Today we went to town on the way to Udo island which is a small island about 20mins by ferry from Jeju. It is quiet a small island with a population of about 11,000 and is very much a small farming and fishing island. It takes less than 1 hour to drive around the whole island and there is no hospital. It is very dependant on Jeju island. It had two main beaches which we visited. The first was a black sandy beach. The sand was made from volcanic rock so that is why it was black. The second beach had golden sand which was created when a typhoon destroyed a coral reef.

On the ferry ride back a man asked if I was American, I understood that much and told him I was from New Zealand.
He then told me where to go on the boat in English, I must have stumbled into an area I was not supposed to be in. We saw this little dog on the way back, he looked lost.

After that we stopped by town to a very cheap and nice restuarant. Our waitress was also very good to us. The food was great and there was heaps of it. There was a really nice Christmas tree in the middle of town too. Finally we went back to the place we were staying and I had some Soju with Yeni's parents before we went to bed.

http://cyber.jeju.go.kr

Today was our first day in Jeju island.

It's a short 40 min plane ride from Seoul. We arrived just before lunch so we stopped off to get some food after trying to get into out hotel. There was a complication with the place we reserved so we had to find another place.

After we had out lunch Yeni's parents got in touch with a friend of their friend who lived in Jeju to help us out. His wife picked us up, found us an apartment for 70,000 Won a night for all four of us and then showed us the city. It was really cool to have her show us around. There's about 400,000 people that live here and the pace of lifestyle is very relaxed. I guess it's a lot like Christchurch but way more laid back.

We cruised around the island and looked at a few places like Lotte Hotel, World cup stadium and a cool coffee place that gave us free roasted Kumara. She told us that there is no crime here so people leave their cars and doors unlocked. It is a very beautiful place.

When we got back to the apartment complex I had a look to see if I could load some software on the pocket pc. They have internet access but no USB so I couldn't load my software on. Instead I played 'Time Crisis' but all of the guns were mis calibrated and the Korean version of 'Street Fighter'. Next I went to get Yeni an icecream and met some school girls on the stairs. They thought it was a great idea to practise their English on me. They said the usual hello and nice to meet you, then they said 'You are a very handsome boy' and ran away. I had a bit of a laugh and then had to try and buy an icecream for Yeni. The girl who served me was quite happy that she didn't have to try and speak English.

Today we went to the 63 building which I guess is the tallest building in Korea at 63 stories.

It was pretty cool because they had an aquarium with a few shows which were interesting. The one with the seals was the best but apart from that the rest was just standard aquarium stuff. Next we headed off to the iMax theatre which was pretty cool. I was given a radio for the English soundtrack. Lunch was next and I had the best Yukgaejung ever ! It was like roast beef but a soup and spicy. It was so tasty, a shame they don't make it in NZ like that.

Finally we visited the Skydeck on the 60th floor. We took some photos but there was too much light so they didn't turn out that well. The view was great but you could really see the pollution. We just had time for a coffee and then we had to go back to Yeni's Auntie's place for Yeni's mum's father's memorial service.

Naturally I had never been to one but it consisted of prayers, a bible reading and some songs. It lasted about 20 mins and then there was a big feast. Naturally there was Soju too. It was really good too see most of the family again.

After that we headed off to the Norebang to do some singing. It was good fun too. Especially Yeni's cousin's rendition of 'Tell me'. The performance included dancing and also her cousin is a guy, nuff said. Then there was Yeni's cousin and his brother singing the Jeju island song for us. That was pretty cool. One of the cousin's was doing and English translation in real time too.

Today we went to Suwon which is a traditional village. It is out of Seoul (Only about an hour) which meant that we had to get up at 7. There was a bit of snow around Seoul but even more in SuWon.

When we first got there we just missed the morning Drum show but we managed to see the Traditional See saw show. Originally the women of the village were not allowed out so they used the See saws to look over the walls.

And of course Yeni's dad and I had to give it a go too, but we weren't as good at it as they were.

After that we had a look around at the City hall. It was quite cool, most of the rooms were for cooking or preparation for fighting in case they had to defend the village. Next we saw the Nobelmans house which was quite cool too. It had two main wings, the first was for the servants and guests while the second was for the Nobleman and his family.

It was interesting to note that the man and his wife had separate rooms because sex was taboo back then. There was a secret corridor which joined the two rooms in case the man wanted to spend the night with his wife. After that we had a look through the jail. There were all sorts of torture instruments there. We then stopped off for some lunch. We had Ginseng Chicken soup although we were unable to find the Ginseng in it.

After that we went to the peasents house which was vey different from the Nobleman's house. Next we visited a school and went back to watch some shows. The horse show was pretty cool but the Acrobatic one was better. The guy actually stopped in the middle of the rope and sat down and crossed his legs.

We left shortly after that and I bought a souviner sword for 5000 Won (About $8.00). We headed back to Yeni's aunties house to change pants because the bottom of my pants were muddy from walking throught the melting snow. After that we headed off to meet Yeni's friends.

We met up with them and went to a very popular Dokboki place, you could tell it was very popular by the line out front. It was quite interesting because they brought out all of the dokbiki stuff on a plate and you cooked it, a little like the Charcoal BBQ places. After that we went out for coffee which was nice. We took some pictures and one of Yeni's friends had a Polaroid camera, they seem to be making a bit of a comeback here. After that we just headed back to the apartment to goto bed.

Today we had lunch with Yeni's father's family. Yeni helped me write a short speech last night for me to say to Yeni's father's family. It turned out I didn't need to do one so I was quite relieved because my accent is terrible. In case you were wondering, here it is. It pretty much says that I am happy to be married to Yeni and am trying to learn Korean.

안녕하세요.
저는 아담입니다.
만나서 반갑습니다.
예니하고 결혼해서 기븜니다.
그리고 이렇게 인사드려서 반갑습니다.
아직은 한국말을 잘 못하지만 열심히 배우고 있습니다.
잘 부탁합니다.
감사합니다.

We went out to a Japanese buffet resturant. The food was very nice and we ate quite a lot. Yeni's uncle and Yeni's dad's friend spoke very good English so I spoke to them mostly. The others spoke a little but not much. Yeni's Grandfather looked so young. He is about 77 and had a full head of black hair. I later questioned Yeni about him coloring it but it was natural. Her Grandmother was very nice too.

After the lunch Yeni wasn't feeling too well so we went home which gave me a chance to check up on some cellphone deals and update the blog and photos. I'm quite impressed with the SoftBank 709SC so far, here's a pic:

We're going out for dinner shortly and we will probably have an early night tonight seeing as the next few days will be quite full on.

Today we went on the downtown tour of Seoul which was very cool. We started off waiting for a little while for the tour to start. As usual, Yeni was quite keen to take photos of herself

Seoul has a very unique mix of old and new. It is especially prevalent in areas you least expect it. For example, there was a part of the old city wall from the Chosun dynasty which stretches as far back as the 14th century

Here are some photos of ITaeWon which is the foreigner's haven here. Here all the shop keepers speak English and they stock larger clothes for Westerners.

When we got bored of the bus trip, we jumped off at Insadong and looked at some art and some of the shops. There were some very cool items like Swords and Helmets but I didn't fancy my chances of getting them through customs. Lisa gave me what literally translated to 'Dragons Hair' which was a candy wrapped in 16384 (Spot the binary number) strands of sugar. It was very nice but not as sweet as I thought it would be

Here's us posing by some scultptures in ItaeWon

After that we went out for beer and chicken, which is a nice cheap meal. Yeni's father had a cold so he went back home but the rest of us headed out to the local Norebang (Karaoke room). It was good fun, I learnt that those Korean songs I thought I knew I didn't really and also that my voice is very limited in terms of pitch. Once I figured that out and picked some songs that fit m voice I was good though.

Lisa sang an Old Korean song called 'Run to you' by 'DJ Doc' which was the song I heard in the market but didn't know what it was. One of the shop owners was dancing to it. Here it is in all it's glory.

Well today we went to Lotteworld which is a korean theme park. First thing we did was go on the balloon ride which was kinda like a cablecar. It was a great way to see the whole themepark and was quite fun too. Here's a picture of the Balloon

An here's some views of Lotte world itself

While we were there we enjoyed some great rides, there was the French Revolution which was a cool rollercoaster. The ride only lasted about 2 mins after a 1 hour queue but it was awesome. We also went on the Drunken basket which from what I can tell is just a seedy version of the Disneyland magice tea cup ride. It was good fun though

Today we went to Kangnam station to go shopping. Yeni's dad was smart and stayed at Yeni's aunties house so he didn't get dragged around with the girls all day. I wasn't so lucky. First we went to NamDaeMun Market which was quite a large market in the street. There was quite a lot happening and the salespeople are quite agressive. They tried to pull Lisa into their shop but she ran away. Being a foreigner you seem to dodge most of that.

Very original title huh ? Well it was our second day in Korea and a very busy one. We met Yeni's mum's family for lunch which was really exciting. Quite a few of her uncles could speak English very well, although they thought that they could not. It was really great to meet them all and they treated me very well.

There was heaps of food and just when I would finish one dish, a new one was already out on the table. There was also a lot of toasting with Soju which was great. Everybody was worried about whether I could handle the Soju.

After the lunch we went out with Yeni's cousins and their wives. Two of Yeni's cousins had a Starcraft battle at the local PC bang while one of the cousin's wives took Yeni and myself out shopping, out for coffee and took us to buy some couple tops. It was really good fun and her English was really good too but I think she was a little shy so she didn't speak in English to begin with.

We then joined the rest of the cousins and went out for dinner. We went to a Korean BBQ place, one of those places with the hot coals in the middle of the table for cooking on. The food was really nice and again we ate heaps and drank more Soju. After that we went to another place and all ahd some beer. We were then pretty tired and met Yeni's parents and went back home to sleep. Tommorow we will go to Lotte World.

Today we arrived at Incheon and bussed to Seoul. It is an amazing place. I had some expectations but like they say, being there is everything. When we first arrived we went to Yeni's Auntie's place. She spoke a little English so it was quite funny the way we communicated. Fortunately Korean and English share some very similar important words such as Coffee and Television.

We met JuWan and his Parents for lunch which was great. We had some very spicy seafood which is usually a deadly conbination for me but I somehow survived it. JuWan's parents spoke a little English but for me interpreting most of what they were saying came from a few keywords and a lot of body language.

We went for coffee after the lunch and I felt a bit disappointed that I was unable to join in on what seemed like a very interesting religious conversation. We went back from Dong-Incheon to Seoul and checked out a market. It was all that I had been told about the markets but it was quite cool to see it for real. Most of the sale items didn't at all interest me but the atmosphere was great. I also managed to get my ass grabbed by some girl which was kinda flattering a creepy sort of way.

JuWan took us back to Yeni's auntie's place and I got an idea of how good he was at driving. He was navigating his way through single lane/1.5 lane side streets on hills ! I don't think words could possiblty describe how hard this looked but it was insane. There are heaps of windy little side streets and people walking about so there are heaps of hazards.

Even though JuWan and myself can only exchange a small fragment of intelligable conversation, I can already tell that he is a nice guy and treats Lisa really well. Maybe we can organize some Skype Korean/English lessons or informal talks.

After getting a few 'bargins' we headed back to Yeni's auntie's house to get a weeks worth of clothes and stopped off to have some spicy chicken and beer. While there I had an improptue Korean lesson and experienced a real Korean toilet. When I was speaking to Yeni I wasn't too sure which was the worst toilet out of the one at MegaCyberIsland or the one I visited tonight.

The last part of the night involved driving back from Seoul to Incheon (Thanks JuWan) where we are going to stay at Yeni's Dad's friends house for about a week. Hopefully he has net access so I can upload these blogs or a neighbour has unsecured wireless/ICS setup on their PC.