Jeju Island

Again, I was forced to quickly unpack, do laundry and repack for another great adventure. This time, I would be heading to the lovely Korean island of Jeju. Jeju is famous among Koreans, it is said to be the Korea’s Hawaii. And I do have to admit, it was quite beautiful.

After 1.5 days back in Daegu, Adrienne and I set off for the Daegu airport and hopped on our quick 1 hour flight to Jeju. We arrived, grabbed our bags, and jumped on the shuttle bus that would take us to our first destination- the city of Seogwipo. When we arrived, we wandered around trying to find our hostel. Luckily, we were traveling with phones, so we could use our GPS (a great perk of traveling in your own country). After we found the hostel, checked in, were invited for drinks in the lounge area, we decided to head back out for a quick bite to eat before turning in early. We were both really tired.

Lets go!

Our first night in Jeju

The next few days we spent walking around and looking at rocks and water. Literally. That’s what we did. Looked at rocks and water. But they were beautiful rocks and it was amazingly beautiful water. HAHA. We went to see many waterfalls and to see many cliffs. The waterfalls were all so beautiful. Well, most of them.

Oedolgae Rock

Jusangjeolli Cliffs

Yakcheonsa Temple

Jeongbang Falls

Cheonjiyeon Falls

On a random walking trail

One day, we spent nearly 30 minutes getting to a particular waterfall. One that you had to walk down many steps and then finally climb back up them after you got your token pictures and looked at its beauty. Except, when we got down to the “waterfall”, there was no water. WTF. Apparently, if there hasn’t been much rainfall, then there isn’t enough water to make the water run over the barrier at the top of the fall. But the water that was stagnant at the bottom was a beautiful turquoise, so it made up for it.

Cheonjeyeon Falls

Probably one of my favorite memories of the entire trip was going to Jungmun beach, which is the tourist area of Jeju. Everyone there had rented tubes to float on, so Adrienne and I decided to rent one between the two of us. We definitely earned several odd looks because we were the only two people in bikinis. Well, rather the only two people that were in bikinis that weren’t wearing outfits over the swimsuits. Note to self, Koreans swim in clothes. Boys and girls. Except us (we were also sporting some really sexy sunburn lines from our shorts and shirts from the previous day). Strike one. Then, we decided to try to get into the water . We quickly realized, however, that if one of us got in without our own tubes, we would most definitely die. Literally, we would drown. The waves were the roughest that I’d ever seen. So I sulked back over to the bag, grabbed some money, and rented my own tube.

Jungmun Beach

Intense waves

Once I joined Adrienne, we headed out to sea. It was a roped off area, and there were lifeguards not only on the beach, but also on jet skis. You had to get past the initial 30 feet or so, where the waves were crashing down on the sand, but once you passed them up, it wasn’t nearly as rough. The waves would come in and you had to swim against them to stay out in the water, but it became quite fun. A workout, but fun. When I started swimming around without the tube around my waist, however, the lifeguards starting paying more attention to me. I noticed every time a wave would come my way, they stared, hoping that the Waygook wouldn’t die on their watch.

At some point, we weren’t paying a lot of attention and we let the waves bring us into shore. Big mistake. All of a sudden the wave slammed us into the shore, sand was going everywhere. The waves came in sets, so right after the first threw us into the sand, the second came and tried to wash us around a bit. Next thing I knew, my tube was floating away and there was sand in my bathing suit. Dense, rocky sand. The waves were tugging at my top and bottom. I literally had to lie in the fetal position and hang on to my bathing suit for dear life. I really didn’t want to flash any Koreans. Somewhere in the distance, Adrienne was yelling for me to grab my tube, since it was floating away, but it wasn’t my biggest concern. I was still trying to stay decently clad. Adrienne had regained control of herself and her tube, so she ran after mine, but as she passed me, a third wave hit and it swooped me right into her legs, entangling us and causing her to fall again. Strike 2. We continued to flail about for what seemed like eternity before we both regained balance and were able to chase down my tube. When we got a chance to catch our breath, we realized that the lifeguard was literally standing not 2 feet from me, waiting to see if I would actually need help. Looking back, I’m sure we were providing great entertainment for everyone watching. I really wish I had it on video.

The waves...

After a few minutes of catching our breath, we headed back out, prepared to swim our hearts out to get past the initial waves hitting the shore. You had to time it just right, so you could jump over one and swim under the second. We played around out in the water for a while, enjoying the break from the heat. But we were enjoying ourselves a little too much, and got thrown back onto the shore, though not as hard as the first time. Strike 3. I was done.

After turning our tubes back in and rinsing off as much sand from our bodies and bathing suits as possible, we headed back to the hostel, but not before enjoying a partial sunset and watching the surfers on the water.

After a few days in the southern city of Seogwipo, we headed north to the main city of the island, Jeju City. In route, we stopped at Hallim Park, where there were beautiful gardens and caves to enjoy. But it was so hot that they literally had huge blocks of ice on the tables for people to rub their arms and cloths on to cool down.

Jeju is known for their black pig bbq

We decided that we could cool down at the beach across the street, so we headed over, placed our bag near a rock that was quite a ways away from the water, and headed in. The water was really shallow for at least the length of a football field, if not more. It was a nice change from the water that we encountered at the previous beach. This water was calm and allowed us to relax. But after about an hour we decided to head back in to get our things and continue on our way to Jeju City. But as we headed back to the shore, I noticed a clump of rocks that most definitely weren’t anywhere near the water when we first entered the sea, but now they were completely underwater. Oh no. The tide had quickly come in. We rushed to our bag, hoping that it was far enough up the shore to have been already washed away. We were really lucky. When we got to the bag (that contained our phones, wallets, cameras and locker keys for our other luggage), the water was only a few feet from it. And within another 20 minutes it was underwater. We relocated our bag, grabbed a few pictures, then headed out.

Before the tide came in

After the tide came in

Kumnung Beach

Sunset with surfers

Lets cool off in Hallim Park

The next day we decided to travel to the east side of the island to some of the tourist landmarks. We saw Seongsan Ilchulbong, or “sunrise peak”, along with some lava caves and a hedge maze. It was a really fun day, the caves provided a great break from the heat, though it did rain a little.

Kimnyong Maze Park

Manjanggul Lava Cave

Seongsan Ilchulbong- Sunrise Peak

The last day in Jeju was spent just walking around. I had to leave that night, so we ventured to another famous rock and tried to find a good seafood place, but ended up at a really good pizza place before I had to pack up and head out. Adrienne was staying behind for the night because she was flying to Japan the next day and all of the flights back to the mainland were sold out. I actually had to ride “first class”, which didn’t even include wine. What a disappointment. When I landed in Busan, I quickly grabbed my bag and headed for the bus. I was lucky enough to get the last one to Daegu for the night, so I settled in for the 3 hour ride and finally got home around 2am before having to turn around and go to work the next morning.