Jeju-do, Korea's Hawaii

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Aloha, from Korea's premier vacation destination, Jeju Island!! They call this island Korea's Hawaii but really it just means that it's a beautiful little island with beaches, palm trees and waterfalls aplenty! It may not compare with Hawaii, but we had an amazing 4 days exploring every nook and cranny of this island!

Our journey began just 4 short days after my mom and sister left! After a brief delay of our flight, we arrived at Jeju International Airport, made our way to the car rental office and picked up our bright blue, shiny, Matiz. We then realized that we were in such a hurry to get the car picked up that we forgot to stop and pick up a map so we drove around aimlessly for quite a while trying to get our bearings and figure out where to go! Finally we arrived at Yongduam Rock which is supposed to look like a dragon's head. Mike saw the dragon right away, but it took me a while and even now in the pictures, I can't find it! It was definitely one of those "Korean tourist things" where they make it sound super cool when really it's only mediocre.

We headed off towards the coast (finally, with a map in hand) and caught the sunset on the west coast on a pier filled with fishermen and picnic-ing families. We backtracked a bit after that towards the east coast to Hamdeok Beach where we had planned to camp for the night. We arrived at Hamdeok around 10pm and the place was bumpin'! Tents and groups of people everywhere, playing music, games, swimming, bring drunk and boisterous, as usual! We tried our best to find a more secluded, quiet place for the tent, but as everyone knows, the walls of a tent are not sound proof, so it did little to help us out! It was very hot that night and we baked in the tent with the fly on, but decided that with all the people around the the fact that our tent is 80%!s(MISSING)creen, that going sans-fly was not a great option!

Day 2 - August 7th
We woke up that morning at 5:30am to quite a surprising sight: the park outside our tent was just as busy at 5am as it had been when we went to sleep! It was bustling with people jogging, walking, stretching and catching the morning gossip on the soft track nearby! It makes sense, really, since by 9am it's too hot to do anything really here but we were still surprised to see so many people out and about so early!

We pack up the tent and make the short drive to Hallasan National Park, home of Halla Mountain, Korea's tallest at just over 1900m. We hit the trail by 7am along with about half of the population of the island (and we would encounter the other half on the way back down!). Hiking is a Korean pass time and in the summer everyone flocks to the mountains. The hike was relatively easy, half of it being on boardwalks, but the non-boarded sections were very rugged and before long I (Danielle) rolled over on my injured ankle. The pain wasn't unbearable so I decided to power on but our pace was slowed quite a bit! When we reached the rest shelter about 3/4 of the way to the peak I decided that with 16 days of trip ahead of us, it would be better for me to rest my ankle at the shelter and Mike continued to the peak by himself.

At the peak of the mountain is a large crater with a small lake inside of it. It is famous in Korea, as are cloudy skies in the summer. This makes seeing the crater lake a gamble but we got lucky and had a perfectly clear day! You could see right out to the Ocean from the peak as well as the crater lake (which Mike later described as smaller than he thought it would be and not as spectacular as some people made it out to be, but still a cool sight). I join him for the hike back to the car (the trail was 10km one way) and after what felt like twice as long as the way up, we finally made it to the car just before 2:00. On our way down we saw tonnnssss of people just on their way up the mountain, and given the sun and heat of the day, they were drenched in sweat! I might not have been too happy at 6am to be waking up that early, but boy was I glad at that time that we had gotten an early start!

After that we drove into Seogwipo city, home to 2 of Jeju's famous waterfalls. The first one, Jeongbang falls were crowded, but pretty and the only falls in all of Asia that fall directly into the Ocean (whoop-dee-doo, seriously!). The second falls were smaller and less spectacular but set in a nice picturesque scenery. I have to admit that after living so close to Niagara Falls for so much of our life, it's hard for any waterfall 1/16 (or less) the size and much shorter to seem impressive...

In dire need of a shower (or at least a swim) we drove to Pyeoson, a small town with a beach and went for a swim. Koreans are notorious for not being able to swim so most of their beaches are realllllly flat and you can go out really far and still only be up to your waist! The water felt wonderful and despite the salty-ness of the water, we felt slightly cleaner after. We went for a delicious meal of sam gip sal where we got 4 different cuts of pork in all (a feast, really) then hopped back in the car to find a beach for camping that night. We found a small beach in Sinyang with not another soul to be found! We were delighted because a) we planned to hike sunrise peak at (obviously) sunrise the next day and it was super close) and b) it was empty! We pitched the tent near the water and fell asleep to the lull of waves crashing on the beach! Ahh, this is the life!

Day 3 - August 8th
That feeling was short-lived when the alarm went off at 4:30am! In the pitch black we sluggishly packed up the tent and drove the short distance to the famous Seongsan Illchubong (sunrise peak). There we were met with a surprising number of Koreans for the steep and unwelcome (at 5am) climb to the peak of this small mountain. It took us about 20 mins to reach the top and we sat down with all the others eagerly waiting for the sun to show it's face. Slowly the sky began to brighten and a big "ohhh" was heard from the crowd at the very first sighting of the fire orange ball that we call the sun. It was not the most spectacular of sunrises, but it was peaceful and pretty. At the top of this mountain was also another crater (this time with no lake) so we checked that out then made our way back down to the car.

It was 7:00 at this point and we were exhausted! We parked the car in some shade and took a 2 hour nap in the car which is probably the only reason we made it through the day that day! Our next destination was a favourite of ours, Songeup Folk Village. Basically the small town of Songeup has maintained a very traditional feel and has many small villages that you can walk around, checking out the architecture and way of life from hundreds of years ago! Ranging from straw roofs to plaster walls to water wells and really old trees, these villages were stunning! We spent hours walking around admiring the colours, the flowers, the beautiful scenery and the overall effect of the old way of life.

Next we drove to Jungmun, the famous resort area of the island. Here there are many high-end, up-scale hotels on the beach for the traveler with money to burn. What is there not in Jungmun? A coffee shop! We drove everywhere looking for a simple cup of coffee but it was nowhere to be found (even when we asked tourist information, they couldn't point us in the right direction!). Caffeine-less and frustrated, we continued on the coastal drive and the beauty of the rugged coast, with the contrast of the black volcanic rock and the blue/green of the ocean, quickly made us forget our coffee needs.

We stopped at Hyeopjae beach in desperate need of some relaxation time ocean-side. This is one of the best beaches on the island with clear waters and white sand! We alternated between swimming and resting for the afternoon, jetting off for a quick dinner before returning to catch a brilliant sunset and scout out a spot to put our little yellow tent for the night. We spend the evening on the beach as well, watching kids swim, fireworks go off and the tide slowly but surely come in and force us to continually move our blanket farther and farther back.

Day 4 - August 9th
This was the last day with the car in Jeju and we hit almost every corner of the island! We started by returning to Jungmun to do the pretty esplanade walk and see the pillar rocks. We got out to the pier and the pillar rocks were so far away, you could hardly see them, but it was still cool. Over time, the rocks have eroded away and what's left are vertical cliffs that look like pillars are carved into them.

Next we stopped at Yongmeori, which is supposed to be stunning cliffs with neat formations in them including another dragon's head. Unfortunately the winds were high that day and so no one was allowed to go down to see the cliffs for safety reasons. We walked around the area a bit then hopped back in the car for more coastal drive. We stumbled upon this secluded area on the top of a small hill/mountain with amazing views of the beach, cliffs and ocean and once again were so thankful we had a car for this trip!

From south west to north east, our next stop was the lava tube which was created when a volcano erupted many years ago. The hot lava created tunnels through the rock and parts of these areas are open to the public. Even though it was only 2 flights of stairs underground, it was FREEZING down there! The lava tubes were so impressive! The way the lava carved all kinds of formations into the rocks and the mere size of the tunnel was unbelievable! We were in awe the entire time we were down there! This was definitely another highlight of the trip!

Up until this point, we have had amazing weather every day! Sun, a breeze and blue skies made for an even prettier trip in Jeju. That morning I received a puzzling text from our friend, asking if we'd made it out of Jeju before the typhoon hit. We brushed it off as a joke and didn't think about it again until the rain started that afternoon. At first it wasn't so bad, on and off but by the next morning, it was a torrential downpour and indeed, typhoon Dianmu was in Jeju! By this time, we had returned the car, spent the night at a cheap hotel in Hamdeok and were denied a night swim because of a little rain (Koreans can't swim, remember?!?!).

Day 5 - August 10 - Happy Birthday MICHAEL!!!!!
What a day for a birthday!!! It was raining so hard that it was virtually impossible to do anything productive (luckily we'd done everything we really wanted to do on our trip) so we had a lazy morning, had lunch then slowly made our way to the airport, fingers crossed the typhoon would not be a problem with our evening flight to Tokyo.

At the airport, we checked-in but were not allowed to go through security because it was unclear if our flight would indeed fly or not. Until about 45 minutes before the scheduled take-off time, we were all waiting in the lobby. Finally the good news came and we were all ushered through security and boarded the plane with minimal delays to our original schedule. It turns out that pretty much every flight after ours was canceled and the typhoon hit Korea with all it's might in the next couple days. We got out just in time! Phew!

We were excited for what lay ahead of us in Japan, but were sad to leave the laid-back island life of beaches, waterfalls and palm trees! This truly is the best place in Korea (in the summer)!

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