This is about to be my longest post yet, so be prepared! Last Thursday I flew to Jeju and didn't arrive back in Seoul until yesterday morning. I went with my friends Lea, Marisa, and Henri, and we all flew JejuAir there and back instead of taking the bus/train and then a ferry. To sum things up: we did a TON. Every day was packed with activities, hence the long length of this blog post. We left Seoul from Gimpo Airport at 3:50 p.m. and arrived an hour later in Jeju City. We then picked up our rental car, which Lea drove the whole time we were in Jeju. Having a car in Jeju is a MUST. We couldn't have done probably more than half the things we did if it wasn't for having a car. We also gave our car the adorable name of 보삐 (Bo-bie), and we were really sad when we had to return him before we went back to Seoul.
Posing in 보삐. Left to right: Lea, Marisa, and Henri.
After jumping into the car, we made our way to the south of the island to Seogwipo. We drove along the coast almost the entire way, obviously stopping for take pictures of the sunset. It was so refreshing to see the sea and to be in an "exotic" location. When also stopped for dinner and got the famous black pig samgyeopsal. I couldn't tell if it was because we were starving or because the pig really was that good, but it was very delicious.
Driving along the coast during the sunset.
Black pig samgyeopsal, a Jeju specialty.
After dinner we made it to Seogwipo and found our hostel. I remember booking our hostel based on the number of good reviews it had and ended up being a great decision. Backpacker's Home was the perfect hostel. It was super clean, brand new, had good amenities including a bar, campfire, and laundry, and there were even two cute laboratory dogs to play with! If you ever find your way to Seogwipo, I can't recommend this hostel enough. Resting by the campfire while enjoying a gin and tonic and playing with dogs was the perfect way to start our stay in Jeju.
We then started Friday with Daepohaeanjusangjeollidae, a cliffside consisting of rock "columns" that were made when the lava cooled in a particular way.
Daepohaeanjusangjeollidae.
Posing by a dol hareubang, statues found all throughout Jeju.
We then made our way to see three famous connected waterfalls called the Choenjeyeon Falls. Similar to the cliff, these falls also had a neat rock formation from the lava. Since being in Seoul, I have come to appreciate nature a lot more, so it was neat seeing so many naturally-made wonders in Jeju.
Choenjeyeon Falls.
The second waterfall.
The third waterfall.
We then headed to Chocolate Land, a museum/shop featuring and selling a lot of chocolate. Jeju is known for several food items, such as the hallabong (a citrus fruit), tangerine, and the black pig mentioned above. Another speciality is the chocolate. The most popular flavors are cactus, hallabong, and green tea, but you can find other flavors like kiwi and berry. I ended up walking out of Chocolate Land with my favorite flavor, cactus. If you see me back in the U.S., I'll be more than willing to let you try one of Jeju's addicting goodies.
Chocolate Land!
Some of the chocolates that were being sold.
After stopping for lunch, we headed to a nearby resort to check out a chapel famous for the Korean drama, "Boys Over Flowers." We were in Jungmun, which is the resort area of Jeju, so you could find resorts everywhere. We went to the Hyatt Regency resort and enjoyed the beautiful views of the ocean and the nearby beach. We then headed to the chapel which was right next to the pool. If I ever go to Jeju again, I think I'll shell out some money and stay at a resort because they're really, really nice.
The Hyatt Regency resort.
A nearby beach.
The famous chapel.
We then headed to a cafe catering to mango lovers, properly named Mangoholic. Not only did the cafe have delicious drinks, but it had a great location having been situated right by the coast. After ordering a mango shake, I headed down to the coast with everyone to take some photos. Again, everything was so beautiful and relaxing. It was also nice not having to think about school or other responsibilities throughout the trip.
Mangoholic!
Posing with our smoothies by the coast.
Our day didn't end there, however. We went to our final waterfall for the trip, the Jeongbang Waterfall. It's the only waterfall in Asia to fall directly into the ocean. This one was much larger than the first three we visited and its size made it that much more awing.
The Jeongbang Waterfall.
We ended the day by doing something out of the ordinary: coming across and exploring an abandoned resort. The Paradise Hotel used to be one of Jeju's most famous resorts, having been visited by celebrities and politicians like Rhee Syngman. We explored the huge resort grounds, from the pool to the honeymoon suites. I felt like a kid again during the whole time. We left the resort when we saw that it was starting to get dark out. There was no way we would stay there during the darkness because it was already creepy enough with light.
Paradise Hotel.
Another view of the hotel.
I can't imagine going there at night.
We stopped for dinner and drove around Jungmun before heading back to Seogwipo to see a waterfall which was lit up at night. Unfortunately the website that told us about the waterfall gave us the wrong closing time information, so we arrived an hour after it closed, thinking we still had an hour to see the waterfall. Despite that setback, I still had a great day exploring this part of Jeju.
As that was our last day in Seogwipo, we packed up our belongings and made our way to the east coast. Along the way we explored yet another abandoned building, but this time it was an abandoned movie set. A huge mansion was built for a drama and was never torn down, and blogs mentioned how you could still visit it. The movie set wasn't nearly as creepy as Paradise Hotel, but I still enjoyed taking photos of the architecture and admiring the fact that so much was built just for a drama.
The abandoned movie set.
Inside the courtyard.
After the movie set, we jumped back into the car and made our way north to a famous lava tube/cave. We made more unplanned adventures along the way for ourselves, however. We came across Jeju Orange, one of the chocolate-making factories. We were able to see how they made their chocolate, in particular their white chocolate-covered dried tangerines, and the history of the factory. We ended the tour in a huge factory shop where the shelves were stocked with all sorts of chocolates. I walked out with the chocolate-covered tangerines after trying them, with absolutely no regrets. I'm usually not a huge fan of chocolate and orange together, but those two ingredients went together perfectly.
The Jeju Orange factory.
Workers making white chocolate covered dried tangerines. Yum!
We also drove by a famous crater and decided to check it out as well. The Sangumburi Crater is a flat crater that looks like it's manmade. I tried capturing the beauty of the crater through my camera but the photos didn't do it justice. The crater is also known for the various wildlife that grows in it.
The Sangumburi Crater.
At this point we were pretty hungry, but we had a hard time finding a restaurant because there just weren't any. About ten minutes before the cave however, we came across an adorable restaurant and we just had to stop. We made a great choice. The menu only had one thing on it, a 10,000 won tray of bibimbap, soup, Jeju pork, and Jeju squid. It was delicious and well worth the money, and they gave us a piece of Jeju chocolate to end the meal. I loved driving in a car because if we were in a bus, we wouldn't have been able to make all of those interesting and unplanned stops.
Our lunch before heading into the cave.
Entering the Mangjanggul lava tube.
Inside the lava tube/cave.
A lava formation.
We then headed about 10 minutes over to the Gimnyeong Maze Park, a maze made of shrubs. I've always wanted to do one of these mazes (I've only done corn mazes before), so I got my wish. We split up in two teams to see who could complete it the fastest with Lea and I on one team and Marisa and Henri on the other. After about ten minutes of running around, we finally made it to the end and finished first! I think it'd be neat to do a huge maze in the future where it could take you up to an hour. Nevertheless, the maze was yet another fun activity we did that day.
Gimnyeong Maze Park. Lea and I won!
We made our way to our accommodation that night: a minbak (pension) right by the coast in a town cutely named Etoile. We had a great view of the ocean on our balcony and it was actually very spacious for having only paid 20,000 won a night per person. For dinner we walked two minutes next to our place to a restaurant that specializes in abalone porridge, another Jeju speciality. Abalone is a sea snail that is very popular in East Asia and is considered a delicacy. I love Korean rice porridge so I figured I would give it a try. Like everything else I've had on the island, the dish was delicious and so much so that I got it again for dinner the following night. The abalone was super tender and didn't taste fishy at all. The porridge was flavored with what I assumed was seaweed, another personal favorite.
The view on the balcony of our minbak.
Abalone rice porridge.
After getting back from dinner, I headed to bed early because I would be getting up at 3:00 a.m. to see the sunrise at Seongsan Ilchulbong. After waking up and getting ready, we drove about 40 minutes to the peak. We climbed up about 20 minutes, racing against the soon-to-be rising sun. We made it to the top out of breath and tired from being up at such an early hour, but viewing the sunset was so worth it. The varying warm colors of the sun bounced off the water and gave a beautiful backdrop to the crater that was at the top of the peak. The sky reminded me of a painting, and I loved being able to sit there and enjoy one of the world's daily phenomenons.
On top of Seongsan Ilchulbong to see the sunrise.
A panorama of the crater at the top of the peak.
Posing in front of the peak.
We had to drive back to our minbak to pack our belongings before heading back to the same area we were in to continue our day's journey. We dedicated our day to an island off the northeast coast of Jeju, Udo. Before driving our car onto the ferry, we stopped by a famous cliffside, Seopjikoji, to take some photos. This cliffside/coast has been in many Korean dramas, resulting in a ton of tourists in the area.
The famous cliffside: Seopjikoji.
We took the quick 15-minute ferry ride over to Udo after Seopjikoji to spend the rest of the day. Udo is known for its beaches, natural wonders, and food, specifically peanuts and seafood. We wandered to a white sand beach, tried some peanut maekkoli and ice cream, saw a cave, and overall enjoyed the quaint mini-Jeju. Additionally, all throughout the island's tiny roads people were riding scooters and these 3-wheel covered motorcycle things. Many were couples and young families, and it was adorable seeing Koreans drive them. With the beach in the background, sun in the sky, and Koreans being cute, I really felt like I was in a movie or something.
The beautiful beaches on Udo.
Peanut maekkoli, an Udo speciality.
A famous cave on Udo.
Peanut and Hallbong ice cream. Aren't they cute?
At the top of the hill by a lighthouse.
The famous white sand beach in Udo.
After visiting Udo, we made our way to Jeju City where we would be spending the next 3 nights. We were fortunate enough to find someone willing to let us couch-surf at his place through a couch-surfing website. While his place was small and 3 of us had to sleep on the floor, he was very, very nice and we didn't have to pay anything to stay there, easily saving us probably 60,000 won each.
On Monday, Buddha's Birthday and therefore a holiday, we made the decision to hike South Korea's tallest mountain, Hallasan. If you are anywhere in Jeju, you can see Hallasan looming in the distance, dominating the center of the island. I'll be honest, I was intimidated to climb Hallasan, which is just under 2,000 meters tall. We began our hike at exactly 8 a.m. and took a trail that would take us 4.5 hours to climb to the summit. The trail progressed from easy to hard, with a couple of shelters in between that provided bathrooms and water.
Signs like these notified us of our hiking progress.
The difficult part of the trail. So many rocks to climb!
The hike was tough. And long. The entire trail was covered in rocks, so you had to concentrate on making sure you wouldn't twist your ankle. Add in elevation and you're in for a ride. We calculated the amount of calories we lost during the whole hike and it was 4,900! Talk about a workout. Reaching the summit gave me a lot of motivation towards the end, and despite the hardship, making it to the top was so worth it. I didn't realize how far we were until a little before the summit because up until that point the trail is covered in trees. You could see the entire island from the top and there was a crater lake, since Hallasan is an volcano.
A view of the crater at the summit of Hallasan.
Taking in the wonderful view of Korea's tallest mountain.
Climbing Hallasan was a huge personal achievement. I really didn't think I could do it, and I did. I think hiking Seoraksan and generally walking around a lot in Seoul helped prepare me a lot. My legs weren't even that sore afterwards. It took us 3.5 hours to descend the mountain, and including breaks, it ended up being a 9-hour hike. In addition to being sore and tired on the way down, I also caught an allergy from something on the mountain. When I was at the summit, about 30-minutes into being there, all of sudden my eyes started watering really badly and they turned red. They stayed that way all throughout the descent, to the point where my vision started getting blurry. I thought I got pink-eye, because that's what it felt like, but the redness, swelling, and tears started to subside as the night went on. By tomorrow my eyes were completely fine. Despite all of those hardships, I'm still really glad I hiked Hallasan and it's something I'll always be proud of. Hiking in Korea has also made me want to start hiking in the U.S., so we'll see if that is something I start to do in the future.
I slept very soundly that night, and the following day we drove Marisa to the airport and dropped off the beloved 보삐. Lea, Henri, and I decided to take it easy on Tuesday and we only had two things planned: visiting Loveland and the black sand beach. Loveland is an outdoor sculpture park focused on a theme of sex, to be blunt. I had a ton of fun posing with and taking photos of the various artwork, but due to its inappropriateness, I I figured it was best to not post the photos on here or on my Facebook. If you are curious about what the park is like, feel free to ask me and I can send you the photos. The photos are definitely priceless, to say the least.
Posing in one of the many statues at Loveland.
After eating lunch, we made our way to the black sand beach, which took us about an hour by bus. This area of Jeju City was very quaint and quiet, which I loved. It was the perfect little beach town. We walked along the beach for a bit before heading to a cafe on the beach. We chilled there for a couple of hours, then headed to a sushi restaurant for dinner. We then went back to the beach to take photos of the sunset and to appreciate our last moments in Jeju.
The black sand beach in Jeju City.
Saying goodbye the beach and ocean.
Despite the length of this blog, I'm still leaving out a lot of details and photos. I took about 600 photos during the whole trip, but obviously I couldn't post them all here. In short, Jeju was the perfect self-made spring break and I wouldn't have changed anything about what we did. I travelled with great people, ate great food, saw great things, and overall had a great time.
I left Jeju at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, arriving back in Seoul at 9 a.m. I unfortunately had to attend class the whole day and work on catch-up homework. But fortunately, I have my goodies from Jeju that I can enjoy. In addition to the chocolates, I also bought some mementos and some Jeju pies. Jeju pies are shortbread cookie pies with a tangy and slightly sweet tangerine jam in the middle and they are DELICIOUS. I honestly wanted to buy like 5 boxes but I only had room for 2 in my suitcase.
This week I will spend catching up on work and getting ready for my Busan trip over the weekend. After Busan, I'll be preparing for finals, then after finals I take my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. I have about a month left before I head back to the U.S. While 10 months seemed like a lot at first, they really flew by. While I'm excited to head back to the U.S. for several reasons, I know there will be a lot of things I'll miss about Korea.
