Golfing on Jeju Island (by David Shelton) - Part 3

Golf in Korea is a challenge to say the least... all of you golfers out there will appreciate this. 

When trying to golf in Korea you have to come prepared with a group. It is not possible to go golfing as a solo or a walk-on at most courses. Even public courses, of which there are very few, you must go with others. The courses won't let you on even if there is room to go. 

I found this out the first day I tried to go golf in Jeju. I had a wonderful breakfast at our resort buffet then went to walk on to the course as my hotel said shouldn't be a problem. The course thought otherwise! They would not let me play solo, or even join another group. I went back to my hotel balcony and read a book while watching the part of the course I could see. It was at least 30 min and up to an hour between seeing groups on the course! Ridiculous!!

I did end up playing at a course called Castlex. I only got in nine holes since that was the public part of the course. It was very beautiful and fun. I played with a local who knew the course and fortunately some English. I had a fun time. 

 

 The amazing buffet breakfast.

 The course.

 These  were the yardage markers. Two bands is 100 meters. 

Yes, the courses here are all in meters. I have to add 10% to each distance to find yards.

The entrance to the course. They have 27 holes, but only 9 are public. 

When they say public, it more closely means you can walk onto the course.If you have a group, you can play most of the 'private' courses, you just pay a bit more.

Hotel - Hyatt Regency Jeju - Part 2

Our Hotel (Hyatt Regency Jeju-do) was amazing. That is pretty much all I have to say. The pictures speak for themselves.

 A lovely sunset dinner from the hotel restaurant balcony.

Jeju-Do Anniversary Trip Part 1

 Jeju-do or Jeju Island is located off of the southern tip of South Korea. Jeju-do has all sorts of history and legend associated with it. Most importantly, it was where almost all South Koreans went for their honeymoons until very recently when passport restrictions were relaxed, allowing South Koreans the ability to travel more freely. As a result, there are lots of romantically themed, and fertility themed sites and legends associated with Jeju-do.  If you want to read about Jeju-do, here is a link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju-do

We had a wonderful trip in celebration of our first anniversary as a married couple. We spent 5 days and 4 nights on the island, relaxing, eating and sightseeing. Jeju-do is incredibly lush and beautiful so instead of telling you ALL about it, I thought I would just show you. We took TONS of pictures on our trip. I hope you enjoy.

There are so many pictures that I will have to split them up into multiple pages on the blog. I will do my best to group them according to:

Hotel - Hyatt Regency Jeju
Golfing on Jeju Island - Blog by David Shelton
Botanical Gardens - Different gardens within the botanical gardens
Dol Hareubang - (Grandfather Stone)
Love Land - Given the nature of Love Land, this particular blog post may not be for everyone. Love Land is a sex themed sculpture park, if you find this sort of thing offensive, please skip over this section. We thought it was quite hilarious. Not only because of the sculptures, but because of all of the little old Korean women giggling there way through the park along with the newly married couples. 

We hope you enjoy our blog! 

To get to Jeju-do we drove from Chinhae to the Gimhae airport in Busan. We caught a short, domestic flight on Korean Air to Jeju-do, grabbed our bags and then took a very inexpensive airport shuttle bus from the north of the Island to our Hotel.

The weather was beautiful, warm and humid. Perfect for relaxing on the coast!

 This is the Dol Hareubang or Grandfather stone, more to come on this guy later.