HEADING HOME WITH A BRIEF STOP AT A FEW INCHON MEMORIALS

November 9^th, Saturday

            We were going to be picked up at 10:30 from our hotel in Jeju.  The driver showed up early (10:15 or so) and drove us to the airport in Jeju city.  It takes about 50 minutes or so to do the drive – most of the time chugging through the traffic in Jeju city.  We said good bye to the driver, and found the Korean Air ticket counter.  We were proud we could figure out almost everything (there was an English button which saved us a great deal of pain.  We went downstairs and found Angel in us Coffee.  Water and a sandwich.  The sandwich was odd, but the water was great.  We hung around the gate until they let us on the plane.  Officially we were supposed to be in the last group to board (seats 40 and above).  But the stewardi were merciful and we clumped on fairly quickly. 

            Our flight was from Jeju to Gimpo Airport in Seoul.  It’s very close to the city.  We then had to take a train (4 escalator rides down from the baggage area – tough with big cases.  We bought tickets to Incheon Airport – terminal 1?  Terminal 2?  We chose 2 we hadn’t been advised which to take. On the ride over Chuck found United stops at terminal 1 – oh well.  The train ride was rather crowded for the first several stops.  Once it cleared out a bit, it made the ride more pleasant.

            Our next challenge was finding the shuttle to the hotel.  Again, we asked at the information desks and found the shuttle bay outside.  Best of all the Grand Hyatt shuttle was right there. New issue – East or West Tower?  Again, we hadn’t been advised.  Sigh.  We opted for west.  Nope.  We could easily walk to the east tower.  Went to room 305.  Nice room with views of the airport. 

            We decided a cup of coffee and a little something would hit the spot.  We were enjoying both when a waitress came by and told us that the table had been reserved for dinner at 5 pm.  The whole restaurant was turning into a buffet like Cinderella’s ball.  We walked around the lobby of both the east and west towers.  Bah.  Dismal bars for bar snacks or buffet dinners.  What the….?

            Eventually we opted to spend the night in our room with room service.  We ordered hamburgers and salad (both delicious-Korean beef is superb) and had a lovely dinner and rest.  We drank some Cass beers from the mini bar – as long as you‘re going for the gold……. Restful night, and a nice dinner.

November 10^th, Sunday

            Our last Korea day.  We went downstairs for breakfast, only to be told that we weren’t signed up for breakfast.  We insisted that we’d prepaid, and I said, “Then let’s eat at the airport later”, and we began to walk away.  The Maitr’d chased us down and said we should eat and she’d straighten it out.  I believe our major problem was that the tour was supposed to end yesterday, but because it was $4000 cheaper, we bought tickets to go home today.  Clearly, this last day is a kluge add-on.  We went to the main check in desk with our papers to show we weren’t making a breakfast story up.  They copied our information.  We got out things together and went back to check out.  Sure enough the tour company paid for breakfast.  It wouldn’t be too big a deal, but the breakfast – like last night’s dinner was going to be a buffet.  An American buffet breakfast was about $30 per person.  I couldn’t eat $30 worth of breakfast with a gun to my head.

            At 10:45 an “English-speaking” driver showed up to take us to the Korean War memorial sites around Incheon.  His English WAS better than my Korean, but then, that’s not saying much.  He was a very nice guy though.  We went to Jayu Park.  There was a memorial to those soldiers who’d died, a monument to General MacArthur, and a statue to young kids who joined the war effort.  The park sat at the top of a very steep hill.  Driving, parking, and general manoeuvering around this place was tough.  The weather has gotten a bit dismal.  Foggy and cold, it didn’t make for very good photos.

View of Inchon from the park

Inchon docks

Korean War memorial

Us in the park

MacArthur statue.

            Our next stop was another memorial to the war.  Tanks, guns, rockets, statues of soldiers, and a very artistic column to the fallen soldiers.

Again, a little hard to take a photo to show the scale of this memorial

The flags of the nations from the UN that fought in the Korean war.

            When that stop was over, we climbed back into the van and headed for Terminal 1 at Incheon Airport.  We got to the airport at 1, couldn’t check in until 2, but a lovely coffee and the Asiana Lounge make for a restful hang around until we leave at 6. 

            Incheon – San Francisco – LAX – Lyft – home.  Gak. 

WE GO IT ALONE ON THE LAST DAY OF JEJU ISAND NOV 8

November 8^th, Friday

            We have a day with no guide.  Kind of a treat to have the day to ourselves.  Quiet time at breakfast.  Kia had suggested that we could visit some waterfalls and a botanical garden close to the hotel. We decided that would be a good plan.

            On the way to the Cheonjeyeon area (a park like area with 3 waterfalls) we passed by a Ripley’s believe it or not place, another teddy bear museum (with a louvre like tower),  a Kpop music place (not clear what would happen there), and several other cafes, and stores.

The two teddy bear museums we've seen close up both had this conical glass tower.  I'm not sure why.

We thought that Starbucks had begun to take over the world (there were really a lot of the in South Korea).  But the champion is KFC.  Here's  sculpture of a Heanyeo Colonel Sanders.

            Cheonjeyeon seemed small at first – wrong.  There was a temple-like structure for an overview of the place and an excellent fountain at the front.  Then there was a curved bridge, the Seonimgyo Bridge, that seemed like the epitome of Asian bridges.  It was lined with lanterns and if they were lit up at night, would be gorgeous,  Once over the bridge we had 3 waterfall options.  The first waterfall only would be “working” after a rainfall, so we opted to see the other two.  Waterfall number 2 was down at least 75 steps (and we thought we were done with stair climbing today-nope).  It was beautiful, cascading into a pool.  We trudged back up the steps and walked to waterfall number 3.  This walk had a wooden walkway to use.  Of course, there were steps here too.  The waterfall itself was smaller, but the pool was larger.  Again, a lovely setting and worth the stair stepping to get there. 

First waterfall

We both loved this bridge.

Second waterfall

            Our next stop was the Yeomiji Botanical gardens.  Botanical gardens always trick me. I don’t think they sound so interesting until I get into one, then I love the fact that I got in there.  We wandered around the outside gardens (a Hosta garden, a bog garden, and a lawn garden).  At this point we thought we’d go into the Indoor garden which was located in a huge glass, Kew Garden-like structure.  The entrance of this building had the most amazing visual I have ever seen.  Hanging orchids, a waterway, and an immense tower-like structure to the center.  Surrounding this superb entrance were 5 other gardens.  Beautifully laid out, Charlie said he felt like we should run home and start planting things and re-organizing our garden.  The gardens around the center were 1.) a flower garden 2.) an aquatic garden 3.) a cactus garden 4.) a jungle garden, and 5) a tropical fruits garden.  All of them were incredibly well maintained, with very happy looking plants, and awe-struck visitors.  For example the cactus garden had huge saguaro cactuses as tall as the ceiling (20 ft?). The tropical fruit garden had guava, mango, macadamia nuts, coffee, banana, and papaya.  They had examples of the fruits sitting in small glass containers when there weren’t any fruits to see on the trees.  We were both really impressed.

A few gardens outside.  This one was the grassy garden

Hard to show the scale of this place

            After our tour we walked back to the shops to see what might be available for lunch.  Most of the restaurants seemed to imply “too much food”.  One called yellow café had a yellow container that looked like a Winnie the Pooh honey pot.  When we got in there, they only seemed to have sweets.  I think it was a honey pot.  We went back to our coffee place and got a bagel each and a latte each.  Just the ticket for over-eaters anonymous.  Back to the hotel for a rest until dinner. 

            Tomorrow we start our trek back to Los Angeles via Seoul, San Francisco, the LA.