The Teddy Bear Museum

Our favorite part of Jeju Island may have been the Teddy Bear Museum!

Here's why . . .

WWII - The Invasion of Normandy


The Terracotta Warriors


The Berlin Wall


Independence Day in Hong Kong


Traditional Korean Village


In the Korean world of teddy bears, there is no reason that King Sejong and Gandhi wouldn't hang out together . . .


. . . or Shawna and Marilyn . . .


This looks like the Thrilla in Manila to me . . .


There was 'high art' as well . . . starting with Mona . . .


"The Kiss"


"The Fife Player" was close to my favorite . . .


But the best bears were the classics. . .

My old friend Rupert.


. . . and from the deepest, darkest corner of Peru . . .


Paddington!!










We just couldn't resist bringing home one of our own . . .

Jeju Island Continues . . .

Alright, we've made it to the other side of the island . . . the city of Seogwipo. Let's see what lies in the South . . .


More lava based adventure!


Beautiful waterfalls were to be found all over Jeju and beautiful Shawna loves beautiful waterfalls so we tried to find them all . . .






It was October and getting cold in Yeoju so we decided to hit up the beach on Jeju while it was still warm enough to swim there. The Korean's thought we were crazy! No swimming after September 1st - no matter the weather . . . but we didn't care.


The waves were pretty incredible . . . there were even some surfers in the water that day.




After the beach we went for some food at an American-Style bar we heard about. I had my first pint of Guinness in 9 months so I was pretty happy!

Night time wouldn't stop us from seeing one more waterfall. We were lucky, this one was lit-up.


Our final morning in Jeju, we went to a museum dedicated to the Chinese - who landed here in search of the Elixir of Immortality.


They found the water of life by a waterfall . . . and these Chinese tourists found their lunch . . .









Before heading back to the airport we went to see some more rocks . . . and more people eating lunch on them . . .




Good-bye Jeju! Thanks for the weekend adventure!

Jeju Island

We just returned from our recent trip to China and Tibet. While we sort through the 1000's of photos we took, we thought we could share our trip to Jeju Island with you. We went during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) which was in October . . . .


All over the island we saw these dol hareubang ("stone grandfather") statues . . . so, of course I made Shawna pose with all of them!





This sub-tropical island was created entirely by volcanic eruptions . . . about 2 million years ago. It's really neat to see the volcanic rock around the island and we even went inside the worlds largest lava tube. Man Jang Cave.


This is one of the largest known examples of a 'lava pillar', created by lava draining from the roof of the cave.


About 1 km into the cave, things got pretty spooky . . .


Back at ground level . . . Shawna found another dol hareubang . . .


Here's 'Songsan Ilch'ubong' - The iconic sight of Jeju-Do. This mountain was once a volcano. We decided to climb it to see what all the fuss was about . . .


But first . . . we looked down toward the beaches that surround the mountain . . . and what did we see? Haenyeo!!! The infamous 'Sea Women' of Jeju Island. These ladies have been free diving for shell fish for centuries. There aren't many around anymore so we were very lucky to have spotted them. We went down to check it out.


These ladies spend all day in the water and are generally the sole provider for their families. That makes them the head of their household. Quite amazing, especially in Korea's patriarchal society . . .







Well, back to the task at hand . . . let's climb this thing . . .


Here's the view from the top. Can you imagine the lava spewing out of this crater?


Gorgeous view . . . on one side you have the East Sea and on the other the volcanic rock and green grass of Jeju.




On the way back down we saw our first Jeju Horse. There's an old Korean saying "Send your sons to Seoul and your horses to Jeju." Not quite sure what that means but it seems like an appropriate caption for this picture. . .


. . . dol hareubang picture # 3. . .



See you soon . . .