Possibly my Best Evening in Korea

Last week we visited Jeju-do, an island off the southern coast of Korea usually described as Korea's 'Hawaii.'

Although not as tropical as advertised,* the island boasts a number of cheesy/hilarious/touristy 'lands' dotted all over the place to entertain the locals. Some of the lands available include:

• Mini Mini Land (small-scale models of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower etc)
• Teddy Bear Museum
• Chocolate Land (not as good as it sounds)
• Psyche World
• Stone Land
• Love Land

The last one's my favourite, and I've wanted to go for months since Haesindang Park gave me a taste for this sort of stuff. It's a park full of statues of people doing it.

For the technical stuff - the park is a 9,000 won cab ride out of Jeju city. Entry is 7,000 won and it's open from 9am until midnight. It takes about an hour to walk around the park and I've been told the best time to go is right before dark. At night, the statues are lit up in all of their sexy glory! Now, on to the pictures. 

Oh, and on the off chance you hadn't figured it out already - extremely not safe for work.

BOOOOBS!

 

There are vending machines all over Korea. This felt appropriate. 

NZ represent!

Not sure it's water in the tub eh?

I got stuck in this sculpture and ended up bruising the hell out of my leg while my lovely (cough) boyfriend took pictures.

Birthday present to myself.

Loveland was amazing. I've got a few things I want to post about Jeju but this was the best, worth the round flight tickets alone.

*One of the best tricks I've used to cope in Korea is something I call the 25% Rule. 

Koreans I've met tend to be extremely patriotic (something I think New Zealanders can learn from) but sometimes this patriotism is a bit much and gets in the way of realism. Most of the time, activities and festivals and locations in Korea are about 25% as good as they're described by the locals. If you expect everything to be 25% as good, and the attraction is actually pretty damn awesome, it's a great feeling - my visit to Geumsansa was far more awesome than expected. If an attraction sucks and you've expected it to suck, the disappointment is a little less crushing. I forgot to apply the Rule to the Nonsan Strawberry Festival - just look at the beautiful pictures on that link! - and I was completely heartbroken when greeted by a muddy pit with barely any strawberries. The Rule. It works.