Triangle - the right way to do it!

Remember how Shay demonstrated how to eat a rice triangle surprise?
(http://shaymaayan.blogspot.com/2008/07/hike-to-hallisan.html)

Well, after Maayan taught him the right way to do it, he now demonstrates it again:

The missing floor

Anyone knows where is the fourth floor ?!?!?!?



Apparently, 4 is like 13 in Korea. It is a BAD omen. Never sleep on that floor. You may never wake up!

Jeonju

Jeonju, the main transport hub to most national parks and attractions in central Korea is a nice town. It has a Historical area with many old-style houses and temples:







(and, of course - ants!)


We visited a wine museum with paper made figures displaying the joyful process of making wine:



Outside, Shay found a new drinking buddy:

VERY IMPORTANT:

How to order food without knowing korean:

1. Look outside the resturant for pictures that look tasty.

2. Take a picture of them:

3. Show the picture in the camera to the waiter and point to the one you want.

It is the easiest way to go!

The hike to Maayan's mountain - Maisan

Having reached Jeonju, Maayan insisted we go to her mountain.

The bus station was busy as usual, and all eyes were on the two miserable foreigners:



But, eventually we reached the national park. It has two peaks (about 700m each):




The hike was pretty easy, and we stopped to give some loving' to the horses:




Mai is explaining all about her mountain:


And here is one of th peaks from the narrow ridge between:


Note the similarity!





There was a small cave with cool air coming, we stopped and rested a bit.



Koreans have a weird habbit of putting wodden stairs all over the hike trails:




We got down from the ridge and found beautiful pagoda craftmanship,




Buddha statues (a must),






and a huge drum. Someone told us we should only hit it three times. We followed the instructions with an exact precision:







Few meters ahead, we found a temple dedicated to a monk who lived there. His habbit was to build stone pillars (without any cement). They are still standing, long after the monk died:









Mai found another dog to play with:

Ferry from Jeju island to Korea mainland

We left Jeju island and headed to korea's mainland with a ferry. It was not as fancy as the one we took from Busan to Jeju, and had just one large Tatami style room to host all passangers:



On the main deck, the weather changed from sunny to hazy.

Meanwhile, down at the main hall:

Maayan fell in love with a tiny puppy (look, it actually has a dress!!!).

Hike to Hallisan

OK, so the vacation from the vacation is over. Shay felt he was degenerating by the moment, so we packed our day hike bags, filled 3L of water and headed to Hallisan - the mountain that lies at the center of Jeju island. We started at 800m, and climbed steadily to the summit, located at 1970m.

Most of the way, we were covered with deep forest:

but at 1500m, some butterflies appeared.

so we stopped for lunch. Here is shay trying to explain how to eat the lovely rice triangles (without actually having the skill to open them...)

Almost there...

And finally, some views from the summit:

A beautiful crater lake was discovered at the top:

Along with some blisters and soar angle:

We had two options, either to climb down the way we came from, or to desecnd from another trail (about 9km) that went all the way down to 500m. We took the latter, and found spectacular views as well:

Toward 15:00, things started to get a bit foggy:

Near the finish line we found a nice bridge:

And look at this happy smile after we finished!

BTW, the hiking poles we got really helped! too bad we only got two of them.

But now we know what features we like and which ones we don't. Maybe we'll buy another pair in Seuol.

Oh, another funny thing we encountered was a small and weird track that ran along the entire mountain. We speculated that it is used to carry heavy loads to the top, and indeed, at some point we found the small car that is attached to it. It looks rather funny, like a rollercoaster with two bunk beds attached at the rear.

Teddy bear heaven

Jejudo boasts one of the largest Teddybear Museums in the world.
And here is another chance for you to win a prize. Can you name the person or character/artwork/historical site or event depicted in these picture-bears?


1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

BTW - the prize will not be a teddybear!

Oh yes, and we are still waiting for some more funny answers on our second sign trivia.

You are all lazy commenters. We are very disappointed.