Jeju

We also visited Jeju, an island off the southern coast of the Korean peninsula, during our brief freedom to travel. Jeju is a volcanic island (all volcanoes are dormant now) and because it's rather far south it has a bit of a tropical feel. It's very accessible by plane or ferry. This time we flew and it was a super easy trip. We drove an hour south to the closest airport, flew for 45 minutes, and we were there!

Although the people on Jeju are Koreans and speak Korean, they are somewhat separate from the rest of Korea so they have their own dialect of Korean (not very understandable to most Koreans) and many different customs. These statues are everywhere. They are stone guardians.

Our guide told us that Koreans like to stack stones for good luck. Simon enjoys stacking anything, so he joined in!

Volcanic rock coastline.

Jeju's aquarium is much bigger than Busan's. Here is the kids's touching pool. It was big enough for a whole school of some kind of fish! You could also purchase a packet of fish food for 500 Won (about 25 cents). 

The sandy beaches on Jeju are mostly created for the tourists. This is a rocky beach with some very interesting tide pools. We didn't swim, but Simon and I both slipped in and got wet feet.

Another beautiful view of the rocky coast and volcanic formations.

These are squid drying in the sun. These were hanging on a fence along a main road. I'm not sure how people know whose squid are whose, but stealing in Korean is very unusual, so they're pretty safe to just hang there.

This was a life-size maze. Simon had a lot of fun finding his way through (we think he cheated some.) The maze place was also a cat sanctuary and you could definitely smell them!

One of the three waterfalls on Jeju. This was the only one that was accessible to a four year old.

There's a type of hybrid fruit grown on Jeju called an apple mango. They were just out of season but we managed to find one in a grocery store. Our guide said she'd never had one because they were too expensive. I paid about 14,000 Won for this one, which comes to about $12. It was very tasty, but probably not worth the price for a single piece of fruit.

 

Busan

In June the health threat level was lowered and we were allowed to travel within South Korea. Our first trip was to Busan, a port city in the far south of the peninsula. Although there is a super-fast train that could get us there in two hours, we decided to drive because we really haven't seen much of Korea at all yet. The drive was about four hours, mostly through the mountains. It was very nice!

As you can see, the city of Busan is built right up to the water's edge. They do have some problems with flooding during monsoon and typhoon seasons, but land is such a scarce resource in Korea that I suppose they feel they don't really have any other choice. 

This is Haeundae Beach, the biggest beach in Busan. We were here early in the season, so for that reason and because of COVID, the beach was fairly empty. Normally during the summer people are packed in quite closely.

Haeundae and Busan from an overlook on the other side of the inlet.

Most Buddhist temples in Korea are built high up on mountain tops, but the temple in Busan is built at the bottom of a cliff. This temple is to honor a sea deity (from what I understand, although that doesn't seem quite right as Buddhism doesn't have gods as such). To get to the temple you have to go down more than 100 steps.

These are representations of various gods from the Chinese zodiac. The boxes in front are for collecting money people give to the gods in exchange for answers to their petitions.

Inside the main temple building. I'm a bit unclear what exactly happens here, but you can see food donations laid out. If you look closely, you can see a box of Choco Pies towards the right. Choco Pies are and extremely popular snack here. So much so, that they have been used as black market currency in North Korea.

This village in Busan, Gamcheon, started as a refugee village during the Korean War. The invasion by the North Koreans never reached Busan, so many people ended up here. The houses are built so close together that the roofs of some houses are the parking spots for the houses just above. In more recent times, the people living here have aged or moved on. But because it is such an important historical site, the government is hiring artists to paint and use the old houses for other purposes. This is also a very popular site for filmmakers.

The decorations on one of the houses in Gamcheon.

We took a sky car over one of the other main beaches, which had a fun park at the other end. Lots of dinosaurs! But also some nice walking paths and snack shops. 

 Busan has a small, but very nice aquarium. Here is the touching pool for kids.