We got on Korean Air's early morning flight to Jeju at Gimpo. We could have saved $60/person by traveling with Jeju Air if we knew about it. Jeju Air doesn't have an English language site! Korean Air only serves you a half cup of coffee or juice on the one hour flight. That's a poor showing even for Easy Jet the "wooden-benched" 30 min. commuter in Europe. As I always said "South Korea does not encourage international tourism." The Hermit Kindgdom mentality prevails but that's an other story. The Starbucks on Gimpo opened up 10min. early on seeing our desperate faces...now I'm not saying that US chains are great for local economies but they sure raise the standards to follow.
Jeju offers a marvelous view from the sky. I habitualy sit on the port side (left) window seat towards the front, for the best view, which works out most of the time.
We were greeted with glorious sunshine and a lovely breeze that blew fresh and green.
We got lucky on the airport, there was shuttle but to Seogwipo ready to go at exit 1.
The bus stops at the big hotels and the spot worth getting off at is the Hyatt or Shilla Hotels where the beautifull Jungmun Beach is easily accessible after a bit of downhill climbing. Ther is a nice (6000 won) Buffet restaurant at the right curve with a great view over the Pacific and some lovely bronze sculptures on a manicured lawn.
We did managed to find a cheap motel after a false start (don't try to find a homestay, there isn't any in town anymore only in the surrounding villages. There are some cheap 30.000 won motels near the fishing port though but no English names except for the word 'Motel' which is enough anyway.
Seogwipo's port looks fairly poor during the day, at night it comes alive with plastic tables, chairs raw seafood for 20.000 a head and much soju.
The city is worth a visit for it's two lovely waterfalls. Jeongbang falls right onto big round rock bouldres then into the sea. The far side is a favorite hangout of the Haenyo (old ladies that dive for seashells) at high tide (we saw them around 6 in the evening. You can sample their catch for 10.000 won, you'll get a small plate with 5 still live creatures pulled out of their shells in fron of your eyes, served with a dollop of chilly sauce (as everything is in Korea). We gave this experience a miss. The park shuts at 7pm due to the steepness of the stairway that leads down to it. Entry fee 2000won. The Ceonjeyeon Waterfall is open till 11pm and lit up beautifully at night. The area is nicely developed with park and shops though has a bit of an artificial feel to it. (like almost everything else)
I went diving the next day with Big Blue 33 it was nice, read about it in the previous entry
The third day saw us getting on the bus again, this time to the Jeju Folk Village. getting there was fairly painless, took a taxi to the bus stop of the East Round Road. Jhe journey took under an hour and an other 15 walking from the main road to the village itself. Splenind info is found about travel and other details HERE
The village is well worth a visit. It's huge, we spent a god 4 hours wondering around the different traditional buildings. Small huts with thatched roofs that are secured by pumkins growing on them! Confucian school, jail, tradesmen's huts and there is a bug-packed spooky tree at the shaman's house that scared us by all the flying critters taking off on our entrance. Brrr ;o)There was the mystery of the five ostriches..what are they doing in a Jeju traditional village? hmmm? They were thirtsty too. At the end of the walk there are numerous restaurants with raised platforms for seating. They serve delicious dishes such as my favorite the Pajun which is basically a seafood and spring onions pancake. We also tried a spicy pork dish made of the flesh of indigenous Black Pigs that were traditionally fed by human feces in the old days when our crap wasn't full of chemicals.
Mind, camera disk and belly full we took off to Seongsan Ilchul-bong the Sunrise Peak
To our fantastically good fortune we found a great room at an inn right at the park entrance. The room was so big we ran around in it a little just for the fun of it :o)Kitchen, A/C and even the TV screen was huge. Absolute bargain for 50.000won
The peak which is a green headland jutting into the sea, looked wonderful in the afternoon. A couple of horses were grazing the grass on the slope among the rocks coloured orange by the setting sun. A beautifull little Buddhist temple nestles at the base with a lovely view over the black sandy bay on the right. Children were playing noisly in the shallow water by a small fishing boat jetty. An old lady (ex-Haenyo no doubt) was busy with degutting a netfull catch of sea urchins in front of a local dive shop. We went to explore the cool and dark lava tube caves along the wall of the peak. While climbing over the sharp lava rocks we discovered a Heanyo 'nest' in one of the caverns. We really had a very nice evening.
Our last day on Jeju Island found us climbing up the steep slope of Sunrise Peak. The half hour stair walking was not too hard, made even easier by the numerous stops at the observation points. It's all very civilised with wooden steps, benches and platforms. The yellow Full Moon kept us company on our way up. The view from the top is partially blocked to the sea but the rest is everlooking the luscious green crater of a long extinct volcano. The sky was too hazy that morning and the sun was just a small orange blobbing up in a pool of murky washing. The way down was far more spectacular. By then the light sharpened the shadows and the green looked even greener. I took this postcard shot at the bottom with a line of Tolharubangs
These are the 'Grandfater Spirit' protectors of the island.
TO BE CONTINUED..........
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