Our flight left Gimpo Airport in Seoul early on Saturday morning so Angie and I had to take a train to Seoul Station after work on Friday night. We cheaped out and took the slow train so it took 4.5 hours to get to Seoul. We then had to take a 30 minute cab ride to the airport, where we proceeded to wait for 3 hours until our group met and headed for the boarding gate. Our group consisted of 20 expatriates, hailing from the US, England, Ireland, and South Africa. Needless to say, neither the train that stops every 15 minutes, nor the wooden airport benches were conducive to sleeping so we pulled an all-nighter before our trip. The flight only took an hour, but I did get a little cat nap in before the long day.
Our first stop was for food. We had fish, and if you know me you know I’m not a huge fan of seafood so I was pretty sure I was going to starve for the weekend. It literally looked like someone chopped a mackerel into 4 pieces and threw it into a stew with halved potatoes and other veggies. Angie finally convinced me to try it, and much to my surprise, it was actually not bad. Good enough to eat, anyway. Also, please allow me to toot my own horn a bit here and mention that I’m so skilled with chopsticks now that I can peel the skin off a fish and separate fish bones from meat.
Our group headed to Bird Island after lunch. I didn’t see any birds, but we did hear some (Angie tried to call them out of hiding, but no such luck). It did have lots of cool lava rock formations, though, as well as some nice vegetation and views of other islands. After a walk around the island we hopped on a ferry which took us on a tour around a couple other islands. Angie gets wicked motion sick on ferries, so she spent the whole ride trying not to hurl. A few of the islands had these huge caves that the Japanese blasted to hide weapons and equipment in during WWII.
We had a bit of free time so we visited the Jeju International Convention Center, which is not terribly exciting in and of itself, but it was surrounded by huge fields covered in rape flowers (actually rapeseed flowers, but Koreans have no qualms about calling them rape flowers). It was a nice little photo op, and we were all appreciative of the chance to frolic and stretch our legs a bit.
Next up was the O’Sulloc green tea farm. I never knew exactly how green tea grew, and even now that I’ve seen enough waist high green tea hedges to last me for the rest of my life, I still wouldn’t be able to identify one. It looks exactly like all the other green leafy hedges I’ve ever seen. There could be green tea growing in my neighbor’s yard for all I know. And in leaf form, it tastes just like any other leaf. Just so you know. While I was standing amongst the rows of hedges I felt like I should be filming a Lipton commercial so I made my own little video on my camera.
I’m pretty sure there is nothing Korean about our next destination, but it was fun nonetheless. We went to Jeju Circus World to take in a Chinese Acrobatic and Motorbike show. Crazy. I’ve never seen so many ridiculously flexible and graceful women. I would most certainly kill myself attempting even the simplest of their stunts, but then again I am one of the world’s clumsiest people. At the age of six my gymnastics instructor told me I should probably pursue another sport. And then, they had SIX small motorcycles in one big steel hamster ball, all going around in intersecting circles. I was so tense it was hard to actually enjoy the performance. It was insane.
After the show we had dinner (dried fish that I didn’t eat), and headed to our pension (like a self-service hotel). Unfortunately, it was Korean style sleeping, and this time our “mats” were no more than thinly quilted blankets. The good thing was that I was tired enough to sleep anywhere at that point so I fell asleep quickly. The bad thing was that the ondol (floor heat) was turned WAAAAY up so I woke up sweating bullets in the middle of the night. Bad thing #2 was that I woke up stiff and achey and with a pounding headache due to the fact that I slept on the wooden floor all night. Good thing #2 was that we had cool roommates: three girls who teach in Seoul and are all from the US (Meaghan from MD, Dana from NY, and Natalie from MN).
After breakfast at the pension we headed to Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak), a beautiful volcanic crater with a great view of Jeju. It was a little rainy and quite windy, but we hiked the 20 minutes up the steps carved out of volcanic rock, and it was well worth the effort (despite the strain on my lungs; somehow I managed to relapse into my nasty cold right before the trip).
Lunch was the famous Jeju black pork BBQ. Sooo delicious. Our table decided to be a little adventurous with our food so we threw a couple side dishes into the wok to add a bit of extra flavor (not that it didn't have enough already). We added a couple dishes of garlic and a couple dishes of kimchi (that made it significantly spicier), and I wasn't sure it was possible, but it was even more delicious afterward. We also had makali with lunch (Korean rice wine). So good! (Here's a pic of lunch and a makali toast with new friends!)
Fortunately, our next stop was indoors so we were able to wait out the icky weather. We went to a Trick Art Museum, which was a great way to kill an hour on a rainy day. It had lots of the famous works of art with slight alterations to turn them into optical illusions, as well as plenty of other lesser known pieces that were perhaps more fun to interact with. We took loads of pictures, but unfortunately mine are of mediocre quality because my flash is broken so I had to use a camera setting that was not entirely appropriate for my surroundings.
After the museum we headed to the Manjunggul Lava Tube, which is the largest in the world (not the longest, though it is 1 km in length). This is probably the coolest thing we saw that weekend…I’ve never seen volcanic anything before, so lava formations were super cool. I saw lava benches, lava stalactites, lava flows, lava toes, lava columns, you name it. It was dark, damp, cold, and uneven…everything a lava tube should be. The acoustics were great in the huge cavernous areas, too. Angie busted out her vocal trumpet and I made up little lava songs…it was a good time.
The penultimate destination was a hedge maze, which we successfully navigated with the help of our Seoulite friends, and then we treated ourselves to Jeju cactus ice cream as a reward for making it out alive (as if that isn’t enough of a reward). Fortunately, cactus ice cream comes without the little prickly parts ;) (This is Dana and me, about to enter the hedge maze.)
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Our last stop was Love Land. It is a large indoor/outdoor art gallery full of erotic sculptures, statues, clay figurines, etc. It was hilarious and more than a little bit ironic. Korea is a super conservative country, so for this place to even exist inside Korea’s boundaries is kind of amazing. Second, the reactions of the Korean people were hysterical. Most of the guests were over 60 years old, and there were old women giggling like little girls and old men posing with statues like adolescent boys. Most of the pictures are too lewd, crude, or suggestive to post on a public forum, so I’ll stick to one of the more mild photos.
We did a little bit of souvenir shopping and returned to the Jeju airport for the flight home. Our flight was delayed by about 20 minutes for some reason, but we landed in Seoul around 10pm without incident. Angie and I had to book it to the train station to catch the last train out of Seoul, and unfortunately between the delayed flight and an argument with a cab driver (tried to charge us 40,000 won for a 20,000 won cab ride…we won), we missed the fast train (under 2 hours instead of the 4.5 hours on the slow train). But we did manage to catch the last train out of Seoul so we didn’t have to stay the night. I made it home around 3am, unpacked, and threw myself into bed.
I think I’m visiting Angie in Busan this coming weekend so I can say goodbye (this will be my last weekend in Korea). Nine days from now I’ll be on a plane headed back home!
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