JEJU ISLAND - Korea

Tea museum/plantation

While in Korea, my friend Dohee and I took a side trip to the beautiful island of Jeju. It’s very popular among Koreans to go there for vacation and I felt kind of cool doing what locals do. Generally when I write travel related blog posts I try to refrain from a play by play account of my trip, but try to find themes and topics within my travels. However, when the trip is shorter I sometimes write a summary. So here is the account of our mini vacay in Jeju:

When I arrived in Seoul I landed at Incheon Airport, a grand international airport which has won multiple awards for being such a kickass airport. This time we used the older airport called Gimpo. We arrived a bit early and decided to eat something before our flight. I opted for bibimbap (bowl with rice, egg, veggies etc. which you blend with spicy pepper sauce). No pre-flight MacDonald’s here…just up my alley. Landed in Jeju and right away the island feel was prevalent. But as we journeyed inwards on the island with a bus it also felt like a fairly rural place. We got off the bus and walked to our hostel, or guesthouse as they say here. I was interested in seeing how a Korean hostel would look like after roughing it in various hostels mostly in Australia. Dohee and I got lucky and had a 6-bed room to ourselves. The hostel looked like it could belong anywhere in the world. Well maybe the communal slippers in the bathrooms were a bit different. 

We met up with a new friend, Hyngro from Coachsurfing (community where travelers can stay in each other’s homes around the world or just meet up to hang out) and the three of us hit it off. We shared a meal and great conversation. Later we went to the hot springs/public bath where the admission was included in Dohee’s and my fee for the hostel. In my previous blog post about Seoul (which was my last post, so check it out if you haven’t) I mentioned that people in Seoul did not look at me in the streets as much as in other Asian nations. But here at the public bath I received many curious stares from the ladies there. I guess we look a bit…different…well I am not shy so if it made them happy to learn how a Swedish woman looks like, be my guest :)

Boat to Udo

We returned to the public bath the next day and I treated myself to a back scrub, a scrub conducted by a nice Korean lady with salt and ended with flower water. Very nice experience indeed! Together with our new friend  Hyngro we then drove to a tea museum/plantation. I have visited one in Guilin in China before and it’s always an interesting experience. I bought Orchid Green Tea there and it was delicious. We drove across Jeju, being treated to many visions of tangerine groves along the way. The groves were everywhere on the island. We took the car with us on a ferry to Udo, a smaller island. On the ferry many people were feeding the seagulls by hand and it was so much fun watching the birds catch the shrimp flavored snacks from the passengers. It’s the small things in life, right? Udo was an interesting

Udo

place and had many nice beaches and small communities. I guess we came in the off season because it was a bit chilly, but it was a beautiful island indeed. The twists and turns were small and narrow alleyways were prevalent on the island and we ended up having a bit of a car accident. I must say I have never before seen two parties to a car accident be more polite to each other. Information was exchanged, cigarettes were smoked together and it all ended with hugs. Seriously this will stay with me forever. The world would be better off if everyone handled unfortunate situations like that.

Back on the main island we were on the hunt for a good fish restaurant. I mean it would not be so hard to find a restaurant offering that here on Jeju, but we wanted a good one. And boy did we strike gold.We had a feast consisting of the most beautiful silver and multicolored fishes I have ever seen. The taste was so delicate and we made wraps using sesame leaves (as you do a lot in Korean BBQ). The aromatic leaves created an explosion of flavors. The staff was very kind and thoroughly explained what we ate and gave suggestions on how to eat it. Often they made a little bundle with the leaves, fish and sauces and offered the first one to me, the clueless but appreciative foreigner. Sweet indeed. 

Full and happy we said our goodbyes to Hyngro and took a bus to another hostel which felt as if it was located in the middle of nowhere. We shared a cabin with two other girls and our spot to sleep was under a loft on a heated floor. Floor heating is common in Korea and holy cow, Dohee and I had to turn it down

Hostel

several time during the night because it was very effective. We were basically being fried like eggs right there! In the morning after we showered, we could dry our towels right on the heated floor. Bus time again and we ventured back to Jeju city where we met up with another couchsurfer called Solomon. We were going to spend the last night on the island sleeping at his apartment.  He showed us his place and gave us advice on where to go. We went to a beach called Iho Tewoo and watched surfers ride small waves there. Yes the waves were small, but very even and gave the surfers a great base. I was dying to join them but I have (as some of you know) not been able to surf in years due to my fear of sharks. We sat at a café and chilled for hours. It was so nice. Sitting watching the surfers, enjoying great coffee and talking with my best friend. Yeah it was heavenly. 

Back to the city and we visited a market. Later we met up with Solomon who brought us to a place to have “hangover soup”, a spicy soup which you put raw eggs in. We did not have a hangover, had in fact had no alcohol that day, but it was so yummy! A beer later and back to Solomon’s where we sat and talked the

Hangover soup

whole night. It’s very special when strangers connect like that. It truly felt as if we had known Solomon, and his roommate Colin, for years. When sunrise came and it was time for us to leave for the airport, it was strangely sad to say goodbye. Thank goodness for the internet and Facebook! 

At the airport I had to go in a special “foreigner’s” line. Totally okay by me, but different that it actually stated “foreigner”.  I mean passport queues often distinguish between US residents and EU citizens etc but it was just the sign and usage of the term “foreigner’s line” that made me giggle a bit. We took off and an hour later landed in the bustling city of Seoul after a great island adventure. 

The next day it was time for me to head north, to the North Korean border. More on that in the next blog post. Many thanks to Dohee again of course, and to Hyngro, Solomon and Colin, who made our time on Jeju so very memorable.