Beaches, Beaches, Beaches!

Seriously, you cant walk 100 yds without stumbling on some different beach....

Its Sunday.  One week of school down.  Kids are great, classes are great.  This isnt going to suck.  Blah, blah, blah......

Over the past 3 weekends, we've been on 3-4 very different adventures....

Hallim and Hyopjae:

First, staff were bussed Hyopjae beach a few weeks ago. (Has it really been that long???.........yes.  It has).  We missed the bus, so we got a cab to take us instead.  It was aabout a 20 minute ride up the west coast of the island.  Hallim Park and Hyopjae Beach are across the street from each other on the West Central Coast of the island, right near Jeju Airport.  HUGE tourist area.  Since we missed everyone, we decided to visit the park for a while on our own.  Its a botanical garden, with a traditional village.... and LAVA TUBES!.  Abi loved it.  There was a "petting" zoo.  Basically any animal they could find they threw in a cage and let kids feed them sunflower seeds at 1000W per handful.

It was broken into separate gardens, each with a theme.  Water garden, Bonsai and rock garden, the tropical flower garden, the garden of grasses, etc.  We wandered a bit towards the back where the caves were.  If you dont know, lava tubes are caves, where lava used to flow (The volcanoes here are all extinct, so dont worry)  There were three in the park, so we walked them all.  Two were large-ish, a few hundred meters, the other was small, right around 100  long.  Each was 10-20 m underground, so the temp inside was a balmy 60 degrees, rather than the 90 on the surface...  It was quite refreshing.

Just like in the states, the different formations had cutesy names, like "the dragon" or "the bear and the turtle"  What I really liked, was that if you looked up, most of it looked like it was tiled in large hexagonal tiles....  But thats just how the rock formed.  Jeju partially got it's world heritage status because any volcanic formation that there is, exists on this island.

After our jaunt through the park, we joined everyone on the crowded tourist beach Hyopjae. a small strip of sand, beautiful blue water and some rocky outcrops.....  and LOTS of people.  Everyone says they dont usually go there during tourist season.  I can wait to go back and snorkel the rocks.

Hallim Park Map.  Hyopjae Beach is where the dude is swimming at bottom right.

little Dol Hareubang

Cave Map.  You cant actually get to the last one, as theres about 90m of sand in the way.

Entrance of Hyeopjae Cave...  into the Abyss.

Dont adjust your screen, the caves are coated with a yellow limestone that has accreted over thousands of years on the black basalt.

The hexagonal blocks I was talking about...

Whos that ugly dude next to the hottie with a kid?

Ssangyong cave...  It means "two Dragons" 

and this is why.  there were two of these flow chambers, they kinda looked like the bodies of two dragons in the ceiling.  Legend goes that the two dragons were buried and burrowed out, exploding on the surface in fire and flame.  sounds very volcano to me....

I think this was called the "high water mark" where a newer lava flow lays overtop of an older one.  Geology comes alive!!

This is one of the delicious black pigs that Abi is fattening up.....mmmmmmmmmmm piggy.

yes, chipmunks....  like I said, anything that would fit in a cage...

Who would've expected to find prairie dogs out here??

Cool old two colored cedar tree all Bonsai'd out...

They like to stack rocks..  and get pretty creative with it....

Case and Point.......  next pic....

and nothing is complete without 3 koreans dressed as Navaho and singing Native American Dance numbers with Korean Pipes....0o0

Aint I a sexy haenyeo?

Big Dol Hareubang in the traditional village

The avenue of palms... 

Finally, the beach

Those are rocks... and inflatable boat toys........ dont ask me...  I just work here.

Hwasun beach BBQ:

The last part of orientation was a catered faculty and staff BBQ on Hwasun Beach, near where we live, about 10 min by car.  It was kinda cool but I dont think there are pics.  We'll get some another time.  It was another tourist beach nestled near a ship dock and a powerplant (I think).  Dark brown sand...  and LOTS of it.  It was a very wide beach.  KISJ had set up a bunch of tents and catered a dinner menu.  It was nice to sit and relax with our new co-workers.  There was even a few pony kegs, but the tap kept over heating, so I walked across the street to get us a few 1600mL beers at the G25 (think ghetto 7-11).

The parents watched the kids play.  The singles and couples without kids played ultimate Frisbee and soccer on the beach.  Abi and I went into the water a bit.  It is cool and refreshing.  The beach is steep in the surf and the surf is more vigorous than Melbourne beach, but not too bad.  Eventually, the sun set, the lifeguards kicked everyone out of the water and we rode the bus home with a tired kid.  Another great day.

Sangaksan with the Moores:

Our neighbors downstairs are the Moores, Alan and Judy.  They are Canadian, but we dont hold it against them.  Alan teaches Elementary PE at school, and Judy is a house mom.  They are the ones we skyped with before we came over.  They have two great kids, Liam, just turned 5, and Peyton, who is 4.  They both love playing with Abi, which is awesome, and Alan and Judy have helped us with soooooo much getting used to the Village.  We are forever in their debt.  Last weekend, they asked if we wanted to go on a hike.  We accepted.

We all packed in their little hatchback and drove 10 minutes to the Starbucks.....  because every adventure should start with some decent coffee.  This starbucks has the best view in the world!!!  Its at a place called Marado Inlet and the extreme south point of the island, nestled between Sagaye (where we had amazing  pork cutlet and walked the pier with them) and Sangaksan.  San is the Korean word for mountain.  I have a student named San, he chose Mountain as his English name....  whatever, go with it.  You are a unique butterfly.  Spread your wings and fly..........

The Sans on the island have a special name, "Oreum" (or-um).  They are parasite volcanoes and vents from Mt. Halla-san, the main volcano.  If you look at a topographical map of the island, it looks like it has pimples... those are oreum, and they hold a special significance for the Jeju people.  This particular one, it on the southernmost point of the island, and has a walking trail on it (like most of them do.  The trails are all connected into a network called the "Olle" trails.  you could walk all the way around the island on these trails.  Its pretty cool.  We plan on hitting a bunch, if not all of them.

We hiked around Sangaksan.  There was alot to see.  There was a Japanese Base, during the occupation during WWII so there was an old airbase, radar station, cave trenches, and dynamite boat caves on the water.  Really fascinating.  You could also see the two islands off the coast, which are the southernmost point of Korea.  A bit surprising, but there were horses wandering around the mountain too.  some on the trails, some off.  Not something you see in America.  The hike was great, and Abi did amazing.

Abi, sassy and ready to the hike

Starbucks.......

Dat View though!  Sanbaksan on left....

Sangaksan on right

Abi, posing for the camera infront of Sangaksan.  You can see the dynamite boat caves near the water line.

Coworkers call these the twins...  not sure what they are really names.  2 little island a bout 2 kilometers offshore.  I guess they paddle board there and back when it's calm.

Of course, theres exercise equipment on the trail... why wouldnt there be.  This is Korea after all...

Olle trail marker

Yep...  we live here.

And Abi got a free ride most of the way...

Horses off the trail

Horses on the trail.. Thats Alan, carrying Peyton

Aerial view of Moseulpo, our nearest town.

Thats where the old Japanese airbase was.

Thats the trail... right on the edge, but very nice...

Near the top, time for Abi to get out and carry herself...

playing in the field near the observation point.

Abi and Peyton

C'mon guys!

We r starting without you...  said Abi and Liam...

I said we were starting without you...  Keep up losers.

Japanese cave trench

Marado and Sagaye coastline

Thats Sanbaksan...  Its a solid basalt monolith and theres a Buddhist temple on it at the base on the water....  The low one is an unlucky oreum because it's mishapen.  We live right on the other side of it.

Marado...  thats the starbucks where we parked on the left.

Map of area.  We live about where it says "1132"  Sangaksan is the chunk of coast betweeen the three lines.  Hwasun Beach is in the little bight to the east.  You can even see the GEC (Global Education City).  Find the O'sullac Tea Museum (near the Statue of Liberty)  and Daejeong-eup (south of the museum).  The GEC is the area between those two roads...

Closer view of Sanbaksan

And no trip is complete without a giant golden Buddha...

Secret Beach:

As I type, Abi is sleeping, because we spent the morning at what the faculty calls Secret Beach.   On the map above, it is just to the west of Hwasun Beach.   Its a little alcove of brown sand between two rock outcroppings. You have to park and hike in a little bit around the cliffs.  Alan and I paddled in his paddleboards, while Jessi and Judy hiked with the kids.  It was really nice.  Clear Water, very few people, just some locals fishing and a few other faculty from KISJ wandering in and out.  We spent all morning there.  No cliff jumping, but thats next time.  The locals were fishing at that part.  Its about a 40 ft cliff into deep clear water.  We swam, and paddled.  Abi got her first trip on the paddle board.  Loved it.

We packed up and left just in time. It started to rain as we loaded their car.  One quick stop for  icecream later, we were home, showered and asleep for nap.

Wish I had thought to get pic of  the trail, but I was carrying Abi and a bunch of beach bags, and it was a bit treacherous.  This is where it came down to the beach, just to the left of the locals lean-to.  You can see a fence rail up there if you look closely.

Heres a better pic.  There was alot more along the cliff tot he car.

Lava rock walls all around....

Really, this is all it was.  A little pocket of quiet sand...

The kids and the mommies

Alan on the paddle board

Thats where you jump off the cliff, 40 ft up.  You can see Hwasun just past the point...  packed with people.  Then the shipping dock and powerplant to the right.  Thats a local fishing on the rocks.

Sanbaksan overlooks everything you do down here...

Sangaksan in the distance

We get our own car next weekend, so we should be able to expand our explorations to more of the island.  With the warm weather, it seems like everyone is sticking to the beaches.  Once it cools, we  can get in some really good inland hikes and maybe bikes.  Once it gets cold, we will hit the museums.  Alan and Judy have volunteered to watch Abi while we check out The Museum of Sex and Health....  or Loveland, if you are a brave little googler.....please dont do that at work though.  Fair warning.

So one week in, and I still say I cant believe we live here.  This was the best decision we've ever made.