Chuseok 2013: Busan, Ulleungdo, & Dokdo

Chuseok is Korea's Thanksgiving.
Many Koreans go an spend time with their families during this time. Most foreigners see it as an extra vacation to go on an adventure. This year was a lucky year and the holiday lasted for 5 days due to the lunar schedule and the weekend. It can be as short as 3 days and as long as 5. Kelly decided she wasn't going to be heading to Seoul but wanted to travel this year. After much discussing an deciding, we finally chose to visit the mysterious island of Ulleungdo and try to see Dokdo while we were there. Unfortunately we waited too long to book our trip and at first we thought we were not going to be able to go. Luckily through connections of my director, we were able to book a 3 day guided tour for the last three days of the holiday. With our two extra days in the beginning, we decided that on wednesday we would visit Busan and test out one of their city tours. Thursday was our "date" day and we went out for a steak dinner and to a movie. We saw separate movies, however so it really wasn't like a date.

Busan City Tour:
I visited Haeundae and Busan quite a bit when my parents were here, but with any city in Korea it seems, there is always more to see. We chose the more coastal bus tour and luckily it was an area I had not yet seen, but had wanted to. Our first bus was a double decker (they all are) but this one had an open top! It was a beautiful sunny day so it was quite a treat. The bus for the day only costs about $10 and is a hop-on-hop-off tour. We started with 75 Square. It is a coastal course that has a stunning view and a nice trail for walking. The highlight of the day was seeing Taejongdae. When we hopped off the bus we were immediately greeted by a man in a van to take us to the dock for the tourist boat. It was a little random to me as a foreigner, but Kelly didn't seemed phased so we went for it. It was rather inexpensive. Just $10 for about a 40-minute boat ride. The views from the boat were really exceptional and I was able to get some really nice photos. After our bus tour had finished we did some exploring on foot. Our last stop was to BIFF Square. BIFF stands for Busan International Film Festival. It is quite popular and runs every October. There are a ton of movies playing from all over the world. The square is basically a marketplace of food and vendors selling various things such as imitation brand name handbags, watches, socks, and your traditional Korean souvenirs. A lot of the theatres that play movies for BIFF are along the square as well. At first we treated ourselves to some Turkish ice-cream. It was pretty good. Kelly really wanted a fake Chanel wallet and we found one for a pretty good deal. She kept asking me why I didn't want to buy one, and I had to explain how things like that have no appeal to me. I think she was confused. It's just not the Korean way! We also stumbled upon a watch stand that had a ton of different kinds all for $10. We couldn't refuse. In the end Kelly and I bought the same watch and it's our joke that we have "couple" watches now. If you weren't aware, Korea has this huge fascination with couples having and wearing similar items. Usually its the same shirt, or hat, or shoes, or watches, or all of the above at one time. When I first got here I thought it was really quite cute, but now I think it's ridiculous haha. Our last stop was at a sock stand and I bought some to send home because they have some really interesting and hilarious pairs.










Ulleungdo & Dokdo:

Our trip to Ulleungdo was not a short one. We first had to head to Ulsan University area which was where the bus was going to pick us up to go to Pohang. Pohang is where the ferry port is. Our ferry ride was going to be about 3-4 hours. We made sure to get some anti-sea sickness medicine because all the blogs I had read mentioned getting sea sick. We arrived in Ulleungdo just after lunch time. The first view of the island is beautiful. It is quite small but most of it hasn't been developed and is really natural. Our tour package included our lodgings, basic food with options to upgrade for an additional fee, and bus tours each day. I was the only foreigner in our tour. It was really insane when we arrived and I think that on average, there are most likely more tourists than locals on the island constantly. Our bus tour took us to a waterfall and a beautiful observatory. Both were not easy to get to and required quite a bit of hiking. Once we returned to Dodong City, we were given free time to wander. There was a really nice walking trail along the edge of the island. During our walk, we came across some foreigners who were jumping off one of the bridges into the water below. Koreans believe the swimming season ends in August no matter how warm it is in September. You could tell they were thinking "crazy foreigners" as they were talking by haha. They were quite friendly and we exchanged pleasantries. We ended up going to bed rather early the first night.
Our second day started early. We were going to be able to head to Dokdo! Most days you can't head there due to visibilty and water conditions. The ferry ride was about 2 hours one way. I really liked the ferry ride there because our tour all sat together and everyone was sharing whatever food they had haha it was quite comical how much food I was being given. Once the boat gets to Dokdo, we only have 20 minutes on the actual island to take our photos and then we have to leave immediately. There is also only a limited area civilians are allowed to walk on. The island itself is guarded by a number of soldiers and some of them are quite serious and others are quite friendly. All of them gladly take photos for you.  If you don't know the history of Doko, I highly recommend reading up on it. It is quite interesting. Those 20 minutes flew by and after taking many photos, we were headed back for Ulleungdo again. The soldiers waved us farewell and I couldn't help but think how lonely they must be to stay there constantly.
After Dokdo, we had some lunch and then got ready for another bus tour. This was a long tour and the majority of it was spent on the bus. We stopped at places for short spurts of touring time and to take photos. All the places we went were really stunning and beautiful. Ulleungdo is known for their dried squid and pumpkin products. I am not a huge fan of dried squid but I did try some and it definitely was the freshest of dried squid I have tasted.  We bought some to bring back as gifts. Our last stop on the tour was to the pumpkin bread store so I purchased some pumpkin bread and pumpkin taffy for my students. When we got back on the bus the driver surprised me by buying me a bag of pumpkin jelly (similar to jujubes). I think he felt bad for me because the whole tour is in Korean haha. For dinner we headed to a beef shop and the food and service were less than desirable, but I got complimented by the group sitting next to us for my ability to eat Korean food. I think they were referring to my style. I guess they expect foreigners to fumble with their chopsticks and have a look of uncertainty. Luckily I have observed Kelly well and love all Korean food. It felt nice to get a compliment like that.
Our last day was a free day where we got to choose from a selection of things. Kelly and I chose a boat tour and riding a cable car. Early in the morning we were told that the boat tour was cancelled due to the weather, but we were still able to ride in the cable car and saw beautiful views. Lunchtime was when tragedy struck. Kelly received a call from our tour coordinator that the ferry back to Pohang had been cancelled. It was due to the weather and the water conditions. We were stuck, no other way off the island. Normally this wouldn't have been a big deal, however the next possible ferry was not until 3:30 the next day (if it was safe enough) and we start work at 1:30...That means that our academy would have only one teacher all day long to teach all the classes...We knew this wasn't going to go over well but there literally was nothing we could have done. Our director reacted pretty badly and stopped contact with us all together. This had us panicking and worried about our fate at work when we did return. It turned out that we were able to leave the next day and as much as we were eager to get home, we were also reluctant to face our director. It ended up that she didn't say anything to me and pretended like it never happened. I guess my job is safe! Haha
Overall I loved this vacation and am really happy I had the chance to see both Ulleung and Dokdo Island!

I love Jeju!

Kelly and I have been talking about Jeju pretty much since I got here, and we contemplated going for our winter break at the beginning of the year. We chose to put it off until this summer and I am really glad we did. As much as it would be nice to see Jeju as a winter wonderland, the summer paradise version was wonderful. It was really difficult to decide what we wanted to see because there is so much so we decided that we would make our way around the island one day at a time. We decided on our first day in Jeju City and the northern part of the island. Then we would move to the western side, followed by the southern area of Seogwipo, then the eastern side, and finally our last day would be reserved for our daunting hike of Mount Hallasan. As much as Jeju looks like a small island on the map, it takes a while to see it and transportation there isn't the greatest. We opted to rent a taxi for three of our five days and it was really convenient. The cost was 100,000 won per day which is just under $100 per day. Yes, it is a little pricey, but well worth it. The taxi driver was really great and almost became our tour guide. We got to ask him if some places were worth seeing and having his opinion really helped us make the best of our trip. We saw A LOT and I will attempt to convey the beautiful sights and my thoughts on everything.

My first challenge was packing, since I hate it to begin with, but since we were going to be travelling around so much and staying at guesthouses/hostels, I would need to fit everything into my backpack. I made it happen though. The flight was a breeze. Considering the last flight I took was coming to Korea, this 40-minute ride seemed like seconds. It took us longer to get to the actual airport in Busan than to fly to Jeju. Once we landed it was about 6pm and we headed to our first guesthouse called You&I. This place was really cozy and nice. It is pretty much right downtown Jeju City and the owner speaks some English along with Japanese and Korean. The room we stayed in was dormitory style with bunk beds and it was nice. There was even free wifi. What I really love about guesthouses is that they provide breakfast. This one offered us eggs and toast, along with various spreads for toast. Our first night we went out and had Black Skinned Pork. It's famous in Jeju and it looks like regular pork when you eat it but the taste is much more appetizing than your run of the mill pork. It's a little on the expensive side, but really worth it. We also both didn't feel like we were in Jeju when we were downtown. We felt like we could have been in Ulsan downtown. This mentality changed the next day.

Day One - Jeju City:
We started early, with our taxi driver picking us up at 9:00. The night before we chose places we wanted to see and we were determined we would see all of them. We started our journey at Youngduam Rock. It is along the coast and is said to look like a dragon. One of my favourite things about Jeju was that it is covered in black lava rock that is really quite beautiful. The contrast of the deep blue water made it really wonderful to see. I will post a link to my photos to have a look, because there are just so many it would be impossible to incorporate them here. After seeing the dragon rock, we headed to some traditional police offices at the advisement of our taxi driver, and they were really interesting to see. We got to see where the officers lived and spent their days. There were also places where punishment of ht criminals occurred. Kelly and I had some fun here pretending I was a criminal. After exploring here, we headed to two museums. The first was a natural museum that covered the land mass and history of the volcanic eruption, along with the various wildlife that is found on the island. The national museum of Jeju was quite interesting with many different kinds of artifacts. We headed to a traditional market after seeing the museums and I bought a handkerchief to keep the sun off my neck and keep cool. We also bought some of Jeju's famous oranges that were fantastic. We also got some dragon fruit and chocolate to being home to our co-workers and friends. Our next stop was Ecoland and this place was really cool. The park is surrounded by a train that has a hop-on hop-off system and you can explore the various areas. It was really beautiful and GREEN. We don't see too much green on the mainland so it was nice to have a change in Jeju. Our day ended at San-gum-buri Crater. This was probably my favourite place I saw in Jeju. It was so amazingly stunning. The crater was filled with beautiful greenery and since we went later in the day, the skyline was absolutely stunning. We ended our day by heading to our next guesthouse that was aptly named "The Guesthouse". We would stay there for two nights and it was a really nice place.

Day Two: Eastern Jeju
We started our day by having breakfast at the guesthouse and they even had Greek yogurt! It was delicious. This is where we met another foreigner, Allison, who was travelling alone. Coincidentally she is also living in Ulsan and we travelled with her for a couple days. We started off at Hallim Park. This was a nature park that housed all kinds of wildlife and plants. I saw cacti for the first time! It was really tropical there. We also got to tour through some caves. We then stopped at one of Jeju's famous beaches, Hyeopjae, but we were on a mission to see places so we didn't stay long. It was really nice though and clear. We ended up driving along the coast for a while and the sights were really beautiful. For lunch we had a seafood soup and the seafood was still moving when the big pot was placed in front of us. It was intimidating to try it, but it was really quite delicious. After lunch we took a ride on a yellow submarine! i had my doubts with it but the trip was really cool and we got to see lots of sea life. We then ventured to Mount San-bang-san, which is a mountain that we climbed and reached a temple that was really quite beautiful. We finished our day by going to a couple theme parks. The first being Mini Land and the second the Glass Castle where everything was made of glass.

Day Three: Seogwipo
We started by heading to Hallasan National Park and partially hiked one of the trails, but we didn't want to go too far since Kelly and I were going to do the big hike on our last day. We then moved onto the Alive Museum, which is a trick art museum. This place was a lot of fun and we got some interesting photos. We would see three separate waterfalls this day. The first one was called Cheongyeon and it was really quite beautiful, the second was Cheonjiyeon and it was smaller, but was also really nice. The last one was my personal favorite and falls into the ocean. We saw this one later in the day and soaked our feet in the water. We also saw beautiful coastline sights. At the end of this day we had to made a long taxi ride to our last guesthouse  that was on the north-eastern tip. This guesthouse wasn't as nice as the last two, but we got our own room so that was a bonus. After having dinner at a local restaurant, we settled in for the night.

Day Four: Udo Island
We chose to have a more laid back day and ventured out to Udo Island which is a small island about 15 minutes away from Jeju. On the map it looks like a sprawled our cow. This island was really cute and green. We hiked a little and spent a good portion of the day on the beach. This is where I would like to comment on swimwear in Korea. Back home I am usually the most conservatively dressed person at the beach in my one-piece bathing suit. Here, I am the most scantily clad person in a swim dress! Most koreans go swimming in full on clothes that can be full arm and leg length. I can count on two hands how many bare male chests I saw that day. It is strange to me, but they are really conscious of their skin not having contact with the sun. We enjoyed the beach and some delicious food, and a couple boat rides. The first one was a lot of fun with hilarious drivers (even in Korean). They took us out onto the water and into some caves. Our second boat ride was on the beach on a very skinny inflatable boat called a "banana" boat. This one we held on for dear life as we were pulled by a jet ski. I ate a lot of saltwater on that ride haha. At the end of the day, we enjoyed some peanut ice cream. Udo is famous for their peanuts. When we got back onto Jeju, we headed to the big crater. It was quite the hike to the top but again, it did not disappoint. It had a stunning view. We packed it in early because tomorrow was our Hallasan day and we knew we would need all the energy we could get.

Day Five: Hallasan
This day was one of the most intense of my life. We started our day at about 6am. After having some breakfast, our guesthouse driver took us to the base of the trail and we spent some time stretching. I knew this was going to be a long hike, but I underestimated how difficult it would be. The terrain was quite rocky and very steep. I had to stop a few times and give myself little pep talks, but I made it to the top. Unfortunately, it was so overcast and we were in the clouds, so we couldn't see anything, but just knowing we made it to the top was very rewarding! It took about 4 hours to get to the top. 1,950m high. By the time we made it to the bottom, I was very thankful and worried for my legs. They were already very sore. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to walk the next day. It turned out I was fine, but I was achy for a few days, that's for sure. We headed to bed almost immediately after arriving back to the guesthouse. This would conclude our Jeju trip and it was sure an amazing one.

I am really thankful to my roommate Kelly for being my travel buddy. She is really good at getting me interested in places and planning. I know I wouldn't have seen everything I did without her. Overall, this was a trip of a lifetime and I am so glad I went. I think all foreigners who are living here for a short or long time should check it out! There is so much to see and do, you could go sight seeing for months!

You can check out some photos here: https://plus.google.com/photos/108080094162280120728/albums/5911927807806593297