Jeju-Do

This weekend Mike and I went to Jeju. It's an island off the south coast of Korea. I have wanted to go here for three years but just never got around to it. Since my time is running out here, I guess it's lit a fire under my bum to get things done. In anycase, we went for a few days, short but good days.


Here is a temple that was on the east coast of the island at Ilchubong. We went here to climb a volcanic crater and this temple was pretty much right beside it.
This is the view while we were going down from our hike. Sorry, my pics are always in the wrong order! Seeing the water and cliffs were really nice. Mike told me stories of what I'll see in the east coast of Canada when I go to see where he's from. I'm pretty excited!

Here's a view of the trail. Us going up.

This is a view of the crater from afar. It was pretty, but the climb up was better than the crater itself.
This is us near our hotel in Jung-mun. Apparently at this very spot they filmed a dramatic scene from a Korean soap opera! Hopefully Mike and I do not experience such drama. Here's hoping.
This is our hotel, the Suites. It was really very nice, though we went for an expensive buffet at the Shilla next door, and that hotel kicked our hotels ass.

Our first night we walked around trying to find some food we would like to eat. There was lots of seafood, but not exactly the seafood Mike and I are into. In the end we found this place and Mike had black pork galbi, and I had some red snapper. Mike will now run you through the process of galbi.

First, cut up your meats and grill it. Enjoy some banchon (side dishes) while you wait for the cooking to be complete.

Don't eat it too soon!
Next, carefully place your meat on a leaf, with some garlic and samcheong.


Finally, stuff it in your mouth!

Since I'm still really not into the meats, I enjoyed my fish. It was yummy!

Palm trees! Seriously, though we were still technically in Korea, I kinda felt like I wasn't. There were semi-tropical plants, the weather was awesome, and the people were so nice. I suppose it can be attributed to being in the country as opposed to in Seoul, a big city but it was still a really nice break.

Our first stop on the trip was to Jeju Loveland. It's a park with sexual/love statues all around. Here is a woman feeding a gochu (red pepper) to a clam. Gochu is Korean slang for a mans, uh, pepper. I think you can figure the rest out for yourself. Take notice of the stylized burial mounds in the back, complete with nipples!


Mike, checking out the statue. I think there was a tv up there, seriously!



Those were some of the tamest pics/statues from the park.

The rest of the trip was just eating, walking around and relaxing. It was great! I was pretty sad to get back to Seoul, it was raining and working yesterday was incredibly tiring. This weekend we should take it easy, and then the weekend after is Chuseok and we actually have a long weekend. Woo~