jeju island

Looking through my photos from Korea and stumbling upon the ones taken in Jeju Island. It's quite strange because Jeju was surprisingly bright and colorful, and yet even though there was so much light the weather was perfect - not too warm and not too cold.

When we got there the first thing we did was EAT. In Korea there are so many delicious things to devour that I spent most of my waking hours there wondering what to eat next. My favorite food in Jeju was something they call "black pork", as you can see in the photo above (top left hand corner). It's apparently a Korean or Jeju Island specialty. Whatever it is, if you ever go there that's the thing to try.

I think this is the Korean name for it.



For our 2 days in Jeju we first stayed in this really wonderful bed & breakfast run by a Caucasian man and his Korean wife (who we later learnt was originally from Seoul). I wondered, of course, about the man and why he had left his family and his country to settle down in Jeju, which to me seems so cut off from the rest of the world, but of course I didn't ask.

This is the house and to the left of the picture is our host, the Caucasian man with the mysterious life story.



The next day his wife offered to bring us on a tour of the island. I usually have a fear of all kinds of tours in general, but given that we had only just 1 day left in Jeju we decided to take up her offer. A few of us (together with another Singaporean couple) hopped on her car and set off. As she drove us to various places she thought we should experience, I looked out of the car window and felt, for a moment, like the French woman in "Paris, je T'aime", this incredible mix of joy and pathos, and this overwhelming sense that perhaps all is well with the world.

"All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness. But not too much sadness, because I felt alive. Yes, alive.”



We were then brought to this beautiful hill. I have a terrible memory, but even though I cannot remember the name of that place, the feeling of being there on the hill - the wind blowing our ears off and the sea shimmering like a thousand diamonds - remains.






Oh we were so happy!