Jeju-do (June 2-6)

Sarah and I spent a long weekend in the beginning of June on Jeju-do, a large Korean island 11 hours (by boat) from Busan. Check out the pictures here.

It was kind of a last minute trip and so we put little planning into the whole thing. We booked the overnight ferry the day we left and surprisingly, there were no private rooms available. We were left with a "sleeping hold" that held 32 people. Having no alternative we took it hoping for the best.

We left around 8 on Friday and the ferry turned out to be pretty memorable. Our room was just that: a big empty room (probably 12 X 25 feet) with only small cushions available to use as pillows. Everyone came in and claimed a spot on the floor. Sarah and I got a corner and held it fiercely against encroachments by our roommates. We had 18 people in our room and we couldn't imagine 32 people crammed inside. While walking to the bathroom I found that one of the rooms had a karaoke machine and inside about twenty people were singing and dancing their hearts out. They saw me watching them and invited me in. I ran back and grabbed Sarah and we joined them. It was mostly old women in the room and they offered us beer and made us dance. It only lasted three songs because a ship employee came around and told them that they had to keep it down. It was cool though and while leaving I was given a shot of soju (Korean rice wine) and a piece of dried squid as a chaser. Honestly, I'm not sure which was worse.

We returned to our rooms and managed to fall asleep around 12 despite the lights being still on and a group of old men drinking, talking and gambling in the opposite corner. The floor was as uncomfortable as you would imagine and the drunk Korean woman passed out next to Sarah kept inching closer until they woke up nose to nose. Getting to Jeju was fun despite the lack of privacy and one of those things that is really funny afterwards.

We arrived around 6 am and after searching around for a bit, checked into a super nice room at the Raddison which was given to us at half price for some reason. After a much needed nap we took an hour long bus ride to the southern part of the island and walked around near the beach and checked out not only a gorgeous waterfall but also a pool that was home to some eel that was named as a Korean Tourist attraction. Everything in Korea is numbered and labeled as some sort of wonder of Korea. Including the eel, which we actually saw and deemed to be unimpressive. We discovered how nice Jeju-do was pretty early. It's sub-tropical so there were palm trees everywhere which was a nice reminder of home.

The next day we attempted to rent scooters so we could drive around the island. When I told the rental guy that I didn't have an international drivers license I had to quickly lie when he asked if I've ever driven a scooter before. "Of course" I said. He told me to drive a scooter around the block to see if I could drive. I could and I did, though rather slowly, but I guess I didn't meet the owners expectations since he said he couldn't rent to me. He wouldn't budge despite showing him my expired California drivers license. We tried renting one scooter with Sarah's license (she drives a motorcycle) but after only a block of riding on the back of a scooter I said it wouldn't work; it freaked me out not to be in control of the bike. So we returned the bike and took a cab to our next destination.

Which was Korean tourist attraction #98: a 8 km long lava tube. A lava tube is a big cave created by, well, lava boring through the earth and it was impressive for the first ten minutes of the 60 minute walk to the end and back. It had a rock inside that was supposed to look like a turtle and (this was written on the advertisement) show "the magnificence of God." It fell short on both counts. We had more fun making fun of the cave than the cave itself provided. Leaving involved a missed bus, what would have been a two hour wait and another cab ride.

We then left to see THE MYSTERIOUS ROAD!!!! which was a tourist trap where things would roll up hill. The "hill" was more like an slight upward tilt, but things did roll against gravity. Amazing? Not really. We would have called the mysterious road a waste of time if not for the Love Park.

The Love Park was a normal park with grass, trees and a nice lake in the middle. And about 2 dozen pornographic statues, suggestive signs and a huge thirty foot penis in the center. It was an erotic park that catered to the many honeymooners who visit Jeju-do. About twenty other people were in the park, wandering around gawking at the statues. Definitely a highlight of the trip that more than made up for the two mile walk we had to make afterwards cause we couldn't find a cab back to the main road.

The next day we traveled back down to the southern coast and hung out on the beach. We found a group of the famous Jeju-do lady divers. It is a family tradition to be a diver on Jeju-do and harvest fish and seaweed to sell at the market. They dive in groups just off the shore and supposedly can stay underwater for up to 2 minutes. One approached us and gave us a sea urchin. Unsure what the hell we were supposed to do with it, we put it back in the ocean after she left.

In the afternoon we went on a harbor cruise. We couldn't understand the tour operator since everything was in Korean so we were left to assume that he was pointing out rocks that were supposed to look like stuff. We did see a bunch of sea caves, an impressive view of the coast and a flying fish. It was fun. Afterwards we went to a nearby temple, which was amazing. Usually you aren't allowed to take pictures inside but we could in this one. It was huge, 4 stories tall and it had three large golden Buddha statues and dragons curling around the central columns. And the hallways and stairwells were decorated with paintings depicting the history of Buddhism. Really cool.

After the temple we wandered around for a bit more and found another waterfall and some hiking trails. We spend a few hours hiking and wading in the pools at the base of the falls. We couldn't stay long, however, since we had to catch an evening flight back to Busan. We got to the airport early and despite worries that the flight would be canceled due to weather, we made it home with no problems.

It was a great trip and it once again demonstrated how well Sarah and I travel together. Both of us are able to shrug off the numerous mishaps that come with wandering around a foreign country. Hopefully, our trip up to Seoul and the islands in the north at the end of July should be just as fun.

Plans

It's raining here now and its making it very difficult for me to walk down to the grocery store. I'll post instead.

Things here have been really great lately. Work has been good, we get a new teacher in two weeks. World Cup (though now over for Korea) has been fun. I've been traveling around and doing a lot. The biggest news, though, is that my girlfriend Sarah has decided to extend her stay here in Korea so we can be together. I'm really happy that she's decided to stay and we are making tentative plans for the next 6 months.

At the end of July everyone has a week vacation and we had started making plans to go to the Philippines or to Viet Nam. When tickets turned out cost twice what was advertised online, we decided that we'd have to stay in country for this vacation. We're planning on going to a big three-day concert up in Seoul and hopefully get up to see the DMZ as well. Any extra time we have we are going to spend on an island somewhere off the coast. It's too bad we can't go abroad but it'll still be fun.

Until then, we have a month and a half of hot humid weather and work to look forward to. In early July we are going rafting with some friends of ours which is going to be a blast. And the weekend of the 15th we are going to the 9th Annual Boryeong Mud Festival. It's a weekend long party at a muddy beach. Drinking, mud wrestling, bbq and fireworks. It's going to be awesome.

That's the latest from Busan.

Dae-hamin-gu!

The game against Togo was a blast! All of us were decked out in red and Jake and I both wore viking hats colored red in support of the red devils. It went over really well and we spent the entire night cheering and screaming for Korea. Filing out of the stadium after the 2-1 victory, we were mobbed by people singing and cheering. We posed for at least a dozen photographs with complete strangers and everyone thanked us for supporting Korea. Pictures below:

Probably about 20,000 people showed up at the stadium to watch the game. Most of them in the stands. But as the stands filled up people started to run onto the field for better seats. The 100 or so police officers there could do little to stop them. When they turned off the TV's showing the game, though, everyone hopped up and ran back off the field.

Us outside of the stadium, posing for one of many pictures with random fans.

Not my best picture but it makes me laugh everytime I see it. I blinked during what I'm sure was a loud pro-Korean cheer; I wasn't drunk, I swear.

_____________________________________________

I wrote this post a week ago and I've been trying to add pictures to it since. The three above were the only ones I could get to work... In the meantime, Korea tied France in their second game making it very possible to move onto round two.

Unfortunately, France beat Togo on Saturday and Korea couldn't get anything going against Switzerland and we lost 2-0 bumping us out of the tournament. We stayed up all night Saturday morning and were with a hundred other fans in a bar watching the game and cheering on Korea. Like I said, Korea could do nothing offensively in their game and a horrible offsides call that lead to a Swiss' second goal didn't help either. So now Korea's done and with the Americans and the Czechs getting pushed out, I'm left to cheer for...someone else. Too bad Korea got knocked out, I was just mastering most of the chants.

Red Devils

Today is Korea's opening game in the World Cup. The Korean "Red Devils" are facing off against the football powerhouse of Togo. Anticipation has been building for weeks now and on the day of this storied match-up one question begs an answer: Where the hell is Togo?

It's on the Western coast of Africa apparently (and finding it on a map just now reminded me of the end of "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?". Remember that show? The giant map? I would have lost had I pulled the Africa map in the final round...). Anyway, Korea is facing off against Togo tonight. With Korea ranked #29 and Togo weighing in with a #61 seed, Korea is favored to win. Our next opponents of France (#8) and Switzerland (#35) should be much tougher opponents (rankings). But numbers shouldn't matter. This is a game of heart and passion and the Korean team has plenty of both. I'm assuming. I actually don't know the first thing about the Korean team. I know the coach is Dutch and we have one player who plays for Manchester United. Beyond that I don't know shit. I will venture a guess that 90% of our team is named either Kim, Park or Lee.

I say our team because I'm an American and don't follow soccer in the least. This, I think, allows me to support any team I damn well please. Korea is the easy choice though I will be keeping an eye on the Czech Republic, who today handed team America their ass in a 3-0 loss. I will be watching the games but more from a "I need an excuse to drink on a Wednesday night" than a "God I love this sport" kinda way. Tonight we're heading to the stadium across town to watch the game with a few thousand Korean fans. I just spent 2o minutes coloring the horns on my Viking hat red and we'll be waving flags, chanting in Korean, and cheering on team Korea. And drinking of course. We'll be drinking too.

Sorak-san (May 26-29)

A few weekends ago my friends and I took a long bus ride up Korea's Eastern coast to Sorak--san, Korea's largest and most beautiful national park.

We left Busan Friday night around 11 o'clock. It was a seven hour bus ride and we expected to all sleep on the bus and wake up around 6:30 in Sorak-san refreshed and ready to explore the park. It was a great plan. We didn't count on having a bus driver who was trying to set a land speed record. We were in a full size bus and the guy was averaging 100 km/hr (this is from one of the Canadians in the front and I don't know what the conversion is from metric...I don't want to know, it was fucking fast). And the route was along the coast so it was curvy and switchback-ridden the entire time. All of us were being jostled back and forth. No one got any restful sleep.

And our plan of arriving at 6:30 was a bit off too. We arrived at 4:45 am. We were half and hour from Sorak-san with nowhere to stay. We considered sleeping in a park and someone suggested a rice paddy (that was lack of sleep talking). We managed to find two cabs that took us to the park and a nearby hotel. It was really nice and as we found out, pretty expensive too. But with 8 people in one room, it tends to bring down the price a bit. We found our room, claimed beds and spots on the floor and tried to fall asleep.

Some of us, though, were past the sleep stage. We had been up long enough that we weren't tired anymore. Someone suggested a sunrise hike and five of us took off. We walked from the hotel and found a huge riverbed which we crossed to find some really beautiful hills and pools, discovered what may have been a North Korean landmine (more than likely a bee hive) and a troublesome fence that we all had to fight our way over. And all of this in the rain.

The rain was the theme for the weekend. We went back to the hotel a bit damp, woke everyone up and after a quick breakfast left for the park. By this point it was raining pretty steadily and everyone but me bought silly-looking rain ponchos. I was betting my rip-off North Face jacket could handle the rain, and it did successfully for the first half an hour of hiking. After that it just got too soaked and I was cold and wet the entire day. My poncho-clad friends didn't do much better, hiking in a plastic bag can get pretty hot and eventually everyone chose to be wet and cold instead of humid and sweaty.

It was awesome though. When you enter the park you are greeted by an amazing 5o foot tall Buddha statue. Continuing on through the park we passed over a few rivers and through a really beautiful forrest to the base of a mountain. We decided on the short uphill hike instead of the long flat one. The hill we started on turned to a rocky mountain and then to a really frightening cliff. We were all panting getting up to the cliff face and found we had no view because of the thick fog. You could tell though that we were high and with my fear of heights I'm glad I couldn't see out. If I had been able to, I probably wouldn't have taken the stairs to the cave.

Cold, slippery industrial metal stairs were anchored into the side of the cliff. They were the only thing keeping you from (at least) a hundred foot drop. With both the rain and the fog the stairs freaked all of us out, but no one was turning back after the hike up. We took the stairs up another 5o feet to a cave in the side of the cliff. The cave was no more than 20 ft deep, 15 ft tall and was used as a Buddhist shrine. Inside was a golden Buddha statue, food offerings and traditional paper prayers hanging from the ceiling. An old couple oversaw the shrine and the man would etch your name into a small medallion for a few bucks. It was pretty amazing and would have had a spectacular view if not for the fog. We spent 2o minutes there then slowly made our way back down the stairs and hiked back to the bottom of the mountain

Cold, exhausted, and soaking wet we returned to our hotel and after a stop at a small market to purchase our dinner (Pringles, cookies and beer) we stayed up late playing poker and fighting over who got to sleep where. We woke up the next day and caught the afternoon bus back to Busan. It was a much longer ride with the driver actually following the speed limit and we arrived back home late Sunday night. Besides the drunk Korean guy on the subway yelling at Jake for wearing a Viking helmet, the trip back was pretty uneventful.

Despite (or maybe because of) the long travel times, bad weather and cramped accommodations, it was an awesome trip. Check out the pictures below...

Sorak-san pics

Not finding ourselves tired, some of us left for a "sunrise hike" that we joked the entire time, was leading us into North Korea.

Our cramped hotel room.

Spectacular Buddha statue at the park's main gate.

Rocks and the river along the hiking trail.

The river.

These were the easy stairs. The ones higher up were even worse.

View (or lack of) from the cave on the side of the cliff.

This is the peak we climbed. You can see the cave and stairs along the face is you look closely. (Click to enlarge)

After a long day of hiking, Jake felt horny.