Jejudo Trip (Day 2)

We woke up and got ready to enjoy two free continental buffet breakfasts at the hotel. Because of her age, Ashley was also free so we only had to pay for Ben’s breakfast. Wow, were we surprised when we found out it would be 16,000 won for just him! We kept telling ourselves that it was pretty cheap if we thought of it as the price for all four of us to eat, since we really didn’t expect the two complimentary meals. The buffet was a combo of Korean and Western food. This was the first time I’ve seen soup and salad for breakfast. So on this day, I started my trend of eating a nice big salad (can’t even go off a diet while on vacation) followed by some delicious waffles (okay, so I strayed a little here). We left the hotel around 9 and drove toward the east side of the island (the opposite direction from how we came in from the airport). James was on a quest to see some locations where scenes from Korean TV shows and movies were filmed. We drove down streets that were surrounded by palm trees near the ocean and saw the beautiful, blue water. We stopped while I took some pictures and drank in the fresh ocean smell. It felt like I was back in the States heading for Myrtle Beach.

The "All In" House where the television show was filmed

Sunrise Peak, an extinct volcano on the east side of the island

After about an hour of driving, we stopped at the location where they filmed the television show “All In”. We walked up the side of a hill next to the ocean that was surround by lava rocks at the base. The kids and I took our time while James went inside the chapel where the movie was filmed to take pictures (I didn’t think the kids would enjoy that portion). While we were waiting, the kids were stopped by several ajummas (Korean older ladies) to have their daily head rubs and touchings. We also had several people trying to practice their English. The view was wonderful and we could see Sunrise peak from where we were. We finished up and then headed to the next stop: Manjang Lava Tube. It was lunch time when we arrived, so we first went to a small diner at the entrance and got a bite to eat. One of the island’s trademark dishes is black pig, so James and I ordered the spicy pork, along with steamed mandu (dumplings) and rice. The kids were a little hesistant about trying the rice since it had red beans cooked in with it, giving the rice a purplish shade. The kids agreed to try it and we were all surprised when they liked it. Manjang Lava Tube is a large cave that was created when…you guessed it…lava shot out of it. We walked a kilometer to the end, where there was a lava column that ended our nice walk, forcing us to turn around and walk back. Both kids were wearing tank tops since it had been so warm during the day. The underground cavern was quite chilly and I was able to persuade Ben to put a t-shirt on, but Ashley refused, saying that she was not cold. As the Korean tourists passed by us in the cave, James would inform me that many of them were saying how she must be cold. Each time, I would feel guilty and try to persuade her again, but it never did work. After our spelunking adventure, we went into a gift shop for free samples of the famous Jeju chocolate. There were 5 different flavors: pineapple, raspberry, green tea, cactus and the best-selling orange. We ended buying a box of chocolates, a lava rock for Ben and some traditional Jeju figurines for Ashley.

Ben posing next to a scooter with training wheels...I think we'll stick with the rental car!

It had started raining right when we came out of the cave, but the rain started to ease up after we finished our shopping, so we decided to head to the Stone Grandfather Park to look at the statues. I think that we were the only ones there. We walked around the park, standing in front of most of the statues, emulating their poses for great photo ops.

Ashley posing next to a phone booth patterned after the traditional Stone Grandfather statue.

The kids pose in front of a statue that is not quite as traditional, but still impressive.

...and here's the kids having a little fun.

This is definitely not a traditional Jeju statue...but who could resist a photo next to that?

Since the kids were being so cooperative, we proceeded to the next destination on our list, Sangumburi Crater. As soon as we approached the ticket booth, a bus full of teenagers pulled up and they all ran over to us. You would think that our family was part of the attraction. They stood and posed with our family and took pictures with us. They touched the kids, rubbed their heads, pinched their cheeks and tried to speak with them. Ashley was trying to get away from them by climbing up my back while I was holding her. Ben stayed close by and then, when there was a small break in the action, he ran and hid as his only form of self-defense. Since Ashley was being terribly shy, they focused most of their attention on Ben. We then discovered that they were being chaperoned by their English teacher, who was forced by the students to come over and say “hi” (they wanted to see her talk with native English speakers). They all giggled like little girls when she was talking…which I guess makes sense. It was kind of cute that she was so nervous talking with us. They started walking up the hill, calling back to the kids by their names and they slowly moved away from us, but not before Ben got proposed to. When they walked away from us, Ben climbed up onto a large rock and was sitting still looking deep in thought. We asked him what he was doing, but he just kept up his thoughtful pose. That’s when we figured out he was waiting for the girls to come back down so he could look cool hanging out on the rock. We finally coaxed him down and finished the walk and because it actually wrapped all the way around, we ended up back at the beginning where we met the school group again. The kids loosened up a little, posed with them for photos and made everyone’s day. We even ended up getting some candy from some of them (I know, don’t take candy from strangers…). The crater was completely covered in fog the whole time we were there, but I don’t think that Benjamin thought this stop was a waste of time!After that, we headed to our final destination of the day: MiniMini land. This was a small theme park made up of miniature replicas of famous buildings from all over the world (like the White House, Great Wall of China, Eiffel tower, and many more). By this time, we were all getting pretty hungry, so we decided to head back to our favorite place to eat (yes, Emart) to have dinner once again. We all ordered Korean food this time. I stuck with the hot beef bowl, James ordered Udon and bibimbop, while Ben and Ashley shared the Katsu-don. It was a big hit! Afterwards I tried on a couple of shirts from the store and discovered that I am a Korean size 100 for shirts. That sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? I am not really sure what they base their measurements on, but I don’t think they are used to the upper body build of Americans. We then walked to a convenience store called GS25 to buy ice cream. After my unfortunate experience with Korean shirt sizes, I decided to pass. The kids picked out their favorite and we sat outside again on the benches, ate our ice cream and talked about our eventful day we had. After all of this, we actually got back to the hotel a little earlier than the night before. Another great day!

This is Benjamin's thoughtful pose as he awaits the return of the girls on their class trip.

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

DMZ / JSA

James went on a small tour up to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with a few other people for work. Since it was only three people in the tour they were allowed to move slower and ask tons of questions. I wanted to show some pictures of his trip. We both went 10 years ago and plan on just the two of us going again (since they do not allow anyone under the age of 10 on the tour). Besides I don’t think I could trust my two to not run straight over to the other side...

He visited the Joint Security Area (JSA) as well as Observation Point Dora (next to the Dora-san train station that services the train line that connects the North and the South) and Infiltration Tunnel #3. These photos are all from the JSA.

Observation tower and the Freedom House on the South Korean side of the JSA.

Panmungak on the North Korean side, as seen from UN Row.

Interior of main conference room on UN Row with South Korean Military Police escort standing at the ready position.

The small blue building in the center of the photo is OP #3 which was the location of the famous Axe Murder Incident in 1976. In addition the road leading away from the OP towards the right goes directly to the Bridge of No Return.

Gijeong-dong, the Propaganda Village on the North Korean side of the border. Notice the enormous flagpole in the center of the photo. This is the largest flagpole in the world standing at 160 meters tall (525 feet) and flies a flag that weighs 270 kg (600 lbs).

The Bridge of No Return from the South Korean side. The small rusted sign to the left of the bridge is one of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) signs that are located all along the entire length of the border.

If you are interested in learning more about the JSA, the links above all go to their respective Wikipedia entries. In addition, there's a good Korean movie entitled "JSA" that you can usually find in the States (Netflix has it too) that describes a fictional incident occurring at this location.

Gyeongbok Palace

It is James’ ambition in life to see all of the National Treasures of Korea while we are here. I think there are a couple hundred that are located throughout the country, many of them at various museums.

Heungryemun, the gate leading into the main palace grounds.

So we let James have another turn at picking what were going to do on the weekend. He chose the largest of the five palaces in Seoul to visit. The kids were not too thrilled at walking around and looking at the beautiful architecture of the buildings. Ben got a little more excited once I let him start videotaping everything. If anyone wants a copy let us know, however, be aware that it may cause motion sickness. We were able to see three of the National Treasures while we were there. Yes, that’s right, we were lucky enough to knock three off the list in one day. We really did have fun and are looking forward to seeing the other four palaces.

Guards in front of Heungryemun

Interior of Gangnyeongjeon, the king's living quarters

Hyangwonjeong on a small islet in the middle of a pond. This pond is located in front of Geoncheonggung, site of the assassination of Empress Myeongseong by the Japanese in 1895.

Seoul Grand Zoo

After the sore legs we got from walking so much while enjoying James’ choice for weekend travel, I decided that the family would spend the day at the Seoul Grand Zoo. We packed a lunch and got a late start heading out. Since the traffic was a little backed up on the way there, we didn’t arrive into the parking lot until almost 11:30, so we ate our lunch in the car and then headed inside. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom so it was beautiful walking to the gate.

The Cherry Blossoms along the road leading to the Grand Park Zoo

One of the giraffes must have seen us taking pictures, so it stuck its tongue out at us.

For the whole family, it only cost 8000 won to get in (what a steal). We let the kids lead the way and take their time looking around. The most interesting thing was the bathroom near the giraffe exhibit. Each stall had their own window (one-way, I assume) facing into the giraffe area. It felt like they could sense you in there and would come walking up. The zoo was fun and the kids especially enjoyed the playground area they had there. It had a lot of dinosaur slides and climbing walls, as well as an elephant slide where you came out through the trunk. Everybody enjoyed themselves and we definitely plan to go back again.

Here's the kids sliding through a crocodile's mouth.

Ashley the Meerkat

Kudos definitely have to go out to the Koreans for their ice creams. We bought some while we were at the zoo and found even more varieties than we thought they had. I could probably do a whole blog entry on their desserts (and might...), but here's a picture of a particular favorite; doesn't it look delicious?

Buddha's Birthday

We were able to spend last Sunday night attending the Lotus Parade. We got there a little early, walked around and saw what was left of the tables where you could make your own paper lotus flowers. Since it was starting to rain, all the vendors were packing up and we had to resort to buying the kids their own lotus flowers on a plastic stick that lights up.

The kids posing in front of the festival mascot.

Some of the parade participants getting ready to start.

About half an hour before the parade started, we wandered over to the parade route and saw that you could sit down in chairs they had lined up. Of course, we chose to sit in the front row and then waited for the parade to start. The children were very patient, with a few M&Ms to keep them happy. Once the parade was underway it was exciting. We noticed that we must have been as entertaining as the parade, since a large number of camera men came up to take our pictures. We clapped and cheered and really enjoyed ourselves. There were even two different people from within the parade that stopped to give us the lanterns that they were carrying. The children got souvenirs and we had a great family night out. We are hoping we can attend next year and be able to do much more of the actual events. Happy Birthday to Buddha.

One of the many cameramen that wanted to take our photos during the parade.

Some images from the parade with participants and floats.

Two of our favorite floats: the dragons moved and made lots of noise. The kids didn't like them as much as we did...

Random things

I figured I would make this post a hodge podge of things. We finally got all the camera memory sticks from several cameras, the camcorder, and even my phone and moved all the pictures to the computer. So it was like Christmas (the ones from the camcorder were quite literally Christmas!). I wanted to post a few with the kids for the family to see.

Benjamin tested for his yellow belt in Taekwondo class

Ashley started part day preschool and here is the first day of school

Ashley, wearing a cool Korean hair accessory. You can tell by the picture she does not like it.

This is Ben getting a haircut. For a few extra dollars you can have a massage, which is what he really wanted.

James tried to kill us (aka, this looks like fun)

We thought that since Ben had Spring Break and James had Thursday and Friday off from school, we would do something fun since the Korean children were all still in school. So James wanted to take us to a place called Gangwha Island. We drove a little over an hour just to get to the bridge that went from mainland Korea across to the island. Next, we drove across the island to a small port on the other side to get onto a ferry and then went across the water (about a 10 minute boat ride) to another island (Seokmo Island) then we had to drive another 20 minutes to get to Bomunsa, the temple that James wanted to see. While on the boat Ashley decided she had to use the bathroom. After she saw the one available, she decided to wait. The traditional bathrooms here are affectionately called “squatters” by Westerners.

After we got off the boat and arrived at the temple’s parking lot, I took Ashley back to the bathroom. However, it was also a squatter; she did try to use it, but I guess it was not ladylike enough for her. We then ate lunch at a small restaurant, eating Korean style (sitting on the floor). James and his friend from school, Ryan (who is from Taiwan and decided to accompany us on our adventure) ordered for us. The kids and I stuck with good, old-fashioned Ramen which was a little spicy. The banchan, which are the little bowls of various items they serve you with your meal, were quite interesting. We did try more than normal, but still shied away from certain things. There was even a bowl of tiny shrimp as shown below that, except for Ben, we all tried. They didn’t have much of a taste and were a little crunchy.

After eating, we headed up the hill to the temple and quickly discovered how steep it really was. It actually felt like someone had a hand on your body, pushing you back while you walked. After that minor obstacle, we finally arrived at some flat land where we could rest, complain and rehydrate. We looked around at the temple and saw a very big Buddha lying down.

Next came the part where James tried to kill us. His main focus for this trip was to get to the top of the hill where they had a large Buddha image carved into the side of the mountain. It was on a Korean TV show that he is watching and thought it would be great to see it in person. The first warning sign we had was literally a sign: it stated that it was 419 steps to climb to get to the top. Thankfully, there were a number of switchbacks so there were places to rest on the way up. Ben was the first one to get to the top and was very proud of this fact; I was the last one up and was happy I didn’t stop and turn around part way up. The view was spectacular and the Buddha carving was pretty interesting to see. I guess the story goes that if you make the effort to get to the top, you can make a wish and your wish would come true (since you made such a big sacrifice). We’ll just say that my wish was a big one.

On the way back down, several older Korean ladies that were resting talked to us and congratulated us (at least that is what James told us; of course, when we first got here and he was practicing his Korean, he told a cab a driver he was assigned to the library instead of the Embassy). The boys decided to look in the gift shop and Ashley and I decided we needed water and a snack so we headed over to a bench. While we were sitting there, we (or should I say Ashley) were approached by several Koreans that wanted to take her picture. Once they started to take photos of her, then more came over. Now I know what Brittany Spears feels like with the paparazzi around here. I bet there were at least 9 people taking photos. The boys finally came out of the gift shop and we went back down the hill. After the hike down, we thought we deserved ice cream so we each got our own, then drove back to the ferry and headed home.

The view from the top of the mountain. You can see the stairs (with the paper lantern decorations) in the bottom left corner, Bomunsa temple is in the center of the photo (the slight clearing halfway down the mountain), and you can also see the island's coastline in the top right corner of the photo.

What an experience!

This past weekend we went out another outing…this time it was for me. I saw somewhere that you can let your feet soak in a tub with these special fish that only eat dead skin. So I thought, “Why not?” After all, I had to try it once to say that I did it.

Here's a photo of the front of the building. The spa was on the fifth floor (you can see where it says "Bread Dr Fish Spa Books").

The name of the place we to was translated (somewhat awkwardly) to Restree. When we got there, we found out the rules were that you had to buy a drink in the café and then you could purchase the Doctor Fish treatment for an additional 2000 Won. We each got a drink. James and I went with Caramel Macchiatos, with the kids going for juices: strawberry for Ashley and kiwi for our normally not-so-adventurous son, Benjamin. We sat at a table and enjoyed some breads with butter and jelly while we waited.

Here is our tray with the drinks we ordered...the Caramel Macchiato tastes as good as it looks!

When we were finished with our refreshments, we walked over to the tub and rinsed our feet off and put them in the tanks. The kids kept pulling theirs out and you can imagine how much we were laughing. It tickled a lot! James discovered that if you only placed your heels in it was easier to take. I was brave and placed both feet in. It was kind of weird how the fish would follow your feet even when they weren’t in the water yet, they were definitely ready for it! Ashley refused to let the fish “kiss” her feet and Benjamin might have had a few fish nibble on his feet (he insisted that he did, but we didn’t actually witness it). On the other hand, I enjoyed it very much once I stopped laughing. I would definitely go back, but maybe next time without the kids.

Afterwards, we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. They had absolutely wonderful service and food. The afternoon kind of made us feel like being back in the States (except, of course, for paying money to have our feet chewed on by fish). For anyone that wants to visit us, I will be glad to pay the bill for the fish treatment.

A little about food

Wow…boy how we take things for granted. I went to the commissary craving Cracklin’ Oat Bran cereal and I was looking forward to having a bowl for lunch. I looked and looked but did not find it. How disappointing is that? I know my kids still ask to go to certain places to eat, like Olive Garden, Chick-fil-a, and Chuck E. Cheese to name a few. They have gotten used to eating at the Pizza Hut in Korea and have tried more types of juices, candy, and ice cream then I can count. They enjoy going down to the local Family Mart and picking out something new to try. All in all, I must say our kids have adapted quite well to living in Korea and I give them both kudos. James and I are also trying new things we had Kimbap (the Korean California Roll) with tuna fish. I was kind of afraid to try that since all I could think about was “food poisoning”. James ate half the roll; I guess he needed to get his $1.25 worth of it before seeing my point. We are looking forward to the weather warming up so we can venture out and eat at different places. Keep checking back and I will write about all the different juices and goodies that we have tried along with a few pictures I managed to get at local eating establishments.