Tourist traps
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2003
1
18
27
Trip End
Ongoing
Jeju Island, Korea Rep.
Saturday, August 7, 2004
Summer in Korea is sweaty, humid, and tests one's commitment to life on the peninsula. Often classrooms are devoid of air-conditioning, and intensive 11-hour summer programs test the limits of a teacher's sanity. Fortunately, my apartment and classroom both have "air-con", so I spent the better part of the summer hopping back and forth between colder climates. The summer swelter also means that getting away from Seoul to the beach, an amusement park, or a famous site is the best way to maintain your sanity.
Getting away from it all means joining legions of citizens with the same idea. We all unknowingly end up one way or another encountering one of summer's most lucrative businesses... the tourist trap
Common black haired pig
.I spent my summer vacation on Jeju Island, hyped as "Korea's Hawaii." While other co-workers were on their way to Thailand, Japan, or Australia, a couple of us decided to give Jeju a chance and we found palm trees, crystal blue water, and white sands. Jeju is popular with Koreans who have difficulties obtaining travel visas, or for honeymooners who wish to travel without language barriers. For our first couple of days on the island we stayed in a secluded but popular part of the island. a village called Hallim. The big attraction there is Hallim Park, a manicured park jam packed with palm trees, rocks, gardens and those picture perfect opportunities. So many in fact, that we often saw line-ups of Korean waiting in front of large rocks, or large "Rock Grandfather" statues that are everywhere on the island.
Although the place was a big tourist destination, surprisingly good food was in short supply. Our first supper in Jeju kind of turned us off the local specialties as my buddy Nolan picked rather large chunks of pork fat containing hair and hair follicles out of his kimchi chigae. When he asked the adjumma about it, she just shrugged and indicated that we were eating "common black-haired pig" and therefore it would be "common" to find big black hairs in his food
Dolharubang
. Yick!The other abnormality of Jeju islanders is their unique Korean dialect. Eight months of developing my Korean listening skills went out the window, most of the time none of us could figure out what anyone was saying. Although we could more or less be understood when we spoke Korean, the islanders would rattle on in Korean as if you were expected to understand every sweet word.
We all began to notice that things worked a little differently for foreigners down there. Most tourism is geared towards Korean, Chinese, and Japanese guests. Up north people generally kiss our asses because we speak English, down there we had more than a few people recoil in fear that we may engage them in an English encounter. One waitress at the Casino in Jeju city actually asked me if I spoke Japanese!
Anyways, Jeju was fantastic! A little touristy but a very different atmosphere from the mainland and very affordable. There are many other little places to go in the countryside on the mainland, but remember to ask a Korean friend about them first. If they haven't heard of it, or if THEY think it's tacky...do yourself a favor and stick your nose back into your Lonely Planet guide.
A week later back on the mainland, Stacey and I decided to take a weekend trip to a little known place in the heart of the peninsula called Danyang. Danyang is known for two main things, 3 caves filled with spectacular limestone stalagmites, and the Palgyong or "the eight wondrous sites of Danyang." One notices right away after descending off the bus in Danyang that you are not off the beaten track, but rather on a track beaten to a pulp by bus after bus jammed full of families and old people
Haeupjae Beach
. Before you can get to the entrance of the caves, you must pass through a parking lot/ tourist trap. You could stop for an ice cream, play a shooting game, buy a large rock from a nearby mountain, a wooden sculpture of a bear, postcards, towels, toys, or anything else your kitschy heart desires. The caves of Kosu-dongul are definitely amazing feats of nature, and make the trip to Danyang instantly worth it. However, it's hard to stop and admire nature's wonder with a never-ending stream of tourists behind you. The mentality in there seemed to be "bbali-bbali, and keep it moving!" But don't worry, there are spots to stop and get that beautiful picture. There are people all along the way set up to take a Polaroid of you and your family for a fee.
The eight famous sites or whatever it was called was a complete waste of time and a traveller's nightmare. The tourist brochure depicted rocks jutting out from the river with mist and mountains all around. What we found at the most famous of these sites Todam Sambong, was what the brochure couldn't have possibly portrayed. Opposite to this wondrous scene was another massive tourist complex, complete with folk music wailing at an ear bleeding pitch from a tape recorder hooked up to a megaphone. At the other end of the complex was an outdoor singing stage where old ladies wailed out folk songs on a karaoke machine as a fountain went to the rhythm of the music. I don't think we could leave there fast enough!
I hope this one doesn't come off sounding too negative, as I did have a lovely time visiting the countryside this summer. I guess there's a reason that places like that are only briefly mentioned in travel guides. I've decided it's because these places are not for you or I, but rather a local brand of tourist who have their own reasons for hanging out in such a place.
The more I see, the less I seem to understand about this country. It's the awkwardness of it all that actually makes it interesting, so don't get your hopes up about finding that unexploited treasure that you can write home about. Instead I've decided to write about this nonsense in the hopes that someone will re-direct me to the side of the peninsula that isn't crazy!
