Jeju Island Day 1: Mythic Origins
Jeju Island is a volcanic vacation destination, and the largest island owned by South Korea. I had had earlier plans to visit Jeju in the fall, but since we lost a three day weekend due to Swine flu. Rather, we got that three day weekend a week early and there was not enough time to alter plans to get there and the ferry and plane schedules were too inconvenient (in my opinion. The other foreigners in my office all went). Alanna had already been to Jeju and had a different schedule so I went alone to the traditional honeymoon destination (Hana went for her honeymoon during the week we had all originally planned to go). My school had a random Thursday off work and so I took the Friday off (with docked pay, of course) and made a full weekend of it. I flew out Thursday morning and had a bit of an adventure just getting out of town. I took the subway as close as I could and then took a cab to the bus station that I needed to go to the airport. I was in the front seat of the cab, which was really cramped, and when I pulled my wallet out to pay I ended up spilling all of my cards all over the place, but in and out of of the vehicle. I don't think the cabbie did anything to cause this, especially when I noticed as I put the money in his hand that said hand had only a thumb and no other fingers. I found most of my cards on the street, but my Korean debit card must have fallen into the cab. Thankfully I had pulled out lots of cash for the trip, so I called my supervisor to cancel the card and all was fine (actually, my supervisor's number in my phone was wrong, so I also had to wake up Courtney to ask for the number. Nothing is simple). After that the buses and plane ride were uneventful, though once in Jeju I ended up getting on the bus going the wrong way from the airport and had to loop back around to get to Jeju City. I guess what I'm saying is that the trip was an exercise in my ability to not get frustrated or stressed about things going wrong, which I did moderately well.
In Jeju city I walked out to Samseonghyeol shrine built in 1526 and dedicated to the brothers Go, Bu, and Yang, the mythic founders of the Tamna kingdom. The shrine is centered around three holes in the ground where the brothers are said to have sprung fully formed from the earth as the island's first people. They then climbed Hallasan, the tallest mountain in South Korea that forms the bulk of Jeju Island, and fired arrows out in different directions to choose who would rule which third of the island. They later met and married three princesses who came by boat to the island with livestock, and they populated the island. Jeju has a different and younger culture than the rest of Korea and was a late addition to the kingdom. One element of Jeju culture is the creation of a bunch of three to five foot tall lava rock carvings of men called harubang. Outside the shrine were a few of the original 250yr old harubang.
After going to the shrine I went out for Mexican food since Jeju is one of the very few places in Korea that one can get decent (or any, really) food with cilantro in it, other than when Will gave me a couple of the tacos he made for his students as a reward for good behavior and since they had no idea what tacos were. I wandered around the city and saw some interesting (if not necessarily good) architecture, especially the bright orange and blue city hall. I was also amused by the signs at major sections that read "We love having you here" in several languages. They were obviously meant to welcome tourists, but on some the paint had run a bit, suggestive of scripts in horror movies and completely changing the tone (in my head, anyway) to that of the twins in The Shining as they say "Come play with us for ever and ever and ever."
I had hoped to see a bit more, but the sun was going down. The whole Jeju trip felt like a giant race against the sun. I took a bus to Seongsan Ilchulbong, which translates as 'fortress mountain village,' at the base of the aptly named fortress mountain, also nicknamed sunrise mountain since it is on the East coast. I wandered around the place a bit and had some delicious fried chicken covered in sweet spicy sauce, a Korean fast food-ish delicacy which I will miss. I stayed in a tiny minbak (private house hotel) for 15000 won, or aproximately $12. Check out the pictures to see what a typical minbak room looks like in its minuscule entirety.
In Jeju city I walked out to Samseonghyeol shrine built in 1526 and dedicated to the brothers Go, Bu, and Yang, the mythic founders of the Tamna kingdom. The shrine is centered around three holes in the ground where the brothers are said to have sprung fully formed from the earth as the island's first people. They then climbed Hallasan, the tallest mountain in South Korea that forms the bulk of Jeju Island, and fired arrows out in different directions to choose who would rule which third of the island. They later met and married three princesses who came by boat to the island with livestock, and they populated the island. Jeju has a different and younger culture than the rest of Korea and was a late addition to the kingdom. One element of Jeju culture is the creation of a bunch of three to five foot tall lava rock carvings of men called harubang. Outside the shrine were a few of the original 250yr old harubang.
After going to the shrine I went out for Mexican food since Jeju is one of the very few places in Korea that one can get decent (or any, really) food with cilantro in it, other than when Will gave me a couple of the tacos he made for his students as a reward for good behavior and since they had no idea what tacos were. I wandered around the city and saw some interesting (if not necessarily good) architecture, especially the bright orange and blue city hall. I was also amused by the signs at major sections that read "We love having you here" in several languages. They were obviously meant to welcome tourists, but on some the paint had run a bit, suggestive of scripts in horror movies and completely changing the tone (in my head, anyway) to that of the twins in The Shining as they say "Come play with us for ever and ever and ever."
I had hoped to see a bit more, but the sun was going down. The whole Jeju trip felt like a giant race against the sun. I took a bus to Seongsan Ilchulbong, which translates as 'fortress mountain village,' at the base of the aptly named fortress mountain, also nicknamed sunrise mountain since it is on the East coast. I wandered around the place a bit and had some delicious fried chicken covered in sweet spicy sauce, a Korean fast food-ish delicacy which I will miss. I stayed in a tiny minbak (private house hotel) for 15000 won, or aproximately $12. Check out the pictures to see what a typical minbak room looks like in its minuscule entirety.
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