Jeju Island | GRRRL TRAVELER

Photo Essay: A Teddy Bear Museum on Jeju Island?

Filed under Jeju Island, Photo Essays by Christine Ka'aloa on March 19, 2012 at 2:45 am {20 comments}

Do you like to visit museums when you travel? What’s the cutest, quirkiest or most bizarre museum you’ve been to?

I was an art major so to some degree, I can take interest in art museums from time-to-time. But what about war museums, a Chocolate Museum, Sex Museums, a Trick Art Museum or a Sound Museum? Jeju Island has loads of unique museums to pass time with (read my post on things to do on Jeju). But how about Teddy Bears?

Personally, I never cared for them as a kid, so why would I visit a museum full of ‘em, as an adult?

Why? (more…)

How to make your own K-drama film tour

Filed under * Korea tips & stays, Crazy Korea by Christine Ka'aloa on February 17, 2011 at 8:36 am {8 comments}

Korea’s hit drama series, Secret Garden. Some scenes filmed at Seeas Hotel on Jeju Island.

Koreans seem to own the formula on great drama. In fact, K-dramas are becoming a rapid addiction around the world. Popular in Asia, in parts such as Japan, Thailand and India; the rage has even been making itself known in the U.S. (just ask Hawaii!)

My mother has watched 92 dramas (probably more than any Korean) this past year! Her friends, bitten by the drama-fever bug years earlier, surpass her ranking. Hard to imagine, right?

Korean tourism: the popularizing of K-drama filming locations

K-drama clubs and film tours are beginning to spring up, with sightseeing itineraries to feed drama-hungry fanatics. Winter Sonata, for instance is a popular drama, especially with Japanese and has a couple of tours dedicated to it.

Thanks to the Korean Tourism Organization and its publishing drama locations on its tourism site, fans don’t have to waddle up steep cash for a (more…)

How many travel love letters will you write?

Filed under Jeju Island, Korea by Christine Ka'aloa on January 15, 2011 at 5:57 pm {5 comments}

(Bukcheon Village, Seoul)
Love letter #1 to Korea

As I said 2011 would be my year to ‘experience love’!

Love comes through many doors, inspiring our creativity and playful curiosity of life. For a traveler, love portals can be opened through countries we immediately fall in love with or find rocky romances with. It can be discovered through the odd kitsch souvenirs we find wandering an off-beat alleyway of shops or entered through the trusted smiles of a hotel front desk clerk after a long day of haggling…

If the door is wide open and we’re curious, love rushes in.

Why not write love letters?

“Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire…. “
— Roland Barthes (from A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments)

A blog, a photograph, a video or postcard… these can all be “love letters”. But sometimes, the love letters we find for a place can be vague, indirect, the je’ne c’est quoi of mystery. You don’t know why or what it is about a place… but damn it, you love it!

After revisiting Jeju Island’s Olle trails this past holiday season with my mom, the inspiration to write love letters opened up inside me…

I wanted to leave behind an trail of anonymous memories for love to find me.

What are some favorite love letters of places that you’ve written or received?

*Note: Images or writing must be suitable and tasteful for post.

Solo Jeju: Riding a Scooter around Udo Island

Filed under Interviews, Jeju Island by Christine Ka'aloa on November 20, 2010 at 2:41 am {11 comments}

Udo Island is exactly what I thought Jeju Island would be– a small island swaying with a warm and tranquil vibe, the crisp mixed scent of island farming and seaweed, volcanic rock beaches and gentle livestock grazing alongside small country roads. Best of all, it could be done solo and by scooter!

After a 3 hour bus ride to Seongsanri Port, I arrived at Udo Island via ferry at around 4:10P…the last ferry leaving the island was at 5:30P. Call me foolhardy but if I spend hours on a bus just to get to a location, I’ll be damned if I leave without seeing it! So there I was with a little over an hour to explore the island.

Casual biking excursion? An island bus tour or a Olle trek? Originally, this might’ve been my first (more…)

Photo Essay: Lost in Jeju Island’s Gimnyeong Maze Park

Filed under Jeju Island, Photo Essays by Christine Ka'aloa on November 20, 2010 at 1:32 am {6 comments}

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be lost in a maze? Mazes have always seemed to be the stuff of minotaur myths. They were something I’d only seen on TV in period dramas and movies like Harry Potter or The Shining. Finally, on Jeju Island, here was my chance to see one.

Sometimes, Jeju can feel a bit random with the variety of theme parks they have. What’s great about this is that the ideas are well-executed and steeped with a kind of off-the-wall self-humor.

Coming from the Manjanggul Caves, about a 15 minute walk, was the Gimnyeong Maze Park. The maze wasn’t of epic proportion nor was it as difficult as I thought, though it’s imaginable that people can get lost in there for some time before they call out or phone their friends for help. There are observation decks which overlook the serpentine maze and a victory bell, which you can ring (more…)

Jeju Island’s Loveland Exposes Naughty Fun in Korean Sex

Filed under Jeju Island, Off-beat, Weird... Reality! by Christine Ka'aloa on October 28, 2010 at 1:33 am {7 comments}

Occasionally, Koreans can surprise you. A couple of month ago, it was a mystery to me as to where all the sexual naughtiness in conservative Korea was hidden. Now, standing before the un-pearly gates of Loveland…

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Haeneyo: the Last Generations of Korean Mermaids

Filed under Crazy Korea, EPISODES by Christine Ka'aloa on October 21, 2010 at 4:46 am {14 comments}

What do the Lockness Monster, the Yeti and the Korean Mermaids of Jeju Island have in common? Well, they all feel like phenomenal legends to me on some level, with one exception– the Korean Mermaids aren’t myths but real people. What is a Korean Mermaid?…

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Jeju’s Olle Trails: Reading its secret Love Letters

Filed under Great Outdoors, Jeju Island by Christine Ka'aloa on October 16, 2010 at 2:19 am {6 comments}

Jeju Island’s Olle Trails aren’t exactly a hidden secret, but for the western traveler it may as well be. With rival sights such as the Manggual caves, Mt. Halla, Loveland, golf parks, theme parks, etc… Olle trails aren’t one of Jeju’s biggest or loudest boasts. It should be…

Have you ever found a secret love letter? That’s how it felt when I discovered an Olle Trail. I stumbled upon a trail by accident when I was searching for haeneyo, and a love story opened before me.

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Top 8 Things to Do on Jeju Island

Filed under Jeju Island, Korea by Christine Ka'aloa on September 30, 2010 at 10:09 pm {6 comments}

Jeju Island is touted as the Korean Hawaii (and the honeymooning capital of Korea) and being a Hawaii native, I’d say it’s in the running realm of consideration. A tropical climate, beaches, inactive volcanoes and a little bit of a laid back way (compared to mainland Korea), Jeju presents the island way…Korean style.