South Korea (part 3/3)
Chris’s brother Rémy joined us in South Korea after we returned to Seoul. On the day of his arrival the rain season seemed to have started properly, as no umbrella prevented you from getting wet. But it was also good change as it had been very hot so far. With Rémy we headed first to beautiful Seoraksan mountain, where is also Sinheungsa temple. We had to wait until the next day to see the place, as it was still pouring raining when we arrived. Luckily the next day the weather was good and we got to enjoy the nicest landscape so far in Korea.
After we returned again to Seoul, where we got a cooking course from our great hosts. We learned how to make Kimpab, sea weed roll that can be filled on top of rice with for example ham, egg, radish, cucumber and some other vegetables . It was interesting and good to learn the preparation technique from “professionals”, and we can now also prepare sushi the same way.
The following day we took a plane together with Yonghee and Kosei to Jeju island. Jeju is a popular holiday destination for Koreans and Japanese, as there is lots of nice scenery to see and many beaches with clear water. Jeju is a windy place, which we got to experience on the plane, as it was moving a lot on the way there.
We happened to arrive on the beginning of the holiday season, so the beaches were quite full of people. But we had great time looking around the island.
We stopped on a funny road where one’s car feels like going uphill when you let it run freely. We climbed on top of few nice hills, visited a temple and a huge lava cave, walked around beautiful, rocky coastline and an area with typical local houses, We also took a trip in a Finnish made submarine. We had lots of fun as you can see from the pictures.
We stayed in two very nice, special holiday resorts. The first one had wooden cottages similar to the Finnish ones, and the surroundings were beautiful. In the second resort the houses were built out of a yellow soil, which is good for one’s health. They also had zimzilbang built from the same material. It was a peaceful place to rest.
Jeju also offers a variety of food specialties, including black pork (barbecue style), a few typical fishes, and a big, unique hamburger planned for several people to share.
On the last days in Korea we visited the DMZ, demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. We couldn’t miss it as it is such a unique place in the world.
We completed our tour of Seoul with the two most important royal palaces, and even got lucky enough to witness the changing of the guard.
Besides Korean restaurants, Yonghee had shown us an “all-you-can-eat” style Brasilian restaurant, which was excellent place to take two guys eating like horses. The restaurant serves many kinds of meat, our favorite being sirloin steaks, hmmm, just perfect! Edu, when do you start cooking for us ? ;)
We would like to thank our hosts again, for making our stay in Korea such a wonderful experience. We hope to see our new friends, the whole family in Finland soon!
Next destination: China !