Jejudo Trip (Day 1)

Since it was a long weekend (Memorial Day) for us, we decided to get away from the busy city life and take a vacation and traveled to Jejudo. Yes I know…you are wondering “where is it?” and “why haven’t I heard of it?” Jejudo has been referred to as Korea’s Hawaii.

“Do” (pronounced just like Homer Simpson’s trademark “doh”) is Korean for island, so Jejudo is actually Jeju Island. So even though we flew there, we didn’t leave Korea to go on our vacation. However, it was much different from the mainland. The air was fresher there, without the trademark odors that lead my kids to keep asking “what is that smell?” In addition, there were palm trees, wider streets with far less traffic, and most importantly the majority of people there actually obeyed the traffic laws.

After a short 50-minute flight, we arrived at Jeju International Airport on Friday. We quickly located our luggage, then left the airport and headed to parking lot #2 to find Budget Rental Car. The nice lady (who kept talking slowly to James) had explained to us that we needed to head over to "parking lot #2". However, we didn’t realize exactly how the rental car companies were set up. We were walking around and discovered that where we needed to go was actually located directly under a pole with a large #2 sign in the parking lot. There were large vans (or small buses, depending on how you look at it) under all the numbered poles where the rental car companies actually had their offices. James got the paperwork done and we all hopped into a nice new Hyundai Sonata, fully equipped with a GPS (all in Korean, of course).

Some of the rental car company "offices"

James programmed in the Hotel’s address and off we went. We really enjoyed the ride to the hotel (again, nice wide roads with minimal traffic). James was able to book us at the Shilla Hotel, which we discovered was a 5-star hotel. We were amazed and had the requisite “oohs and aahs” when we entered the room. After we got settled in and I threatened the kids not to touch anything in the fully stocked mini-bar, we decided to walk a little bit and sightsee at the Cheonjeyeon waterfall and Seven Nymphs Bridge. The kids were happy and running around like we had been traveling for days and were just excited about being out. As we walked over the bridge the kids found themselves in a new world. Everyone we passed would say, ”Hello, how are you?” as they had rehearsed in their English class. We would respond to their greetings with the standard “fine…and how are you?” The kids started to get a little bothered by everyone passing by rubbing their heads, or stopping them to check out their eye colors or to touch their faces. It was sort of like being at an old family reunion where distant relatives hadn’t seen them in ages. This started the weekend of the kids posing with random Korean families for their vacation pictures.

The kids posing in front of the Seven Nymphs Bridge

After seeing the waterfall from above, we decided to take a trail down the ravine to see another waterfall from close up. The trip down was rather pleasant and James struck up a conversation with a local family on the way down, discovering that their accent and dialect was a little harder to understand. Of course, when we got to the bottom, the Korean family wanted some photos with the kids. We then had the tedious job of returning back up the way we had just come. That’s when we discovered that we had descended (and now had to ascend) 270 steps on the trail down!

The upper waterfall as seen from the Seven Nymphs Bridge

The lower waterfall

We then headed back to the hotel to try to find something to eat that was agreeable to everyone. As I mentioned before, this was a 5-star hotel, so the hotel menu was a little too fancy for the kids (and us) so we got into the car and James programmed the GPS to take us to the local Emart so that we could enjoy their food court. The kids were actually willing to try the Korean food (which was great since most of the island was without any Western restaurants). James ordered Katsu Don with Udon on the side (actually Japanese food), I got the Bulgogi hot bowl and Ben chose the spaghetti. He was a little disappointed with his selection since it had big pieces of onion in it and mustard drizzled all over the top. This may have led to his willingness to try our Korean food. He ended up eating off our plates and kept asking for more.

We then walked around Emart and bought some ice cream and sat outside to eat them and enjoy the fresh air and relative quiet. We arrived back at the hotel around 9 and all got ready for bed. It was a great way to start off our weekend.

The E-Mart in Seogwipo City