Last
weekend we went on a 3-day vacation to Jeju Island! Jeju is a decent sized
island in the very south part of the country! Many people claim it is the “Hawaii”
of South Korea! It definitely is a very different atmosphere from mainland Korea
and is also very beautiful!
We
decided we had to get this blog post up now as we leave again today to have
another mini vacation to Seoul! :) Our 3 day weekend to Jeju was jam
packed! We saw so many sites and really enjoyed getting out of our town for a
bit!
We had
Friday off because of a holiday (Korean National Foundation Day) and was
invited to go on this vacation by some friends we met at orientation! This trip
was planned by an organization called “When in Korea” (a.k.a WINK). This organization
is led by foreigners and native Koreans who live in Korea and love to travel.
They plan trips around Korea for foreigners (although Koreans are welcome as
well!) and take care of the many details that can sometimes be challenging when
you don’t speak the language! This trip included our motel, ferry, busses,
entrance fees, and even a few meals! The cost was low for what all was included
and it was definitely worth it. We would have never experienced Jeju like that
by ourselves (It’s hard just to figure out how to get ferry tickets right now!)
So for our first vacation, this was great!
We
started out by taking a taxi to Gwangju at 1:30am on Friday morning. The tour
bus was supposed to pick up the Gwangju people at 3am, so this gave us plenty
of time to get to the bus station, order a KFC snack (yep, healthy), and find
the rest of the group. We met up with our friends, Austin and Nicole and got on
the bus around 3:30am. By that time, we were exhausted and fell right asleep on
the bus. These are the same tour busses we’ve talked about before with the
comfy seats, curtains in the window, bright colored lights, and crazy
decorations. These busses are known for having the “most comfortable seats in
Korea.” Since most Koreans sit on the floor a lot..it makes sense. ;)
From
Gwangju, we drove south to the county of Wando. Wando is a coastle county with
multiple islands. Some islands are connected by large bridges and some you have
to take boats to. We woke up about 30 minutes before we were at the Ferry
station. It was bright and sunny out and the view was beautiful! Mixing the
green mountains with the beautiful beaches was amazing! We took lots of
pictures from the bus, but we wish we could explore more!
We were
told about 5 minutes before we arrived that we were late and will need to be
fast unloading. So all 50 of us quickly got off the bus, got our tickets, and
literally ran onto the boat. We were slightly disappointed when we found out
not only were we not on the larger ferry with the Dunkin Donuts, but we were on
the slower ferry with no Dunkin Donuts. ;) Instead of taking 2 hours to get to
Jeju, it was going to take 5! Good thing we were prepared with pre-downloaded
movies on the Kindle Fire and our pillows!
The Ferry
ride actually wasn’t too bad. We started out just visiting with our friends and
eating the Costco muffins provided by WINK. We took lots of pictures and then
started a movie. Ferry’s are very different in Korea. In the US, usually seats
are first come first serve, or maybe you get a reserved seat if it’s a nice
ferry. In Korea, there is a class system. First class gets nice comfortable
seats, second class gets regular seats, and third class gets put in one of many
large rooms on the boat and you sit on the floor…yep the floor! Not only do you
sit on the floor, but you must take off your shoes before you sit on the raised
floor with thin carpet. For the first 3 hours of the trip we actually found
metal seats outside, which were first come first serve. This was nice because
it was so beautiful out! For the last two hours we went inside and sat on the
floor because it got a little chilly. It was an interesting experience sitting
with a mix of foreigners and Koreans on this big floor. It’s not uncommon or
rude to lay down and sleep on the floor. Most people on the ferry (in 3rd
class) did this for the rest of the trip. We enjoyed a bowl of ramen for a
snack and finished our movie inside. Since the boat was slower, it was not too
rocky, but we were still thankful to get to Jeju in the end!
Once we got
to Jeju, we unloaded and found our new tour bus. Our first stop was lunch! We
drove to a Korean restaurant with a 7-11 next door. Thankfully we were one of
the first to order because there were only 2 cooks, and 50 hungry people! We
ate mandu (Korean pot stickers) and rice and met another awesome foreigner
named Nicole. Nicole actually works as a teacher in China at an international
school! It was really cool hearing about her experiences there!
After
lunch we were given tickets to a very “special” museum that was right next
door. We were told about this museum before but had no intention of going
there. Because our entrance fee was already paid for in our total tour cost, we
decided “what the heck!” When in Korea, right? The museum is called “Loveland.”
It is an out door art sculpture park focused on a theme of sex. Awkward, right?
So after a very quick run through park, we were definitely finished. We got
some ice cream from the 7-11 and got back on the bus.
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| The one appropriate statue in Loveland. ;) |
After
lunch and Loveland, we were on our way to the Manjangul Caves! The Mananjugal
Cave is a large (and very well preserved) lava tunnel in Jeju. Only 1km of the
13,422m cave is open to the public, but the Koreans worked hard to make this
accessible (and comfortable) for everyone. Inside there are lights on the cave
walls, so there really isn’t much need to bring your own. They’ve placed large
stepping stones in certain parts to cover up pot holes, and there is even a
wooden bridge built inside! It was a little chilly in the caves, but not terrible!
We made our way through the cave and enjoyed attempting to take pictures in the
dark!
After the
caves we were on our way to check into the motel. The motel was located at
Hamdeok Beach, literally like 50 feet from the beach. It was a decent motel with
lots of options for rooms. We got a private room with a double bed and our own
bathroom, but most people got into groups of 4 and slept on the floor on mats
and shared a bathroom. The room was plain, but it was clean and we even had a
nice view of the ocean! The one interesting cultural thing we experienced were
the pillows. The pillows provided did not have soft cotton or feathers inside,
but instead something crunchy and hard was inside. Later, I researched it and
found it was buckwheat husks inside. These pillows are actually supposed to be
good for sleeping and keep away bed bugs. Not our favorite, but it was a
interesting experience!
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| Simple, yet comfortable! |
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| Beautiful view! |
For
dinner we went to a popular “Black Pig” bbq restaurant. The name comes from the “Jeju Black Pig”
whose skin really is black. It is said that these pigs have a distinctive taste
and supposed to be really special. We barbequed the pig at a communal table and
met some other English teachers. The food was good, but we didn’t exactly
notice any special taste. After dinner, we walked back to the motel and made a
stop at the beach to enjoy it!
It was an
early night for us as we had to be ready for our day long tour to begin at 7:30
the next morning! The next day we got on the bus with everyone and were ready
for our day of exploring! Our first stop was Hyeobje Beach, about an hour away!
Tyler will explain the rest!
Hyeobje Beach –
This beach was beautiful, but
since it was our first stop in the morning, it was still quite windy and cold.
The beach is famous for it’s black volcanic rocks, which were pretty cool. Val
and I walked around and took pictures and played with our new selfie stick.
Although selfie sticks look kind of ridiculous, they actually work pretty well
and are very common in Korea. Also on the beach there were a bunch of little
cairns, (stacked rocks) that people had made. We don’t know why, but it was
cool to see so many of them.
Dragon Head Cliff Walk –
So the title for this place is a
little deceiving because unfortunately the cliff walk was closed due to the big
waves from the pending Typhoon. What we actually did at this location is go
onto a model of a Dutch ship that had once washed ashore. After that we hiked
up to an old signal post, which is like a stone watchtower for invading ships
where a person would light a fire to warn everyone of anything suspicious. Then
we headed further up to Sanbangsan Temple. The Buddhist temple was interesting
to see. Inside the buildings everything was so colorful and then there were a
lot of little statues everywhere. There was also a lot of food displayed before
the statues as an offering. Outside was also a huge golden statue of Buda. From
the temple we hiked up to a cave in the side of the mountain. In the cave there
were people burning incense and people praying. We got to drink from a pool of
blessed water, where the water was dripping through the rock above. On the way
back to the tour bus, we stopped at one of the many booths to buy some famous
Jeju chocolates and fresh squeezed Jeju unshiu orange
juice. The chocolates we bought to share at our schools. After sampling the
chocolates, we bought the unshiu orange flavor and the cactus flavor, which was
my favorite. The chocolates were good, but Val and I prefer just regular
chocolate without any fruit flavoring.
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| The buddhist temple was in that mountain. Really pretty! |
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| Little bit windy... ;) |
Buffet Lunch –
After our
busy morning, we were taken to a Korean Buffet restaurant for lunch! We were
looking forward to this because we were starving! When we walked in, the buffet
was huge! There were many long tables spread out with giant warm serving
platters filled with a variety of foods. There were many choices for lunch.
Surprisingly enough there wasn’t too many dishes that we hadn’t seen or tried
before (thanks to school lunch and being fed at orientation!). So it was good
to know what we liked and what we didn’t like. There were still many things we
stayed away from, but we found a plateful of food and sat down. We also ended
up trying Pineapple Fanta (soda pop) to try….it’s not as good as we thought. ;)
Tyler’s favorite dish was fried pot stickers and Val’s favorite was the sweet
and sour meat.
Cheonjeyeon Water Fall –
After lunch we went to see three
different waterfalls. The first waterfall was pretty small, but flowed into a
beautiful pool of water and was backed by a really cool rock wall. Despite the
sign that reads, “No swimming,” and “When swimming you can be died with heart
attack,” some people from our tour still decided it was worth the risk and went
for a quick swim. I am pleased to report that none of them died with heart
attack. Although, the Koreans that saw all the foreigners swimming in the
deadly pool of water sure thought we were crazy. The second waterfall was our
favorite! It was a good size waterfall with stunning surroundings! The third
waterfall was also a good size, but the viewpoint just wasn’t as good. The
whole area was absolutely beautiful in a valley of such green lush trees
everywhere and you could even see the ocean in the distance. We also walked
over this huge bridge, which had a great view spanning over the valley. On a
side note, I’d also like to mention that they also had camping available near
the trails to the waterfalls. This camping consisted of renting a tent that is
already set up on a raised wooden platform. It also had very nice bathrooms and
showers just a short walk away. Koreans love camping, although their camping
experience seems quite different than ours.
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| Waterfall area 1... |
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| Waterfall 2... our favorite! Do you see the rainbow? :) |
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| So many stairs to climb! |
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| Waterfall 3! |
Jungmun Beach –
By the time we visited this
beach, it was nice and hot outside and the sun was shining! This beach is known
for its water sports like surfing because it has bigger waves than the rest of
the island. We enjoyed relaxing on the beach watching the waves break and knock
people over who were wading in the surf. Every now and then an alarm would go
off, which we think may be warning people of any extra big waves. The waves
were also bigger than normal because of the incoming typhoon. This was a great
spot to enjoy some ice cream and just take a break from our busy schedule.
Jusangjeolli –
This is a viewpoint to see the
famous stone pillars at the ocean’s edge. The pillars are admired for their
naturally formed hexagonal shape. The unofficial name for the rocks is Superman
Rocks because they resemble crystals in the Fortress of Solitude. There is also
a spot where the waves would crash and spout water high into the air, which was
pretty cool. You would know a big wave is coming when all the Koreans got
excited. This was a short stop, but we got some good pictures and savored the
beautiful view.
Sea Pool
Diving and Swimming
Our last
stop of the day was to go to this spot where a natural sea pool was made. There
are cliffs next to it, which leads many adventurous and brave people to climb
the cliffs and dive into the pool…After seeing the pictures you may (or may
not) agree that this looks a little dangerous and with the Typhoon coming, the
waves were very strong. Still, a few of our group members participated and had
a great time. It was about 5pm at that time, sun was starting to set, and the
wind was picking up. It started to get more dangerous as the waves were pushing
the people into the cliff. So we decided it was time to go! We made our way
back up the stairs we came down and went to a different view point to watch the
sunset! It was really beautiful!
Jeju City
For our
late dinner (8:30pm!) that night we all went to Jeju city to an Indian restaurant.
Tyler and I sat with Nicole and Austin and enjoyed Lamb curry and Tandoori
chicken! After that we walked around Jeju for a bit and looked in some of the
shops. However, we were so exhausted from the day that we caught a cab back to
the motel after not too long.
That day
we were told that the Typhoon was coming to Jeju soon. We thought that was
interesting and everything, but it was still beautiful and sunny outside so we
didn’t think too much of it. It turns out that it was coming the next day and
was going to be bad enough that the ferry drivers would not leave Jeju past 8am
in the morning. People who had cell phones with data plans even got text
messages warning them about the Typhoon. Our original schedule said we would
leave Jeju at noon on Sunday, but instead we now had to leave Jeju at 8am. That
meant we all got on the bus at 7am and drive to the ferry station. Once there,
we saw how many other Koreans needed to get off the island as well. It was
packed with people wanting to get a ferry ticket. We waited a while, finally
got our ticket, and got on our new ferry. The good news was that this was a
bigger and faster ferry (2.5 hours!) but unfortunately because of the speed and
the typhoon waters, it was a very rocky ride! Our WINK group got a private room
on the boat and we all claimed our spaces on the floor. Most people slept the
entire boat ride. On a bathroom trip I (Val) saw just how bad the Koreans were
handling the rocky boat. It was kind of like a scene from a horror movie.
People were spread out all over the boat looking terribly sick, running to the
bathroom, and “tossing their cookies” in any trash can they could find. This
was not what I wanted to see as I wasn’t feeling so great myself, so I went
back to our room, took some Dramamine, and went to sleep! We finally made it to
Wando again and made our journey back to Gwangju!
Overall
it was truly an amazing weekend in Jeju! It was our first vacation together
that we paid for completely by ourselves and we felt we did everything we
wanted to in that short time! Here is the link to our shutterfly share site
that allows you to see all the photos of our trip! :D
And off
we go again, this time to Seoul for a 4 day, 3 night adventure! We’re not quite
sure what we’re going to do yet (spontaneity is best right?) but we’re excited
to finally be able to visit this giant city!
~Tyler and Val
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