Jeju Day 2: Exploring

Friday, January 30, 2009

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Today was difficult for me, I found myself having a good time and then suddenly being overwhelmed by thinking of home and my family. Everything seems surreal to me. I guess because I am here it doesn't seem like anything actually happened and when I go home things will be the same as they were when we left, but I know in my heart they won't be. I am just still have trouble realizing all that is going on with my family, with my closest mentor/friend from home having stage 4 or 5 ovarian/uteran cancer and JP's Dad being sick again... I really thought about my parents all day and wish how I could have just taken them away from where they are and bring them here with us....

It was raining this morning when we finally got ready to go out around 10am or so. It was a bad rain or anything, just a mist. We started off the day by walking around to the back of the hotel to the walkway and beaches that are back there. The first beach we went to today was our favourite. The coastline and the smells just reminded us of home so much. And... a first in Korea... we were the ONLY people on the beach!!! Amazing! We do have photo evidence that I will post when I don't have to pay for internet anymore. Black Beach is so named because it is covered in lava stone. The cliffs are completely made of lava stone and then are extremely high. It was absolutely amazing to see the waves rolling in off the water and crashing into our feet. For those of you from Manitoba/Saskatchewan, you will understand when I say I got a booter, but for those of you from further west you will understand when I say I got water in my shoe. I was looking through the camera to take a picture and standing a rock that worked for the previous 50 waves and then when I wasn't looking, the wave came right up over my rock and got me wet.

It is so shocking to think that same Ocean that we are in at home is the same Ocean that I put my feet into today. The Pacific Ocean. You never really imagaine how big the Oceans really are, but today it came more into perspective for me. It's really amazing. The water is much much warmer here though than in Victoria.

I was able to collect some rocks from the beach that I am bringing back with me. I have 5, so if any one wants one just let me know!! There was also a waterfall on black beach that came from a stream beside our hotel. It was really beautiful.

After Black Beach, we headed to Jungmun Beach which is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was huge and covered in really nice sand. Actually, it is a bit strange all the sand here because there are little pieces of lava rock all through it so it is almost speckled black on certain beaches. We didn't stay long at Jungmun beach because we had other places that we wanted to see.

We tried to find the tourist information centre here so that we could get bus information on how to get to the lava caves on the exact opposite corner of the island from where we are, but when we did find it, it was locked and not a soul was there and it was 12:00 noon!!!!! Ugh, T.I.K.

After a call to the tourist information line, we figured the easiest and cheapest (not the shortest) way to the lava cave we wanted to see was to catch the bus back to the airport, then catch another bus for one stop to the ciy bus terminal, then switch buses one more time and stay on there. The bus, after 50 minutes, was supposed to take us right to the cave entrance, but the bus driver made us get off the bus about 3km from the entrance and made us walk in the rain. Not a big deal, but we did pay to go all the way there.

We paid 2000won each to get into the cave. It was spectacular in there. I just thought about how my Dad is always in tunnels for work and thought about how interesting he would find this tunnel since it was where lava used to flow to form Jeju Island. We walked for about 1.5km into the tunnel and reached the main attraction which was the (I forget the technical name so you have to listen to my name for it) "tallest-overhead-lava-pouring-through-a-hole-in-the-ceiling-hardened-rock-formation" in the world! Right now, I just read my name of it to Kyle and he is laughing at me and shaking his head from the bed, ha ha ha ha. He couldn't remember the name either, so he left me with no choice but to be creative and ultimately embarressing. Ha.

The walls in the tunnel were so smooth and you could see all the different levels on the wall (lava shelves, I remembered that name) of where each of the different levels of lava flowed through the tunnel at different times. There was stalagtite growing on the ceiling of the tunnel and it was just something to remember. I didn't get many good pictures because they didn't have all of the lights on in there, but I got a few. Kyle got the clearest one of me in front of the TOLPTAHITCHRF (long name from above shortened, and no, that is not Korean) and I seemed to be shaky today since I hadn't eaten in about 6-7 hours. Ugh... so hungry... we forgot to bring our snack with us.

It was a great day because I got to see Kyle relax for the first time in 9 months. When he was walking on Black Beach I could just see how much he was enjoying himself and how all his stress was just disappearing. That, for me, make this whole vacation worth it even if we didn't do anything else. We have made a point not to talk about work while we are here, so I am happy about that!

So, all-in-all, we walked about 10kms today and did 2 hours of bus riding around the entire island. Taxis and buses are crazier here than in Wonju or Seoul... hard to believe but it is true.

We just got back from the lounge downstairs where we decided to splurge and buy ourselves the semi-baked tomato mozzarella salad with alceto balsamico, kalamata olives and fresh parmesan and mozzarella that melted in our mouths, fish and chips and tortilla chips with salsa, sour cream and guacamole. We also each had a nice glass of wine and toasted to relaxing and being together.

Tomorrow we plan on going to a few more places before we have to leave the next morning at 8:00am for the airport... we are trying to see "12 Cave Beach", "Dragon Head Rock", "Sunrise Peak @ Sunset" and a couple waterfalls. I will let you know how it all goes.