Educational Cheju-do

Now, where was I? Ah, yes. At the Hyatt Regency Cheju with a love struck four year old, a simian like blond boy, an over worked, tired, and cranky daddy, one hugely pregnant and none too mobile mama, and our Dutch fan club. As our luck would have it, the weather had turned ugly, overcast, gray, and dreary, with a smidge of trickle here and there. It reminded me of the Reagan era that way.

Our first excursion Saturday morning, after breakfast, of course, was a stop marked on the free Avis rental car map as the 1100 meter scenic point. We parked and walked around trying to find the scenic look out so we could, ya know, take a look. But all we found was a little building up on a hill, where it would have been a good place to build a look out, filled with over priced Korean junk souvenirs. Oh, and these statues that I made the kids pose with. They are called harubang and they ward off evil spirits. Though, obviously, if my angels of Satan got this close, they aren't very good at warding off anything.

After shelling out thousands of won for a few toys for the kids to keep them happy on our drive, we headed back to the car. While in the parking lot, we were accosted by a tour group of visiting Chinese who just had to have their pictures taken with the kids. I'm really not sure what they do with these pictures. I mean, do they show them to their friends? "And look. Here is us with this white kid we forced to take a picture with us. Look at how white she is. And we found her in Korea!" And if it had been just one person, one picture, I really wouldn't have minded. But after several with a crowd of others waiting their turn, I just picked her up and put in her in the car. Really, she gets PAID for this kind of thing, people!

It wasn't till we were pulling out, and driving away that we actually spotted the 1100 meter scenic... ummm... well... this. It's a sign. That's all. A sign. A parking lot filled with snap happy Chinese tourists. A couple of harubangs. An over priced souvenir stand. And a 1100 meter sign. A true to form, real life tourist trap. Cheju was starting to remind me a lot of South Carolina. How many of you have been suckered into stopping at that South of the Border money pit? Admit it. Come on. Well, just so you know, if you've been to South Carolina, then you've basically been to Cheju-do. Although, there are a lot more museums in Cheju.

From there we went off to visit our first of several museums. It seems that Cheju, despite being beautiful and having a moderate climate, felt the need to draw visitors for other reasons besides scenery, beach bumming, and golf. Their answer was museums. There are museums for everything there. I mean, what better place than Korea to have an Africa Museum? Or how 'bout the Sex and Health Museum? Lots of honeymooners get a education there, I'll bet. But we decided to start out with something not only distinctly Korean, but particular only to Cheju-do: The Haenyeo Museum.

Haenyeo are the island's traditional diving women. The women dive down to collect the seafood so popular in Cheju and throughout Korea. It was an exclusively female job starting in the 1600s. Nowadays, things have changed with commercial fishing and all that. But there are still some who continue to dive. These women handed the profession down through the generations, diving while pregnant, bringing their newborns with them to the beach, and teaching their young daughters to dive. They'd actually leave their babies in little moses baskets near the fires to keep warm and then would come out of the water to nurse them. Then they'd go straight back to diving in water, down 8-10 feet on a single breath.


There was also a children's museum that the kids enjoyed even though it was entirely in Korean. They were the only kids in there so that was cool for them to be able to play with all the hands on activities without having to wait or take turns. In fact, we were the only guests in the entire museum. Coming from Seoul, a city of 13 million, it was almost heaven, really.The thing that really drew Mike and I to want to go to this particular museum was that these women were the only organized group of all female patriots who actively resisted the Japanese oppression. There were patriotic women of all sorts throughout Korea who acted heroically, don't get me wrong. But the haenyeo were the only actual organization of women who fought. There is a rather impressive memorial to them right outside the museum. I liked it, but for the fact that only the woman on the right side looks Korean. The other two look like they could be my cousins. Ech. Always something just not quite right.

Our next museum was The Teddy Bear Museum. We really thought the kids were going to love this museum. It cost an arm and a leg to get in, but since they behaved fairly well at the Haenyeo museum, we thought we'd reward them. The reality was they weren't so interested in the vast array of teddy bears from eras goneby or by the teddies dressed up and posed like famous people or moments in history. They wanted to play with teddy bears and buy themselves a teddy bear. Roman wandered around by himself, whining and begging to be carried around by almost anyone that would pay him notice. Reilly Kate, though, poor Reilly Kate. She became my poseable prop. I made her stand with all kinds of teddy bears and imitate their poses. Here's she's doing Michael Jordan. Don't ya just love it!?!

As weird as it sounded, it was actually probably more fun for Mike and I than the kids. We really liked this display. On the left is King Sejong, a great Korean king. On the right is Yi Soon Shin, a famous Korean admiral. In the middle... he needs no introduction. What does Gandhi have in common with the other two? Now that is an interesting question, one that kept us guessing for hours.

But nothing at the Teddy Bear Museum really compared to the cerebral challenge that awaited us at the Chocolate Museum. We'd picked up a brochure for the place at the hotel. It looked awesome. Lots of hand dipped chocolates. A whole museum dedicated to the art of chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. How could we possibly go wrong?

Let me tell you, there was hardly any chocolate in the whole place. In fact, the museum was actually dedicated to the junk thrift stores in the states below the Mason Dixon line could not sell. Glass cases, dozens of them, filled with McDonalds Happy Meal toys. And not the old, collectible toys, either. Recent ones. What was the connection to chocolate? That's a riveting question? Here's another brain teaser. Why the hell does Buzz Lightyear have a rubber chicken in his hand? And what is Princess Jasmine doing between his legs? And why the hell is he so big compared to the other toys? And what the hell does this have to do with chocolate?

While we're at it, what does this salt and pepper shaker have to do with chocolate? What does salt and pepper have to do with boobs or South Beach or Cheju or chocolate? And why, oh, why for the love of all that is sweet and hand dipped is this in the chocolate museum but not an ounce of chocolate?

Before we left the museum, we found the chocolate. One, tiny glass case filled with over priced boxes of chocolates. We bought one box and a chocolate lollipop to the tune of over 30 bucks. As you can see from the picture, Roman assumed ownership and control of said box of chocolates. I think I had two, just enough to keep me nourished for the long, sleepless night I spent thinking of the answers to the questions our museum excursions had posed.

We returned to the hotel to take the kids for a quick swim and then out to dinner. We fell into our beds, asleep even before the kids. It was a very taxing day, as you well can imagine.