Jeju: The Land With No McDonalds

Well folks, Jeju Island was a much needed and wonderful vacation. My student's chances of survival climbed almost 10% thanks to this little venture.

There's a slideshow showing way more than you could possibly care about, but nevertheless, here's some of the highlights:



This is the plane that took us from Seoul to Jeju Island. Seoul is in the northwestern corner of South Korea, and Jeju is off the southern coast. My issue is with this whole "propeller" thing. I mean, I've been in a Cessna, and I'm ok with it for short bits of fun. But if we're going to cram 40+ people I'd prefer something that didn't involve someone yelling "Contact!" To be fair, it didn't fall out of the sky in a fireball of death and destruction.

Our initial attempts at the local cuisine didn't go as well as I would have liked. At this charming little restaurant I was proud to finally explain to the tiny old Korean woman that I didn't want any seafood. She said she had a pork dish, and I thought all was well. I have no idea what the hell is in this bowl, but I can guarantee there isn't any pork chops.

However, for a significantly larger sum of money, our hotel was able to provide some really good food. Breakfast was the most economical of the meals, so we ate there when we were up before lunch.



Fear not, dear friends and family, global travel has not affected our hearts. When faced with a $65 cab ride to go climb a huge mountain, we did what any good Floridian would do. We found our way into town and hopped a bus with the locals. It's also, by the way, where we got our food. Since I couldn't see myself paying $80 for dinner every night, we hopped a $3 cab and nabbed a $5 pizza. The $65 car ride? Try $6 for both Jen and I to take a trip to the other side of the island. Eat it, tourists.

We climbed this. The pictures were great, and I'm sure it was worth it, but LORD, I am not built for mountains. Cool bonus: the picture of us eating ice cream was taken on our way back down. There was a little shop halfway there that sold drinks and ice cream. FAN. TAS. TIC.



This was a strange five-headed animal fountain thing. You can see the full fountain in the other pictures, but the point was that you will get good luck in a specific area, depending on where you tossed the coin. So Jen and I tossed a few at the warthog, which presumably brings wealth. So far, though, I just seem to be poorer by a handful of change...



A "professional photographer" offered to take a picture of us in front of the aforementioned fountain (with our camera), and then proceeded to put us through a photo shoot at a couple other spots right around there. I broke down and bought a $5 photo he took with his Polaroid- it was worth it for the freebie shots he took for us too. This is one of my faves, except that I can't help but notice that my arm looks fat in all of them.

What? I can be sensitive.

Ok, not really.


Our hotel was WAY over the top. We had a room at the Hyatt Grand Regency for $130 per night. Apparently I had some leftover luck hanging in the cosmos, because they bumped us up to a $300 per night room with a bathroom that, believe it or not, rivaled a Holiday Inn Express. We had the full bathtub (Jen was thrilled), along with the stand alone shower (AMAZING). This is neither of those things. This is one of the 2 waterfalls in the swimming pool, this one leading to the swim up bar. Unfortunately, the bar was closed for the season. Between this and a particularly nasty turn at the roulette wheel, I think the Hyatt came out on top.




So as the vacation came to a close, Jen and I are waiting for the airplane. Jeju oranges are popular around here, and folks were buying them from vendors in the airport by the box load. But then I came across this. They aren't selling oranges here, they're selling frozen seafood. Because who hasn't wrapped up a week in paradise and thought, "Gee, I wish I could take home some frozen squid!" I don't know, I hate seafood. Maybe some of you are thinking this is the greatest idea ever. Personally, I love that I could buy a huge box of clams, a huge box of oranges, and a box of cactus flavored chocolate, all while waiting for a twin prop plane to fly me back to an airport named "Gimpo."

Gotta love this place...




Well, that about wraps it up. We did make a stop by a famous museum. Turns out Jeju is also known as "Honeymoon Island," and in that vein you can find the Museum of Sex and Health located not far from our resort. Unable to resist, Jen and I took the tour, as well as a bunch of photos. I'd post them, but then this blog would get flagged as inappropriate and they'd (justifiably) shut down my account. Since that's not going to really work for me, I'll tell you if you should happen to be in a happy monogamous relationship and end up in Jeju, check it out.

But, I push the envelope from time to time. So, for a special and much overdue SIGN TIME!!! the only picture I can safely post.



No, they didn't have this as a keychain. Yes, I looked.




That's going to wrap it up for us. I'm trying to put into a blog some of my thoughts on the whole North Korea/South Korea part of our experience here, but it's just not coming together yet. I can tell you, once I get it out, it's likely to be long and have no pictures. Feel free to skip it if that's not your bag.


Oops! Almost forgot.



Hey! Look! Tropical Dan(ger).


-Al