Jeju-do Summer Vacation

Summer vacation has finally arrived! For months now Sam and I have been planning a trip to Jeju island,  or Jeju-do 제주도 . It is a huge island just south of the Korean Peninsula and the largest island in Korea. It is 714 square miles with a population just over 600,000.

We hope you enjoy the two videos we put together summarizing the two main parts of our trip: (1) Gwakji, Udo, and Jeju city, and (2) Hallasan.

Saturday - Arrival and Gwakji Beach

8:00am bus to Jochiwon -->  9:30am Train to Cheongju Intl Airport --> 1:30pm Plane to Jeju

When we landed on the island around 2:30pm on Saturday the first thing we were struck by was the size of the island. Somehow we were expecting Hawaii-style beach vibes, but aside from the palm trees there wasn't a huge tropical vibe. (Oh, and there are lava rocks everywhere. The locals use them as bricks for fences/borders and they're laid into the sidewalks too.) The next thing we were struck by was the busy tarmac. Our plane parked itself next to several others, and we had to take a shuttle to the terminal. There must have been a dozen other planes or more just loading and unloading people. Jeju is very popular in the summer.

We made our way to the hotel by bus, which took about 30-40 minutes even though it was just south of the airport, in the main city (called Jeju City). The buses are actually really nice, just as comfortable and clean as the ones in Sejong but with added bonus Wi-Fi. The whole city was full of free Wi-Fi. Anyway we were able to quickly check in and drop off our backpacks.

Our wonderful icebox with city views

Our first stop was a recommendation from one of my students, Cafe Tae Hee. Located right on Gwakji beach, the student told me that they are known for their fish and chips. I was super excited to take Sam here because it's one of his favorite things to order. We managed to find a table in the small cafe and checked out their short but enticing menu options: fish and chips, fried shrimp, and burgers. Plus a whole slew of bottled brews. I opted for the fried shrimp and Sam (of course) got the fish and chips.

Sam opted for the Jeju Wit Ale by Jeju Beer Company

I went with a personal summer favorite, Big Wave by Kona

The Big Wave was almost $10 (~KRW 9,000) but hey, we were on vacation, right?

Fried shrimp with chili sauce and horseradish/tarter sauce

Sam's fish and chips

View of the beach from the cafe

After gorging on our generous portions of fish and shrimp and being completely refreshed with some brews, we decided to check out the beach itself.

The sand was actually a little more rough than we imagined it would be

People more or less fully clothed, swimming

There were a decent amount of people hanging out at the beach. Most were wearing some time of rash guard top with shorts. I'm not even sure I saw a single person wearing a bikini or men without shirts on. We didn't know if this had to do with sun protection or if it was just part of the conservative culture/modesty. Also many Koreans don't know how to swim, so we saw plenty of life jackets.

Sunday - Udo

The province of Jeju also incorporates several smaller islands, including U-do  우도, which we spent Sunday exploring. We left the hotel around 8:30am, expecting about a 2 hour bus ride to a port where ferries take people to Udo. It was a truly beautiful day for exploring. Blue skies and bluer ocean water.

Walking onto the ferry, which could hold up to 9 cars

Views from the 10~15 minute ferry ride were great

Upon getting off the ferry we were surrounded by rental services for mopeds, electric bikes, two-three person electric quad/atv type cars. We already knew we wanted to rent bikes but were a little overwhelmed with the options. We walked a little ways past the ferry port to find a quieter rental shop. And for w 10,000/each for a bike, we were set. 

Our first stop was Cafe Haru, a small cafe less than 5 minutes from the port. We stopped here mainly because we needed to load up on sunscreen, but the cafe ended up being awesome.

The specialty here happened to be Octopus pancake, which we had to try

Two large collies kept watch (and we snuggled with them a little ☺)

Hallabong oranges are a specialty of Jeju, and made for a perfect side-drink to the savory pancake

Made with: Jeju Barley, dried octopus flakes, and Mozzarella

With sunscreen situated and a snack in our bellies, we headed off to explore the island. Round trip by bike, without stops, takes around one hour. We probably spent about 3 hours total, stopping frequently to take pictures or just soak up the views.

We saw a few of these giant seashell sculptures, all painted different colors


Small lighthouses like this one were dotted around the island


Stacking lava rocks


Statue representing haenyeo, the female divers of Jeju who use minimal diving gear to harvest
They are considered a cultural treasure of Jeju




There was a boat giving rides to people to get them a closer view of the rocks


Another haenyeo statue

We heard from one of the Korean teachers we work with that there are only 4,000 haenyeo left and almost all of them are over the age of 50. 

We saw several horses on the island

I had read a few blogs about Udo before we arrived, and one of them suggested that we try Jeju's famous Black Pork. We had seen it advertised all over Jeju-do and Udo, and this blog site recommended a cafe with rainbow black pork burgers. We found the restaurant, Bongkkeurang, to be another small-ish cafe, but once again we were lucky to get a seat by the windows.

View from lunch

I ordered the peanut burger to enjoy some more of Udo's small, crunchy, delicious peanuts, and Sam ordered the rainbow burger. To go along with these I ordered an "Udo Sky" mint soda smoothie, and Sam ordered a lemonade. It should be noted that most "-ade" drinks we've had in Korea include some sort of bubbly soda in them.

Peanut burger with Sam's lemonade


Sam's rainbow burger with the Udo Sky drink (which looked like the day's sky and was delicious!)

The food was delicious. The burger was pretty messy and packed with caramelized onions, peppers, bacon, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and sauce. Plus peanuts for me, which was a fun addition. The patty itself we couldn't get a great sense of the taste, but we felt like it was a hearty meal anyway. The salad was nicely dressed with some vinaigrette and Parmesan cheese.

After lunch, we decided to make our way to the beach located close-by to where we drop off our rentals.

Lots of mirrors to help cars and bikers around tight corners

As you can probably tell from the photos, not many accessible beaches because of all the lava rocks. Actually there are only two advertised beaches for swimming access on the island. The sand here felt even coarser than the sand at Gwakji beach.

Monday - Hallasan

Hallasan is the tallest peak in Korea at ~1,950m (6,398 ft). It is an extinct shield volcano with over 350 parasitic cones located all over the island. There are two trails you can take to get to the top: Seongpanak (9.6 km in length with a more gradual incline) and Gwaneumsa (8.7 km in length, the more strenuous hike, with stairs going nearly the whole way). 

The only mammal we saw was a little mouse digging up a cache

We spoke with the hotel concierge on Sunday evening about scheduling a taxi pick-up at 5:30am. We knew a little bit about this hike: it is long. And if you don't reach checkpoints at certain times they won't allow you to finish the ascent. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time anyway, considering this was our first serious hike in.... maybe years?

We had done a lot of research about the two trails and so our original plan was to take Gwaneumsa up and Seongpanak down. Descending the stairs and large rock paths of Gwaneumsa sounded like a recipe for tweaked knees and broken ankles. But as we arrived at the trailhead, we found out that Seongpanak was closed due to construction/rock slides. So we would be going up and down Gwaneumsa. Boo.

Lava stone paths

Fortunately we had the whole day ahead of us. And the eerie quiet of having the trail to yourself at 5:45am was very special. The first hour or so was straightforward, nothing particularly strenuous. We were surrounded by tall shrubs and trees, feeling very much in a rain forest. We could hear the occasional crow whining and cicadas waking up with us. Have we mentioned the cicadas yet? I believe the word cacophony was created purely to describe these insects.

And then we got a taste of the stairs

Lava flow patterns in the rocks

The sign next to Sam shows we are about to begin the difficult section

Bridge at the bottom of the ravine before the real stairs start

/crying

After another hour we started to realize we were in the middle of the clouds. Also it was starting to rain. Also we couldn't see anything.

Despite limited visibility this was beautiful

Making friends with locals

Our glorious shelter

Okay Chacos

After running from the torrential downpour and making it to the shelter, we shedded our packs and dug into some snacks. I think we probably looked like a pair of drowned rats. A very, very kind Korean couple gave us some pork jerky. We probably should have packed something more substantial than crackers and ramen, but it was enough to refuel us.

With two more solid hours of hiking to go, we begrudgingly left the shelter. The rain had stopped, so our morale was able to recover. And thanks to our open-toed hiking sandals (-____-) our feet dried out nicely. Though with the cloud surrounding us and the misty wind blowing, it was hard to tell if we ever fully dried.

Success?

After spending about five disappointing minutes at the top, we decided it would be safest for us to be getting down. We didn't want to let the hypothermia set is as we strained to see anything. On a clear day you are able to see the famous crater lake, White Deer Lake, resting inside the volcano. But alas, we were lucky to see ten feet ahead of us.

Suspension bridge on the way down

These pretty blue flowers were everywhere

Soo thrilled

The biggest wave of relief as we got to the finish

Man, it almost felt like the Gwaneumsa trail was made intentionally difficult. The large boulder pathways make every single step down feel like a deliberate and risky choice. And tack onto that the fact that it continued to lightly rain on us so the rocks and railroad ties and occasional staircases looked slippery (some were, most weren't). But it was scary, you know? T___T

So. Sam and I began the hike at 5:45am, got to the peak at 11am, and got back down at almost 5pm. ~11 hour round trip for us.

After hobbling over to the trail head office to receive our certificates for completing the hike, we located a taxi and got back to the hotel. Resisting all urges to pass out in our icebox, we found a brewery, Magpie Brewing.

♥

Tuesday - Homeward bound

Waking up on Tuesday was tough. For me, my calves were cramping up with every step I tried to take. Sam said his feet hurt the worst. So we took our time, packed up our bags, and made our way to the airport. We found some coffee and a place to sit while we waited to board. A shuttle took us to our airplane when it was time:

Asiana airlines both ways. It was only about an hour flight

The man next to us was asleep when the stewardess brought drinks around, so she left this sticker for him

After landing back in Cheongju airport, we had about 2 hours till our train so we found a quiet corner and got some lunch at a chain called Paris Baguette.

I opted for an egg salad sandwich and Sam got a chili crab sandwich

Plus we split a blueberry bagel with honey cream cheese ☺ 

We know it looks beautiful but it was soo hot waiting for the train

And that's it! We got off the train around 2:30, caught a bus home, and turned on the A.C. for a few hours.

We hope you guys enjoyed the pictures and videos! This was our last big trip planned in Korea. We will be taking a trip to Seoul in a few weeks and then back to Seoul one last time before we head home. A little less than four weeks left.