Amy's Adventure to Inje: Jeju Island Dream Trip!

Wednesday: We left Gimhae in rain and wind. We landed at Jeju and were greeted with the same. Our decent was SCARY! The crazy "stomach dropped from a roller coaster" feeling was a little bit too much to handle. No one got sick, but we were not only a little freaked out, but a lot of people felt dizzy and motion sick afterward.

At the airport, we were met by our tour guide and bus driver. Right away we were off to see some sights. By the time we arrived at our first location, Yongduam Rock, the rain had stopped. Yongduam Rock is an lava formation that looks like a dragon. Then, we went to Dokkebi Doro- "Mysterious Road". At this location, if you put your vehicle in neutral, it will roll UP a small hill! It was pretty crazy! At the top of the hill was our next destination, Loveland. Loveland is a sculpture park dedicated to all things love. It was an interesting experience. We had tuna kimbap as a snack after viewing the park. Luckily, we had a break in the weather and the sun came out! Then, we went to Han-ra Arboretum. It was very beautiful there. We went to a restaurant that served Jeju Island's famous black pork. (The pigs on Jeju are all black.) It was good, but very fatty and salty!

I've got my ticket to Jeju!

First view on Jeju Island!!

Dragon's Head Rock

Mysterious Road! The bus in front of us was rolling upwards

Walking around the arboretum

The group at dinner!

Thursday: The morning started out looking not so good, but as the day progressed, the sun came out, it warmed up and was quite humid. We went to Glass Castle first; this was a museum/park with all the exhibits made out of blown glass. It was pretty amazing. Then we stopped at O'Sulloc Tea Plantation. This is a huge, famous tea brand; all the tea is organically grown. In 2009, I went to Boseong, which is a city famous for tea farms, but this one was even bigger than the one I visited in Boseong! We only had few minutes and then we were off to Circus World to see some performances. It was interesting, but a little hard to watch; a lot of the gymnasts were young, (Chinese), skinny, girls and we were wondering about how well they were being taken care of and provided for.

After Circus World, we stopped at a buffet restaurant for lunch. Then we visited Camellia Hill, which was a flower park. It was also very beautiful here. Unfortunately, not many flowers were blooming, so it was very green! After Camellia Hill, we went Jet Boarding. This was probably my favorite experience of the trip! :) A jet boarding boat is basically like a giant 12 person jet ski. We sat in an open top speed 'boat' and the driver went really fast over the waves. It was really neat to see the coastline of Jeju from the OCEAN! We then went for a hike on a trail called "Allet- Gil". It was also very beautiful there. The views of the ocean and coastline were incredible. Many famous dramas and movies have been filmed around that location. We also went to see a waterfall called Cheonjiyeon Falls. Another beautiful sight. We toured around Saeyeon Bridge; a bridge designed like a sailboat. Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery died, so I had to have Emily take some pictures with her camera for me. After the bridge, we had some group members who wanted to go Go Karting, so we had to wait for them to do that. Dinner was at a restaurant known for two special kinds of fish found around Jeju...unfortunately I did not eat much!

View from our balcony...looks like the making of a crummy day...but there was sunshine a few hours later!

Glass Castle display

Another display at Glass Castle

Flowers at Camellia Hill

Camellia Hill

Around where we went jet boarding

Jumping around...what we do best!

Our jet board boat

"Lonely rock" on the right side of the photo; view while hiking at "Allet-Gil"

In front of the waterfall

The sailboat bridge

Friday: We woke to sunshine, but it was much cooler during the day. First on the agenda was EcoLand. This was an ecological park, but it had a 'train' running all through the park; we rode on the train to view all of it. Towards the middle of the 'ride' we were inundated with a large group of "ajumas" (a very special 'breed' of Korean older women...known for their short curly permed hair, brightly colored clothing, need for pushing and shoving in crowds, and loud chatter). One of them had to sit in the train 'car' with Emily, Colin, Prof. Cho, and me. She sat down next to me and her friends in the car behind us teased her that she should have sat between Colin and Prof Cho...so with enough bantering, she was peer pressured into changing seats. THEN one of her friends climbed over the seat and came into our car so she could get her picture taken with him. It was really funny.

Our next item was horseback riding! I was so excited and had high hopes for this activity. I was severely let down. Here I was imagining at least 30 min to 1 hour of riding...maaaybe even along the beach or something...but...it was at a little farm. We were on the horse for maybe 10 minutes, if that. So sad. But, it was still fun to go for a ride anyway. There were also ATV's to rent and a few group members wanted to do that, so we waited for them to go on an ATV ride before moving on to a traditional village. The village was kind of interesting, however the whole thing seemed set up only to sell us their products at the end. The products were horse bone "pills" to help with "EVERYTHING" and a kind of tea jelly.

We had spicy black pork bulgogi for lunch. After lunch, we headed to U-Do ("do" means island in Korean). We had a 15 minute ferry ride to the island. Upon reaching the island, we got onto another tour bus and were taking to the bottom of a big grassy hill. We had time to walk up the steep hill and take pictures. There were, of course, many beautiful views. Then back on the bus...and we drove around the island some. We passed some very beautiful beaches...but didn't stop! We were surprised we didn't stop to see a lot of sights...finally we stopped at a beach facing Jeju. It was also beautiful, but not as beautiful as the other places, I don't think. The water was an amazing shade of blue and the sand was made up of tiny shells. I even found a few pieces of beach glass there! We got back on the bus to get a ferry back to Jeju. We then traveled to one last location; I don't recall the name of the final place, but it was another beautiful view of the ocean with all of the lava rocks jutting out and tide pools to look at. There was only a little bit of time here, before we stopped at a Jeju Tourist Shopping Market and then finally to the airport. We had a short flight back to Gimhae, a taxi ride to Inje (when we were at a stop light we had some guy get out of his car and smack our taxi! Our taxi driver told us that was his friend, but we weren't so sure...) and finally I was back in my dorm!