Friday, June 8, 2012

Jebudo island and Ocean World

At the suggestion of one of Mihi's friends, we all decide to head out to Jebudo, which is about an 1 and 1/2 outside of Seoul.  First we stop at a restaurant for a great seafood meal.  As per Korean culture, it comes with an insane amount of side dishes, so there are many things to try and many combinations you can experience.
More plates and bowls than a table should allow.
Next up we travel to the actual island.  This place is crazy because of the tide.  They call it the miracle of moses or something because the tide literally parts the sea and you can walk/drive to the island.  So, when the tide is low, you can travel on this road that is about 3km long.  Everything around it is wet, so it's pretty crazy.  At a certain time, the tide gets high and you get stuck on the island because the road gets flooded.  Like a moron, I didn't get a picture of the road, but here's a side view of how big this tide is.
Sea of sandy mud.
Now that we are on the island, we first head to the lighthouse on the pier.
Think of your own clever caption here:_________ .
The light house isn't anything too special, but the pier is insanely high with some great views of the ocean.  You can also rent fishing poles and fish for your next meal.  Our friend here is trying to flirt with the girl fishing.
She seems more interested in fish.
Next we hit up the beach.  It's a really weird beach to be honest.  The sand could be nice, but because there are all these shell fish, you can't really walk around barefoot because you'll cut your self on a broken shell.  Also, there is no water during the day!  That's right, the tide takes it right out.  There is just endless kilometres of sandy mud.  You might be asking yourself, "Why then Jaret, is this beach so popular?".  Ah, because of shellfish (clams, osters, mussels).  You can go out and search for fresh shellfish and BBQ your lunch/supper right there on the beach or at home.  If you stay longer than we did, you can see the insanity of the tide coming in at a rapid pace, like a flood.  Just look how crazy this is:
Literally a goldmine of shellfish.  (Minus the gold).
 There are also some huge rock formation that you can visit because the tide is low.  I'm told that falcons lived there, but I didn't see any birds.

It's just a rock!
We then start to travel back to Seoul, but not before stopping at one of the most incredible Korean BBQ restaurant I have ever experienced.  Firstly, it's really in the middle of nowhere, and it's on a farm.  So, all the vegetables are grown there and the meat is local.  The freshness makes a huge difference.  Also, the ambience is really nice because it's mostly outside:
It's packed, so you know it's good.
They also have a butcher that cuts the goodness right up for you:
Marble Steak
As per Korean BBQ, you cook it yourself to your liking.  Mihi's friend was a wizard at cooking this stuff, so he cooked it for our entire group (11 of us counting kids).  It gets chopped into pieces, cooked medium rare, then you dip it in sauce, then dip in salt and pepper, wrap it in lettuce with rice.  It was perfect to be honest.  Here's the money shot:

If you are not cooking over a real fire, you are a horrible cook.
 We then decided to go back to one of the Mihi's friends house to play go/stop.  This is a Korean card game played with hwatu cards (flower cards with chinese characters).  I have no idea how to play, but it involves betting, slamming down cards, and swearing.

ehhshhhhh! (Korean swear)
 Sounds like fun, but today is not a day to learn to play.  I was given a Filipino beer to sip whilst I watched the chaos.

Beer; better than Go-Stop card game
Next up, we go to Ocean world.  Yeah yeah, old news... I have been here before, and I've blogged about it 4 years ago, but I had such a blast last time I had to go again.

Entrance to fun
 We also wanted Hannah to experience some water fun:

Enormous bucket of water.  I went under this trying to stay still and not react, but it is impossible.
 But she is still too little for a lot of the fun stuff.  For instance... She didn't seem to like the kids wave pool. 
It's bigger than my bathtub!
 Outside section, a lot had changed (for the better). There was this whole new section that was just a lake before:

Island of new fun stuff.  "DYNAMIC ZONE!"
On this island part, there is this rad ride. It was scary, but so much fun... It is also safe if you don't jump out.

Halfpipe tubing
I also hit up the "big" wave pool again, but it was sorta lame this time around.  Last time the waves were over 2 metres high, but I suppose they likely tamed it down because of lawsuits.  Lawyers (sorry Mark) suck the fun and recklessness out of everything.

Hooray for smaller waves!
You catch some serious speed on these rides.  I had to go down these slides 3 times because Sohee didn't have the camera setup properly (or missed a shot).  It was fun, but it chaffed my buttocks in the landing area making a "CHA CHA CHA CHA" sound.  I know you all wanted to know that.

Moments before the CHA CHA CHA CHA.
On that note, I think I'll wrap it up, but I'll clean your thoughts right now with a nice family photo of us just waking up:



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for continuing to update your blog ... its not an echo chamber ... several of us in the office have enjoyed the updates even though you might not know it because we haven't been leaving any comments.

Thomas