JeJu Island - My Chuseok Vacation

Chu Seok is the Korean Thanksgiving where families gather together and eat delicious food (I think there's more to it so if you want more info, google it).  Since it's a national holiday, my school was off from September 21-23.  My friends and I decided to go to JeJu Island which is an hour flight away from Seoul.  We left the 17th and returned on the 23rd.  We missed 2 days of class but that's okay...I told my professors beforehand (I know...I'm so responsible!).

Okay so on Friday morning we left to the airport at 6am for our 8:30 flight.  After we landed, we rented a car because it's the easiest way to get around the island and fortunately Katie has an international driver's license.  We headed to the south part call Seowipo and we stayed at a hostel and the hosts there are the nicest people ever!  After we put our things away, we went to the roof of the hostel where we can see Hallah Mountain then we headed to the beach for some rest and tan :)  Afterwards, we went back to the hostel, took a shower and headed out to dinner.  Peter and Sylvia (the hosts) recommended us a place that served amazing Korean BBQ.  Afterwards, we took a walk and headed to the Choenjiyeon Waterfall.

At the roof of the hostel - the back is Hallal Mountain!

first day at the beach!

Korean BBQ!!

We went when it was dark so it was hard to get a good pic.  Oh ps from left to right: Katie (Germany), me, Sheila (USA), and Nynke (Netherlands)

On Saturday, we headed to the Jeongbang Waterfall where the water enters the sea.  It was so pretty there!

Then we headed to the Teddy bear Museum because Sheila wanted to take a picture with the bears.  We were too cheap to buy tickets so I snuck into an opening and just snatched a pic of the huge bear.

Then we headed to the best place in the world!!!  We went to Oedolgae Rock.  Now this place isn't very interesting.....there's just a rock but the coolest part is located on the opposite direction of the rock.  If you walk to the left side you will enter a hidden cove like area where you can swim in the pond.  I'm not exactly sure how to explain this so here are some pics:

the rock

haha i swam...w/ fish!  that's my goggles aka bootleg snorkel

Katie and I climbed up to the rock bridge...the ocean was right behind us!

Afterwards, we decided to take a walk around around Seowipo and walked across the bridge.

Then we had traditional Jeju food which is very simple and humble.  It was very delicious!

We decided to check out the nightlife of Seowipo and I am unable to include any pics here because there is NO NIGHT LIFE in Seowipo!  It was dead.

On Sunday morning, we left Seowipo and headed to the eastern part of the island call Seongsan.  Before we went to our hostel we stopped by the Jeju Folk Village Museum.  It was very interesting to see how life was like before electricity and the humble lifestyle of the village.  The best part was that I got to see the film location of 大长金 (the first Korean drama I watched about the first female physician in the royal palace).  I will attach some pictures here but there are more on my facebook page...

the steps to carving the statue!

hut

Afterwards we checked into our minbak.  I really like it because we got to sleep on the floor!  We didn't do much that day..we just lazed around and slept..it was a lazy Sunday.

On Monday we basically spent a whole day in Seongsan Illchulbong which is where a huge crater lies on top of a mountain.  It was a long, hot, and sweaty hike up but the view was definitely worth it.

behind me is the crater!

we climbed that mountain!

hot and sweaty!!

Then we went to see JeJu female divers.  Okay, now these divers are amazing!  I believe the youngest diver was at least 70 years old and they dive w/o an oxygen tank!  It's so amazing, they can hold their breath for up to 2 minutes I believe and they dive for fish!

a singing ritual?

getting ready to dive!  no oxygen tanks!!!

It started to rain after the dive show so we left and drove around Seongsan and waited for the rain to stop.  Then we went to the coolest beach ever!  It was the best sand beach ever and the sand was so firm!  The water was unbelieveably warm.

On Tuesday morning we headed towards Jeju City.  Before we checked into our minbak, we went to the world's longest lava tube!  It was such an awesome experience.  It was a very hot day but once we reached the tube opening, you can immediately feel the temperature drop at least 10 degrees C.  It was dark and chilly in the tube but it was really cool to see the different kind of lava structures.

it's dark so I can't take a lot of pictures but there are def. more on fb!

Before we returned our car, we went to the Mysterious Road.  If you put your car in neutral, your car will go uphill!  It's actually an optical illusion because the hill might seem uphill but it's actually downhill.  It was really cool though!  I havea video of it and I can't upload it on youtube right now because of Korea's restrictions but you can check out the video on facebook.

After we checked into our minbak, we drove to the car rental place and returned our car.  Since we'll be staying in JeJu City before we leave on Thursday, we decided it'll be cheaper to just take the bus/taxi.  We took the bus to a place call Dragon Rock.

see the dragon head?

Then we chilled around City Hall area and took sticky pics and went to some bars :)

Wednesday was the official Chu-Seok day.  We knew that a lot of stores will be closed so we decided to take it slow that day.  We woke up at around 11 and headed to City Hall.  We had brunch and then walked around the area.  We headed to the underground shopping center and for awhile it was dead but more and more shops opened as we walked around for a few hours.

city hall is dead...

empty...

Then we went to a DVD room (it's quite common in Korea.  There are stores that rent out DVD for people to watch in their rooms).  We watched The Ugly Truth - which is an amazing chick flick!

We then chilled in Dunkin Donuts and waited for the city to get more lively again.  We had dinner at a Mexican place - we were all craving western food!  Afterwards we bar hopped for awhile.  Sheila and I wanted to end our last night with a bang so we went to a club with some foreign friends we made on the streets.   It was so much fun!

we met Canadian teachers!

friends from Korea, New Zealand and South Africa!

We left pretty early on Thursday so we didn't have a chance to explore the island.  I had an amazing time at Jeju!