So as most of you know by now, my family got a chance to take a long vacation together. This time, I had saved up enough vacation to go to Korea for a month. I could’ve stayed longer but there were no return flights left for me (without increasing the price signficantly) in July.
It was fun and crazy month, let me tell ya… but it was also our tenth (yes, 10th!) anniversary! We had taken lots of sacrifices to get to where we are today and we hadn’t spent many of our anniversaries together, let alone do stuff together. So I was more than determined to do something special… something memorable.
I had never been to the Cheju Island in the south… the Korean Hawaii, if you will, as it is also a dead volcano. We had sufficient Korean Air miles saved to buy two tickets, two nights of stay at KAL Hotel, and 3 days of car rental. That was awesome and it was Soojin that made all the stuff happen. By the way, renting cars in Korea is friggin’ expensive!! It’s not like here where it’s more reasonable at $30/day or so… In Korea, it was more like $100/day! Yikes!
Anyhow, we get to Cheju Island and take the shuttle ride to the Hanjin Car Rental only to find out that… you need an International Driver’s license to rent or drive a car! After much panic and trying to think our way through it, Soojin asked if we could hire a “driver” (기사). By God’s grace, we were sent a man who seemed to be in his late 40’s to early 50’s. His name was ê¹€ë‘환. No I am not kidding! Just take a look at him!
Let me just say, do NOT judge a man by his cover! While he may seem like a hybrid between a thug and 70’s pop singer, he was definitely a worthy tour guide. Get this. His rate was $50. Per day! No kidding! He was not only kind but was very thorough and made a plan for us but was flexible to what we had wanted to do (and not do)! And of course, he knew some of the best places to eat! One of the best dishes ever was ê¿© ìˆ˜ì œë¹„ (pheasant dumpling soup)!
If you are ever in Cheju Island and need a great tour guide (but you’d need to be able to at least understand Korean as he doesn’t speak any English!), give him a call! He’s my man! ê¹€ë‘환 기사 010-7709-0823 and tell him that the couple from Texas sent you! 😛
Cheju (or is it Jeju) is nice, but I am not sure I would compare it to Hawaii. I think the attractions are quite different.
Anyway, yeah, I was surprised at how expensive the car rental was there as well as the hotels. Well at least where I stayed…
Hope you had a nice, romantic time…. 🙂