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We had a three day weekend, and Stacey had organised a trip to the holiday island of Korea, Jeju Do(island). Located just south of the peninsular, this volcanic island is hailed as a beauty spot ideal for honeymooning. We boarded the train a little after nine, arrived at Mokpo at around midday and headed off to find some lunch. On the way to the ferry terminal we had go go over a mini-mountain on which a flower festival was taking place. The streets were lined with people of all ages painting the blossoming trees and yellow flowers. A parade/band of some kind caught up with us, and stopped just by us.
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We got the the terminal with plenty of time to spare, and boarded the boat. The boat had no seats, only carpeted 'no shoes' areas. I wandered up onto the deck in time to watch the doors eventually close and the lines cast off.
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We had about five hours to kill, and as well as reading and sleeping we concerned ourselves with feats of emotion, strength and agility.
 
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The sunset was great, but the sun didn't so much set as disappear into the haze on the horizon. Dust is currently being blown down from the Gobi desert. It was great to see the stars, but only the brightest ones were showing. I enjoyed seeing Orion again.
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We arrived at 9:30, a little over 12 hours after our train left Daejon. We walked to, then located, our hostel (unfortunately, yes, in that order), then went out for food. About half of the group went into a Korean restaurant, but I went for a walk with the other half, after dropping into the Paris Baguette for my dinner. The walk didn't last very long for me, I was the first in bed that night. I rose at around 9, got up and left with Judy to go to a beach, after only seeing one other member of our party. When the bus driver informed us that we had reached Sogwipo (what we thought to be our destination), we came out of the bus to a beautiful harbour view, but there was no beach in sight. We got back on the bus, going back the way we had come, got off at the Hyatt hotel, and walked down a beautiful set of stairs fragrant with the smell of spring. The beach looked extremely inviting.
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Two of the famed female divers of Jeju were busy at work doing a touristy thing for the hotel guests, I assumed. One of them allowed me to take pictures. The other didn't. They came out of the sea as we arrived with bags of something, then let their customers eat whatever was brought up. They also had fires and pots going. Perhaps they were making shellfish stew.
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After an initial period in the sun, I headed for shade. I laid reading and listening to music until a Korean couple turned up. They were Ahn Jang Hoon and Ha Young Kwon and had been married for 18 months. He, being a dentist, offered to fill the gap in my teeth with resin. She described herself as a housekeeper, but she had been a jet-setting clothing designer before her marriage. They recommended the teddy bear museum as 'not as bad as it sounds'. With a recommendation like that, it quickly became the next stop on our agenda, mainly because it was just down the road from the beach. I can't say it was my thing though. I felt like a kid in a museum, just rushing around, looking at everything, but not gaining any kind of enrichment from it. I guess newlyweds appreciate cute cuddly things more than I because there was no shortage of visitors to the museum.
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Next we checked out a bridge. We would have checked out a waterfall too, but Jeju has no water table to speak of, so the waterfall is only spectacular when it's just rained, and we were having perfect weather.
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We got back to Jeju City, where we were staying and ate Japanese food. Then I took pictures of the fountain just outside our hostel. The fountain was a grid of squirters firing off to music. It was quite spectacular, and the kids were playing games trying to run through without getting significantly wet.
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Back at the hostel Woody, Matthew, Laura, Robyn and Katy were getting ready to go out, and I joined them. The bar we eventually found had a pirate theme, and we sat in a barrel and drank from a barrel. Woody suggested we have a birthday in the group, and the consensus was it should be a girl. Laura ended up being the birthday girl, and the bartenders turned up in masks and gave us party hats. Laura got a reluctant birthday kiss on the cheek from all the staff. After returning to our hostel via the store we sat on the roof and drank for a couple of hours before I headed to bed at about 3am. Some of the group stayed on the roof until the sun rose.
 
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I got up at 9 the next morning with a plan to see Manjangul, one of the longest lava tubes in the world. Judy and I took a bus which dropped us off 2.6km from the site. Judy didn't bat an eyelid and hitched a lift from a passing Korean mini-van. The cave was amazing, I took lots of pictures, dropping behind Judy, and at times I was the only person in my own earshot. The sound of my feet reverberating off the walls was indescribable. It's one of the coolest places I've ever been. The local legend concerns a giant dragon that lived in the cave. The dragon was appeased by the sacrifice of a virgin every year.
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The two signposted features were a lava ball, or stone tortoise about halfway along the tunnel ("one might as well say that it is the masterpiece of God"), and the 7.6 meter high lava pillar at end of the tube ("reminiscent of a waterfall cascading from heavens"). At least the end insofar as it's the end of the part that's open to the public.
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Jeju island is a top honeymoon spot, as mentioned before in this report, and it was while in the surrounding parkland of the Manjangul lava tube that I got my opportunity to take a picture of a pair of newlyweds (thanks Judy). Why would I want to shoot newlyweds? Well, they have the habit of dressing in matching outfits. These two were not as photogenic as the ones wearing loud, stripy shirts.
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We took a bus to sunrise peak, a volcanic crater on (you guessed it) the most eastern point of the island, but the rain and wind had really picked up by then, so we fled to the airport.
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One thing that did freak me out a little was the presence of guard posts around the perimeter of the airport. Even more shocking for an Englishman not used to the sight of a gun was the guards with assault rifles inhabiting these.
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At the gate to the flight, I got a last minute group shot. The only full group shot of the tour, which turned out not to be a full group shot. I passed my camera to a random girl, and she took all but one of us. The irony is that it was the organiser and driving force behind the trip that got cut out of the shot.
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It took us 12 hours to go from Daejon to Jeju island. It only took us 2 hours to get back. Airplanes are so cool