Same Same, But Different...

This year Korean Thanksgiving, or Chuseok, fell on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday... which meant that most people in Korea got a 4 or 5 day weekend. YAY! Having only 6 weeks left in Korea, it is now the time to check all of the things off of my "to do in Korea" list. And a stay in Korea wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the "Hawaii of Korea," Jeju Island.

I took the trip with Seoul Hiking Group and made my way to Seoul Friday night. We took a bus to Wando, followed by a 3 hour ferry to the island. The first stop was to see a rock the looks like a dragon head. I didn't really see it...

Then we made a quick stop at the beach before heading to a horse show that reenacted the life of Genghis Khan. The people riding the horses did some really cool tricks.

Then we headed to Loveland... Well, this place was supposedly created for newlyweds honeymooning on Jeju Island to "break the ice" and act as a sort of sexual education course. The statues were ridiculous!

That night we had a buffet dinner that night and hung out in a nice area by our hotel.

The second day started with a trip to Jeongbang Waterfall. It was a gorgeous day and it wasn't long before I started to swim near the falls. What a rush! We did a little hiking along the beach, pretty views. Then we went to Ripley's Believe it or Not and a Teddy Bear Museum. The Teddy Bear museum was cute. They depicted different moments in history- like the sinking of the Titanic, the knocking down of the Berlin Wall, etc. all with stuffed bears!

I saw one more waterfall before we headed to the hotel. We ate some great Indian food at the "Raj Mahal" and hung out by the hotel again that night. We ended the night with a great Noraebang session!

For the 3rd day we started off going to the green tea fields. We rode around in golf carts and had some green tea in a cool cave cafe.

Then it was time for horse riding! I was actually pretty frightened by the horse I rode. He seemed really wild and started racing another horse... not so much fun for me!

Then we went to a park and escaped the heat for a while in a cave.

Then we hiked up to see a crater. That was a great view. That night we had a BBQ on the beach, complete with bonfire, and relaxed.

On the 4th and last day, some people opted to hike Mt. Halla ( a 7 hour hike), some people opted to relax on the beach, and I opted to SCUBA dive. We took a boat to Mun Island where we relaxed, went scuba diving, and soaked up the sun. Then it was time to go home! Overall this trip was great. It was lovely to see an island in Korea with so much to do and see, but still have time to relax on the gorgeous beaches. Not quite "Hawaii"... but still amazing!