---> and followed it! I was so excited I was jumping up and down. I told him all I wanted to do this vacation was see a waterfall and go to the beach! We went to the waterfall and then walked across the bridge to the island. It rained a lot that day but it didn't really stop us. It was so hot that we kind of liked being rained on to cool us down. Normally I bring too many clothes when on vacation but this time it worked because we got wet so many times we kept having to hang them up to dry!
Forgot my sunglasses
Panorama of the walk to the waterfalls.
This is when I started jumping and screaming with excitement.
Snacks at the falls
Electric car charging station
It just rained on us but we didn't care!
The young man on the left approached us and told us he went to the states to learn English and his father wanted to know how he was doing so could he talk to us for a bit. They were both hilarious. They asked us the usual where we are from and what we are doing here. When I told him I'm an English teacher his father told me to be tough on his son. I said A+ and the father hugged me. He asked Kenneth if he was a boxer and Kenneth said no, soccer. The father hugged him too! They wanted to take a picture with us. Later Kenneth asked me why people always ask him if he's an athlete. I said: "Look at you! You have an athlete's body!"
His modesty is one of his most endearing qualities.
He wanted me to take a pic of him by the water but was holding water bottles.
I said put them down but he hid them behind his back. Looks so natural.
Do we keep the shells? I almost left them and then he encouraged me to take them home. I might make some magnets out of them or something.
Rooftop panorama
Day two was a planned trip to the waterfalls on the other side of our hotel. The falls the day before had a lot of restaurants nearby so we thought we'd grab lunch at these falls before going down. To our dismay this one had no food - just drinks and ice cream. Kenneth knew I had to eat something or I would start "acting that way" so we ate 3 ice creams between the two of us and downed a bottle of OJ. We walked down to the falls and they were incredible. This time we could go to the bottom of the falls and put out feet in! It was so refreshing!
Later that day we decided to go to the Chocolate Museum, heralded as the world's second best chocolate museum next to one in Belgium. It was a let down. Either the one in Belgium is amazing or just slightly less terrible.
It is in the middle of no where. Literally the cab drove us out in the middle of just fields and farms. And then there's a museum there. We got out of the car and it smelled like manure. The last thing you want to smell before going into a Chocolate Museum is feces.
I don't know how to describe the museum. It was old and not that interesting. I get that a museum has old things in it, but it was all outdated. None of the displays or decor had been redone in about 30 years. They had chocolate cookbooks from A LONG TIME AGO. They had pictures of chocolate bars and ads for chocolate from A LONG TIME AGO. All the literature I read about it beforehand boasted a Christmas room, cafe, and chocolate shop. When we walked into the Christmas room it was full of overheated families, some of them sleeping on a couch just sitting amongst Christmas ornaments. There was no cafe and the gift shop only sold giant boxes of chocolates. You couldn't just but a few chocolates, a cookie, or a hot chocolate or something. I thought that was so strange. . . why not make it more marketable so you can bring in more money? All week it was 32 degrees outside and with the humidity it felt like 40 degrees. The museum wasn't air conditioned. There wasn't even a fan!
Chocolate god
It upset Kenneth that I put my head like this.
Merry Christmas from the Ajunwa's!
The best part was sitting on the swing outside listening to cicadas in the trees. When we got into the cab to go home (which the lady at the front desk had to call for us and we had to pay extra for because IT'S IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE) Kenneth leaned over to me and said, "I knew it wasn't going to be good as soon as we got out of the cab and it smelled like shit."
I decided to start looking up restaurants before going out. What a novel idea! There was a homemade pasta place nearby that we walked to that was divine. Later we bought some soju (Korean liquor which is very cheap and sold everywhere) and sat along the sea. It was lovely!
Fishing boats
Before we left I asked him if he had a bathing suit. He said he would wear these shorts he wears under his soccer shorts to "keep the boy in place" I asked if he really wanted to wear that on the beach (pretty much a speedo) and suggested more of a swimming trunk since Koreans are more modest. He said he will wear what he has because, "This is what you wear swimming"! I left it at that. When we go to the beach he got wide eyed and said," Babe, no one is wearing what I have on." I told him that is why I tried to encourage him to buy something else. Then I said do your own thing! Who cares what everyone else is wearing! If you are comfortable than wear it.
You might be thinking: I thought you said the beach was crowded. IT was - but life guards kept moving them away from this area.
We left the beach to go to this amazing buffet restaurant that Caitlin told us about, only to find it was closed. I searched for another place and we took a cab there. It was closing for a mid day break in 15 mins. At first they turned us away, but then they told us to come back. I think they took pity on us because we paid a cab to get there.
I wanted to go back to the beach but was also pretty warn out from the heat and being thrown around by waves for a few hours. We walked out of the restaurant and saw a sign that said waterfall ----> I mean honestly we just kept stumbling upon waterfalls. I thought we'd only make it to 2/3 but we saw all 3 in one trip! Again, we were tired at this point so the pictures are less than stellar. But I promise, we were happy to be there!
Lagoon at the top
Really cool bridge near the falls
"This is a highly toxic tree." The day before, Kenneth told he as we were walking that I should try not to let any trees or bushes touch my skin. Anytime something like this happens he says in a very thick Nigerian accent, "You know I'm a bushman." Calm down, tiger.
Dinner and games at Jerry's pub.
Bike bar stools
Day 4 we didn't have much planned. We decided to take a bus to the main part of Jeju island (we were staying in the southern part which is more remote) to go to Loveland. Skip this part if you don't want to see giant penis statues. Koreans are very reserved but there's also this part of their culture that loves fertility and sex. Jeju alone has Loveland and the Museum of Sex and Health. Plus there's a Penis Park in another area of Korea that has giant statues all over.
It was very hetero-normative. I think the only thing we saw that wasn't male with female was male with two females. Korea, like most Eastern countries, isn't very far along on the sexual spectrum as Canada. It's here, it's just not mainstream.
Fountain
All the sidewalk directions looked like this
This is called "Panty Climber". They had a small gallery where they sold chocolates in various sexual positions. I almost bought some to mail back to friends back home and then I thought better of it.
who is she
Size matters
This said, "The gift every woman wants." Clearly this was made by a man.
Fun bike for a woman to ride naked?
We stopped at a cafe nearby for lunch. I've always wanted to try this famous Korean treat which is a bowl of ice flakes and different flavourings. We got strawberry and it was a hit!
Jeju is also famous for it's blackened pork. Lots of pig statues everywhere.
We waited at the bus stop for an hour before realizing the last bus had already left. We took a taxi home and went to our favourite little cafe for dinner. It has a cool vibe, delicious guacamole and pizza, and was nearby our hotel which was a bonus!
Goodbye Jeju!
One of the souvenirs I bought was a seashell that I could keep my ring in.
I cannot describe to you enough about how great of a travel partner Kenneth is for me. (This may also be a metaphor for life.) He is the ying to my yang. When I get overwhelmed or frustrated he relaxes me and talks so calmly to me. If this trip was a test for our relationship we passed with flying colours! He constantly asked how I was doing. Am I tired? Do I want something to eat? He just takes care of me and loves me so much. It's the best!
The only good part of ending this vacation is knowing that the next one is not far behind. October we have 9 days off and then again at Christmas. So I'm cramming 3 vacations into my last 6 months here. Not bad!
Lots of love,
Alli
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