Sunday, April 10, 2016

April 11th - Jeju, South Korea

After going through immigration we only had about 3 1/2 hours before the
ship was leaving again. Not enough time to do much but take a quick look
around. Luckily, I have visited this island before.

Jeju, the "Island of Spirits", is South Korea's largest island and today is
a popular vacation spot and honeymoon destination for Korean newlyweds.
Since the season had not yet started, many places were still closed.

It was lovely to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom, especially in
contrast to the lava landscape on this volcanic island.

As we were preparing to set sail, the buses started lining up on the dock
for the two cruise ships waiting to come into the harbor. And, a local
marching band came out to entertain us and send us on our way.

The last four ports have been interesting. We were originally supposed to
visit three China ports and then head over to South Korea. However, the
Chinese government decided to enforce some law of theirs which did not allow
us to go from one Chinese port to another without first going to another
country. So, instead of China, China, China and then South Korea, we had to
delete one of the China ports and go from China to South Korea, then back to
China then to the substituted port of Jeju, South Korea. This was made even
more difficult, because both of these countries require face to face
immigration when entering the country from another country. So, instead of
just doing this twice, we got to do it four times - we have all become real
experts at immigration!

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