Well, lots of stuff happened to round out the tail end of my summer. Mainly, that lots of stuff was that my mom came to korea to visit!!!
It was pretty sweet, and we spent the two weeks she was here going all over the place! We initially hit up Seoul, and looked at Insadong which is a big traditional korean center in the city. Then Eunhye and my mom and I went to a JimJilBang, which is like a combination of a spa and a sleepover, all wrapped up in one big package! Pretty sweet, however I definitely don't enjoy the bouncy machine that is suppose to make you lose weight... It felt more like a brain scrambler.
Following our time in Seoul, we decided to go out to do some mountain climbing!!! We went out to Seoraksan National Park, and decided to hit up some white water rafting on the way! It was a blast, and aside from the mothership being a little scared, it was really a good time and we both had fun! Following this we went to the Park, where we got a hotel, and started hiking. The first thing we saw was....
Yes... a giant Budda! It was really really cool actually. Following this, we hit the mountain and quickly realized it was harder than either of us had predicted. For the mama Beis's credit, she definitely outperformed the stereotypical 58 year old American expectations for athleticism and conquered the mountain, named Ulsanbowi. The especially rewarding part, was seeing the view from the top.
See, this specific moment when we summited the peak, was also the same time when the sun had decided to finish burning throught the clouds, giving this amazing view of basically the cloud castle from Super Mario Brothers 3, world 5.
So following this, we decided to go to Jeju-do. Before we go any further... just where is Jeju-do? Well I found this map to help orient you...
Bam! There it is! and again, just for reference, remember that the Korean peninsula is only about the size of Illinois. So Jeju isn't really all that big. But regardless of it's small size, its actually home to 3 of the 166 UNESCO world heritage sites for geological importance. Pretty sweeeet~
Now I know if you read my last post, you'd know that I'd just got done going to Jeju with my girlfriend! But, let's not pretend like that matters... I'm sure no one I know would pass up a second chance to go to Hawaii... So anyway, we hit up Jeju, and I decided we should make it an effort to see everything I missed the last time I was there (ahem... just 1.5 weeks ago)
The first stop, was scuba diving, and snorkeling on the southern shore of Jeju. My mom hasn't been certified for 30 years, and I'd never gotten certified myself, so I opted for the "discover verson" where they sort of take you on a guided tour of the ocean floor. Think of what it would be like to take a dog for a walk, and you'd get a pretty good idea of what it's like. Pretty awesome though, and following that my mom and I went snorkeling in the tide pools around the area. Really neat!
The next day, we decided to hit up one of the wonders of the island, a place that all koreans know because it famously appears on so many soju advertisements...
...Ok, so maybe I didn't take this specific picture. But it still gives the perfect perspective of where we went! The trail up the to the massive cone wasn't exactly the longest, or the hardest (they had the whole thing paved in very tasteful lava stone steps) but it was definitely the most crowded one I'd been on in Korea! Yikes!
But wait... these clothes... the lack of popped collars on the guys or high heels on the girls... these aren't koreans at all!!! THESE ARE CHINESE!!!! That's right, we hiked this thing, surrounded completely by Chinese people! (Not that that is bad at all, just surprising!) But it really was worth it, and when we got to the top, the view was pretty cool! Coming down, we also had another opportunity for a photo...
Following the hike up the cone, we decided to go to the smaller still island of U-do! it's just a day trip thing, and the island is only like 3km x 4km but it had one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to! We also made it a point to do some snorkeling there, and found a zillion sand dollars. Really pretty big sand dollars, which we collected, and are now the things I'm giving to my coworkers as souvenirs from my trip!
After this, we decided to go to the Lava Tubes. Another one of the UNESCO herretige sites, which I actually took a lot of pictures in, however my computer seems to have decided to eat them. I don't know if it'll like the taste of lava tunnel pictures enough to keep them, or give them back. But for now, I ain't got em. So here's a stock pic or 3...
So like I said, none of the pics of the tunnels are actually ones I shot, but they're all places in the tunnel I did take pictures of (before they turned into computer food...). The point, is that this is pretty freakin incredible. It sorta reminds me of ghost busters 2 with the river of slime flowing through new york's sewer system... Except it's not slime, it was lava, and it really happened!
The final thing we wanted to do, was hit up the last UNESCO site of the island before we left-- Hallasan Mountain. A dormant volcano, rising 6400 feet strait out of the ocean! Although, given it's shape as a shield volcano, the hike would have been relatively easy and pretty fun. Hallasan also holds the title as Korea's tallest mountian! So, needless to say (if only to rub it in my brother in law's face) I wanted to "High Point" South Korea!!
Unfortunately, as pure as my motives were... It was not to be. There was a ton of rain on the mountain before we went to ascent it, and we were told it would be impossible to climb that day. If you recall, this marks the second time I literally stood at the foot of this peak and turned back. The previous time I wasn't able to climb it due to lack of time. But the bottom line is... Hallasan: 2, Danny: 0
Following this, we hopped on a plane the next morning (at 7AM!!) and were back in Gwangju (my home town) in time for the Mumsatron to get to the international airport in time to make her flight back to the US of A! All in all, a freaking amazing way to spend two weeks, and I'm real excited to get back to the swing of things in school!
