Aloha.

A short getaway to Korea's Hawaii, Jeju Island.  The weather wasn't too great. We had a few hours of sunshine here and there. It rained a lot and we missed out on the hiking trails.

We rented an apartment for the long weekend. The place was great and our hosts were super sweet! I wish my current apartment in Ulsan looked like this at all times.

We went to Hallim Park to check out the underground caves, gardens and aviary.

For you mom!

These rocks contained holes made by lava.

This is Ssangyonggul Cave, one of the many lava tubes in Jeju. The walls are covered with limestone. Stalactites and stalagmites form throughout the cave.

Statue of a Korean folk tale called "The Fox Bead"

The bonsai portion of the garden was one of my favourites. There are some plants here that are over 400 years old.

The aviary was both very exciting and depressing. We got to feed some of the birds and pet them. There were also other types of animals within the aviary. The animals that were locked inside of their cages looked so sad. It was heartbreaking to see them look miserable.

캡션 추가

My favourite. It did not want to eat any of our treats. It kept leaning towards the cage so we could pet it. As we were leaving, it would say "Love you".  I felt so special, because it only happened to us. 

This is a traditional village within the park. It has a restaurant that serves many traditional Korean foods.

You will see these statues throughout Jeju. They are called Dol Hareubang. They represent gods of protection and fertility. Apparently if you want to get pregnant, you would rub its nose. There was a kid that kept on doing that and the dad was like yelling no the entire time. 

Bingtteok- It's a wrap made of glutinous flour and filled with Jeju's famous black pig. 

Hodeo- Fried dough filled with pumpkin paste and seeds. There are also many other types of filling.

We also dropped by Hallim Harbour that afternoon. The black patches on the beach are volcanic rocks. The weather was too chilly for us to go into the water.

We made this one.

This is at Dongmun Market, a traditional market in Jeju. It's very popular for seafood products and street food. We wanted to get some deep fried dumplings at his one shop, but the line was massive. The ladies were making and frying dumplings at lightening speed.

 Headed back to Busan to enjoy a day at the beach. We went to both Haeundae and Gwangalli beach.

Haeundae

Gwangalli

We also visited Loveland, while in Jeju. Loveland is an interesting place and I would recommend that you go see it. Not just for what is displayed throughout the park, but for the reactions of the older Korean people. It's priceless. I did take pictures of our adventure there. However, I cannot post those pictures here, because the fambam would not approve of such things. 

It was a nice relaxing trip. Ate tons of food, took tons of pictures and met lots of nice people. I will definitely head back to Jeju to go hiking and see the tea plantation.

G'day.