THe Hotel's "Volcanic" Good-Bye

The hotel's "volcanic" good-bye!

See you in NJ

After a boat ride around a cave-filled island, we walked along a beach - the most beautiful one on the island. We searched for shells and came upon the temporary "restaurants" that the women divers set up at the end of the day - selling their fresh abolone and serving guests right out of their baskets and pails.

Day 5

A new day on Jeju Island!

We meandered through the fields of mandarin oranges - ending up at the largest Buddhist temple in Asia! 16,000 little Buddhas lined the walls of the temple and colorful lanterns filled the ceilings throughout the main structure. The dragon is an important part of the Korean culture - as well as the fish, the turtle and the duck. This particular temple also incorporated elephants throughout its landscape.

Next, we headed to Cheonnjiyeon Falls - one of the few waterfalls on the island. Due to the porous volcanic rock, most water just gets absorbed and never lasts on the surface long enough to cascade as a waterfall. Flowers are in full bloom, ducks are swimming along the river and the climate is much more tropical than Seoul.

Korean Folk Village

Getting around Jeju

This is the "Dragon Rock" made of volcanic rock --like everything on the island. We took a good hike up the mountainside to see it, also allowing us to get up close to another treasure of Jeju-- their horses. The juxtaposition of the ocean and the mountains is still breathtaking. At this point, we also saw the amazing women divers. These beyond believable women, not so young, don wet suit pants, grab hold of a buoy, a basin shaped net, aspear, and a knife, and swim out to sea to catch abalone. They can be out in the water for eight hours a day before coming in and setting up mini-restaurants and wholesale booths with their bounty. Watching them surface and dive again was truly mesmerizing.

Day 4

Today began another adventure right from the start. We took a taxi, by ourselves, from Lotte Hotel to Gimpo Airport. Gimpo handles most of the domestic Korean flights as we headed to Jeju Island. Now usually, taking a taxi ride by yourself is no big deal. Doing it in another country with another language that you can not decipher means you must have great trust and you must be able to figure out how to negotiate. We did it! Of course, then we managed to check into the airport, drink a Dunkin Donuts coffee, go through security and find our gate. Everything is a story-- so when you go to a gate and it posts the flight number, you sit and wait. Then the flight number disappears. What is one to do when communication is a real challenge? Point. Often. Everywhere. Fortunately, one of the airline employees actually was able to point us to the right gate. Phew. Not sure what we would have done if we missed the flight. Oh but wait, we are not on the plane yet. The gate had a plane at it already (not ours), so we just stood there hoping for the best. Then they called for boarding and we looked at each other a bit quizzically. Off we went, down the stairs, and out the door onto the tarmac. Yes. We took a bus to the plane out on the tarmac. All is well, and the flight was great. We are really glad we made it here.

Peter, our new guide, met us after luggage gathering. He took us straight to a Korean History Museum where we were able to look at a topographical map of Jeju, the volcanic island. Much information about volcanic rocks and the modernization of this incredible island. It was the perfect start to give us context for the visit.

End of Day 3

We finished our Day 3 on Seoul's Insa Don - a street similar to those found in Soho. We visited a few art gallery show openings, artisan shops and tasted Korean pastries. Many of the stores sold the supplies necessary for creating calligraphy - a paint brush sculpture greets visitors at the head of the street.