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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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