South Korea – Jeju island

Transportation

Jeju island or Jeju-do is a volcanic island and a designated UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. It is also known as the Hawaii of Asia and apparently the honeymoon destination for South Koreans; good enough reasons for us to check it out.

After our Seoul adventure, we took the one hour flight to Jeju. It is the busiest air route in the world with flights almost every half an hour between the two cities. We flew with Asiana Airline, one of my favourite airlines – their seats in economy were probably the same size as Jetstar's business class seats. We spent 5 days/4 nights in Jeju; which I felt was plenty, since it was still pretty cold. The island boasted beautiful white sandy beaches, which I can only assumed in summer it will be chock-a-block with humans.  In March though, it’s still too nippy to dip our toes.

Upon arriving, we hired a car and started driving around the island. The size of the island is probably comparable to Bali, as it is pretty big and quite busy even in the low season.  South Korean drives on the right-hand side, with drivers stop whenever and wherever as long as they put their hazard lights on immediately. I was scared shitless the first day, then kind of gotten used to it by the end.

Accommodation

I gave Fabs the reign to book all the accommodation that hasn’t been booked for our trip. He found this hotel by the beach, overlooking the water. That wasn’t the major draw for him though, the hotel also provides all you can drink beer from 6.00 pm to 11.30 pm. You would think we would be docked there at the specified time every night, but for one reason or another we ended up utilising the bar only for one night. Shocking, I know. 

Attractions

All sights in Jeju charged an entrance fee, and/or parking; ranging from ₩500 to ₩2,000 each. Maybe that's why they're so well maintained.

Mt Hallasan

2070-61 1100(Cheonbaek)-ro, Nohyeong-dong, Cheju

Hallasan is a shield volcano and the highest mountain in South Korea. There are several trails around the mountain, with 5 hours return as the shortest trail and 12 hours retun for the longest one. Fabs was toying with idea to go for the longest (hardest) one, but I shut it down. So, we ended up doing the 5 hours’ trail – the Yeongsil trail.

Really beautiful view throughout 

Korea's only Alpine plain - just gorgeous!

Not pictured is the ramen shop at the top of the mountain! We sat around basking on the sun after we ate our instant ramen before descending down.

Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market

22 Jungjeong-ro73beon-gil, Seogwi-dong

After morning well spent hiking a mountain, we went to the market to get some lunch.

Jeju famous black pig

Served with bonito flakes

Crab rice with cheese

Jeongbang Falls (정방폭포)

36 Chilsimni-ro214beon-gil, Donghong-dong, Seogwipo

Since we were in the area, we continued to this waterfall. Hailed as the only waterfall in Asia to fall directly into the ocean, it was quite a sight to see.

The waterfall enormity made humans looked like ants - courtesy of Fabs's beloved drone

Jusangjeollidae

Jungmun-dong, Seogwipo-si

Close by from the waterfall is Jusangjeolli. They are hexagons shaped stone pillars of various sizes piled up along the coast. It is formed when the lava from Hallasan Mountain erupted into the sea of Jungmun. Fabs kept banging on about how a hexagon is “nature’s perfect shape” whilst I was eyeing up the oranges.

Hexagons everywhere

So, the orange wasn't an orange after all. This is actually a massive mandarin - seedless(!) and quite sweet. It is sold everywhere in the island, so I assumed it is Jeju's specialty. If this mandarin was available in my office, it would be demolished in no time.

Black Pork Street

25 Gwandeong-ro 15(sibo)-gil, Geonip-dong, Cheju

This is pretty much a strip mall selling local black pig, which is a breed of smallish domestic pig with a black skin and smooth coat of hair. We headed to Dombedon (돔베돈) - the Michelin starred restaurant (as you do) after Jusangjeollidae. We also checked out the (not a Michelin starred) restaurant next door to Dombedon on another night to compare. I felt Dombedon's pork were nicer, but the next door restaurant included abalones and steam egg for the set menu! 

Dombedon spread - nom nom nom

Spot the differences

Manjanggul Lava Tube (만장굴)

182 Manjanggul-gil, Gujwa-eup, Cheju

It was pouring all day on our third day, so we thought it would be the perfect day to check out the lava tube. It formed around 300,000 to 200,000 years ago and stretches approximately 8.9 km; though only 1.0 km is open to public. Due to the rain, it felt way colder and damper inside the underground cave.

Very dark and spacious!

Seopjikoji (섭지코지)

262 Seopjikoji-ro, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo

As mentioned I had all the attractions/eateries etc as stars in my map. I saved them sometime ago, so by now I don't even know what half of them are. This was one of them. It is a famous filming site for Korean dramas for good reasons.

Lovely though super windy coastal walk 

My jaw dropped when I saw this beautiful field of yellow rape blossoms

Seongsan Ilchulbong

Also called ‘Sunrise Peak’, it supposed to be THE place to see sunrise. We couldn't get up to see the sunrise - I was glad that we didn't get to go, because it was

1. Freezing, and 
2. It was gale force windy-as

Nonetheless, the view was still pretty good. We were there at the perfect time as there was a 'women's diver performance' at 1.30 (and 3.00) pm. We got to watch these ajoomma wearing '80s diver suits and picked shellfishes straight from the seabed to your plate. We also got to hang out with bunch of school girls on their field trip. Fabs was thoroughly entertained.

The view half way from the top

Pretty impressive ladies had to do the job because the men all fled from the island

Hyeopjae Beach (협재해변)

329-10 Hallim-ro, Hallim-eub, Cheju

Another great idea of ours was to check out the sunset by the beach on the western side of the island since we missed out on the sunrise. And again we were WRONG. The drive took one plus hours, half the beach was closed and there was no other crazy person on the beach beside us.

As mentioned above, the wind were wild that day - but Fabs insisted to fly his drone. The day ended up with me yelling 'Call it home!!' (meant to get the drone automatically fly back to the controller) and Fabs ran around chasing it as the wind were so strong the drone couldn't fly back (against the wind). Lucky for him, it didn't drown in the ocean.

Picture can be deceiving indeed!

Eateries

Haenyeo Chon (해녀촌)

1638 Dongbok-ri, Gujwa-eup, Cheju

Fabs stumbled upon this place online - famous for its sashimi noodles and sea urchin ramen. This was our first time tasting sea urchins, and I daresay it's delicious.

We were done in under 30 minutes

We had many meals at random restaurants in Jeju that I didn't mention here, as I wouldn't really recommend it. Overall Jeju was great - I believe in summer it will be a totally different experience as the beaches do look stunning. Though I felt that it is quite a touristy island; I can't imagine how crowded the beach will be!

We continued on our South Korea adventure - off to Mokpo and road trip to Busan next!