Thursday, May 8, 2008

Jeju Island - Part 3



Chonjeyon Waterfall is located in the tourist area of Chungmun, near Yomiji Garden. This is a view on our walk to the waterfalls.




The waterfalls was also the location of the cloisonne shop. I did a bit of Christmas shopping there. My driver even got them to knock off 70,000 WON ($70.00 US). Wow, Koreans sure know how to bargain. They gave him a free phone charm too.



The day was really overcast but it made a good day to sight see. It wasn't too hot.



We saw these kids out on some of the rocks.


I don't know where Mom and Dad were.


On our walk back, we noticed the little girl in front of us being lifted off the ground as they walked. I told Curt he had to snap a picture. We always keep a camera ready here in South Korea. You never know when you'll want it.


We also found at the waterfalls piles of rocks.

Here is the explanation.


We then stopped at Seongup Jeju Folk Village . We only went to a few areas so I don't know how big it actually was. Jeju Island is known for their black pigs. I've never seen a black pig before. He was a cutie and came out to greet us.


He was quite the ham (oh, that was a bad joke). I kept thinking about someday he would grow up to be somebody's meal. We were told black pig is more expensive than regular (pink, I would think) pig and very delicious.

We went to one of the huts where they were making some sort of rolled pancake type food. They wanted us to try it and it was really good. We had to get a picture too while we were there.



Lunchtime! Curt overheard our guide letting people know that he had "foreigners" in the car so we would get special treatment. We saw a lot of tour buses everywhere we went, including lunch. This is a picture of the side dishes.


Here is lunch. It was pork, kimchi and mushrooms. It was really good.




I could relate. The little girl just had enough but that didn't stop Dad.



The entrance to Micheon Cave.


There were some spots that were tough for 6' 5" Curt (hubby). It was freezing inside the cave. It would be a great place to go during the hot summer.

The ceiling dripped water so you needed to take care with your camera.



A dragon in the interior of the cave.




Seong san or Sunrise Peak and yes, we are going to climb all the way to the top! We couldn't believe all the people we saw. There were busloads of Koreans, especially school-age kids. I wondered if this was some kind of punishment.





Watch your step! I can't imagine doing this when it is raining.

A view from part of the way up. I had to take a lot of rest stops. We heard a lot of groaning, especially from the kids, all the way up and all the way back down. At one of rest stops, we had a middle school boy come up to us and ask if he could get a picture taken with us. No problem. We noticed a lot of other Koreans taking pictures of us too.






We're almost there!

I made it, sweaty and sticky! I was too tired to smile.


A view from the top.


It would have been a lot more beautiful if it wasn't so overcast.


But it was still pretty spectacular.

When we decided to descend, I had a minor (ok, major) meltdown. I have a healthy fear of heights and had no problem climbing up but when faced with the walk down, where you can see how high you are, I panicked and had to take a moment to gather my wits. I quickly realized if I didn't, then what was the alternative?: call for a helicopter to pick me up, wait until everyone was gone, or have Curt(hubby) carry me down. I finally just started down, looking down, not up.
It still took FOREVER to get down from the mountain.
Matching t-shirts that make no sense. As we were almost done with the climb down, we heard a bunch of Korean middle school age girls say "hi." We said "hi" back and I took off my sunglasses to continue the talk. I don't like to wear my sunglasses when I'm talking to somebody. The entire group of girls, which was about 10-15 said, "oooooooooo" really loud like they were shocked or something. Everyone was looking at us then. I have no idea what that was about and Curt was equally as shocked.
One last look. I was really proud that we did it. This was the end of Day 1. Thank goodness! After this mountain climb, we were both ready for a rest. It was pretty quiet on the ride back to the hotel. More tomorrow.

2 comments:

CreekHiker / HollysFolly said...

Becky, I would have had such a difficult time going down too!!! I'm so proud of you!!!! What a trip! I'll bet you slept that night!

Becky said...

Holly: I knew no one would be coming to get me so down I went.

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