Today is a US Federal holiday, so we slept in until 5:30 am. After a lazy morning, we started packing at about 7:45 and at 8 am we took a taxi to the airport. A quick one hour flight took us to Jeju Island in far southern Korea. Jeju is popular for Korean honeymoons and summer vacations. Jeju is an oval shaped island about 50 miles long and 30 miles wide. It has many nice beaches, a big mountain in the middle, and a laid back atmosphere. We landed at Jeju City Airport and ate a good fish lunch before getting on a bus and heading east.
The bus quickly left the city and Rie and I both began to relax as we watched the emerald waters slide by the bus. As we passed through the rural areas, we saw many small fields bordered by low walls constructed of black volcanic rock. Jeju was formed by powerful volcanoes and has many lava tubes and calderas. We also saw many university students riding bicycles around the island. I think the four day circuit of the island by bicycle is one of the most popular bike routes in Korea.
After about 90 minutes, we arrived at the eastern edge of the island. We got off the bus in the small village of Songsan and walked uphill to the base of Iichulbong "Sunrise Peak". From the base of the formidable looking lava hill, we saw a large bay. A few minutes of walking along the bay brought us to the perfect little weekend hide-away. We took a room on the second floor of a small hotel right on the black-sand beach. We have two balconies and a view of the bay, the ocean, the the Sunrise Peak. The room has a TV, a small kitchen, and a computer with Internet access. It even comes with a complementary can of bug spray. All this for only a bit over $40 per night. Pretty cool.
After an afternoon rest period, we struck out for a stroll. We crossed the main drag and discovered that we are in the middle of a long spit of land. The side opposite the ocean is full of calm, clear water and looks great for sea kayaking. We went over a small hill, passed by some horses and found the ferry terminal to Udo Island. Udo Island is only a few miles off shore. We may check it out another day.
On the walk back to the hotel, we found a small restaurant that looked promising. We took our shoes off and sat at the low table. Nobody at the restaurant could communicate in English, but they only had a few things on the menu. We ordered the first thing on the menu, which is also what the waitress appeared to be suggesting. The usual over-abundance of side dishes soon arrived and we started the evening's session of over-eating. The cabbage pancake was pretty spicy, but the noodles were soothing. We also had rice, potato salad, spinach, kim-chi, dried fish, and a bunch of other side dishes as well. The first main dish was a nice white fish with very salty skin. The other main dish was thick slices of pork. After the waiter placed the cutting board of cooked pork on the table, he slid on a pair of plastic gloves, pulled apart some pickled cabbage, wrapped the cabbage around a piece of pork and placed the whole thing in my mouth. He repeated the procedure for Rie and we both expressed our gratitude. Besides being hand-fed, the experience was unusual because the waiter communicated through grunts and hand signals. Usually, people just keep speaking Korean at us. He did not even try.
After placing the first bite into our mouths, he made another morsel for us with pork, sauce, and raw garlic wrapped in seaweed. This one he placed on the dish in front of us and encouraged us to eat it with the chopsticks. We were still chewing the first bite, but if we had finished, I wonder if he would have fed us again?
On the stroll back to the hotel, we had a choice of picking up a few things at K-Mart or King-Mart. We had already purchased water earlier at K-Mart, so we tried the similarly diminutive King-Mart. We picked out some more water and a few oranges and a popped-corn snack. Usually, when we go shopping, the clerk adds up our purchases and shows us the result on the calculator or register. We can understand typed numbers much quicker than spoken numbers. The old woman at the store added it all up and showed us the total on her adding machine. Unfortunately for me, her adding machine was an abacus. I never got very good reading those, but Rie has some abacus-reading skills and we were able to make our purchase.
Now, we are back in our hotel room and I am listening to the sound of the ocean right outside the window, but taking breaks from typing to feel Mamejiro protesting the big dinner with quick jabs to the inside of Rie's belly.
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