Jeju-do

Okay, so I don't know if I'm going to have the energy to do this properly. I've been uploading and reaaranging photos for the past two hours. I've sent a bunch of photos to mom from Jeju LoveLand. They are of racy nature, so I couldn't post them here in fears of corrupting my younger cousins. Jeju is a honeymoon destination, and Koreans are somewhat ignorant of sex, so Love Land is the place where one becomes comfortable with sexuality.

Anyways. We arrive in Jeju, and I see ORANGES! I totally wanted to pick an orange, but never did get the opportunity. Mike rented a car, which is probably the best thing to do if you're going to Jeju. The drivers are insane, and don't know what a red light was (Mike was loving the running, he was getting into it), but in order to see and do everything, it was necessary. As soon as we got out of Jeju-si (Jeju City), we came upon Mysterious Road. Here, if you put your car into neutral, it appears that your car is moving forward uphill, it's neat. There were a bunch of other people doing the same thing. Right after Mysterious Road was Love Land. Mike was a little hesitant at first. But man, that place was fun! Penises and Va Jay Jays everywhere!

We drove through the middle of the island to our town of Seowipo, and through haphazard drivers, found our motel. It was a decent place, a little mouldy, but it sufficed for the amount of time that we were in the place. We walked around our immediate area first of all and found a tourist destination at our fingertips. Cheonjiyeon Falls was right below us, and it was a pretty walk. Then we walked along the water front and there were many fishing boats that had pretty amazing bright lights on them. They go out at night fishing, and if you look onto the water, in the distant you see the incredibly bright lights from the fishing boats. Luc and I found a Sam Gyeop Sal (Korean BBQ) place for dinner, and bought some beers to drink on the roof of our motel. It was an early night as we were all pretty tired, and we only had one full day to get everything in for Lucas and I.

The next morning we dined on Frosted Flakes before heading out to the first place. Our goal was to make it around the island, stopping at places we thought was interesting. First stop was a little beach, Pyoseon. Immediately, you see black rock (it's a volcanic island), white sand, and tropical water. It was beautiful. But this was just a five minute stop, enough to get my feet in and walk around. We were heading to Sunrise Peak.

Sunrise Peak (Seongsan Ilchubong) is an extinct volcanic crater that you can climb. I was wearing flipflops, and everyone wanted to go up. It's really tall, and I wasn't keen on doing it. But I was following the pack. I'm so glad now that I went up. It was stairs, which was nice, but it was a tough climb. It was so high, hot, and muggy. You look up, and it's almost a sheer cliff! But once you get to the top, it was amazing.

After decending Sunrise Peak, we made our way to the next tourist destination Manjuggal Caves. This is the world's longest lava tube cave, and we walked it. As you decend into it, the tempterture takes a dramatic dive. We were prepared though with our sweaters. Water drips from the top of the cave into many puddles. It's dark and cool. There are some lit up signs which tell you about what you're seeing, from stalagtites to rockfalls to lavaflows. It was really rad. And at the very end, you come to a lave column, this is one of two in the entire world.

We were searching for one of the infamous black sand beaches, and went to one where I was told, and it wasn't black sand. That was a bit of a disappointment, but it was a white sand beach, with turquoise waters, and black rocks jutting into the water. I brought my bathing suit and went swimming into the ocean. The water was so gorgeous. I could have stayed there awhile. I managed to burn the tops of my feet, but of course, my legs, no mattter how much sun exposure, got absolutely no colour. Stupid legs. This beach was called Hamdeok Beach, and is one of the famous ones on Jeju.

We wanted to make it to the western part of the island before sunset, but we stopped for dinner, and didn't quite make it. We managed to catch the last three minutes of the sun before it went down luckily. We finished driving around the whole island, and buy the time we got back to the motel, we had been gone for 12 hours. We grabbes some dinner and went to bed early.

This morning, we only had a limited time as Luc and I had to catch our plane to come back.The weather was definately not as good today. We went to a tea farm/museum which wasn't what I was expecting. We walked along the green tea plants and then hopped back in the car to make it to the airport.

Jeju is South Korea's Hawaii. It was absolutely gorgeous!! I'm so tired now though. I just want to sleep. But it is Neal's Bday, so we're going out to an Indian Restaurant. I don't know how Keen Luc is on that as it isn't his favourite food, but he'll get over it. Diana and Mike are still on Jeju until Thursday, where they will stay with us for the night becuase the next day we do to Seoul :D

Tomorrow is Children's Day here in Korea. It's a National Holiday, and kids have the day off from school, but they still have to go to MoonKkang. They are not at all happy about it. Children's day is where the parents give the kids money or presents and they just get to play all day. Thursday (my birthday) is Parents Day where kids give their parents a carnation. Then Next Monday is Buddha's Birthday. May is known as the King here becuase of all the national holidays.

Alright, need to make myself look not so tired.