Anne and Col in....: October 2006

Eating new Things

Today we ate GRASSHOPPERS. In case you were wondering, they don't taste like chicken.

Jeju part 1

Welcome to Jeju! The island littered with these beautiful rock Grandfather statues! They are here to protect the island...from what? We are not sure. They also provide a marketing campaign for locals to sell all sizes of these beauties for thousands of won! The answer to all of your burning questions....Yes, we bought some.

This is the view from our hotel room. Quite nice. It was a little odd not seeing cookie cutter apartments and being able to see quite a distance. Odd but beautiful.

Grandfather statues guarding the phone booths. Can you spot Anne hiding in this picture?

Awful scenery eh?? We thought so as well.

It's amazing how you can work hand signals and gestures to convey "Can you take our picture please?"

Rock, lots and lots of rock. Beautiful rock.

Rock, part deux.

Colin getting in tough with his photography side. Nice picture eh? Nice to have some colour when the rest of the island is rock.

Jeju part 2

No one can argue that Jeju has an amazing amount of natural landscape. This was at the second waterfall we visited. So nice how close we could get to it as well - no maids of the mist here!

Deep in thought.

Let the rain come down...no one says it better than Hilary Duff. Don't worry, Colin did not get too wet here - yet.

Our beloved Lotte hotel. Isn't the hotel we stayed at gorgeous?! And by "stayed at", we more so mean, "pretended to stay at." It was slightly nicer than ours, so we just hung out here a lot!

The view from our balcony, errrr by balcony we mean Lotte.

Always good times had at the beach. Who would've thought we could hang out at the beach in October! Pretty sweet.

This shot was pure spontaneity...no planning, really.

Look out baywatch! A day at the beach isn't complete without pretending to be "The Hof!"

Jeju part 3

Colin "Look at me! I can jump this wave!"

Anne "No, clearly it doesn't seem you can..."

Colin, "My shorts are wet ! "

All dried off and exploring some of the slightly nicer hotels (than what we stayed at.) These places were incredible. This particular hotel we were pretending to stay at was called "The Shilla". It was a mere $400 per night. It looked incredible as you can see by the nice landscape in the background!

We went to another hotel, the amazing Lotte Hotel (Lotte rules the world in Korea. They have Lotte department stores, movie theaters, grocery stores, drinks, literally everything you can imagine!) They put on this fire show which was pretty neat. If you look closely in the picture below you can vaguely make out a dragon like creature in the fire shadow (in the middle of the picture.) It was a really neat show, amazing how hot the fire can feel even when you are sitting a ways away from it!

World cup stadium!!

It was beautiful to see the stadium, but also a little odd as it was desserted. Nothing like being alone at a major tourist attraction. A weird feeling especially when we have become used to being surrounded by masses at all times!

The "Grandfather" statues that were EVERYWHERE in Jeju.

the Han River

Nothing says magic like burnt out rust coloured rope lights in the shape of a heart! This part of the boat cruise was a magical moment we won't soon forget. A true love boat to say the least!

Colin: "Anne, what was that I just saw to the North?"

Anne : "I think that's a pirate ship Colin!"

And sure enough! There it was! The most yarr worthy pirate ship on this side of the Caribbean!

Colin's artistic shot (or attempt!) We found it hard to take action shots cruising along the Han at 2km/hour!

The city at night. When it's dark - you can't see the haze in the air. So beautiful.

The happy couple - mid cruise. Still reeling in the magic from the "heart" moment.

You saw it in the day (previous post), now, here it is in the night! Korea's tallest building, good ol' 63.

Changgyeonggung

We decided to take a break from our usual shopping through random markets and take in some culture. Changgyeonggung Palace which was built by King Sejong in 1418 for his father, Taejong, who had abdicated the throne for his successor. It was englarged by King Seongjong and its name also changed to the present Changgyeonggung (as seen in the brochure). The following few pictures are of a reinactment of King Sejongs 50th bday bash! (That was not seen in the brochure).

Where the king sits.

The bearing of gifts for the king. We felt bad for the actors as it was a really hot day and those outfits looked really warm.

The procession of the king to his throne.

The Crown Prince making his way to the throne to honour the king.

The dancers performing for the King.

The great observatory - I'm sure that's exactly what you thought when you first saw this picture. Really, I wonder how much they saw from 6 extra steps above the Earth.

Changgyeonggung Part Deux

Historical records show that King Yeongjo greeted the top winnders in Gwageo, a goverment administered civil and miliarty exam here at the, Haminjeong, (this brochure is awesome!)

Adrian, Hilary and Colin taking in some knowledge.

Inside one of the palace buildings.

Stele which guards the next picture.

This taeshil (a stone container that holds the placenta of a prince) is pictured below. Yes, you did read that correctly, it holds the placenta. Why it was kept, we don't know (the brochure does not say!)

A nice man made lake, lots of fish in there though.

Those are the faces of kids who learned something today. Yay to learning.

our random adventures

Heck no, we won't go! We were thinking of not going...but then we decided to carry on with our shopping. We're not quite sure what was going on - kinda similar with our everyday lives here in Korea!

Thanksgiving dinner you ask? Not quite, although we're not sure what these pigeons in cages are used for. However, the sound of a pet pigeon has always been a dream of Colins, maybe now it will come true! The random things you can buy at Dongdaemun.