Visit to Jeju Island

Last weekend I went to Jeju Island for four days. It was great! I went swimming on beautiful beaches, saw some amazing geology, ate some delicious food, saw some cool trees. I returned to school relaxed and refreshed

Flights to Jeju from Seoul (Gimpo airport) were very inexpensive from Jeju Air. My round trip after taxes cost 124,000 Won when I bought them online.

Bye Seoul

We went swimming at beautiful sandy beaches. There were nice change rooms, showers, and foot washing stations at the beach. When we arrived there were many surfers riding waves, children building sand castles, and folk swimming. The water was warm, the waves were great and body surfing was quite good the first day we hit the beach. After swimming for a while the sun started setting and an alarm went off at the nearby building. We guessed that was the lifeguard going off duty as everyone started getting out of the water so we did too.

The next day I needed to get some studying done. So I spent the day at a Starbucks with a beautiful view. It was a very windy day so I did not mind spending the day inside.

After a long day of studying we went for dinner and had delicious fresh sea food at the docks. As usual in South Korea you order your main course and get tones of included sides. The fish was very fresh and was taken right from one of the many large tanks of live fish in front of the restaurant. The way to eat this meal was mainly by making little sea weed tacos with the sea weed sheets, some of the kimchi (which had onion in it), rice, sauce, garlic, and your choice of other sides with the fish.

The next day we went to check out Gaetkkak Jusandjeollidae(주상절리대), an amazing tunnel on the beach formed by a lava flow that poured over a cliff. The nearby information sign says the name refers to the column like shape that the lava formed into as it cooled. You can walk through the tunnel and get a sense of the large weight of rock hanging above you.

On the way to the tunnel from the parking lot

Cool geology at the ocean

West entrance

Inside the west entrance

Panorama Inside the tunnel

East entrance

That afternoon we went to the Spirited Garden to check out some Bonsai trees. The gardens were started over 50 years ago by a bonsai enthusiast who bought some cheap property and started pruning trees into the bonsai esthetic. The name spirited garden was given because this place is a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the modern society and a place to relax with nature.

There are a number of fish ponds and you can buy fish food for 1,000Wan and feed the fish. It was a lot of fun and you get quite a bit of fish food for your money.

Last meal

That was our last night in Jeju and we went for some delicious Korean BBQ. My favorite meal on Jeju was the marinated beef ribs that you can see at the far right in the picture. It is sweet and caramelizes really nicely when you barbeque it up. They also give you raw liver and tripe which I did not feel inclined to eat. The noodle soup was really tasty and I have grown quite fond of kimchi during my stay here so far. With this meal once again you make lettuce wraps with kimchi, your choice of meat, and sides.