Horses, gardens, tea and teddies...

Tuesday – Our first stop today was at the Mal Horse Park. We sat in a semi circle stadium around a huge arena and watched a show put on by Mongolian horsemen and women. They performed amazing tricks – human pyramids on top of horses, archery while they were galloping along, and then they simulated the victory of Genghis Khan. The kids all watched mesmerised. It was very impressive, and the horses were just amazing. At one point they had 50 mongolian horsemen out reinacting a battle scene, doing all sorts of tricks – most impressive.

After all that excitement it was off to the serene and most beautiful Spirited Garden. Jeju Island is covered in cherry blossoms everywhere we go, but this garden was most spectacular with its waterfalls, beautiful bonsai, and ornately trimmed trees. The children fed the huge, beautifully colored carp in the ponds, and happily jumped from stepping stone to stone in the warm spring sunshine. We had lunch in the restaurant here, and took a short guided tour, and learnt about the art of bonsai.

The O’Sulloc Tea fields and museum were next. The kids hid among the lines of carefully clipped tea hedges, and we walked around the beautiful gardens with their stunning blossoms. Then it was inside for some green tea accompanied by green tea cake – very nice. Brendan tried a green tea milk shake (which he decided had a distinct grass flavour – connoisseur that he is!).

Back on our bus with our lovely Jeju Island tour guides Jane and Nancy (not very Korean names!) to the Teddy Bear Museum. The kids all enjoyed this large museum with bears depicting scenes of everything you could imagine – from the battle at Normandy, a Korean traditional wedding, the first men on the moon – you name it – they did it with teddy bears! There was also a beautiful outdoor garden section, with large teddy statues doing various activities which were great for photos (fishing, having a tea party, etc). We all found it difficult to get out of that gift shop without buying something!

Off to a nearby restaurant to try some local Jeju delicacies – some of us tried the abalone bibimbap – very nice! Lily feasted on a whole bbq’d mackerel fish (with the obligatory rice and seaweed that she requests with every meal). Others tried all sorts of other Korean traditional dishes.

We stopped off at the local beach on the way home, and the kids had a run along the sand. The beaches at Jeju are very pretty – and not too crowded at this time of the year. Another long day – but we are all having so much fun watching our beautiful children play and look after each other. We all feel the special bond growing between our children, and are so enjoying watching them enjoy both each other’s company, and loving their land of their birth a little bit more every day.

Also, I meant to say – did you know that you can click on any of my pics to make them larger?