Just to the south of the Korean Peninsula is a small island, Jeju. This is probably the most popular tourist destination for Koreans. Considering this, and the fact that Daejeon Citizen had an away game there, we decided to fly there for a weekend vacation a few weeks ago.
Now, we teach until 10pm so that ruled out the possibility of flying out on a Friday. Instead, I booked tickets for myself and Brenda, Lon, Lisa, James Nelson, and Kate at 7:40am on Saturday morning. Of course, this meant waking up at 5am. Yikes. We did manage get a van to pick us up at 6am for the trip to Cheongju airport, just north of Daejeon. A quick 40 minute flight via 737 and we arrived in Jeju International Airport.
If you look at a map, Jeju doesn't look very big, but it took an hour to get to the south side of the island, where we were staying. Our hotel had a kind of creepy appeal to it. It wasn't unclean by any means, but it looked like it had barely been touched since about 1981. It seemed virtually deserted, which probably contributed to the $40 a night price tag. We hopped into a cab and headed towards the beach. Our cohorts went exploring, but Brenda and I were too afraid of getting sand in our shoes, so we headed to the Teddy Bear Museum. Here, they use teddy bears to recreate a number of historical events, from the destruction of the Berlin Wall to the Thrilla in Manila. I'm still trying to decide if Teddy Bear Gandhi was offensive or adorable.
Next, we headed to a casino. Only foreigners are allowed to gamble in South Korea, which is a clever way of raising money without financially devastating a section of your population. Perhaps as a result, the casino was almost empty, despite the fact that it was very nice. The games were somewhat curious though. Slots were a reasonable 500 won ($0.50) and the minimum roulette wager was only 2,500 won. But if you wanted to play blackjack, you'd have to shell out 50,000 won ($50!) a hand. Needless to say, we didn't stick around long. Instead we headed for a restaurant called Gecko's, which served pretty much the best damned food I've had in Korea. The fact that it was American food didn't hurt.
Next, at Kate's suggestion, we all headed to a Buddhist Temple to witness a 7PM service. However, we accidentally participated in the service, which involved an incredible amount of kneeling, bowing, then standing up again. Even the elderly monks seemed to have no problem with this, but our knees were aching. After the longest hour of my life, we left the temple to find that a downpour had begun. As you might have guessed, not too many taxis drive by the temple. Luckily, we found some friendly (and inebriated) residents who invited Kate and James into their home and helped us call a cab. Naturally, we returned to Gecko's to dry off and drink away our joint pain. Thank God we found one of the few places in Korea that serves Jaeger Bombs!
I'll describe Day 2 soon. In the mean time, enjoy these photos of the Teddy Bear Museum:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2427035&id=10712264&l=93eca308d8
No comments:
Post a Comment