At first, I was slightly anxious at the thought of traveling on my own. Traveling wasn't new to me: figuring out bus schedules, seeing sights, meeting people at hostels/guesthouses... but traveling alone was a new challenge. I viewed it as another way to push myself, to see what I was capable of.
The week leading up to it, I sort of kept "forgetting" about my upcoming trip. But soon, Thursday rolled around, and after getting the okay to leave work early after the kids took their finals, I headed home, finished packing, and went to the airport via express bus. My flight was delayed by half and hour, and after a cute text from Hyo Lee checking on whether I got to the airport okay (she's my Korean mom/travel agent) and a 45-minute flight, I landed in Jeju.
Jeju-si and Hallasan
Thursday night I stayed in Jeju city, which was about a 10-minute bus ride from the airport. Yeha Guesthouse was minutes away from the bus terminal (very convenient) and one of the best hostels I've ever stayed at. Everything was so clean and nice (showers were big/private, rooms were well equipped), and there was a living room/kitchen area, and free breakfast (with eggs!!). Before I even left the check-in counter, I had met a Chinese-British guy named Will who was looking for someone to eat Heoktweiji (흑돼지) with, which was a black pork, a Jeju specialty. Basically it was served Samgyepsal-style, but the black pigs were native to Jeju. At the guesthouse I also met two other Chinese people: Karen, who was visiting from Hong Kong, and Yi Yeom, who was a civil servant in China on some sort of exchange program in Korea. Yi Yeom spoke Mandarin, but Will and Karen spoke Cantonese so it was really interesting to hear so much Chinese!! The funny thing was that Yi Yeom and I didn't understand each other, so instead we communicated in Korean!
I had planned on hiking Hallasan (Mt. Halla - the tallest mountain in Korea) the next day, and Yi Yeom and her friend were considering going. However, it didn't work out (not only was the hike 8 hours long, but we had to get up super early for it), so instead I went with a Korean girl named Sohee (서희). We got up at 5:30am, caught a bus from the terminal, and began our trek at 7:30am at Seongpanak Trail, which was 9.6 kilometers long!! We stopped briefly for Kimbap and Ramen at a shelter, and arrived at Baengnokdam Peak (1,950m!!) before noon. On the way up we got to see some roe deer, and the view at the top was breathtaking. Currently it's monsoon season, so I didn't really see much blue sky the whole trip, but being up on the mountain with the clouds surrounding you with mist really made me feel like I was on another world. However, I didn't forget that I was in Korea, and in Korea cell phone service is everywhere, so I actually video called Hyo Lee from the top!!
Sohee and I at Baengnokdam, a crater lake at the top of HallasanTo get back down, we hiked the Gwaneumsa Trail (8.7km) which took about another 4 hours. This trail had never-ending stairs, which made me glad I didn't hike this way UP. However, the view on this trail was definitely better than Seongpanak, we saw a ton of ridges and valleys and there were also some cool bridges along the way.
We finally arrived at the bottom at around 3:30pm... which meant we had hiked 18.3km in 8 hours that day. Pretty successful, I'd say! Ever since Jirisan it had been a goal of mine to hike the top three mountains in Korea, and so far, I've gotten to the peak of the top two! On the walk down, Sohee and I kept passing the same people, and one of the guys gave us and another hiker a ride back to Jeju-si. After splitting with Sohee I took a bus headed east to Seongsan-ri, to my next motel.
Seongsan Ilchulbong, Manjanggul, and Seogwipo
My motel was right at the bottom of Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak), which was one of the top sights in Jeju. However, when I got to the motel, it was nowhere to be found. There was so much FOG that I literally could not see it! If the guy at the front desk hadn't told me my room had a view, I wouldn't have known. Because of this, I wasn't anticipating much. I was also planning to hike at sunrise, since that was the popular thing to do, but the man had convinced me that I wouldn't be able to see a thing. So I slept in a little bit (much needed, after Hallasan), and didn't head out until 10am the next day. The crazy thing was, around 9am, I looked out the window, and there it was!! It was like freezing water in my face, such a shock how big it was, how cool it looked, especially considering the blanket of fog the night before! The hike was a short 20 minutes, and at the top was another crater. It was definitely harder to see than Hallasan, but I was glad I was there. Too bad it was so cloudy so I couldn't see the backdrop of blue sky and ocean.
The view of Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak) from my room.
Another view of Seongsan IlchulbongA note on the weather: because it's currently monsoon season in Korea, and Jeju gets a TON of rain, it was supposed to rain the entire weekend. Luckily, outside of a few drops here and there, it wasn't so bad, and everything still looked beautiful to me. Some people mentioned what a pity it was that I was there during the rainy season, but honestly, this added to its charm. Yes, blue skies would've made for better photos, but the mist and fog was just a part of Jeju, it gave everything a sort of mysteriousness and other-worldliness that really made me feel I was somewhere else.
After Seongsan Ilchulbong, I hopped on a bus headed back west, toward Manjang Cave, which was part of the Geomun Oreum Lava Tube System - the longest lava tube system in the world. (If you haven't guessed, Jeju is a volcanic island, Hallasan is a volcano...) On the bus I met another solo Korean woman headed there so we went together. Her name was Jung Eun (정은) and she was from Seoul. Jung Eun's English wasn't so good so we conversed in Korean... by this time I was really enjoying meeting random people and finding out about their life/where they were from, etc. Manjanggul was really impressive, the entrance to the cave looked so small; halfway down the steps there is a HUGE temperature drop and once you get inside you realize how big the cave is. We were only allowed to go 1km into the cave, and at the end there was a 7.6m high lava column, apparently the largest in the world (I really like visiting things that have some sort of status as something-in the world...) Overall I was pretty impressed by how big and scary the cave was (there was really little lighting), and I could only imagine how much scarier it would be without the lights.
Entrance to Manjanggul (Manjang Cave)After Manjanggul, Jung Eun and I headed back toward Jeju city - she was heading back to Seoul and my destination was Seogwipo, a city on the south coast of the island (Jeju city is on the north coast). Jung Eun and I split, and at Seogwipo, with walking instructions from Erica, a fellow EPIKer living in Jeju, I made my way to Jeongbang Waterfall.
Jeongbang was by far, my favorite part of Jeju. It was the only waterfall in Asia that went directly into the ocean, and after all the walking I had done so far, I took off my hiking boots and soaked my feet in the ocean water. It was sooo refreshing, and the waterfall was so beautiful. If I lived in Jeju I would go there SO often, just to enjoy the view.
Jeongbang WaterfallAfter Jeongbang I was sort of short on time... I had the option of checking out another waterfall - Cheonjiyeon, and/or going to see the Oedolgae Rock. Since I'm actually returning to Jeju in a few weeks with my Taekwon dojang, and Cheonjiyeon was on the itinerary, I decided to check out Oedolgae. At Oedolgae I met a Korean family who was on vacation in Jeju, one woman and her son actually lived in Houston, and her son was born there. Oedolgae was pretty cool, except again, I couldn't see the view behind it, which was too bad. Oedolgae has a lot of stories associated with it, one about a general dressing it up to scare away invaders, one about it being an old woman..
OedolgaeJungmun and Sai Guesthouse
By now it was getting pretty late and I still hadn't met up with Erica, who was in the area. I caught a cab to my last guesthouse, called Sai Guesthouse, on the Southwest coast of Jeju. It was sort of in the middle of nowhere, but on an Olle Trail, which are scenic coastal walking trails that Jeju is famous for. The people at this guesthouse were so nice and friendly. Apparently they don't get a lot of foreigners, and since Hyo Lee booked it for me, she had called ahead and given them the heads up. So they were actually nervous about my arrival. When I got there, even the guests knew who I was, cause I guess the staff were talking about the foreigner who was coming that day!! They seemed a little relieved that I spoke Korean, and also I think not actually looking like a foreigner (aka blond hair, blue eyes) made them more comfortable.
Sai (사이) Gueshouse
Book cafe on the 2nd floor, Barista making coffeeI couldn't have dinner at the guesthouse because I had plans to meet Erica, so the manager of the guesthouse, Sang Sik, drove me all the way to Jungmun Beach (which was a good 10 min ride) where I met Erica, her Jeju friends, and we headed to a beach party for a surfing competition that was going on that weekend. The beach party ended almost immediately after we got there however, and so we got some fireworks and just lit them on the beach. One really funny/traumatizing thing was watching Erica with the fireworks!! She was having too much fun, haha, and played with them like she was Harry Potter. Soooo instead of pointing the stick up, she pointed it out, and almost set a tent and a car on fire in the process!!! We were laughing so much my sides began to hurt.
Unfortunately, I had to leave pretty early since I didn't know if the guesthouse had a curfew. Back at the guesthouse, I drank a bit and chatted with the people who were staying there. This is my favorite part about traveling in Korea: meeting people. Its an awesome opportunity for me to practice my Korean, which was why I preferred staying in Korean guesthouses as opposed to ones that were meant for foreigners. The people there were so nice and friendly. With almost everyone I met that weekend we exchanged e-mails or phone numbers.
The last thing I did in Jeju was head to Hyeopjae Beach Sunday morning. It was way too foggy to see anything, but it was nice and relaxing to walk around. I went there with another guest from Sai, who wanted to introduce me to his cousin in Seoul, haha.
Before I began this trip, I wondered if I was going to get bored or lonely. While there were a few times where I was bored, it was surprising to see that I never really felt lonely. It was really fun wandering around alone, with just your backpack, and interacting with strangers. I had also never packed so LITTLE for a trip before!! I think I really enjoyed the life of a simple backpacker. I didn't want to leave Jeju by the end, I just wanted to keep going, see what else there was to explore! It was a sad wake-up call to remember that I had a life to get back to. The weekend truly felt like a dream, like I was in another country completely. While I was sad to be leaving, I have the trip with my Taekwon dojang to look forward to, and I'm so glad I'll get another chance to go back.
Backpacker Kat? Haha
looks like your having a great time xxx
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