The night concluded with picking up Aly from the airport. Luckily she turned up as she could now act as my interpreter. Poor Sunny could understand her American accent much better than my wacky zany Australian accent.
Saturday began with some beach hopping throughout the island of Jeju. This involved an introduction for Aly to the safe and sound driving of Sunny. First was the trick of driving down the wrong side of the road - a road that was still being built mind you. Next up was some VERY close calls further up a real road from some vehicles driving in the opposite direction. It seemed that most of the cars were attracted to Aly and just wanted to get nice and close to her. Lastly, later on in the day we had missed our exit from the highway - so the logical thing to do was stop, turn around and drive back to the exit. Unfortunately, the concrete median strip forced us to once again drive down the wrong side of the highway. In Korea, driving like this is fairly standard. I think the driving test consists of "the more points you lose, the higher the level of licence that you get". Oh well, miraculously, the whole 4 weeks that I spent in Korea I have never witnessed an accident! Anyway, back to Jeju...
So the day consisted of visiting the many beaches that Jeju had to offer. Unfortunately, they were just no comparison to the gorgeous white, sandy, wavy beaches of Australia. BUT, it was great to be spending time in the salt water and practice my sea swimming - all to the amazement of the locals who were shocked to see somebody actually swimming properly. I think Aly and I put some of the lifeguards to shame with our swimming techniques.
Saturday afternoon Aly and I decided to farewell Sunny and Co. and catch a bus to Jungmun beach. This was the beach with the great waves that I had experienced on Thursday. The "Aly and Hilly Jungmun Beach Experience" actually ended up to be quite fun. We arrived around 8pm, just in time to watch the last rays of the sun slipping from view. Luckily, we had some beer and some left over Sake from my Japan trip to keep us entertained.
After a few small sips of beer, we decided that some night swimming (together with the ulterior motive of relieving our bladders) would be a grand idea! Luckily for us "Mother Ocean" had put on her best show and decided that tonight's roll in of the tide would be particularly ferocious. Poor Aly copped the brunt of waves. Being used to lake swimming, she was caught unawares by the force of the waves and received a few free "spin cycles". Needles to say, she went through a few sets of t-shirts to keep herself dry and warm that night.
After some time we decided to bury each other in the sand. This was a very unique experience mostly due to the fact that the sand was very wet and heavy - unlike Sydney sand that tends to be light and powdery. So there we were, each one of us buried in turn with the full weight of the sand on top, staring at the sky in hope of catching sight of a shooting star. I have to say, it was a very relaxing feeling and would love to do it again one day. The only draw back being that you are covered in sand that blatantly refuses to unstick itself from your body for the next few days.
As the night wore on, Aly's body started to become more floppy and her speech became a little slurred. This was obviously due to the constant thrashing around in the ocean. We decided to find somewhere to sleep for the night. The lifeguard tower seemed the most logical option at 2AM. We set up the single sleeping bag (more about that a little later) in the tower and walked up the stairs to the shower to attempt to wash off the sand from our bodies. BTW, I think that somebody in Jeju needs to check the showers, as from 2AM onwards the water seems to come directly from the freezer outlet. Nevertheless, we managed to wash ourselves to the sound of eeks and shrieks which were a natural reaction to the lovely cold water. Aly also reminded me that she couldn't sleep with sand on her body. So, Hilly to the rescue! I had the honour of being the Knight in Shining Armour and giving her a piggy back ride across the sand to our room at Jeju Hotel (the lifeguard tower).
Aly went to sleep fairly promptly. She fit in the tower quite snugly (for those of you that don't know, Aly's a little shorter than me) . I fitted, but only if I carefully placed my body in an exact location. Pretty soon I was wide awake again after attempting to better my position and failing - always a bad move and a confined space. Aly saw this as an opportunity to wrap herself completely in the sleeping bag, whilst wearing my only long sleeved shirt and saying how cold she was (she had absolutely no recollection of this the next day). I just sat there shivering a little, with a grin on my face. I guess chivalry is still hasn't left our modern world yet.
Sunday morning began at 4:45AM for me. I climbed out of our "Hotel Room" and watched the magnificence of the sun rising. This is one of nature's most beautiful moments and should always be cherished.
After being cooked alive on the beach later in the morning, Aly and I decided it would be a great idea to have a Western style breakfast at the Hyatt, which was only a couple of minutes walk up the stairs from where our "Hotel Room" was. The breakfast was a full buffet including fresh fruit, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausages, pastries yoghurt etc etc etc... We took full advantage of the all you can eat buffet for around 1 and 1/2 hours, stuffing ourselves in the most piggly manner possible.
The afternoon consisted of lazing around the pool, once again courtesy of the Hyatt. We soon became the target of a small family of 6 kids from Miami, Florida. Their father was teaching at a university on Seoul. They were being home taught and didn't appear to have any other real friends in Korea apart from themselves. I thought this to be a little sad and felt sorry for them. But, nonetheless they all seemed to get on very well with each other which I think is quite rare. Anyway, they latched on to Aly and eventually to me. Aly was excited as it's the first time she'd really spoken to Western kids for almost 12 months. She also got to show off some of her very graceful and impressive pool tricks from the days when she was a syncronised diver.
The afternoon concluded with the pool area being completely cleared except for a couple of ladies providing some singing entertainment, an outdoor buffet, a bucket load of chefs and Aly and I sitting around the bar in the pool with a beer in hand.
We eventually returned to our simple life and stayed the night in a sauna. Monday morning once again greeted us with lovely sunny and clear skies. Breakfast consisted of a quarter of a watermelon - which was particularly juicy and appropriate for the day. The only problem was that we didn't have a knife - so good old mouths and brute strength provided the means for cutting it up. Needless to say this was a tad messy.
Around midday was the upsetting task of saying goodbye to Aly and catching the bus back to Jeju airport. She's staying on Jeju Island for another week and then travelling for another few months a little later in August.
Overall, Jeju was a great experience. The weather was great, the people were friendly and once again Aly provided some awesome and entertaining companionship. I just can't wait for our next adventure together!
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