Jeju Island

So we finally had a good amount of time off and I decided that before my time in Korea is up I needed to visit  the Hawaii of South Korea: Jeju Island!  I had a week to enjoy this place and I sure did.  I did make this trip a relaxing trip and not a touring trip.  I went to the same beach 4 days and toured a little the rest of the time.  Here are some pictures from my very sunny, relaxing trip!

I have arrived at Jeju

So I arrived in Jeju city and then had to take a bus about 1.5 hours to the south end to Seogwipo.  I have to say I was a little worried about this trip because again I was by myself but I ended up having a very nice time going to the beach and working on my tan.

Took some pictures on the bus ride to Seogwipo.  Very green and tropical place.

The ocean!!

For those of you who know me which most who read this do, I always find the dogs on the island.  This was a really cute puppy but he looked really hot.

This guy was outside the same place as the puppy and he said hi to me.  As I began walking away he followed me and I started to get worried he wouldn't go back home.  After he followed me for about 10 minutes I figured he was a stray and then he saw another dog and left me.  I even tried to offer him some water but he wouldn't have it.

I think this is like the Jeju mascot because this cute statue guy was everywhere on the island.

So my first day I went to the Hyatt beach which was about a 20 minute bus ride and I had a pretty good hike down to it.  

Beautiful views!!

The steps down to the beach!  Not bad on the way to the beach but man a climb when going up.

I ended up having to walk to the other end of the beach where the public got to hang out and luckily it wasn't a long beach.  I found a chair and umbrella set up and took it soon to find it was not free.  I got it anyways because it made the beach day so worth it and comfortable.  This is my view of the water.

My set up!

This day the water was a little wavy but fun to swim in and so many people got in the water.

The next day it was a cloudy day so I decided to go walk around some and see the tourist area.  I quickly found a Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum!  It was so hot and it looked neat so I went in.

A James Bond car made of all cardboard.

Another car covered all in gold coins

The tallest man in the world!

A moose made of all nails!

Vampire killing kit!

This was a cool place where when I moved the screen made cool views.  There were two different ways to do this!

Elvis pic made of M'n'M's.

A neat bridge that overlooked a beautiful valley with a waterfall and a small park at the bottom.

The valley and bridge in the background!

One of many harbors with the cool looking fishing boats.

The next day I decided to travel to a different part of the island and went to a beach on the west coast called Hyeopjae Beach.  I had to travel by 2 different buses for about 2 hours.  It was a very nice beach though.  Here are some pictures from the bus ride over and the beach.

This beach had the beautiful white, fine sand and the water was that beautiful teal to dark blue look.  The water was a bit cold but not too bad.

Jeju is known for it women who free dive for clams and oysters.  This is a cool statue at the beach entrance.

Biyang-do in the background!

Very busy day at the beach.  And of course all the good spots to sit down are taken by the umbrella selling people. So for $10 you can rent an umbrella and a mat to set up your stuff.  I got to the beach later and this was my view of the water.  I was about 4 rows of umbrellas back.

Here are some of the clam things they all pick up.

Some random rock piles I found but made for a good picture.

Cute little kids swimming.

At the beaches here they had some water activities and this is one of them where the jet ski pulled you and when the wind caught you just right you would fly a little bit.  On the bus ride home from this place I met a Korean guy with really good English and I asked where he learned his English and he said from watching Gossip Girl, Lost and CSI  TV shows.  I found this really funny and also a good reason for TV!

   

On my way home there was a waterfall right by my hostel so I decided since I was already sweaty and gross I would go hike down to the waterfall.  This is a bridge I had to walk over to get to the waterfall.

A mom and her baby ducks were on this rock and so cute.

Cheonjiyeon Falls!

Beautiful flower.

More cute statue guys!

I am always weary to ask other people to take my pictures because they never seem to get the right idea of what a good picture would have in it.  So I asked a nice Korean lady to take my picture with these two statues and she did a good job because both the statues are in it but why so far away??  Like I said I still have the two guys in it so the picture idea is achieved!

Neat picture of a duck with huge Koi fish below him

So this is one version of a corn dog they have.  It is the corn dog but fries in the outside!  I did not eat one but I think it may be good.

I love the look of these fishing boats!

Back to the Hyatt beach and we had a small storm the night before which made the surf really rough.  We were not allowed to swim at all.  

I got my chair and umbrella again but the waves were so big, the water came all the way up to my chair and sometimes it went past my chair.  My towel on the chair got soaked one time the wave came in so strong.  I was not annoyed, I was really excited and found it funny.  A few people tried putting their belongings on the beach in front of me and being the nice person I am I got up and told them the water would get their stuff.  I had to do this about 3 times.  

A really cool looking, huge snail!

My very comfortable set up!

My view!

The waves were coming in so high they even moved the lifeguard stand back.

The view when you  turn around form the beach.  there was actually a small waterfall right there.

A panoramic view of the land side of the beach.

So it was really windy my last day at the beach and I decided to leave early and walked a little and went into the African Art Museum.

Some interesting things inside!

The Lion King scene

A headress

Very cool picture

It was a really windy day so it made walking in the hot weather not so bad so I decided to walk towards my hotel for a little.  I saw some really great views and more greenery.  

More parts of Jeju

My room for the week.  I had a room to myself with 2 windows, my own bathroom and a TV.  The TV had about 2 English channels as well.  I got to watch some good movies.

The view from the top of the hotel.  It was a really nice place with some great views.

 

The top of the hotel had some nice seating areas to hang out.

In the middle of this picture is a FamilyMart where I stopped by every morning to get my drinks for the day and a sandwich.  It was a really nice mom and her daughter were there everyday.  

As close to a sunset as I could get from the top of my hotel.

My hotel!

I love the look of the clouds from the airplane.  I always want to just jump in and go swimming in them!

So after initially being worried and not really wanting to go anymore because I was by myself I had a really good time and was very relaxed the whole time.  I am glad I went to Jeju before I leave Korea (in 4 WEEKS!!!) and got myself a pretty good tan.