Twy and Greg's Jeju Journey

Back in December 2022, when I let my dear brother know that we were moving to Jeju Island, South Korea, he replied back fairly quickly with a link to a rather erotic website of a sculpture park on the island. Today, Greg and I made it to Love Land! A little history from Wikipedia: "During the 1970s, Jeju Island became a popular honeymoon destination for Korean couples, due to the island's warm climate and Cold War-era restrictions on overseas travel. Many of the couples had wed because of arranged marriages, and the island also became known for being a center of sex education. According to an article in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, in the late 1980s journalist and travel writer Simon Winchester reported that some hotel employees on the island performed as "professional icebreakers". In the evenings, the hotel would offer an entertainment program featuring erotic elements, to help newlyweds relax."   I'm not too sure how much 'sex education' ...

I had an October break. We decided to do a “backpacking” trip and visit Busan. We flew out Saturday hoping to start hiking on Monday, but due to a storm moving in we bumped our trip for another day. I was really glad we did because it gave us a day to walk around some beautiful Korean mountains and go to an amazing Buhdtist temple. It also gave us a chance to get put together a bit better before we left. We bought food and fuel and packed a bit better. It was also my first time staying in a more traditional Korean Hotel. We all slept on the floor in a single room.  I slept well.  Shaping trees and a beautiful hike around the neighborhood.  The Temple was huge and amazing. I could have spent more time there, but we had to eat and make sure we were ready for the hike.  Hwaeomsa Buhdist Temple We started the hike in a cloud and in some pretty impressive wind and cold. We caught a cab to the start of our hike, which was at the top of a ridge. The visibility was so bad, w...

 Korea has Pink grass. Their pink grass is called Pink Muhly. We heard about it, so we looked up a place to go see it. We went to Hueree Park. I think this is a private garden, but it is a massive botanical garden, that feels like every few feet is designed for selfies. It was very beautiful and the pink grass is really cool. Zoomed in, you can not really even see that it is pink, but when it is all together, it is a field of pink. It is actually really pretty and it only blooms for a few weeks. After we were done with that bit of tourist fun, we went for a few hour hike along the base of Hallasan our local volcano (aka the top of our island). The hike was really cool, and part of it followed a huge watershed filled with boulders and erratic washed-out caverns. It was dry except for a few pools of water, but I really wanted to go back during a rain event. I can only assume it is very impressive. 

 We decided to get involved with island life. It seems like if we are going to live near the ocean we should partake in some ocean fun. We ordered two stand-up paddle boards. We have been getting the hang of them, and they seem like a great way to see the coast, and even some of the small close islands. The ocean can get a bit rough and the wind is often too much, but there have been a lot of days it has been perfect, or at least manageable. We do not get a lot of pictures, as it is hard to get the phones out and take a picture without fearing falling down and losing our phones. I have definitely fallen a few times, but not with the phone yet.  So far I have seen dolphins right off my board, jumping fish, basalt cliffs, and some lighthouses on an island off the coast. Being in the ocean is a great way to experience it.