Jeju Island - Fried Chicken, Hallim Park, Osulloc Tea Museum, E-Mart

Tuesday, July 4th

Today we traveled to the island of Jeju where will be staying for three nights before heading back to the states.  Jeju is a volcanic island and is where Max was born.  Jeju is often referred to as Korea's Hawaii.  and traditionally has been the spot for honeymooners.  To get to Jeju we flew out of Gimpo airport in Seoul.  It is about a one hour flight.  Upon arriving to Jeju we were met by our new tour guide, Ms. Jane and our unnamed bus driver.

Our first stop was for lunch at a Korean fried chicken place.  Korea is well known for its fried chicken.  It was first introduced by the US Military during the Korean War.  Fried chicken and beer is a favorite combination for many.  Ms. Jane told us when the Jeju United soccer team plays it is very popular to order fried chicken and eat it while watching the game.  Orders must be placed well in advance of the soccer game to ensure they don't miss out.  The restaurant served two kinds of fried chicken regular and one with a spicy sauce.  Both were very good.  They prepared gluten free chicken for Dede and Max that was also very good.

The second stop of the day was at Hallim Park Botanical Gardens.  The park contains lava caves, bonsai tree gardens, rock gardens and a bird park.  The park was awesome, but the day was super hot and humid.  The group as a whole was pretty tired and Ms. Jane had to keep pushing us along to get through the park in our allotted time.  I will say the lava caves were nice and cool and we hated to leave them.

Our next stop was at the Osulloc Tea Museum which which had a cafe, gift shop and tea fields.  Another good stop and we were able to enjoy some A/C!  It turns out Jeju Island has one of the best environments in Korea to cultivate tea due to its volcanic ash soil which provides good moisture retention and soil aeration.  The other well known crop of Jeju is tangerines.  More on tangerines in upcoming blogs.

The last stop of a very long day was at the E-Mart to pick up some food for supper.  The E-Mart is Korea's version of Wal-Mart/Target.  We struggled for a bit to find some gluten free food, but in the end settled on salads, watermelon and sushi.  It ended up making for a perfect meal after a long hot day.  One word of caution....Unlike MN Korea allows the sale of liquor in their grocery stores.  I almost made a very grave mistake.  We were in much need of water...I grabbed a big two liter bottle of a what I thought was water.  After going back to grab a second bottle, Dede pointed out what I actually grabbed was a two liter bottle of Soju (rice wine)!  Yikes!  I should have used Google Translate to confirm what I was buying since the water and soju are packaged in the same bottles.  .  The funny thing is there was an even bigger bottle of Soju in what had to be a four liter bottle.  Good thing I didn't grab that one.

We finally made it to the hotel after dark.  The grounds look like they will be beautiful, but we have to wait for the sun to come up to fully check them out.

Kurt

Welcome back Max.

Lunch.  Yum!

Some basic rules while visiting Jeju! 😆

Note: there are fines if you don't follow the rules.

50,000W ($40) for urinating in public.

Lava cave

Natural statue of a mother holding a baby (so they say)

Bonsai tree...some of these trees were more than 200 years old

Folk village part of the park

Ms. Jane, our tour guide, re-enacting a childhood memory from when she visited her Grandparents house. The "outhouse" was the pig pen or in the pig pen.  When going #2 she remembers looking down and seeing pigs looking up at her bum and waiting for some droppings (she's re-enacting the pig).  

Later she learned to bring a stick with her.

This is probably a good time to let you know Jeju Island is also well known for a special breed of black pigs.

Bird section of the park.  Peacocks were roaming the grounds and were not afraid of us.

Hi

Dol hareubangs are found throughout Jeju.  They were originally placed outside of gates for protection against demons traveling between realities.  Now they have become more of a tourist thing, but I still like the dudes.