Jeju Island - Seogwipo Waterfalls and Udo

Korea's paradise Island.

Jeju is an island off the southern coast of Korea. It's 'the hawaii of Korea' .. the 'honeymoon spot' the place everyone freaks out about you going there like it's the coolest thing EVER! So of course I HAD to go when my sister, Alex came to visit.

We stayed in Greenday Guest House in Jeju-si (or Jeju city), it's about 10 minutes from the airport by cab. The staff was super friendly, spoke English and helped us find awesome things to do everyday!

Day 1 - Bus Tour.

Tuesday was rainy, a bummer really.. but that didn't stop us. We hopped on a tour bus - 5,000 won (5 bucks) a person and we could get off when we wanted at one of the 10 stops, wander around it and then catch the next bus that came by 2 hours later. So we got off at a forrest...

...where we saw, well trees. It basically looked like Twilight. We stood there imagining Jacob running around the forest (of course shirtless) and Edward flying through the tree tops. It rained and rained alllll day. There was luckily a couple of shops selling wooden things, so we ducked in there for some shelter for a bit and looked around.

By the time the bus came we just wanted to go back to hostel.. so we headed back and then a bit later went back out. We hit up a market, with seafood of all sorts and some famous jeju chocolate.

We left the seafood for the koreans, but you best believe we bought some chocolate!

Dragon Head Rock.

We watched the sun set and planes taking off while listening to the waves roll in. I really can't think of anything I love more than being on the ocean, watching the sunset. I'm a sucker for it. Then we made our way over to the Dragon Head Rock, which is just what it sounds like - a rock that looks like a dragon. (or so the Koreans think).

Light up Bridge.

We found this fun little light up bridge, too cool not to photograph and totally worth putting up with the wind and rain, constantly cleaning my lens from water droplets, mosquitos attacking me and an angry sister yelling at me to HURRY UP!!


Day 2 - Seogwipo -- Jeongbang waterfall.

Getting there from Jeju-si.
Take the 720 city bus from the bus terminal. It takes about an hour and cost under 3,000 won. You can use your bus card, if you have one.

Seogwipo, is a city on the southern coast of the island. It's a whole different feel. It really felt like a different country. It was quite lovely and peaceful.

We walked to Jeongbang waterfall, which falls off the coast and runs right into the ocean. Amazing. We dipped our feet in and I photographed. I would highly recommend visiting this waterfall!

Then we headed to 'food street' for what, well food, duh. Alex said, 'I don't like spicy and I don't really like fish'. Ok child, let's see here -- we are on an island, in korea - an island has seafood and Korea is full of spicy things. But I thought, ok, let's see what we can find that she'll at least try. 

We walked up to a place to check it out and the ladies forced us to sit, well I guess that helped us make up our minds.

It was DELICIOUS!

The fish, fabulous. Best fish I've ever had, or at least darn close. Alex ate most of it, sadly. I kind of ordered it for me knowing she 'didn't like fish'. Her idea of 'fish' is catfish. And that's why she said she doesn't like fish. I guess she didn't realize there is more than 1 kind of fish in the world! I forget how little she knows and has tried being from small town Iowa. :)

However, she assimilated rather quickly into the Korean culture. Working out on outside workout machines, with an umbrella to shade herself and throwing up the peace sign! She would do quite well here!

Seogwipo - Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls.

Later we taxied to another set of waterfalls, Cheonjiyeon, a grouping of 3 of them within one park. Taxis are just easier in this country and are fairly cheap and are super nice. It was a 15 or 20 minute ride and cost us about 18 bucks.

Hilarious Konglish Sign.

WARNING!! 'When swimming you can be died with heart attack'. So close -- so close, Korea. I love when I find weird signs. It makes me laugh, I hope no matter how much English this countries learns, I hope they never fix these signs. It entertains us foreigners!

Jungmun-Daepo Coast.

After the 2nd set of waterfalls we were about water fall-ed out for the day. So we walked to the coast to see the large strange column rock formations, formed around 20,000 years ago when lava came into contact with the ocean. If you are interested, here's a good article explaining how it happens.

Udo Island.

A small island off the coast of Jeju, the main island. They say it looks like a cow laying down, again korean's have quite the imagination. We had to bus there (take bus 710 from the Jeju city bus terminal - around 3,000, it's the very last stop) then fairy to the island. We attempted to rent scooters, but they wouldn't let us without an international drivers license. I've heard of people who didn't need international licenses, so if you don't have one just try handing them a non international and see if they notice/care!

We just opted for the exercise option of biking. It was 10,000 won for 3 hours and leaving a passport as collateral, which scared Alex. Her words 'They better not lose that, I need that to get home.' I guess at least she realizes that's important!

There were so many cars, buses, scooters and 4-wheelers, especially in the beginning. I was so scared we were going to get hit. And they gave the people on the motorized vehicles helmets - but of course they don't give the people on non-motored little bikes any sort of protection. I feel like that is a little backwards. It's like putting a baby in the trunk while you stick a 12 year old in a baby car seat with a helmet. We were the baby in the trunk, I didn't like being at the bottom of the 'food chain' with no protection!

When I got over being scared for my life it really is a peaceful and beautiful little place.

We rode a ways and found a small restaurant serving ice cream and burgers. Does it get better than that? Really now, it doesn't. We split a peanut burger and a peanut ice cream. Yes, I said that right - a peanut burger, sounds weird but that thing was FANTASTIC. We loved it. I guess the island is famous for peanuts and garlic... so they just put peanuts and/or garlic on everything. We thought about trying the garlic ice cream, but decided that was a bit too strange.

We continued on our way. We only stopped for a few things. 1. if we were a little lost. 2. if we saw ice cream and 3. for me to take pictures (oh wait only I stopped, Alex kind of kept going, of course!). Luckily we were only a little lost maybe once or twice. It was basically one road that went in a circle around the whole island, but we would still manage to get confused. Confession; We ended up getting peanut ice cream 3 times. I should be ashamed but I'm not. WE RODE BIKES DARN IT. That was our excuse that we 'deserved' it and our way of justifying the sugar overload. I honestly didn't stop all the much to take pictures. I more just enjoyed the scenery. It was the perfect day. Sunny, perfect temperature, cool breeze from the ocean - <3 it.

We stopped for a bit on a small little beach. The sand was not really sand, more like small shells, so it was a bit rough to walk on but nice because it didn't cling to every square inch and crevasse of our body. We played in the water, took some pictures and collected shells and sea glass.

We returned the bikes, got Alex's passport - so no problem of her being stuck in Korea forever. Then we boarded the ferry back to the main land. The ferry's stop running at 5 in October, we took the 4 o'clock one just to be sure we would make it on. Then we bussed back to Jeju-si.

That night we met up with my friend James from England. No, not the British James I went to Seoul with, but another one. I guess James is a super popular name in England. We went to a little festival, listened to some music and drums and such. We chatted a bit and caught up, he's quite the character, as Brits tend to be. Alex quite enjoyed his company as well.


Flight home - Jeju to Cheongju.

We finally got a view of Mt. Halla from the plane. The rest of the time it was too cloudy or we didn't have a good view of it!

Korea is a bunch and a bunch of mountains... like a bunch. And then a bunch of high rises.

I flew over my school.. and I recognized it! So awesome! 

We flew in and out from the small little airport in Cheongju, which also doubles as a military airport so we got to see some fighter jets take off - that was pretty sweet! 

After landing I caught a bus to school and Alex attempted to make her way back to my house, alone. Before you freak out about a 17 year old on her own in a foreign country let me explain. 1. Korea is very safe. 2. Koreans are super friendly. 3. Almost everyone speaks some English, or will at least be willing to help. So I figured what could go wrong? Then I get a call from a random number, it's Alex. She says - 'Yo, dude I don't know where I am.' She explained... I said what you told me to say to get to your house, but I don't know where I am. I talked to the taxi driver and he confirmed she was near my home. But she didn't recognize anything. She had to hang up and get out of the cab. She wandered a bit and finally found internet in Lotteria (the McD's of Korea), called me and we figured out that she was near my house the whole time.

After that experience, she stuck with going to the same pizza place for lunch while I was at school!


Next adventure, coming out soon on the blog!
It's a crazy one --- it involves a large animal with sharp teeth and breathing under water. Any guesses? Check back real soon to see if you're right.