New Crown

Its Raining, how do we keep the Thatch on the Roof

by Hmmmm

Thatch. It looks nice huh..? Its all romantic, it brings to mind images of yesteryear. Those medieval houses in England or France. yes thatch is not unique to Korea, nor are the problems with thatch. Where do you think we get the expression "Its Raining Cats and Dogs".. yes when it rained in Elizabethan England, as the Thatch got old, worn, and fell of the roof, the roof would leak, and the cats and the dogs would jump down and seek cover from the rain... so how do we lengthen the halflife of a thatched roof. Well we can sew it, or we can do what the koreans did.

They gre Gourds or Pumpkin (Hobak) or cucumber (Oi) which kept the roof togther nicely, they also tied the roof down with big pieces of Jeju basalt as weights.. so there you go. :oP

Cheju....upclose...

by jaam

There's the map of the island. It shows all the important sights to see. Of course we did 95% of that...In three days time, hehehehe
I can't get enough of the food!!!! I just love Korean Dishes.....

Driving around in March, the island is covered with waves and waves of brilliant yellow. Rape flowers scattered along the road dazzling us visitors as if pure yellow colors had been sprinkled at the roadside.

Bultap Temple.....why is the temple so waaay up there?? That's the question foremost in my mind when we get off the car. Preparing myself to tackle the steep climb in order to see the monk and drink the supposedly miracle water (again) at the top.

Yongduam
As a symbol of Cheju, the rock is said to be in the shape of a dragon's head. ( I'm somewhere below it ) Legend claims that once an emissary of the Dragon King ordered a search for the elixir of life on Mt.Halla but was struck by an arrow released by the angry mountain spirit and fell into the sea. Then the dragon king turned into stone with its body submerged into water but its head reared to the heaven.

Beautiful rock sculptures section of Hallim Park.

CHEJU WORLD CUP STADIUM with a much less crowd. I was surprised to hear that the stadium was only half full during the games.

Site of World Cup 2002