Jeju: Day 3

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Saturday, January 31st

Today we were both in weird moods. I am still having a hard time sleeping because I wish I was with my family and Kyle just isn't sleeping well in this bed. We ended up having a good day in the end though.

We woke up today around 9:00am and ordered a cheaper breakfast that we didn't see on the menu yesterday. I got French Toast (no where near as good as my Mom's and I still have not tasted french toast as good as my Mom's anywhere) because it is my favourite food and Kyle got cripsy waffles with berry compote and it came to $16 total. Not bad! Each came with fresh fruit and maple syrup and coffee. So good.

After breakfast we caught a taxi from our hotel to Cheonjiyeon Pokpo (pokpo = waterfall) and that took us about 15 minutes or so to get there. We paid 1000won each to get in and then walked the short distance to the waterfall. It wasn't busy there at all today so we were quite happy with that. The waterfall was beautiful and it really reminded us of waterfalls at home (but we don't have to pay to see them at home). The cliffs were amazing and the waterfall was actually quite large. I would recommend for people to go and see it when they come here. There is another waterfall close by, but we didn't make it there since we had a lot of other things to do on our list.

We wanted to go hot air ballooning today, but we weren't able to because we didn't see anyone around where the balloon was, but since we were in the area (about 10 minutes ride from the waterfall) we decided to check out the 2002 World Cup Stadium. We were thinking we would only be able to see it from the outside, but it was open! We were even able to walk down to almost the lowest level in the stadium to see it. It was amazing. I thought about Matt the whole time we were there and how much he would have loved it. I also thought about one of my students, Rio, who is always talking about soccer.

After that, it was about lunch time so we headed to E-Mart which was next door to the Stadium and we bought some precooked and warmed chicken wings and drink and came back to the hotel to map out our afternoon and eat. About 30 minutes later I was in the lobby feeding one of our breakfast buns to the Koi Fish. They are sooooo funny. They push their lips out like no other fish I have ever seen and they are so entertaining. I love the koi fish and the koi pond in the lobby. Kyle took pictures of me feeding them so I will show them to you at a later time when I get back.

We then tried to go catch a bus to head to Hallim park, but we were told by the hotel to go to a certain bus stop across from a scooter rental place which we could not find, but found the post office she talked about. We waited there and then were told by the bus driver that this was not the stop, so we went into a store to ask for help and after 20 minutes of them trying to talk to us (they were so nice and helpful) someone came in off the street and took us to the right bus stop, but then a bus came by and told us no again.... ugh. As we were about to leave another bus came and it was the right one. We wasted about an hour waiting around and doing all of that... then we had a 90 minute bus ride.

We got off the bus and went to Geumreung beach which was really nice. We stayed there for a few minutes and went to my favourite stop of the day. We went to Hyeopjae Beach and it was white sands and clear blue/green water. It was amazing. I stood in the water for a picture and considering it is the end of January, the fact that the water was not too cold to swim in was amazing. And yes.... it is the ocean still at this beach. I loved that beach and could have stayed there all day, but we had to get going. I look a lot of pictures there. Kyle says this was his favourite stop of the day as well. We wish we had a whole day to stay there.

Side note: as beautiful as these beaches are, anyone from BC who is used to the strict rules on cleanliness would be shocked by the amounts of garbage that there is on the beach. Not that the beach is covered in garbage, but it is not nearly as clean at the beaches we are used to and people at home would not stand for glass, torn up life jackets, ropes, nets, and food leftovers laying around. But.... the beach is still beautiful, they all are, they just need a small face lift or someone to pick up the garbage which could probably be done by about 5 people in one day.

After the beaches we headed to Hallim Park. We visited Palm Tree Avenue, the Subtropic Botanical Garden, the Jeju Stone & Bonsai garden, the Bird Garden and the two caves there. The first cave was Hyeopjae cave and the second was Ssangyong cave. They were formed by the eruption of Mt. Halla and are very unique in the world of caves. They have limewater enmeshed into the walls of the cave. Since it formed it has transformed into a golden lime cave and there are some really amazing things to see inside. In the first cave (Hyeopjae) there is a rock that fell from the ceiling of the cave that is callied "the living rock" because since the limewater drips from the ceiling from the hole where it fell it drips onto the sides of the rock causing it to grow. And when the limewater hits the sides of the hole in the ceiling it makes the hole shrink.... so it makes it look like the rock is living and growing because it no longer fits in the hole.

In the second cave (Ssangyong) there are marks on the ceiling from where two dragons lived in the cave before the escaped into the ocean. First, we only saw the "tail hole" which was not too amazing, but then you could see the outline of the body and head on the ceiling. The second dragon was even more fascinating and confusing and amazing... there is a hole where the body was and you can actually see the spots and lines and spine of the dragon in the hole that leads out to the ocean... we were amazed. The stories and the history here on Jeju are breathtaking and they just have so many spectacular sights to see. Also, in this cave there is a natural rock formation that depicts a woman holding a baby... no one carved it, it fell from the ceiling of the cave and you can see the face and the arms and the baby in the rock. We weren't able to get many good pictures because the lighting in the caves was awful and everyone else's cameras were flashing....

There was actually a rock in the cave yesterday that also fell from the ceiling of that cave (you can see the hole it fell from) and it is shaped like Jeju island. It is almost 100% acurate. There is a marking (lava shelf) around the edge of it that is exactly where the island road is and goes the whole way around like the road, there is also a big rise in the middle that is shaped just like Mt. Halla in the middle of the island, and there is also a Dragon Head Peak.... weird!

After Hallim park, we caught the bus to Dragon Head Rock and took some pictures. It was great to see. Smaller than expected and only takes a few minutes to see as well. When we were driving around the island we got to see some amazing things, Mt. Sangbang and Yongmeori Cliff (shaped like a dragon that is just going out into the sea) and some beautiful harbours.

It was a great day. We did a lot, but unfortunately didn't make it back to Sunrise Peak for Sunset, but we got most other things done. We just finished dinner here at the hotel and I am going to go take a bath.... I love that this place has a bathtub because I have only been able to have showers for the last 9 months. So not relaxing. Alright.... Kyle wants the compie... so bye for now!