We drove to a nearby waterfall and enjoyed the scenery and walked around and (thanks to our mobile wifi hotspot) video chatted a bit with my parents and showed them the waterfall (picture 2). It felt very surreal to be sharing an experience in the middle of nowhere on Jeju island with my parents halfway across the world via my cell phone.
We also saw plenty of people taking pictures of themselves using these "sel-ca" (self camera) rods (picture 3). They are probably one of the most ubiquitous things I've seen out here, sold almost everywhere you might want to take a picture, even the random stalls on the side of the road. Well, I guess the exercise equipment that we see is also everywhere (picture 4). That was on this trail where we had gone after we left the waterfall. Very random; but I guess the view is superb for when you're exercising (picture 5).
After working up an appetite walking along that coastal trail we headed into town for a late lunch. My wife had found this great place where you cook your own pork belly on a pot lid (the pot lid is basically sitting on top of an open stove, so it gets pretty hot). First you coat the surface using pork skin with the fat (picture 6, lower right on the pot lid). Then you add your pork belly and they add the kimchi on foil. They also provide some side things that we cooked up as well, such as garlic cloves, onions, and potato slices (picture 7). You can make a lettuce wrap with the meat, some seasoned bean paste, and the kimchi, or just eat it straight up with a mixture of salt/pepper/sesame oil (small dish lower center of picture 6). After all that you can get fried rice, which they put on the lid with foil to get a little crispy (picture 8). The mechanics of the pot lid are quite genius, I have to say, because a) it probably developed as a way to cook some things quick on the outside while there was an actual pot of stuff cooking underneath, b) because it's slanted, all the fat drips down so the meat is not just sitting in the fat; kind of like a George Foreman grill, and c) because all the fat is dripping down, when you put garlic or potatoes or something towards the outside, they get to absorb some of this fat while they cook! Yum!
Later that night, after a harrowing drive through windy roads and a crazy intersection (think Davis Square with no lights and aggressive drivers at night in the rain), we ended up at this outdoor, but covered, market. My wife bought some fresh sea squirts to eat raw. I was hoping there would be some cool street food, but other than raw seafood and the normal ddukbokki and fishcakes, there wasn't much (picture 9).
This morning as we checked out I took some more pictures of the place where we were staying. Picture 10 - our balcony, picture 11 - the smart toilet (!), and picture 12 - the small driveway leading up to the place, from the vantage point of leaving.
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