Archive for August, 2009

We started the day in wonderful weather and grabbed a bus to the beach. On the way to the beach, the bottom fell out. We decided to turn around and head back home. We really thought that the worst of the rain had fallel and that we could get back without getting that wet…..Boy were we wrong. I have never been this wet. We crossed the street to grab a cab and luckily a cab stopped quickly after we got to the other side of the road. There was literally a gallon or two of water in the cab’s seats when we got out at JJ’s mother’s house. I had to dry out everything from my wallet and was extremely worried about my camera. My Lowepreo bag with rain cover came through. The outside was soaked. My padding inside the bag was a little damp, but my camera and lenses were not touched.
wetgear

We had a bunch of time to kill inside, so we played some games, looked at old photographs and cooked a lot of food. This was when I noticed that I had made the Oh family Wall of Fame. Can you see my competitors. We joked that the reason that I am here is that my Korean level is about that of all the grandchildren.
halloffame This was our last day on the island.(Which sounds so wierd, since I am watching LOST as I type this) We had to get up early the next day to make it back to the mainland. The weather really cut one of the days out of our trip and I was really looking forward to getting some sunset shots on the beach. I may have to wait until Honolulu to get those. We are heading back to Jeju in a month, but it sounds like we are going to be way to busy for me to have any time to get back to the beach.

Today marks the 60 day count-down till we are back in the states.

Ilchulbong Volcanic Crater

August 30, 2009

longwalk
We got to Seongsan Ilchulbong(성산 일출봉) at about three in the afternoon after another hour long bus ride. You can read more about Ilchulbong here, here and here.  Also, be sure and check out Joanne’s post over at the Jeju Life Blog. (They don’t update the blog anymore, but there is a wealth of information there) We began the short hike up to the top shortly after arriving. The climb was pretty easy and only took us about 30 minutes to get the top with multiple stops along the way. Having lived in Korea for over four years, I wasn’t surprised at all to see Korean women climbing to the top in dresses and high-heels.

topview
There was a viewing section set up at the top. There were a bunch of tourist with us. I can only imagine what the sunrise would be like from this point.
rock
We passed this rock on the way up and down the crater. There were benches set up about every 30 meters or so.  There were plenty of opportunities to stop and take a rest.

statue
At the foot of the crater there was an area with small convenience stores and a couple of restaurants.  This area was hugely popular with everyone that finished the hike.

usposing
We had to use my gorillapod to get a photo of us at the base. We were pretty tired from a long day and headed back after having a couple of beers at the base.

We had so much planned for our third day, but……
Day 3 in a later post.

Old Friends Old Bars

August 30, 2009

I lived in Yeongtong when I first moved to Korea.  Yeongtong is a meduim sized area on the outskirts of Suwon.  I lived here for almost two years and spent way too much time visiting all the local bars.  Pavox was always my favorite and I spent way too much time and money here.  It is a flair bar and they do put on a pretty good show.  I won’t lie and say that it is cheap, their drinks are a little but more expensive than other bars in the area, but I always have had a good time here.    I can’t tell you the number of times that the owner took me out for breakfast when they closed down for the night.  It used to be one of the most popular bars that foreigners would flock to besides the infamous Now bar.  It is a smaller place and unlike the Now bar, there are usually more Koreans than Westerners.  This place is like my Cheers.  They know my name and greet me with my favorite drink and my darts which they hold on to. We have always been treated well here and they even let me juggle bottles one night , but for some reason they wouldn’t let me breathe fire!

pavox4

pavox3

p2


The above video was taken by one of my coworkers at my first school in Korea.

We ventured here last night with Patrick and Alex who are leaving soon.  This was our last night with them before they head off on their European adventure. It was nice to come back to Pavox.   Most of the staff has changed since I last visited here, but Danny and Kazoo still are there.  We stayed for a few hours throwing darts and having some great drinks.

pavoxpatalex

triopavoxJJ Thanks for bringing your camera!

If you ever make it to Pavox, tell them that Mississippi Jason sent you. Try the mint shot, girly, but good!  . Kazoo and Danny will both fix you up with a strong drink, but don’t play them in the darts.They are pretty good. We use to play for beer all the time and let’s just say that I bought them more beer than they bought me.

Pavox is located in Yeongtong on the same side of the street as the Now bar, but closer to the park.  It is located in the last building on the right across from the love motel.  It is on the second floor.  When you get off the elevator, you can’t miss it!

We woke up early on Wednesday and were of course greeted to a huge breakfast cooked by JJ’s mom. After breakfast, we walked over to the bus terminal with JJ’s father. It took a while checking with everyone at the bus station to make sure that we were going the right way. At first I thought that no one had ever heard of Sanbangsan, but realized that they were just trying to figure out the fastest way. At one point, there were at least 6 people all looking at the bus route for us. We finally figured out which bus to take and were on our way. The driver was awesome and bowed to everyone when we boarded and let us know that he was going to take good care of us.

The weather was great and it was awesome to get some fresh air as opposed to that on the mainland. This area is on the southern part of the island. We were about an hour away from Seogwipo, We first headed down to Dragon Head Rock and walked around the beach where women were selling fresh seafood and soju that was way over-priced.jejuhill
We weren’t allowed to climb this but spent a lot of time checking out the coastal area near the mountain.

dragonhead

saltwater
She was refilling her bucket to hold the seafood that she had already caught. She was part of the group of women that were selling the seafood.
dancing
We had a great time enjoying the nice weather.

jjrock

buddahshill

beertime
We stopped for some ice cold beer which was nice after walking around for a few hours.

jejustatueJPG
If you have ever visited Jeju, you know that these statues are everywhere. These Dol hareubang(돌 하르방) statues are famous and a lot of tourist end up buying a couple of small ones to take home.

We ended up spending about four hours here and then made our way to Seogwipo for lunch.
Day 2 Part 2 To Come Later.

We stopped watching Lost long enough to sleep the night before our trip. We left about 11am and got to the airport in plenty of time to meet JJ’s mother.

My mother in law, bless her heart, is all Jeju. If you know anything about Jeju women, you will understand exactly what I mean. Jeju is famous for its strong women and JJ’s mom is the epitome of a Jeju woman. Not only did she make 3 friends on the way to security, but she yelled at the airport security officer. The story: Every time I fly, my belt buckle sets off the metal detector. I usually tuck in my shirt, so that it is pretty obvious what is causing all the alarms. Tuesday morning, I forgot to do this and the security officer was taking her sweet time checking me with the hand-held metal detector. JJ’s mom start yelling at her in Korean “Hey! He is my son-in-law. He is with me. He is okay~!” I think the officer felt sorry for me and let me go pretty soon after being yelled out. Score one for Jeju Mom! This wasn’t the end of her antics.  She had a bag full of candy that had been given to her.  She really reminded me of Santa Claus stopping and handing out candy to children we met in the airport and on the plane.  We boarded the plane with no troubles and found our seats.  jejuair

The flight to Jeju is only about an hour from Gimpo Airport and we were almost there when she dug into her bag and brought a small bottle of Korean wine.  She had already told us that she wasn’t going to drink . She offered it to me which I immediately rejected. (I have been in Korea way too long) If you don’t know, it is extremely rude to drink when your elders are not drinking. JJ’s mom gave me a hard time about not drinking it; continually saying that it was okay.  Finally, JJ opened it up and we downed it in about a minute or so.  This made the rest of the flight really nice. jjandmom

I didn’t get any pictures, but the flight attendants also held a rock, paper, scissors contest on the plane.(Only in Korea)  The winner walked flew away with a nice set of shampoo.  We were met at the Jeju airport by JJ’s father and we made our way to their house.

We had a huge dinner after her mom had sorted through the 10 boxes that she had shipped from Seoul. This was the start of me eating way too much in Jeju. It seems to be the theme whenever I meet her mother. JJ and I took off after dinner and headed downtown.  We stopped for some coffee and then checked out an outdoor concert and drank beer along the bayside wall while watching the late night basketball games.night

Day two was much more scenic and I will post more tomorrow after I have a chance to process all the photographs that I took.

Urban Green

August 25, 2009

This post is really for my brother, Hall.  He is almost finished with his masters in  Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State University. How’s that thesis coming bro?
There are also some spaces with some public gardens that I didn’t get to. I also forgot to get a picture of the name cards that are posted in the ground, so you know who the garden belongs to. There is definitely more space here than in Seoul and the residents take full advantage of it.
urbangarden2

urbangarden3

All of these photos were taken within a 10min walk of my apartment.  It is also time for everyone to dry out their red peppers and it was very easy to find some to take photos of.  Almost every other apartment had some on the front drive.  I love the fact that every available space is used in our neighborhood.   pepperscloseup

peppers

park
I haven’t spent too much time in this park, but I have enjoyed a few beers here late at night.

I am in the process of packing for my trip to Jeju. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 2!

Kim Dae-Jung

August 23, 2009

As you probably know Kim Dae-jung the ex-president of South Korea passed away last week.  His state funeral was held today in Seoul.  Here is what Obama had to say about it

President Kim risked his life to build and lead a political movement that played a crucial role in establishing a dynamic democratic system in the Republic of Korea.

I happened to be in a taxi when I noticed that the taxi driver was watching the ceremony on his navagation system.  I thought it was an interesting photo.  You can read more about Kim Dae-jung at the New York Times. You can also check out what Robert at the Marmot’s Hole wrote here.

kimdaejungjqpt5ykgum

Chicken on a Hot Day

August 23, 2009

Koreans have few certain types of the food that they eat on hot days. One of those is Bosintang 보신탕, which is dog meat soup, and the one that I will eat is samgyetang 삼계탕. It is basically a boiled stuffed chicken. The chicken is stuffed with rice, ginseng, fruit, garlic, and ginger. The soup if my favorite part. We have not had this dish for a couple of years. We just haven’t had a chance to eat it. JJ found this restaurant online and we got a call taxi to help us find it. If you live in Dongtan and want to check out this restaurant check out the map at the bottom.  If you read Korean, you can check out this blogger’s review of the place. You can also check out the restaurant’s homepage here. If you are in Dongtan and can’t find it and wanna give them a call their number is 031-8003-3340This is one of my favorite Korean foods and I really hope that I have a chance to enjoy it one more time before we leave.  I always feel like the chicken is undercooked, but have never gotten sick from it.  Maybe, I am just paranoid.  The whole meal is relatively cheap with the two of us eating for only 20,000 won.
resturant

koreanchicken2koreanchicken

map

Add to Technorati Favorites Photo Blog blogs & blog posts Travel Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory blogarama - the blog directory