The highlight of our trip to Korea was going to Jejudo. Jejudo is the Korean version of Hawaii. It is a beautiful tourist island. It used to be a popular honeymoon destination among Koreans before oversea travel became more commonplace. Jejudo is well known for three things that are very abundant: women, wind and rocks. There are black rocks everywhere in Jejudo because it is a volcanic island. We saw some very interesting structures made of those volcanic rocks.
The first place we went was Hallim Park. Hallim Park is an ecological park that has subtropical plants and palm trees that you can’t find anywhere else in Korea. One of the trees was 300 years old. J.J. said, “That tree is older than my country!” There are different kinds of birds, including a peacock and an ostrich. There are also two caves and a folk village in the park. We had fun in the folk village looking at the old style Jeju houses and traditional household goods.
On the second day, we climbed up the old volcano called Mt. Halla. There were two hiking trails to choose from to climb the mountain, Eorimok and Yeongsil. We took the Yeongsil trail because we heard it was a bit easier. We drove to 1280m above sea level and started walking up to the destination of Witse Oreum at 1700m above sea level. It wasn’t very steep, but there were a lot of steps. J.J. has flat feet and wasn’t ready for such extensive hiking. He was completely soaked in sweat as if somebody had thrown a bucket of water on him. He said he felt like he was going to pass out, but he made it eventually. Although it was a little hard, we enjoyed seeing the unique flowers, trees and very scenic cliffs. It took us about four hours to climb up and down.
After the climbing, we went back to our hotel and enjoyed the hotel sauna. Nothing feels better than soaking in hot water after extensive walking. Water in Jejudo is very clean.
On the third day, we took a ferry to Udo Island, a small island nearby. Udo is a good place for swimming and tanning. We went to the Geommeolle Beach and the Seobin White Sand Beach. Geommeolle means black sand in the Jeju dialect. As the name implies, the sand is black. 
The Seobin White Sand Beach is unique because the sand is made of coral. We didn’t swim but just waded in the water for a while. It was raining and it was tough to enjoy Udo on rainy days.
On the last day, we stopped by the Kimnyong Maze Park before heading toward the airport. An American named Dr. Dustin founded this park. The goal is to find the way out of the large maze and ring the bell on a bridge. Most people make it within 30 minutes. We competed with each other. Gina’s dad got out first, mom second, J.J. third and Gina last. Walking through the maze itself was a lot of fun. Also, it was really fun to talk about the experience with each other later on.Jejudo is a great place to visit. There are a lot of things to experience. Like any other tourist place, everything’s more expensive. Sometimes tips are desired. It’s probably the influence of foreign tourists. If you get a guide, pay a tip of about 15~20% of the total fee. Renting a taxi for the day may be a good idea because local taxi drivers know how to get around. We paid 100,000 won for each day with a 25% of tip to our driver. He was very knowledgeable about Jeju and was a very good tour guide.
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(To read this entry in Korean, please click on the link below)
ⓐ http://blog.naver.com/mstarcom1/80085722108
ⓑ http://blog.naver.com/mstarcom1/80086224595
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