Deagu

The day after we returned to Seoul from Jeju Island, Mom and I headed to Daegu from Seoul via train (KTX - video here and embedded below in this post). Daegu is Mom's hometown, a large city about 150 miles southeast of Seoul. It's also where all of my cousins grew up before most of them (5 of 7) relocated to Seoul. Two cousins are still students in Daegu. My (Moon) guidebook to South Korea reports that the women of Daegu are known for being "stubborn but beautiful." Love it! After a very easy two-hour train trip, we were met by my Mom's younger brother, my Uncle Hyun Dae, at the train station and headed to her older brother's home for a sibling reunion. It had been nearly 20 years since Mom had seen them.

Jeju Island Wrap-Up

So, part of the reason I've taken so long in posting this wrap-up of the trip to Jeju Island is because I wasn't sure whether or not to share some of my pictures with you. I created a flickr slideshow, which is hilarious, but it's also NSFW. Seriously. N-S-F-W.

I ultimately decided not to share the slideshow on the blog, but the next time you see me, if you're curious, I'd be happy to share the pics with you. Otherwise, you just get just a taste, below.

We stopped on Tuesday at a stadium near Seogwipo which had once been a World Cup soccer (FIFA) venue in 2002. And, just as cities with Olympic facilities that get used once leave local officials wondering what to do with them after the hoopla of the main event, I'm willing to bet the same thing happened here. So, what did they come up with? The stadium was repurposed into a water park, cinema, paper doll museum and the World Eros Museum. Um, which one would you choose to visit?

Jeju Island Black Pork

Yes, I admit, combined with the real time updates, this seems like a never-ending trip. But, our side-trip to Jeju Island was just 48 hours! As much as I enjoy sharing these adventures with you, my primary reason for creating this blog is to have a record of the trip, so I'll still be posting more about the trip to this blog in my spare time for the foreseeable future. Mom is still there so I may have some additional reports from her to share in days to come as well. I appreciate the free photo storage and share sites offered by Shutterfly and the ability to go back through old Facebook posts, but I think a blog does a much better job of capturing memories and a story like this one.

Jeju Island Black Pork

In addition to fresh seafood, Jeju is particularly known for a special type of pork, called "black pork" because of the color of the source ~ small black heritage pigs raised on the island.

On Tuesday, we had an amazing lunch at a place that specializes in black pork ~ grilled right at your outside table. We had sunny weather and a gorgeous day. We lucked out as I understand that Jeju Island can often be shrouded in clouds.

Abalone, Sea Squirt and Ssangdoongi Hwetjib

I have been fascinated by television shows that cover Korean food. I am a big fan of Anthony Bourdain and was so glad he took No Reservations to Korea in Season 2 and to LA's Koreatown in Parts Unknown. I was even more excited when PBS started airing Marja Vongerichten's Kimchi Chronicles. Recently, I've happily discovered Judy Joo's Korean Food Made Simple on the Cooking Channel.

It was on Kimchi Chronicles that I learned about Jeju Island black pork and about the free diving Haenyo on Jeju Island that pluck shellfish out of the sea and sell it to local tourists and restaurants ~ the New York Times just this spring published a story about them. I was thrilled and lucky to catch a glimpse of a Haenyo woman as we drove through a seaside village and even luckier to have several amazing meals on the island.

Jeju Island

Note: If you haven't been following via facebook, I am back home after a wonderful trip. I am behind on my posts, but plan to continue blogging about the journey. In addition to continually being on the move, with little time to write, I had a little blogging setback when my very cute little host puppy chewed up my iPhone/iPad wire. I found a charger, but oddly, it only worked for the iPhone and would not charge the iPad.

Take a picture. Take a picture. OK? Let's Go!

Wow. Our trip to Jeju Island was a whirlwind, a wonderful, lovely whirlwind. After a 50-minute flight, we landed, rented a car and headed directly to the south side of the island, to its second largest city, Seogwipo.

Jeju Island is bigger than Oahu, more the size of Maui. It took us about an hour to take the road that cuts around the island's largest mountain, Halla-San, and cross the island to the Ocean Palace Hotel in Seogwipo (as opposed to taking the shore routes). The highlight of the drive was a "forest tunnel" where the trees are growing in a way that creates a canopy of green foliage over the secondary highway.