Posts tagged Jeju

Landed

6 months ago

by JR in Korea and Culture, Travel

Woke up early this morning after crashing out early last night. We stayed up the entire night before heading to New Orleans on the third,and I got very little sleep on the plane. We were surrounded by children whose mission in life had to be to aggravate as many people as possible. After a long 14 hour flight from Chicago to Seoul, we landed in Seoul, and made it through customs and immigration with little to no problems. The weather, although muggy, has not been terrible, but it does look like the next few days are going to be rainy. We decided to stay near Kkachisan Station since it is close to Gimpo and to JJ’s sister’s house. We grabbed a taxi after taking the limo bus from Incheon to Gimpos, and I was quickly reminded of why I never wanted to drive in Korea. Our driver was able to simultanesosly enter the address into his GPS, handle conversations on two different cell phones, get directions from JJ, and weave in and out of traffic without hitting a couple of delivery drivers that drifted into our lane.

We met JJ’s sister, brother-in-law, and their son at a traditional Korean restaurant for dinner. They treated us to a wonderful dinner, and it was a great first meal in Korea. It was good to be able to catch up with family members that we have not seen in two years, and we both are ready to get back to the mainland to spend more time with them. Their son is now eight, and it was amazing to see how much he has grown in the two years that we have been gone.

Since I didn’t bring my card-reader, I will have to wait and upload photos, but I look forward to sharing photos of the hotel that JJ found for us. I really wish cheaper “love motels” would take off in America. For less than 60 dollars, JJ and I have a room with a huge jacuzzi tub, 50 inch flat-screen TV, two P.C.’s with huge flat screens, and touch screen computer that controls everything in the room.

Today’s plan is to visit and have lunch with another sister who lives near Gimpo, and then leave for Jeju this afternoon around four.

Photos and more tales of Korea later

Day 3 Jeju’s Unforgiving Weather

2 years ago

by JR in Korea and Culture, Travel

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.

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.
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.

Jeju lowepreo 75aw Travel waterproof

Ilchulbong Volcanic Crater

2 years ago

by JR in Korea and Culture, Travel

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jeju Seongsan Ilchulbong Travel Volcano Crater 성산 일출봉

Jeju Day 1 Mother in Law Adventure

2 years ago

by JR in Travel

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.

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.

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.