August 6, 2014

Today we took it easy and decided to go to a beach! We got up a little bit later and took our time getting ready.

Waiting for the bus in true Asian style

We took a bus over to the Jungmun Resort area which has a lot of hotels, stores, strange museums (Teddy Bear Museum, Museum of African Art, Ripley’s Believe It or Not), and a nice beach. We have been lucky because there were back-to-back typhoons in this area and we think a lot of people may have cancelled their trips. So the weather has been great – maybe a little too sunny – and the crowds have been minimal by Asian standards. The beach was fairly uncrowded so we were able to get a nice spot on the edge of the swimming area. Unfortunately, the umbrellas and chairs were more than we were willing to spend ($40) so we just had to rough it with our towels and rain umbrellas. The beach was pretty and we could cool down without getting all the way in! The waves came up to the shore and drenched us a couple of times as we were trying to get in. We stayed out for a about an hour and a half and then decided to pack up.

Yay! Beach!

Okay, these ladies were literally cutting the grass with small scythes…

Jungmun Beach

Not even close to crowded!

That one caught him by surprise

Keeping that sunburn outta the sun!

beautiful sand

Jungmun Beach from the other end

Zach wanted to check out the Hyatt Regency on the hill above the beach so we walked up to the hotel and ended up having lunch in their casual cafe. It was definitely a splurge lunch! We got two glasses of Mondavi wine (what! California wine!) and split a tasty club sandwich with fries. It was very relaxing.

Lovely Hyatt grounds

Splurge lunch! $$!

We ate next to this waterfall thing

The roof from our dining area

We caught a cab at the Hyatt to go see one last thing on this side of the island – Jusangjeolli Rocks. The Jusangjeolli Rocks are really cool, but are a major tourist attraction – too big of a tourist attraction in my opinion. It costs roughly $2 just to look at them. The rocks – really a stretch of coastline – were formed when lava flowed into the sea and cooled rapidly forming perfect hexagonal columns of rock. It reminded me of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. I thought it was beautiful, but unfortunately the sun was right in our faces and there were busloads of Chinese tourists when we went. Oh well.

Chinese tourists

A little too sunny for a good shot

We were very fortunate to catch a cab from Jusangjeolli – until we got in and the driver didn’t understand where to take us! We have David’s address written in Korean and Zach pulled it up on a map but he ended up dropping us off in the center of town. So we walked the rest of the way and were quite tired. We showered and rested a little bit before meeting up with David, his girlfriend, and her daughter for some dinner nearby. Dinner was excellent – sorry, we forgot what it was! – and now we’re discussing our plans for our final full day on Jeju.

Dinner!