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niori_1709Jeju Island Day 1
Come to Korea and ask any given person what the country’s top vacation spot is, and there’s a 99% chance they’ll give you the same answer. That answer is probably going to be Jeju Island. Jeju is basically the Hawaii of Korea, and it’s a pretty popular throughout East Asia (China in particular). It’s tropical and small enough to explore most of the sights in a week if you feel the need to rush, which is a plus in my book (not everyone has a lot of time to travel). I also agree with the sentiment- I’ve been to Jeju twice now, and plan to go back again at some point. For this entry, I’m going to focus mainly on my first trip, which a few mentions and an add on or two from my second trip if I went to the same place twice.
Funnily enough, I had heard of Jeju before I even applied for my first job in Korea. Not as a vacation spot or anything, but because it was in the running against the Bay of Fundy in the race to be one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. I didn’t actually learn a lot about it, only saw a few pictures of the crater top of Sunrise Peak (more on that in a later entry). It beat out the Bay of Fundy, which was a bit sad, but having been there myself, I can get why it came out as one of the winners. It is certainly filled with some natural wonders, even if didn’t get to see them tall on my first visit.
Jeju was my first vacation in Korea. It was only five days, and two of them were dedicated to getting there. The easiest and quickest way to Jeju from the Seoul area is to fly. It’s a quick and cheap flight from both Incheon and Gimpo airports, but the group I went with wanted to save a bit more money and take the cheaper option (which, when adding up all travel expenses, probably equaled each other out. To sum it up- just fly), and that cheaper option is to take the ferry. There are multiple ferries and multiple ferry routes, some fast (a few hours) and some slow (roughly six hours). I took one of the slow ones, and while it wasn’t a terrible experience (these ferries are cruise ship size with lots of space to wander and things to do), I’ll always recommend going for the faster option, if only because you can get to your actual vacation faster. If you are stuck on the long ferry (the one I took was from Mokpo, a harbor city town on the very southern tip of the country, about five-six hours away from Seoul), there’s plenty of ways to kill time beyond the usual sleeping (if you can find the room- it’s a flat floor, no seats, so if there are a ton of people, finding enough room to sit comfortably and nap might be a challenge) or reading. There’s an arcade, a few restaurants, a convivence store, a PC room, and I highly recommend one of the noraebang (song rooms), which is the Korean version of karaoke. Six hours can still seem endless, but it’s better than nothing.
When the ferry finally docks, it does so in Jeju city. Jeju is one of the two bigish cities on the island, and we didn’t stay long (it was where we would end our trip). We got on a bus and headed straight for the second city, Seogwipo. Seogwipo is a small harbor city on the southern part of the island. It’s not actually just the city proper, but a good chunk of the island in general, so there’s a lot of more rural area. It’s far less developed than Jeju city -while there aren’t any skyscrapers in that city, the buildings are bigger, and everything seems busier than Seogwipo. In fact, when you’re down wandering the harbor area, the feel of the place reminds me of St. Martins. A long, long time ago, Jeju was its own kingdom, called Tamna. It was taken over by the Silla kingdom and then was officially annexed by the Goryeo dynasty in 1105. Later on in history, the Japanese used Seogwipo as a marine base during the colonial period, and during the Korean war, it was a safe haven for refugees fleeing the mainland. More recently, it hosted the World Cup in 2002, marking just how much it has changed and grown with the rest of Korea.
The area we were staying in was basically a small seaside town (with a few touristy exceptions), but once you took a bus about twenty minutes away, you get to the stuff Jeju is famous for- resorts and beaches. First up, after taking a steep set of stairs past a parking lot, you find yourself at Jungmun, Jeju’s most famous beach. It’s not a particularly wide beach, but it makes up for it with the long stretch of sand dunes. The sand is soft and golden, the water is cool and often rough, but still great for watersports, if that’s your inclination (me not so much). I went to this beach during both my trips to Jeju, the first time in the scorching hot summer and the other in a mild winter. Summer was the first time, so you bet your booties I was dunking myself in the water the minute we got settled on that beach. I’m not usually a swimming person, which I’ve mentioned before in other entries, but let me tell you something about Korean summers- they’re hot. I mean hot, where the air is so humid and wet the moment you step out of an air-conditioned building you’re drenched with sweat. It got up to 40 degrees (without factoring in humidity). I don’t deal well with humidity and heat. Maybe it’s the Canadian in me, but I’m miserable most of the summer, and Jeju took that weather a step further. It’s a semi-tropical and there was a blazing sun almost every day we were there. I don’t think I’ve ever been that hot in my entire thirty years of life. So yeah, I was in that water as soon as I could.
It…didn’t exactly go as planned. The water was super rough that day, and the waves were bigger than me. I only planned to dip myself and relax where the waves were already broken, but I kind of miscalculated, which is embarrassing to admit. You’d think I’d be better at figuring out those sorts of things, given I grew up near a beach with crazy tides. But no, I dunked myself just as a wave broke over me, and it pulled me under into the current. I flailed like the weak swimmer that I am, and then did a rather awkward series of somersaults that left me kind of dizzy and not sure which way was up. For all that a colourful collection of curses was going through my head, I wasn’t actually scared. A tad nervous perhaps, but I wasn’t afraid of drowning. There’s a reason for that, and it’s due to a fun fact about popular beaches in Korea- during the day they have lifeguards. Boy howdy do they have lifeguards, and they take their jobs very seriously. If you’re a person who likes hitting the beach for a nice leisurely swim, Korea is not for you. Every five metres there are lifeguards standing in the water, whistles at the ready. If someone tries to go out past them, they will stop you. You’re not getting into water that is over the average adult’s head. Frankly, it’s one more reason why I don’t tend to swim when I’m at the beach- the restrictions make it way too crowded. Then again, if my unfortunate water gymnastics were any indication, I probably did need a few lifeguards at hand. Thankfully, I managed to right myself without the help of a lifeguard, otherwise I might have drowned myself out of embarrassment. I got a foothold on the bottom and pushed myself up in the lull between waves. I stumbled out of the water, managed to trip as I got to shore, and looked up to see people watching. I haven’t blushed that hard since middle school.
Now you might be wondering why I’ve shared this embarrassment of a story with you. I could have just said ‘caution, waves are rough’. The truth is, I feel it’s important to be able to laugh at yourself when you’re a traveler, both during and after a trip. Getting mad at yourself for looking stupid will stress you out and spoil any memories you have. So here’s a word of advice from a sort of seasoned traveler- let it go when you mess up and do something silly. Roll your eyes, self-deprecatingly call yourself an idiot, and then file the whole incident away as an amusing tale to tell when you’re home. I mean, come on- ‘How I Nearly Drowned Myself on Jeju’ is a pretty good story.
I spent the rest of the time there just drying off and relaxing in the sun, and it was probably for the best. I’d been up and traveling for more or less twenty-four hours at that point. When I came back to the beach the second time, the sitting and relaxing was all I did. There was no swimming because it was far cooler (long sleeved shirt weather). I spent a little less time on the beach my second time, but I preferred it over the first, not only because I appreciate weather that wasn’t so ungodly hot, but because it was far less crowded. The first time there had to be around two-hundred people, but the second time there was maybe fifty along the stretch of beach. I will always enjoy things more without a crowd, so I much preferred my winter trip there (this is applied to Jeju in general) and recommend going at that time, unless you really want the hot beach vacation. I curled my toes into the sand and read a book for the most part, but I made sure to take time to just stop and enjoy the setting. As previously said, the beach is lovely (it was even more lovely without so many people blocking the view). The water was calmer, so there was no thundering crash, but a gentle breaking of small waves. It was a calming sound, and I spent some time just listening to it with my eyes closed. Aside from the sand and surf itself, there were other things to behold, like the vegetation that was a blanket that covered the wall of rock that lined the back of the beach. They were layers of tropical plants and vines twisting together, with some spindly branches in between. I kept thinking that it was a scene from Jurassic Park, and it led to some delightful daydreams of dinosaurs lumbering out of the green. It was a peaceful couple of hours.
Back during the firs trip, we stayed for an hour or two longer, until the sun started to set. Afterwards, we decided to grab dinner at one of the restaurants on the opposite end of the beach we entered from. During said dinner, we decided to skip the bus back and walk, since Google Maps told us it should only take about half an hour. Google Maps was wrong. It was more like an hour, but that was okay. It was an interesting walk, even if it seemed to be the long way around. When you leave the beach, you go on a wooden walkway that passes through the woods. Sometimes the walkway twisted and turned, with bridges over water and just wild enough for bushes and trees to be leaning over the rail that needed to be dodged. Sometimes there were stairs to climb, because we still had to get up those cliffs somehow. It was dark, and there was only a light everyone once and awhile. It made it a bit more magical. We were the only ones on the path, for the most part, so the only noises were the ones coming from us. I would have loved to hang back and walked in silence by myself, but that would have been more than a little weird when we were all tired and just wanted to sleep. Finally, you reach the end of the walkway at the top of the hill, and you find yourself walking through another of Jeju’s staples, a resort. The Lotte Resort, to be specific, and what a resort it was.
Lotte is one of the biggest companies in Korea. You might recognize the name from my travel guide on Lotte World (the theme park). They have their hand in many different industries, so the hotel only makes sense. I know I haven’t been to many resorts to compare, but this one was pretty spectacular. The outside grounds are easily accessible, since the path from the beach passed through it. The design looks like it’s inspired by some old time European architecture. The building itself looks like a Medieval castle. There are even a few giant classic windmills there, lit up and with the spinning part going around and around. There are water features everywhere. There’s basically a moat around one side of the hotel proper. There are rock features lining the long, twisty pool, making it look like a river. The palm trees on either side top off the look. There’s a lake around the windmill. They are seriously into the water features. Walking through this area was my first time on a fancy, expensive resort, so I was left kind of gaping. It was crazy, how much design went into that place, and that’s just outside. I didn’t see the inside, save the foyer. We got to the bus stop at the front of the hotel and decided to cheat and take it back. While waiting, we decided to check out the lobby. When you first go in, you’re basically on the landing part of those massive, double staircases that are right out of the movies. We looked over the balcony, and down below was the reception area. There’s a marble fountain down there, and that’s when I thought ‘wow, I will never be able to afford to stay at a place like this’. It’s not really a must-see for Jeju, but it was one of those neat ‘so this is how the other side lives’ side quests.
After that we hopped back onto a bus and got back to our hostel. We went to our stuffy room and got some well-deserved rest, and with that our first day in Jeju was a success.
Come to Korea and ask any given person what the country’s top vacation spot is, and there’s a 99% chance they’ll give you the same answer. That answer is probably going to be Jeju Island. Jeju is basically the Hawaii of Korea, and it’s a pretty popular throughout East Asia (China in particular). It’s tropical and small enough to explore most of the sights in a week if you feel the need to rush, which is a plus in my book (not everyone has a lot of time to travel). I also agree with the sentiment- I’ve been to Jeju twice now, and plan to go back again at some point. For this entry, I’m going to focus mainly on my first trip, which a few mentions and an add on or two from my second trip if I went to the same place twice.
Funnily enough, I had heard of Jeju before I even applied for my first job in Korea. Not as a vacation spot or anything, but because it was in the running against the Bay of Fundy in the race to be one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. I didn’t actually learn a lot about it, only saw a few pictures of the crater top of Sunrise Peak (more on that in a later entry). It beat out the Bay of Fundy, which was a bit sad, but having been there myself, I can get why it came out as one of the winners. It is certainly filled with some natural wonders, even if didn’t get to see them tall on my first visit.
Jeju was my first vacation in Korea. It was only five days, and two of them were dedicated to getting there. The easiest and quickest way to Jeju from the Seoul area is to fly. It’s a quick and cheap flight from both Incheon and Gimpo airports, but the group I went with wanted to save a bit more money and take the cheaper option (which, when adding up all travel expenses, probably equaled each other out. To sum it up- just fly), and that cheaper option is to take the ferry. There are multiple ferries and multiple ferry routes, some fast (a few hours) and some slow (roughly six hours). I took one of the slow ones, and while it wasn’t a terrible experience (these ferries are cruise ship size with lots of space to wander and things to do), I’ll always recommend going for the faster option, if only because you can get to your actual vacation faster. If you are stuck on the long ferry (the one I took was from Mokpo, a harbor city town on the very southern tip of the country, about five-six hours away from Seoul), there’s plenty of ways to kill time beyond the usual sleeping (if you can find the room- it’s a flat floor, no seats, so if there are a ton of people, finding enough room to sit comfortably and nap might be a challenge) or reading. There’s an arcade, a few restaurants, a convivence store, a PC room, and I highly recommend one of the noraebang (song rooms), which is the Korean version of karaoke. Six hours can still seem endless, but it’s better than nothing.
When the ferry finally docks, it does so in Jeju city. Jeju is one of the two bigish cities on the island, and we didn’t stay long (it was where we would end our trip). We got on a bus and headed straight for the second city, Seogwipo. Seogwipo is a small harbor city on the southern part of the island. It’s not actually just the city proper, but a good chunk of the island in general, so there’s a lot of more rural area. It’s far less developed than Jeju city -while there aren’t any skyscrapers in that city, the buildings are bigger, and everything seems busier than Seogwipo. In fact, when you’re down wandering the harbor area, the feel of the place reminds me of St. Martins. A long, long time ago, Jeju was its own kingdom, called Tamna. It was taken over by the Silla kingdom and then was officially annexed by the Goryeo dynasty in 1105. Later on in history, the Japanese used Seogwipo as a marine base during the colonial period, and during the Korean war, it was a safe haven for refugees fleeing the mainland. More recently, it hosted the World Cup in 2002, marking just how much it has changed and grown with the rest of Korea.
The area we were staying in was basically a small seaside town (with a few touristy exceptions), but once you took a bus about twenty minutes away, you get to the stuff Jeju is famous for- resorts and beaches. First up, after taking a steep set of stairs past a parking lot, you find yourself at Jungmun, Jeju’s most famous beach. It’s not a particularly wide beach, but it makes up for it with the long stretch of sand dunes. The sand is soft and golden, the water is cool and often rough, but still great for watersports, if that’s your inclination (me not so much). I went to this beach during both my trips to Jeju, the first time in the scorching hot summer and the other in a mild winter. Summer was the first time, so you bet your booties I was dunking myself in the water the minute we got settled on that beach. I’m not usually a swimming person, which I’ve mentioned before in other entries, but let me tell you something about Korean summers- they’re hot. I mean hot, where the air is so humid and wet the moment you step out of an air-conditioned building you’re drenched with sweat. It got up to 40 degrees (without factoring in humidity). I don’t deal well with humidity and heat. Maybe it’s the Canadian in me, but I’m miserable most of the summer, and Jeju took that weather a step further. It’s a semi-tropical and there was a blazing sun almost every day we were there. I don’t think I’ve ever been that hot in my entire thirty years of life. So yeah, I was in that water as soon as I could.
It…didn’t exactly go as planned. The water was super rough that day, and the waves were bigger than me. I only planned to dip myself and relax where the waves were already broken, but I kind of miscalculated, which is embarrassing to admit. You’d think I’d be better at figuring out those sorts of things, given I grew up near a beach with crazy tides. But no, I dunked myself just as a wave broke over me, and it pulled me under into the current. I flailed like the weak swimmer that I am, and then did a rather awkward series of somersaults that left me kind of dizzy and not sure which way was up. For all that a colourful collection of curses was going through my head, I wasn’t actually scared. A tad nervous perhaps, but I wasn’t afraid of drowning. There’s a reason for that, and it’s due to a fun fact about popular beaches in Korea- during the day they have lifeguards. Boy howdy do they have lifeguards, and they take their jobs very seriously. If you’re a person who likes hitting the beach for a nice leisurely swim, Korea is not for you. Every five metres there are lifeguards standing in the water, whistles at the ready. If someone tries to go out past them, they will stop you. You’re not getting into water that is over the average adult’s head. Frankly, it’s one more reason why I don’t tend to swim when I’m at the beach- the restrictions make it way too crowded. Then again, if my unfortunate water gymnastics were any indication, I probably did need a few lifeguards at hand. Thankfully, I managed to right myself without the help of a lifeguard, otherwise I might have drowned myself out of embarrassment. I got a foothold on the bottom and pushed myself up in the lull between waves. I stumbled out of the water, managed to trip as I got to shore, and looked up to see people watching. I haven’t blushed that hard since middle school.
Now you might be wondering why I’ve shared this embarrassment of a story with you. I could have just said ‘caution, waves are rough’. The truth is, I feel it’s important to be able to laugh at yourself when you’re a traveler, both during and after a trip. Getting mad at yourself for looking stupid will stress you out and spoil any memories you have. So here’s a word of advice from a sort of seasoned traveler- let it go when you mess up and do something silly. Roll your eyes, self-deprecatingly call yourself an idiot, and then file the whole incident away as an amusing tale to tell when you’re home. I mean, come on- ‘How I Nearly Drowned Myself on Jeju’ is a pretty good story.
I spent the rest of the time there just drying off and relaxing in the sun, and it was probably for the best. I’d been up and traveling for more or less twenty-four hours at that point. When I came back to the beach the second time, the sitting and relaxing was all I did. There was no swimming because it was far cooler (long sleeved shirt weather). I spent a little less time on the beach my second time, but I preferred it over the first, not only because I appreciate weather that wasn’t so ungodly hot, but because it was far less crowded. The first time there had to be around two-hundred people, but the second time there was maybe fifty along the stretch of beach. I will always enjoy things more without a crowd, so I much preferred my winter trip there (this is applied to Jeju in general) and recommend going at that time, unless you really want the hot beach vacation. I curled my toes into the sand and read a book for the most part, but I made sure to take time to just stop and enjoy the setting. As previously said, the beach is lovely (it was even more lovely without so many people blocking the view). The water was calmer, so there was no thundering crash, but a gentle breaking of small waves. It was a calming sound, and I spent some time just listening to it with my eyes closed. Aside from the sand and surf itself, there were other things to behold, like the vegetation that was a blanket that covered the wall of rock that lined the back of the beach. They were layers of tropical plants and vines twisting together, with some spindly branches in between. I kept thinking that it was a scene from Jurassic Park, and it led to some delightful daydreams of dinosaurs lumbering out of the green. It was a peaceful couple of hours.
Back during the firs trip, we stayed for an hour or two longer, until the sun started to set. Afterwards, we decided to grab dinner at one of the restaurants on the opposite end of the beach we entered from. During said dinner, we decided to skip the bus back and walk, since Google Maps told us it should only take about half an hour. Google Maps was wrong. It was more like an hour, but that was okay. It was an interesting walk, even if it seemed to be the long way around. When you leave the beach, you go on a wooden walkway that passes through the woods. Sometimes the walkway twisted and turned, with bridges over water and just wild enough for bushes and trees to be leaning over the rail that needed to be dodged. Sometimes there were stairs to climb, because we still had to get up those cliffs somehow. It was dark, and there was only a light everyone once and awhile. It made it a bit more magical. We were the only ones on the path, for the most part, so the only noises were the ones coming from us. I would have loved to hang back and walked in silence by myself, but that would have been more than a little weird when we were all tired and just wanted to sleep. Finally, you reach the end of the walkway at the top of the hill, and you find yourself walking through another of Jeju’s staples, a resort. The Lotte Resort, to be specific, and what a resort it was.
Lotte is one of the biggest companies in Korea. You might recognize the name from my travel guide on Lotte World (the theme park). They have their hand in many different industries, so the hotel only makes sense. I know I haven’t been to many resorts to compare, but this one was pretty spectacular. The outside grounds are easily accessible, since the path from the beach passed through it. The design looks like it’s inspired by some old time European architecture. The building itself looks like a Medieval castle. There are even a few giant classic windmills there, lit up and with the spinning part going around and around. There are water features everywhere. There’s basically a moat around one side of the hotel proper. There are rock features lining the long, twisty pool, making it look like a river. The palm trees on either side top off the look. There’s a lake around the windmill. They are seriously into the water features. Walking through this area was my first time on a fancy, expensive resort, so I was left kind of gaping. It was crazy, how much design went into that place, and that’s just outside. I didn’t see the inside, save the foyer. We got to the bus stop at the front of the hotel and decided to cheat and take it back. While waiting, we decided to check out the lobby. When you first go in, you’re basically on the landing part of those massive, double staircases that are right out of the movies. We looked over the balcony, and down below was the reception area. There’s a marble fountain down there, and that’s when I thought ‘wow, I will never be able to afford to stay at a place like this’. It’s not really a must-see for Jeju, but it was one of those neat ‘so this is how the other side lives’ side quests.
After that we hopped back onto a bus and got back to our hostel. We went to our stuffy room and got some well-deserved rest, and with that our first day in Jeju was a success.
