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i had a great weekend on jeju island … it was a weekend of fun, heat, adventures and wrong turns.

i arrived on the island friday afternoon and headed to my hotel. then i met up with rorey (a seoul photo club member) and we rented a scooter for me to ride around jeju island. we headed east with the intention of seeing a cave and a hedge maze. we got lost, twice, but managed to get to the maze and take photos … we headed back to the city after dark and passed a very cool buddhist pagoda. it looked like someting from laos or myanmar. so we planned to head there the next day … friday night we ate black pig (it used to be called shit pig, because they would live on a diet of shit … usually people’s shit).

saturday i got an early start, but i couldn’t get in contact with rorey. so i headed off anyway to go to a few other places. i got to the beach down the coast and took a few photos. then rorey called. he’d slept in … lol … so we agreed to meet on the southern part of the island. i promised a friend that i’d head to a botanical garden owned by his company’s president. so i went there and was surprised by how nice the place was. they were very friendly and i had a good time. after finishing, i had some strawberry juice and watermelon, which was free.

i kept going south and met up with rorey at san bang san, which was a massive hill with a buddhist temple and grotto on the side of it. i had lunch and we hiked up to the grotto. it was very cool and definitely my favourite part of jeju island.

heading back east, on the south end of the island, we visited a famous waterfall and looked around the rich resort areas. i didn’t like that area very much. watching rich people drive like lunatics and live in arrogant oppulance really bugs the hell out of me. however, the waterfall was really cool and i got some good shots of it.

the time was getting late, so we headed north west on a detour up to a beach which might have been good for sunset. i was quite sunburned by this time so i bought a longer tshirt. the beach wasn’t very good … actually, it was nice, but i was a bit tired from being sunburned, so i didn’t enjoy it. we kept going north and followed the coast to check out some wind turbines also owned by my company. we got lost on the small farm roads, but figured it out eventually.

we headed back to the main northern beach after that. the beach was very nice and very crowded. it was one of the most popular beaches on the island. we looked around and decided to wait and see how sunset would look. we ate more black pig for dinner and, since the sunset wasn’t very good, we rode to jeju and called it a night.

oh … saturday night i went back to the cool pagoda i’d seen friday night. on friday evening the pagoda was all lit up with lanterns, so i was quite excited to go there and get some nice shots. however saturday night it was shut. cursing under my breath, i rode back to the hotel.

on sunday morning we took a second go at the cave we missed on friday. however, about half way there it started raining. we persisted for a bit, but then stopped at a supermarket for some cover to see if the weather would break. about 30 minutes later we gave up, figuring the weather was following us east, so we rode back to the city for some coffee. we talked for a while in town. i returned the bike and went to the airport.

at the airport, i got some food. the ladies at the restaurant were quite unpleasant, so i got my revenge by stealing the nice chopsticks.

all up, the trip to jeju was a lot of fun. i came back sunburned to all hell on both arms. we got lost a bunch of times and never made it to the cave on the eastern side of the island. we gave up on both sunrise and sunset photos … but i had a really good time, saw some good times, had a lot of laughs, got some good photos.

now i can say i’ve been to jeju island …

i really like this photo … i took it on saturday 10th august on a bridge crossing the han river. download a wallpaper version of this photo here.

got a hella busy weekend coming up … tonight i’m trying to finish angie’s photos (which i’m 3 weeks behind on) and update natalya’s site (which i’m months behind on)

ryan gets here in the morning. we’re gonna check out the magnum photography exhibition, go to cheungmuro and look around, then head to dongjak and do some photography on the bridge. the plan is to photograph the han river at sunset (here’s hoping for clear weather). the view from the bridge is probably the best location in korea. we can see the sunset, the han river, lots of buildings and a motorway on the right, and the 63 building on the left.

however, tonight’s work is progressing well. i’ve upgraded my site and fixed the permalink error. i’m running wordpress 2.6.1 which has a few error fixes from the wordpress 2.6 release. i also fixed some small cosmetic issues and uploaded a different smilie pack

i’m a bit hungry, so i might head out soon and get some food. actually, i’ve been a good boy lately. my diet has consisted of kimbab (lots), bibimbab, ramyeon, neng myon and dongass. it’s been a 95% korean diet … with the occasional sandwich thrown in … usually on the way to work.

but, i have beer … so i’ll grab a snack and have a few drinks while i do some editing.

oh, i almost forgot, i’ve started listening to last.fm. these days my regular music has been getting a bit dull, and i’m tired of changing playlists. so i figured it’s time to explore and find some new music … it’s working out well.

i’m not sure where exactly this is (the source didn’t reveal the location or author) but i’m sure it’s somewhere in the far north or far south … where the sun doesn’t set. this is a 12 hour time lapse photograph of the sun moving across the horizon. it’s pretty damn impressive.