After the short 50 min flight, I met my father's cousin. He was our personal chauffeur; he also is a taxi driver. We drove to Seongsan (volcanic cone). We hiked up Seongsan to get a good view of the east side of Jeju. My father enjoys hiking, but doesn't really inform me to wear proper shoes. I guess I should realize this by now. He would go up at a quick pace, but his cousin and I enjoyed a few breaks on the way up. It isn't that high, but still quite a few stairs to climb.
After Seongsan, we took a ferry to Udo, an even smaller island. On the ride over, we could see ladies in the ocean who dive for various shellfish. They wear wetsuits, but use no breathing devices. They have been trained to hold their breath for long amounts of time. I am not sure how deep they dive, but they are a long swim from shore. The only thing they have with them is a big floatation balloon.
First, we went to the coral sand beach. The beach is snow white. On the beach, there was one of the divers selling her shellfish, so we ate some raw "unknown" shellfish. Afterwards, we drove around the small island. We stopped at this very small house. I was exactly sure where we were until my father's cousin said, "amoni", which means mother. This is when I met my father's aunt. She was a cute old lady. I presume she lives alone on the island. She served various raw shellfish, not exactly sure what it all is. She showed me some pictures she had hanging on the wall of my relatives. We ate, took a couple photos, and before we left she hands me an envelope. Yep, I received 100,000 Won ($108).
In the afternoon we visited gravesites of different relatives. On Udo, we visited what would be my father's great, great grandparents and great grandparents. Back on Jejudo, we went to my father's grandmother's and grandfather's graves. It was your typical sightseeing, but I guess my father wanted to do the traditional Korean thing and for me to know where my Korean family is.
On the second day, we visited Jeongbang Waterfall. It is a small waterfall on the south side of Jejudo, but it is right on the coast. Yep, there were more stairs, but beautiful area. Next, we visited Seogwipo World Cup Stadium (cap. 50,000) and wasted some time at the Agricultural Expo. It was quite boring because everything was in Korean, but my father was trying to explain things. He has a lot of difficulty with English, so it wasn't too enjoyable.
After an hour or so, his other cousin came by. He is the older brother of taxi driver cousin. We went to a nice restaurant. I met the older cousins' wife, daughter, and two grandkids. They didn't speak any English, so I just focused on eating and letting my father talk to them.
Two weeks ago, I met some more relatives. My great uncle's daughter, husband (dentist), and two sons (4 and 6 years old) came from Busan area to meet for dinner with me and great uncle's son. They have on other daughter, but she is young, so they didn't bring her. We went for dinner in Gangnam area. They live near Busan and I am guessing that they flew up to Seoul for the day to meet me. It was interesting to meet another relative and her family.
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