ZACHARY

Jeju Island - Southern Side, South Korea

2010-10-11T21:04:00.032+09:00

At last we come to my final post for the island of Jeju. This will cover the southern half of the island of Jeju. A Jeju Island promotional video, which leaves out many beautiful places, can be watched here.

I borrowed this picture from the internet. This is a photo taken from the east of the Seogwipo area, or a small town called Namwon.

A squid boat waits for the night to start work.

The squid boat owners can sometimes be asked to take you to the surrounding islets for snorkeling, diving, fishing or just exploring. They'll take you out there & come pick you up at your specified time, for a small price.

A look back to Jeju Island, from Beomseom Islet.

Climbing the islet walls was more difficult than originally thought.

The south side of Beomseom Islet.

Back on the main island of Jeju, a rock path leads to Black Sand Beach, next to the Hyatt Hotel. There's no black sand here, but perhaps the joke here is its black rocks. During high tide, the softball to football sized rocks hide just below the surf. Low tide exposes the rocks & sometimes make for an interesting yet peaceful sound. The waves come in & pull the rocks back with its power, forcing the rocks to tumble against each other.

Once the typhoon waves hit this beach, the rocks will slowly get re-stacked.

I camped on Black Sand Beach many times, because it was seldom visited by tourists & a three minute drive from my last apartment. Jungmum Beach was a 5 minute walk east of this beach, yet most people never discovered this quiet beach.

This waterfall is a 30 second walk from the beach, heading towards Jungmun Beach, which is just around this corner. This rock is so close to joining the gathering of others below.

Seogeondo Islet can be reached by foot during low tide. There are walking trails & picnic areas on this islet. Earthenware pieces, animal bones & prehistoric housing sites estimated from about 100 BC were discovered on this island.

Yakcheonsa Temple means "Temple where medicinal water flows." For various reasons, this was my favorite temple I saw in Korea. This temple is roughly 8 stories high, or about 28 meters. From what I understand, Buddist temples are built with out nails or screws.

The mystical medicinal water source continually furnishes this pond with water.

One of the many prayer halls on the temple grounds.

This is a large 18 ton bells on the right side of the main temple. If you expand the first Yakcheonsa picture, you can see that the left side tower contains a large drum instead of a bell.

Inside, this prayer hall has been claimed to be the largest in the world.

You are free to walk all levels of this three story building.

The bell tower with Mt. Halla in the background, & palm trees & orange trees in the front.

This Gangjeong area river area was packed by the locals on the hot summer days!

Why is this free roaming goat here? I'll never know, but it didn't look happy.

This was taken at high tide, but during low tide the river takes a split second longer before falling into the ocean. The rock cliff I was standing on for this photo was great for cliff jumping.

The Gangjeong area surprised me with a small pineapple looking, palm tree patch.

A little known area around the Yerae area. This trail extended along the ocean side & varied in terrain.

There are many sea caves, but this one was one was on this Yerae area trail.

It even went through to the other side.

The trail led right through it.

Slightly west of Yerae, I found this wooden raft.

Some old traditional stone-lined streets in Daepyeong-si. I really liked this area, but like many small towns, it's slowly becoming less populated. The young people move to the bigger cities...

Those who can afford to have a vacation home on Jeju certainly might enjoy the privacy of this area.

A fun, well maintained, truck in Hwasun-ri, along the southern coast.

Hwasun Beach with Sangbangsan looming in the background.

Sangbansan towering over the Buddhist temple below.

This temple has the serenity of the mountain behind it & the ocean below.

An enormous bell, with Hyongje Islet in the distance.

If you hike up past the temple, you'll reach a peaceful Buddhist statue.

Looking out of the cave, to the ocean & Songaksan below.

Sunmee made a trip to the south side to display to us this rock structure. A Yeondae was used prior to our current communication methods. There are still 38 of them that exist on the island. They were once used to send signals of attack or warn of other urgent situations. They used smoke during the day & fire at night. One smoke signal or fire was used for normal operations, two were used for the appearance of a foreign ship, three when the foreign ship approached, four when it landed on the island & five if combat started.

It doesn't look too friendly does it? There were many of these spiders when I would go hiking in Busan, mainland S. Korea.

Yongmeori Cliffs

I had been by this area so many times, but never attempted to visit this cliff side peninsula.

Then, when I did try to visit, it was usually high tide, which meant the area was closed.

Truly a fascinating area! This young man climbed to this ledge with the encouragement of his friends below.

Some of the local ladies, haenyo (women divers), serve up fresh seafood & soju, just out of view of this picture. Here, she's scooping up some water to use as a rinse. If you didn't click on the previous haenyo link in my previous post, I recommend reading about them with this different link I attached a few sentences above. Here's a link to a video about them. It's pretty good! There is a lot of information out there about this dying profession. Except no where that I've read does it mention how they communicate with each other while in the water. They whistle with different tones in order to communicate. It's really interesting.

Yongmeori coast stretches around this peninsula.

At the end of Yongmeori Coast, some goats to extend their kind regards.

An old house to the west of Sangbangsan.

I normally don't find cows too interesting for pictures, but I loved this shot!

If you're sneaky, you can climb to the top of Sangbansan & view the Yongmeori Cliffs below. As you can see, it's a peninsula jetting into the ocean.

Poor Dawn, the driver with the helmet, & Maria on the left.

After the spill, they both cleaned the mud off as best as they could with a nearby irrigation spigot. Maria was lucky enough to have some sort of knitted jacket that she tied around her waist. As you might imagine, she opted to ride with us instead. Yes, we looked funny...

Sanbangsan, taken from Songaksan.

The submarine tour ride below.

This is what the submarine looks like up close in rougher wave conditions.

You have to climb down the stairs in order to find a seat next to a window. I believe there are three of these submarine tours around the island.

The submarine goes straight out, following a 10 minute path, then comes directly back. Because it never turns around, the passengers are asked to change sides half way through the small under sea voyage.

There is a scuba diver that trails along the submarine, dispensing fish food of some sort. So, the fish school around the submarine.

The scuba man also happened to have a stingray that he plastered to each window for a picture. The submarine ride reaches a total depth of about 40 meters (131 feet).

This farm land is near the once used Alddreu Airfield. This is a good article to read about the hidden Japanese plane bunkers built to attack the Chinese.

On this particular day, I was trying to find the Japanese built tunnels. Not for the planes, but for people in the event they were attacked during the 1910-1945 Japanese occupation of Korea.

Driving my scooter through the farm lands was peaceful.

After making a wrong turn, I stumbled across this gravesite area.

Finally, after hiking through trees & brush, I found three entrances on a hillside to the Japanese tunnels. This one was the easiest to see. I didn't even attempt going in... Plus, who knows what animals may have claimed rights to it now.

Even the smallest vegetation has beauty.

While Christianity is the dominate religion in Korea, Shamanistic rituals are still used frequently around the island. Here is a exorcism video that a friend of mine, Peter, stumbled across & filmed.

This beer guy/girl was at a small town, Moseulpo, fish festival. The kids loved this big can of beer! So who exactly was their intended market? I think I look strange, like the Joker or something...

This was Maria's teaching town, so we convinced her to go "fishing" with her hands. I'm still surprised she did it! Especially since she's vegetarian, but she was a good sport about it.

She was among the last to get in.

To our surprise, she caught one, but of course let it go. The others in this man-made pool were able to keep as many as they caught. When they caught a fish, they'd throw it in their nearby basket. This picture is actually a video still, so eventually I may post the video.

Sam & Youngsook's wedding! It was held at her parent's place in Daejong. This outdoor wedding was held next to their tangerine orchards. It was a beautiful, perfect day! One gentleman in the back, seemed to have found some standing space in the tangerines.

The May Flower cafe is a self serve drink cafe that has no prices. In fact, there are no employees & many times the owner isn't even there. When he is available, sometimes you can order some pizza. That's about the only menu item that isn't self serve. On your way out, leave the amount of money in the donation box that you deem necessary.

You'll have to expand this picture to see the horses in this canyon. They could be some of the wild horses that I heard stories of.

The traditional Jeju Island rock wall, separating different crops or property.

A cactus farm on the west side of Jeju.

The inside of the Jeju Glass Musuem.

The outside of the Jeju Glass Museum.

Everything here was beautifully sculpted from glass, including every one of these little glass flowers.

After studying this picture, you may have guessed that these are one way glass restrooms. You can't see in, but once inside, you can see out.

This photo was taken from Gama Oreum, where the Peace Museum is located.

A wet hike up Mt. Halla.

This is as far as the western trails of Mt. Halla will take you. Through the fog, Mt. Halla stands in the distance.

This area was fun to visit in the winter. Its name, the 1100 Meter-High Rest Area.

A Dolharubang covered in snow, but it actually looks like it was pelted with snow.

The snack area awaits above for this hard working young trooper.

You made it! Wait, where are your parents?

A fun day of sledding for this small Korean bear.

This tree can be spotted on the Yeongshil Trail up Mt. Halla.

At the Yeongshil parking lot.

Some crows watch over the snowmen. In Korea, as well as Japan, the snowmen stand two snowballs high.

With the attitude of bigger is better, Tom & I show up the other snowmen, by making this three snowball tall snowman. I worked up a sweat on this snowman, hence my strip down to the t-shirt.

My mountain biking ventures led me all kinds of places. Some remote mountain places, with broken down houses, no vehicles capable of moving, but dogs still barking, left me with some uneasy feelings.

Some mountain vegetation in the cycle of life.

A grasshopper patiently waited for me to take its picture.

The different styles of graves never ceased to amaze me.

This area is on the southern side of Mt. Halla.

Wonang Falls is a beautiful area that starts the Donnaeko River swimming area. During summer, this area is packed with people jumping every which way off the rocks.

Well, maybe the Donnaeko River area is too shallow for real swimming, but it's a popular area for the locals to come cool off during the summer. If you notice, most people wear there clothes in the water.

Mine & Denis' scooter pose for a photo on an around the island camping trip.

I enjoy these convex mirrors.

The traditional Jeju rock wall, nestled in with some weeds. The foreigners, as I was, found these weeds quite picturesque.

Seaweed set out to dry on the side of the road.

Soesokkak was in the small town of Bomok. It was a nice area to take a quick dip. This raft gave quick tour rides up to a small falls that flowed during the spring & back down the river to this resting spot.

A windy day outside of the area town of Namwon.

Jeju Stone Park, with some Bangsatap , or protective rock tower, just past the traditional Jeju wooden gate. Typically, this front gate to the house had three wooden bars. Different placement of the bars meant different messages about the resident of the dwelling. When all the bars were up, it meant that no one was home. All the bars down indicated that the owner was home. If only one bar was up, it signaled to those interested, that the owner would be back shortly.

Haenyo statues that rest in the water during high tide at Pyoseon Beach. If you didn't read about the Haenyos above, I recommend it, or watch a video about them.

An old grind of sorts at the Seongeup Folklore Village.

Here I am, all geared up to rent a horse.

By the end, I started to get the hang of this horseback riding thing.

A newly completed barefoot massage pathway near Pyoseon Beach.

I couldn't decide which photo I enjoyed the most, so I included all four. They all are of Seongsan Illchulbong, or Sunrise Peak. Photo number one...

Photo number two... If you expand this picture twice, you can see the Japanese built caves. They're small, but they're on the base of the cliffside. I can count four, possibly five.

Photo number three...

Finally, photo number four.

Now we're at the base of Seongsan Illchulbong, with a Buddhist temple seen here.

Starting from here, you can hike up to the rim of Seongsan Illchulbong.

I wish I took this aerial shot, but instead borrowed it from this site. You can't hike into the crater, but you can hike to the top of it.

If you miss the last ferry to the largest islet of Jeju Island, Udo Island, you can watch the sun set at this port.

During rough waves, they won't let anyone bring their scooters on board. So on this particular trip I had to leave mine behind. From Jeju Island, the ferry takes about 15 minutes to get to Udo Island/Islet.

Just after jumping off the ferry, I found this starfish.

This cliffs of Udo Island, with a submarine docking house in view.

This is taken from the top of the cliffs in the last picture.

A bee & something else to the right, enjoyed this flower, or weed.

At this point, I was just learning how to edit pictures.

Here, I got a little experimental with the editing.

If you trek east, down the opposite side of the cliff, you can see a grave, a cow, a power line & a basketball hoop.

A small Udo village.

A black sand cove, or Geommeollae Beach, that offers exploring.

With its black sand, Geommeollae Beach gets very hot under the heat of the summer sun.

This cave cannot be accessed during high tide, & as you can see, the cave floor is already filling up. Yet, if you continue through this cave & through another hole, you'll eventually find Gwangdaegoji, or Whale Cave. I have shown a picture of it in a much earlier post. Yet, I just learned that when the sun shines directly in this southern facing cave, the water reflects the sun's image on the cave"s ceiling & makes it appear as if it's a rising moon.

On this day I was able to bring my scooter across on the ferry. This way I can easily camp on one of the Udo Beaches.

I believe these wooden flags are placed here for wishes, or luck.

The southern side of Hongjodangoe-haebin Beach with Seongsan Illchulbong in the background.

Hongjodangoe Haebin Beach is the only white coral sand beach in Korea. In English this beach's name translates to Red Algae Nodule Beach.

Looking west toward the main land, or main Jeju Island. That small mountain in the distance is named, Tokkiseom.

Some Korean boys try to impress the ladies.

Some fishing boats set off to sea.

Kim & Sally, peacefully taking in the evening.

For the residents of Udo, the sun always sets behind the island of Jeju, only to return on the opposite side the next day.

This turtule, is at Seopjikoji.

Seopjikoji is known for its coastal beauty & has been the set for a few different TV series & movie scenes.

This is one of my favorite tiny beach areas, which I never did swim out to. It's can be spotted from Hado Beach, on the eastern side of Jeju Island.

My Rogue Brewery hat actually fits in this photo. This was taken by one of the professional photographers for this group sport they called, Survivor.

Brian, ready to fire some high powered BBs at the approaching targets.

Back at base, I practice firing my gun.

Brian, Brian & Seth, what a team!

Survivor is a group of Koreans on Jeju Island that get together many weekends to basically shoot each other in the name of fun. At a very cheap price, which included all the gear, plus a lunch, they extend their invitation to anyone to join. We had a blast, even though they destroyed us...

This was another group outing that we made it to.

Then we recruited & brought in some more foreigners!

I practiced & practiced...

While some posed for the camera... Regardless, the Korean Survivor team still destroyed us.

I suppose they start the Survivor team members at a young age. No wonder we had no chance from the very beginning.

Jeju Island - Northern Side, S. Korea

2010-08-13T23:05:00.044+09:00

Jeju Island... If you can imagine an oval shaped island that's almost perfectly positioned around a mountain, slopes that gradually descend to the surrounding ocean & an abundance of volcanic rock gently nestled in with tropical beaches... This is the island I was lucky enough to live on. This post will pretty much cover the whole northern side of the island, with pictures I've not shown before

JEJU ISLAND- This post will cover the northern half of the island.
Please click on the link for more information about Jeju.

This is an aerial photo that I borrowed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju-do. You'll have to click on it to see its detail.

Abu Oreum with with its interesting circle of trees at the bottom of this parasitic cone. This Oreum, or parasitic cone, is one of 368 oreums on Jeju island. Oreums are also known as secondary volcanoes. The main oreum, or volcano, Mt. Halla, towers over the whole island at 1,950 m (6,398 ft). Sometimes after the monsoon season, a small lake is formed in the center of this circle. Abu Oreum was also in the movies The Rebellion of Lee Jae-su & Zephyr Sonata.

This exploring day to Abu Oreum was visited after a morning sailing lesson. Three of us came to this oreum, yet only two of us ventured into the circle of trees. Upon descending into this secondary volcano, we felt like there was something magical about this crater, but also as if we weren't suppose to enter this fairy tale circle of trees. As we approached the eye of the circle, even the tall grass waved magically in the wind. As if each blade of grass was waving us to stay away... It was a strange experience that I cannot describe. Even though one friend walked the crater rim to watch for our safety, we still didn't feel the need to stay long.

Sangumburi Crater is the only extinct volcano of its kind in S. Korea. It exploded quickly, but not much lava actually appeared. At 100 feet deep & about 350 feet across, roughly 400 species of plants & animals live inside this crater. You can walk around most of the rim of this National Monument #263, but not into it.

The grounds around Sangumburi Crater.

Life growing between the volcanic rock walls.

A viewpoint built from the volcanic rock at Sangumburi Crater.

A shop built below the rocks, just prior to a trail head.

I'm not exactly sure what these are or represent, but they were alongside the Mysterious Road.

What's the Mysterious Road you ask? There happen to be two on either side of Mt. Halla. If you park your car in neutral at the blue sign below, your car will roll up the hill. Or so it may seem...

Eorimok Trail on Mt. Halla.

Eorimok Trail with the top of Hallasan (Mt. Halla) in the background.

Taken from the west side of the island.

A winter hike up the northern route, Gwaneumsa Trail. This trail is one of two that climbs to the top of Mt. Halla.

Near the beginning of the trail. Look at that stair stretch after this bridge!

I tried showing my crampons, but they're only visible if you expand this photo twice.

If you expand this as well, you'll see the detail on these frozen leaves.

A view to the north, as the ocean blended with the clouds.

The trail is clearly marked all the way to the top of Mt. Halla.

Two hikers stop to warm up their lunch.

It was a different type of beauty during the winter. The ocean behind the trees.

One of the few large flat areas where people could catch their breathe.

This is it, the top of Mt. Halla! This is the only area to view the crater from. At 1,950 m (6,398 ft), it is the highest mountain in S. Korea! And it's on an island at that!

Koreans enjoy their soju, & this group celebrated their climb by polishing off those green soju bottles.

Then, they turned & sang some traditional songs for anyone passing by. They were having a great time!

After reaching the peak, you could head back down the Gwaneumsa Trail, or change paths to the east side, Seongpanak Trail.

Normally Seongpanak Trail has many stairs to descend/climb, but not today! I saw many people sliding down on plastic bags, so I gave it a whirl!

Manjanggul Cave is one of the longest lava tubes in the world! It's just over 13 km long, but visitors can only walk 1 km of it.

This is called the "Wing Shaped Wall." This place, or any lava tube on Jeju Island, is a great place to hide from the summer heat!

The "Lava Pillar" was created from spewing lava.

A short walk from the caves, a beautiful hedge maze!

The Gimnyeong Maze Park is great fun for all ages!

Perhaps more intriguing for me, the maze park was opened, created, & still operated today by an American, Fred Dustin. He is one of the most generous individuals I've ever met. If you'd rather read the Wikipedia write up about him, please click here.

Some friends, making our way to our sailing lessons. My slick scooter here in the lead. This was the only vehicular transportation I owned, & yes, it was the fastest of all three as well! It would reach speeds of about 115 km/h (71 mph). Maybe not too fast for some, but keep in mind this is a scooter.

The water was beautiful at Gimnyeong Beach! This is the area we would sail, or next to it.

A different area of Gimnyeong & the beautiful ocean water. This area is on the northeastern side of the island. It made for about an hour scooter ride from the south side of the island.

The beginner sailing boats, Blue Max. Unfortunately, all these pictures were taken in colder weather days. During the summer, all of us were in swimsuits.

In these Blue Max boats we learned basic sailing techniques.

I think I look a little overgrown for this boat.

The coach called us in once sailing class was over for the day.

These boats were for the younger kids, the sailing team kids. I should mention that the man who made all of this possible, was Fred Dustin, the maze park creator. He donated the money, bought all the boats, including three large sailboats, & even paid for a sailing coach! All from the proceeds from the maze park. Yet, he doesn't stop here. He donates thousands of dollars to many different organizations!!! Truly an amazing man that I feel honored to have met! Especially after knowing how much he's had to go through to get here! Yet, the Korean government won't leave him alone. The local government of this area wanted to claim rights to the possibility that this International Sailing Club may produce a profit in the future. It's too bad they became greedy, because Mr. Dustin built this project out of the belief in giving to the public. He operated the sailing club at a loss, all because he enjoys giving. To give you an idea, a set of four sailing lessons, each about 3 hours, only cost $50! Yes, that's right, $50 for three lessons! Sure the lessons were mainly in Korean, but many sailing terms are English. Mr. Dustin kept the price low to attract people to a sport he believed in. He even worked hard to get sailing listed as an acceptable club activity for this town's schools. Yet after greed prevailed, & after much debate with the local government of Gimnyeong, he let go of the sailing club. The club sat untouched for about a year. The last I heard, it's now being operated by a company...

Despite this disappointing story, for the time the sailing club was open, I advanced to the Laser sailing boat! In this picture, I'm learning how to use the"hiking" feet straps to my advantage. I'm still timid to trust those straps.

Ok, now my feet are utilizing the straps better, but my legs are bent.

Ok, now I feel more confident & this looks much better!

Getting ready for a tack.

Oops... You shouldn't let your boat flip this far over... On a light wind day the sailing coach had me practice roll tacks. It's basically where you get the boat on it's side in order to help it turn. This random video shows a smooth roll tack.

Here's a standard capsize move, in attempts to upright the boat quickly. Yet, I'm too far gone in this one. The picture above shows that result.

Standing on the daggerboard will slowly lift the sail out of the water.

Here, some of the westerner sailing students get a chance at a bigger boat!

This 19 foot catamaran was fast! Kim sat in the trampoline net, where all the action is.

Sally advised me where to steer.

Wait, this 45 footer is bigger! It just came in from Busan, S. Korea.

Once they arrived, the wine bottles were opened! They shared their wine as they celebrated a successful sailing trip.

After sailing, one time we had a large group lunch here. The ladies were having fun watching the dog play in the water.

If you head west, along the north shore, the next beach is called Hamdeok Beach.

It has several smaller beach areas when the tide is low.

Here is the part of Hamdeok Beach.

On the other side of the natural basalt jetty, this beach strip exposes itself during low tide.

I spotted some construction workers manly enough to drive a pink truck.

This was a small town harbor.

I'm not sure what this bridge's purpose was, but I enjoyed it.

Some scarecrows in the middle of the field.

Samyang Beach which is known for the iron deposits in the sand.

A sand crab's work of art. I recommend clicking on this twice to expand the detail.

Samyang Beach, near the man made area.

Continuing west, we reach Jeju City, a city of about 400,000 residents. It's the capital & also the largest city on this island of about 565,000 inhabitants. Can you see the kid on the side of the bridge, ready to jump into the water?

It's not uncommon to see people napping in places we wouldn't normally.

Someone just bought this at the fish market. They probably took a break to cool off in the public fountain which can barely be seen to the left.

Yongyeon Lake, or Dragon Lake, is only 200 m from Yongduam, or Dragon Head Rock.

This was one of my Halloween costumes, or props. I wore normal clothes & put my hands in the cutout openings on the side. I was a hand model! Yes, I made this...

Iho Beach, slightly west of Jeju City.

A calm ocean as night settled.

At night, this place became an outdoor dinning/drinking party.

On a camping trip, my friend's bike fell from the wind. If you recall, the wind is one of the three things Jeju Island claims to have.

Some green seaweed on the sand ripples of my second favorite beach, Hyeopjae Beach.

The seaweed was plentiful here.

Over the years, I saw the algae creep up the rocks.

Some snails caught napping during low tide.

Adrienne visited from Busan & we did a scooter tour of the island. The last camp spot was Hyeopjae Beach. After Korea, Adrienne moved to Japan. At time of this post, she's living in Okinawa, Japan!

This area of the beach was away from the hype of the tourists.

During low tide, it went out pretty far.

High tide slowly crept in, every time.

On another camping trip, my friend Brian showed us how to snorkel in tropical waters.

Low tide, my tent looked so lonely.

On a different camping trip, I stepped out into the ocean in attempts of capturing the fire on film.

Hyeopjae Beach with Biyangdo Island in view.

Chagwido Islands

This tangerine dolharubang was made for many of the festivals. This festival, being the largest on the island, was quite the sight to see. We called it the Jeju Fire Festival, but it appears to be called the Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival.

By the way, the Jeju Fire Festival link isn't recognized by my browser as a safe site. It's listed as an unknown safety risk. It worked just fine for me though!

This yearly event is held every year around the 15th day after the Lunar New Year. It's held at Saebyeol Oreum, & the top of the extinct parasitic volcano has a crater shaped like a horse shoe.

In a small area to the side of the festival, some local residents partake in some fun country-style races.

The kids are reduced to the bunny races. As you can see, the rabbits aren't as motivated to win, hence the lifting to assist.

A strong windy day! Of course...

Wind or no wind, you can still slide! Brian Miller, the local American professional photographer hikes up the hill, camera in hand. He just published his first book, A Village Across the Sea.

Some tangerine dolharubongs watched over the "wish ball" before it obliterated into flames at night. You can write on small pieces of paper, make your wish, & tuck it into this huge straw ball.

Usually it's more crowded, but the wind kept many at home.

The Korean style clowns couldn't be stopped from some wind.

Traditional Korean bands always make an appearance to the festivals.

An enormous bowl of some type of soup. A welcome on this cold February day.

Well, they ended up canceling the first festival on this particular year, due to the wind. However, it was rescheduled for two weeks later. I had to attend my last fire festival, so I showed up two weeks later & was able to witness the hand off to the government figures.

Now the politicians have the power!

But they were nice & shared with us. Mark is in the back, & after Korea he ending up moving to Japan. As of now, he's currently in Tokyo. Mark, Jen & I all helped hold the torch.

As if in a trance, everyone carried their torch to the base of the hill.

Once the fireworks start, everyone is ready & in position. You can see all the people with their torches lined up below.

This year... I'm in the front row with a torch! I'm ready to light this oreum on fire!

The countdown started & all lit the ground in front of them. It got warm really quick & the heat waves could be felt back near the food tents.

Koreans don't usually have beards... I couldn't figure out what he was doing.

Jungmun School

2010-08-12T21:36:00.013+09:00

Here is the last school I worked at in South Korea. While I resided in Korea, I lived in the city of Busan (mainland S. Korea), Seogwipo (south-side, Jeju Island), & Jungmun, (20 minutes west of Seogwipo, Jeju Island). I worked in Jungmun for about eight months, then left for a new adventure in Japan.

My teaching basket that I brought to each class. It contained everything I needed, minus the textbooks. Dry erase markers, pens, pencils, erasers (board & pencil erasers), translation dictionary & a remote control for the heater/air conditioner (A/C) where all packed in this basket. "Air-Con" is frequently used in Korea & Japan to refer to an A/C unit that cools as well as heats. Perhaps this term is used in other countries as well.

My desk was on the left with the green Nalgene bottle I brought from Colorado. The teacher to my right was in the process of cleaning out her teaching basket.

The teachers' office was originally downstairs, in the school. Yet, as the school grew (I'd love to think it was from my superior teaching skills), the owners bought this mobile office to place on the roof top. I loved going outside in between classes! Even in this picture, you can see the ocean in the background! They later applied a small walkway rain cover that helped keep us dry during the monsoon season. It stretched from the stairwell door on the roof, to this outdoor office.

The view from the top of the office building, looking north towards Mt. Halla.


Panning east towards Seogwipo.

Southeast

South

Southwest with the next door apartment in view.

Standing in front of the office door, looking west.

An outside break area next to the office.

I carried this stamp with me from school to school. If you recall from an earlier post, I asked a student if she would make me a name stamp like she did for many of her friends. She kindly agreed & spent a lot of time doing it, so I ending up giving her some money for her time. She was very happy with my token of appreciation.

The kindergarten class!

They had some fun energy, but they took all of mine.

A friendly game of English bingo.

A peace sign given by Nana. This was the English name she chose.

The boys set up for a pretty good pose.

Some students pretending to work.

Much better, the boys were hard at work on a writing assignment.

This class worked fairly hard. An upside down "A" sign shown on the right. Once again, I think it basically means, "Not cool." Hmmm...

Same class on a different day.

Peace, peace, peace!

Check out the little guy in back trying to see what's going on in the big kids' room.

The guy on the right was the only boy in the class. I don't think he cared for that.

This was a smaller class of about five students. I enjoyed the smaller classes.

This too was a small class at first. I might add that this class had a fairly high level of English for their age.

A junior high class. I could never keep track of who was cheating off of whom.


These guys were great fun in class! When playing some English games, they were VERY competitive!

The most advanced class consisted of two junior high students. We could have full conversions, so I really enjoyed talking to them & hearing their opinions!

Two of the students from my adult class. All the adult students were great fun!

Halloween time!

Face painting was provided by some of the teachers. The owner, holding the camera, took many pictures of the students. She later sorted them & gave them to the students.

He looked so innocent with his Dracula/devil/axeman/joker face costume.

Witches were to be expected at the Halloween party.

Everyone had fun at Halloween.

The Batman movie was popular this year. However, the face painter told me she was making me into a panda with black spots on my face. After she colored the second eye, & then broke out the lipstick... I wondered what exactly she was making me out to be? Hah! The joker! She tricked me!

As mentioned in a previous post, tangerines are given out by the boxes. All for free!

Another eraser puzzle! These puzzles were fun for the students as well!

This was the last Korean private school I worked at.

Time to go...

Jungmun-Just outside of Seowipo, South Korea

2010-08-12T20:46:00.013+09:00

After living in Seogwipo, I moved to a neighboring beach town called, Jungmun. Jungmun has the largest resort area in Korea! In the summers, this place is packed with tourists. Shilla, Lotte & the Hyatt hotel are located in this area. In the winter, it's very quiet. The town normally has a population of about 9,000 people.

This is the apartment complex I lived in.

Looking upstairs, heading to my room.

A quick glimpse back down the stairs.

The second set of stairs goes to the second floor.

Looking back down at the landing I was just on.

Outside the stairwell window.

My door & shower window in the upper left-hand corner.

My apartment entrance.

This apartment was considered a studio, but it was rather large for one. This is it, shall we have a tour?

My closet, with extra storage boxes below. This place didn't come with a dresser. Knowing my next move was to Japan, I didn't want to buy one. So, cardboard boxes sufficed for my eighth month duration. Over a matter of time, one can get used to living like this. The simplicities of life...

My living room.

My dining room & kitchen.

My entertainment room.

My bedroom & yes, I did all the decorations. As simple as they may be...

A view from the sliding glass doors, with a small wardrobe on the left.

The camping chairs & surfboard fit perfectly on my deck!

The view from my deck, was directed at a purple church. If I looked to the right, I could see the ocean on a clear day. I could hear it too, when the typhoons were near. I was a three minute scooter ride from the ocean! I felt very lucky! Jogging to the ocean was a weekly activity of mine.

If I needed to do laundry, I had to head downstairs. A different set of stairs led to the back of the apartment.

This was the laundry room, alongside the garbage. Everyone shared this free laundry machine. It was rarely busy, so it ended up working out just fine.

This was the recycle burner for the paper waste.

Back upstairs, my fan blew apart! There is something called fan death in Korea, which I HIGHLY recommend reading about. Yet, this isn't quite what they're referring to. Bits & pieces of this fan flew everywhere! I am lucky to have lived to share this story with you.

This little creature looked so soft.

Jusang Jeollidae is popular because of its rectangular & hexagonal shaped rocks below. In the distance, lava rocks proved fascinating to explore.

The thatched roof hotel below, Seaes Hotel & Resort, was a relaxing place to visit.

A bridge in the Jungmun Resort area allows all to view the stream.

There's a small hike that one can walk from the Seas Hotel & Resort, to Cheonjeyeon Falls. Not to be confused with Cheonjiyeon Falls, 20 minutes away in Seogwipo.

Below you can see a nice park along the riverside.

A temple on the way to Cheonjeyeon Falls.

Just prior to the Cheonjeyeon Falls entrance bridge, the fountain of five blessings bestows upon you. You can throw a coin at one of the five different creatures, each representing a different blessing if you hit one. The turtle represents longevity, while the boar denotes wealth. The dragon symbolizes honor, & the duck hints towards romance. Lastly, the carp stands for children. Aim accordingly to your feed your desire.

The pedestrian bridge to Cheonjeyeon Falls.

Cheonjeyeon Falls consists of three areas. This is the first, & while never really a waterfall, this pool is crystal clear & has beautiful rock formations.

This is the most grand of the waterfalls in this area. The last waterfall I have posted in a previous blog, or perhaps I'll post one again in a future blog.

This Cheonjeyeon entrance bridge is known as, Chilseonyeogyo or Seven Nymphs Bridge. The nymphs, as sculpted on this bridge, symbolize the Korean legend of the seven beautiful maidens.

Pathway located at the five star Shilla Hotel.

Looking towards the sea & over the pool at the five star Lotte Hotel.

Pool level view at the Lotte Hotel.

I borrowed this & the next picture from the Hyatt Hotel's website. It was one of my favorite hotels to visit. Yes, it too was a five star hotel... Two beaches surround the cliff its perched upon. The island of Jeju has now deemed it illegal for any future structures to be built this close to the ocean. It has been said that the Hyatt has the only rooms that can hear the ocean. Sometimes, I would camp on the beach to the left of the hotel. Although when the weather was rough, this beach was easily consumed by the waves. Once again, this area was only a three minute scooter ride from my house!

Waterfalls, palm trees, pool bar... Such is life...

On the other side of the hotel, the Hyatt allowed me to park my scooter here. Well, they didn't really say that I could park here, but I saw a few tourists' scooters park here. I should mention that it's popular to rent a scooter & circle the island for a 2-3 day tour. Many of them stop here for the beautiful view I show in the pictures below.

This is how I brought my surfboard to the beach! Yes, I sat on it!

A bokbunjaju bottle full of Jungmun Beach sand.

Boat rides for the tourists.

The summer months brought a lot of tourists to the island. Yet this shot of Jungmun Beach was not at the height of the tourist season.

Directly after mid-September, when the Koreans declare that the summer is over, the beaches become quiet. The foreigners below still manage to get a game of volleyball in. This photo was taken from a very popular viewpoint at the Hyatt Hotel.

On the opposite side of Jungmun Beach, you can watch the sun call it a day.

At this time, the beaches are quiet.

On the beach to the left of the Hyatt, I tend to the camp fire. Surprisingly as it is, this beach was not known to many of the locals, but slowly, word is getting out. As of now, it's the perfect quiet beach to camp on! As long as the tide, wind & currents don't push the waves too far up the small beach.

Do palm trees like snow?

Someone's birthday at the new local bar called, Geckos.

Seowipo- School

2010-08-11T01:50:00.009+09:00

Here are pictures from my school I worked at in Seogwipo, South Korea.

View from the teachers' office in summer.

This is the team of teachers I worked with for my year long stay. The gentleman on the right is one of the owners of the school.

The teacher I replaced, Seth, poses with a handful of the students. He is a good friend, but when he left, he was greatly missed on the island. Now, we're both living in Japan!

The eraser Seth cut up, & gifted me.

Teachers' room with my desk on the right.

We used the computers a lot to aid with our teachings.

The youngest class, at this moment, questioning if I really needed to take a picture.

While the others appear to be working, these girls preferred chatting.

Waiting for class to start. They were singing while captured in this video still.

This group loved to have their picture taken.

This group could care less that I snapped a photo.

Bunny ears, cute.

Here is one class before the lesson began.

Here's the same class, a different day, after the lesson began.

A more advanced class.

This group was even more advanced. I could usually understand the point they were trying to make.

"Teacher look, my new cell phone!"

I reply, "That's great, can I see it?"

I add, "Hah, hah!!! No cell phones in class. Thank you, now it's my cell phone." At least one boy in the back thought it was funny. Of course I returned it after class...

A higher level class.

Same class, giving me the "Not Cool" sign. I think...

My junior high school students were very studious & did quite well.

Hanbok, the traditional Korean dress. Of course, a complimentary peace sign.

No peace sign here, but she struck her own stylish pose.

I don't remember why she was carrying the rose around, but she was really happy with it.

Even at this age, cell phones are common in Korea.

Peace lives...

These two friends were happy to pose for the camera.

When a new store opens, a large flower display is placed next to, or over the door. If people take the flowers, apparently the business will have better luck. So, the owner of the new establishment downstairs gave away many flowers to the students who passed by.

A nice flower arrangement.

Wait! How did they get this nice assortment of flowers?

A rare moment to pose with one of my classes.

Halloween!!!

The bunny ears found their way to Halloween.

More bunnies! The face painting was done by the receptionist at the school.

I love the student's mustache on the right! I don't think he's seen it yet. Oh, & more bunny ears, floppy ones at that.

Halloween isn't very big in Korea, but it's slowly becoming more popular.

With that in mind, some students don't really dress up.

Others just throw on a mask. Is that a Jimmy Z t-shirt? Maybe not exactly, but I love the 'Z'!

For those who didn't have a costume, face painting was available.

Even face painting for the teachers.

Despite the lack of costumes, they still had a good time at the Halloween party!

All the students received some candy, so their energy level was higher than normal.

Maybe this class was coming down from their sugar rush.

Yes, that's me in the white painter jump suit. At first I dressed up as a serious mountain biker, but that's not really a Halloween costume for Korea. They're more about the goblins, witches, pirates & bunny costumes right now. So, I went home to change into this white jumper outfit. Not sure why I picked this out, but it went well when I had a mask on!

Some students became creative with my hand. There's a sun, a butterfly, a tree & I can't recall the rest.

See, my white jumper went great with a mask!

They made this great Christmas display for the winter holiday season!

Alas, I finished the pig eraser puzzle. Looks like it's time for me to move on...

Seogwipo, South Korea -Around Town

2010-08-11T01:12:00.016+09:00

These next photos are from different areas around town, not within a short walking distance.


The North Korean soccer team came to play South Korea. It was played at the World Cup Stadium in Shinshigaji, or new town Seogwipo.

My friend & his wife's house in Shinshigaji. Nice deck with a view of the ocean!


Geumgansan, or Mt. Geumgan made for a quick hike to the top. It too is in this new town area. Along the way were some exercise machines.

Fun trails!

At the top, you get a great view of Hallasan, Mt. Halla. You can walk/jog around the top of this small mountain, circling it crater.

You can see Seogwipo to the left below, and some of the islets.

The newer style exercise machines.

At a coffee shop/museum of sorts, this was apparently one of Thomas Edison's inventions, the cylindrical record player. This record played for about one minute.

A fun restaurant place, overlooking the ocean.


While a little creepy, I had to show this picture.

Jeju Island claims to have an abundance of three things: rocks, wind & women. So, I believe here, one character is a rock, the other wind.

Jeongbang Falls. But where is the third of the three things on Jeju Island, the women you ask? Well, it's the haenyo, or the women divers that used to be more common. You can see they're set up in the picture, among the rocks, where they sell fresh seafood. However, the women themselves appear to be taking a break & are not in the photo. Please read about them by clicking on the link, as they are quite interesting!

A cave past Jeonbang Falls. Most locals have no clue about this cave, which hides an old weathered Buddha statue carved out of the rock walls.

Above Jeongbang Falls.

A restaurant entrance that was claimed back by the government while I was living on the island. A park has now been built here. The restaurant owner apparently disobeyed the government long ago & built his structure directly on the cliff of the ocean. Building this close to the ocean is no longer allowed.

Slightly below the old restaurant, you see Sojeongbang Falls.

It's common to see people standing or sitting under the falls during the summer. It's nature's massage!

After I lived in the concrete jungles of Busan, South Korea, Jeju Island was so green! I loved KAL hotel's lawn!

This too was a part of KAL hotel's beautiful landscape.

Interesting contract, only being separated by a rock.

I tried to mountain bike often, but with out a car, it took some time to get to the trail.

Some statues among the tangerine groves.

Eongtto Falls that only flows with a rainfall of 70 mm or more. I drove my scooter up here on a rainy day to finally see the falls. Well worth the wet ride!

This view was on my mountain biking route, prior to the trail.

Taken from a mountain bike trip, almost on the trail.

Not my normal mountain biking trail, but it was fun to explore different areas.

Snack break... I didn't know this was inside my surprise snack pack.

Some wild plant starting to decompose.

Sometimes I just wasn't able to ride through. There were no "real" mountain bike trails. I had to find my own.

Autumn mountain biking.

Always interesting what I'd find, way out away from everyone.

Coming back down the mountain, after a ride.

Gravesights

Many different styles of graves.

This area just kept going, & going, & going... Graves, everywhere...

I believe this area was used by the military, but I could enjoy it with my mountain biking gear on.

Look how much fun it is!

Yes, I sometimes rode my bike here for a quick adrenaline fix. I looked like an overgrown kid on the ramps, but the children watching got a kick out of it!

A typhoon coming! Look how dirty the water is.

The typhoon is almost here. The boats are packed in formation.

In hindsight, it wasn't the smartest thing to do, venture out in the middle of a typhoon.

It continued to get worse.

Debris was being torn around, but luckily it wasn't too strong on the south side of the island where I lived.

Trees were being snapped under the typhoon wind. These photos are from the south side of the island. The north side was even worse, & unfortunately deaths were involved.

Down in the harbor, the weather was slowly starting to let up.

Although, the palm trees still took a beating.

The next day, I went exploring. This was a green house for Hallabongs, or Jeju Oranges.

This small bridge took a beating & you can see an outhouse in the back that was turned aside. I feel sorry for the person who has to clean that.