Jeju: Day 2: Morning

Date: 12/26/2010

After my morning wake up call, I got up and got dressed.  I had the attitude, "I'm in Jeju, let's go exploring."  The sun was coming up, or at least the sky was getting lighter, and I could see the ocean from my window.  So I decided I was going to go check out the beach.  Or...the "beach."

I bundled up and proceeded to make my way down the side of the hill that our hotel was perched on. It wasn't exactly an easy descent.

Hotel way up top....Ocean behind me...

My "beach"  

Jeju has a whole bunch of these rock walls.  They basically line all of the roads and pastures and everything.  Some are just big rocks like these above, while others are real walls (but the rocks are just stacked on each other, not cemented--at least, it doesn't look like it.)

Obviously, I stole this picture...but this is what I mean by them not being cemented.  

Anyway, I climb my way down to the beach and am confronted with a really pretty view.

What I was walking over...had to be careful--I really didn't want to get wet.

The view...very pretty.  There's a (probably) fishing boat way out in the horizon.

Hello!

I found this little pond/arch on my way back up.  It's really cool what erosion can do....

I make my way back up to the hotel, and have breakfast.  The weather is still really bad, so no hiking Halla-san (Mnt Halla) today.  But I'm okay with that--I wasn't sure I was in shape enough to actually hike any mountains.  Especially after hiking the baby mountain Samgik Illchubang yesterday--my perception of my fitness level had dive bombed.

So, we pack up into the bus and head to the Chinese Acrobatic Show.  To be honest, I wasn't expecting much of these guys.  Just people in leotards doing Cirque Du Soleil stuff, right?  Boy, I was wrong.  They were AMAZING!

This were my favorite act. The two adult men would throw, twist, turn, rotate, and flip the young boy and girl around by their feet.  It was pretty awesome to watch.

These three could twist and turn in ways that really didn't look natural.

Taking playing on a a swing set to a whole new level.

The opening act.  Pretty good.

In case you didn't look close enough--he's doing a headstand.  She is balancing on his feet, plus hold a set of plates on her nose.

Afterwards we were able to take photos with 'em.  This guy was really cute!  

I felt a little bad for the Chinese Acrobats (we couldn't figure out if they were Chinese or Korea, or anything else, but since it was titled "Chinese Acrobatic and Circus Show" I'll just be simple and call them Acrobats).  Many of the small performers were really young--like maybe 13 to 17.  I talked to someone after the show and he told me that they don't really go to school--they just practice with the circus and do independent studies.

It was a good morning!