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Published: November 7th 2012
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Sitting about 100km south of the mainland, there is a small island often referred to as the 'Korean Hawaii'. It's called Jeju-do, and due to it's slightly more exotic nature and natural beauty, it is famous as a Korean honeymoon spot. Because of Jeju's location off the coast of Korea, the culture and language is slightly different to that of the Korean peninsula. I've heard many Korean people actually say that they find it difficult to understand the Jeju dialect.
There have been many names to describe Jeju over the years. A long time ago it was known to the mainland Koreans as 'that place over there'. It has been called the 'Island of Three Abundances' (or
Samdado in Korean), which refers to the large number of rocks (
seokda), wind (
pungda), and hardy women (
yeoda). Jeju is a volcanic island, with the largest mountain in Korea, Mt. Halla, at the centre. Jeju islanders therefore have had to spend a fair amount of time digging and moving chunks of volcanic rock around. As Jeju lies in the path of many typhoons, and being a small island, it is often fairly windy. And as many of the Jeju men were lost at
sea, the women far outnumbered the men, and were known for working very hard due to the harsh environment they were in. So there's plenty of all three.
It has also been called the 'Island of Three Lacks' (or
Sammu), which refers to the lack of thieves, beggars, and gates. The principles of honesty, self-reliance, and strength are important on Jeju, and have been passed down the generations from their ancestors who were banished to the island for wanting to keep these principles. As a result, no one stole or begged, and therefore no one needed gates. In fact, the gate on a traditional Jeju house is only there to tell visitors if the owner is home or not.
And finally, it has also more recently been called the 'Island of Three Beauties' (or
Samryeo). No prizes for guessing the Korean word for 'three' by the way. The three beauties are generosity, nature, and various fruits. I know 'various fruits' sounds like something they added on just to make it up to three, but the tangerines on Jeju are ridiculously good, so I'm willing to let that one slide.
So Courtney and I headed over to Jeju
for a weekend break on one of her last weekends here. In typical Courtney fashion, she mentioned the night before we left that we were meeting up with one of her old students at 3pm the next day. 'Oh, I didn't tell you?'. Errrr no, how old is he? 'He's 11, but he can speak really good English!'. Right...
So anyway, we hopped on the 50min flight from Busan to Jeju, and headed straight to Hyeopjae beach. I was stunned how beautiful this place was, if I didn't know any better I would have guessed we were in some exotic country somewhere. The water was so clear, turquoise and emerald, and gently lapping at a white sand beach. It was a scorching day, and we were both more than happy to just chill there all morning. We then headed to Jungmun in south to meet up with Courtney's student, Scott, and his family. And I have to admit, his English was amazing. Pretty much fluent, and his 9 year old sister wasn't far off either. I actually really enjoyed having conversations with some young Korean kids other than 'Tell me an
a word?'. Their mum picked us up and
took us straight for coffee and cake. She didn't speak English so the kids translated for us. Next stop was a pine forest up on the side of Halla-san, to breathe in the fresh air that supposedly could cure all illnesses. After a stroll through the forest, we stopped there for a picnic that their mother had prepared for us. There was loads of food, even though she had just taken us out for cake! And if that wasn't enough, next it was dinner time, so we drove back into Seogwipo for Korean BBQ. She had even booked a hotel for me and Courtney at one of the main golf courses on the island. So that's a big tick in the generosity box of the 'three beauties' of Jeju for sure.
That evening after saying our goodbyes to the family, we headed off to 'Sunrise Peak' (or
Seongsan Ilchulbong) on the east of the island. This is a huge volcanic crater protruding out into the sea, and is a famous place to go and see the sunrise. We got up early the next morning, and made the 40min trek up the side of the crater in the dark. They
have made the top of the crater into a kind of ampitheatre facing the east. It filled up pretty quickly, and as the sun popped it's head above the horizon there was a collective 'ooooooooohhh', much the same as you hear at the fireworks, or when someone here is taken aback by my height. Surprisingly, half the people immediately left, I guess they'd ticked the box and were ready for the next stop of the day. We hung around for a while, as although it wasn't the most peaceful sunrise ever, it certainly was a beautiful sight. The crater gave an amazing 360 degree view, and as it sticks right out into the sea, it's a view like no other.
After a quick nap (as we had to get up really early), we then headed to the ferry terminal to go to a tiny island called U-do (Cow Island). I'd heard that it was really different scenery than the mainland, and has even been compared to Scotland. This seems to be the place to go for young couples, as you can hire out any type of transportation here. Cars, scooters, bikes, ATV's, you name it, they have it. Even
Segways. We hired out bikes, as I figured it would be nice to see the island slowly (but was really more to do with the fact it was the cheapest option). The weather was perfect, and we spent a nice few hours making our way around the island, stopping at beaches and the various sights. It was a beautiful place, really rugged coast and some nice beaches too. By the lighthouse we caught a glimpse of a couple of
haenyeo diving for their days catch of clams, abalone, and seaweed. The
haenyeo are the famous women divers of Jeju - using next to no equipment, they dive down to depths of up to 20 metres, and hold their breath for minutes at a time. This is a good example of Jeju's 'hardy women'. In fact, recently I read about how Koreans in general wanted baby boys, but this wasn't the case in Jeju. The women in Jeju were so respected and worked so hard that apparently the saying there went 'Have a baby girl, and we will throw a pork barbecue party; have a baby boy, and we will kick his ass.' Although apparently the women worked so hard, they
had the saying: 'Better to be born a cow than a woman.' Bit of a lose-lose situation then...
Anyway, we had a great time in Jeju. It certainly doesn't disappoint in the nature department. It's a beautiful place, the people were friendly, and there's plenty to do. You could easily spend a couple of weeks there and not get bored. They have museums for literally everything, and there are so many natural things to see and do as well. It was a shame that we only had a couple of days there, and I'd love to go back at some point.
Sorry it's taken me so long to upload this (we went back at the beginning of September) - I've been slacking with the blogs and I'm trying to catch up at the moment! Hope all is well at home.
Love Ross x
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