Beach Girl Turned Hiking Enthusiast: Summer Vacation in Jeju/Menina de praia virada entusiasta de caminhadas: Férias de verão em Jeju

Our long-awaited and eagerly anticipated summer vacation to Jeju Island, Korea's little slice of paradise just off the southwestern tip of the country, has come and gone. Joel and I had six days off of work this week, so we (and pretty much everyone else from our hogwan who booked their tickets far enough in advance) retreated to this lovely sub-tropical isle for some much-needed time off. Our dear readers may have noticed that this blog has not been updated for a while; this is because, in addition to it being the end of the session and thus exam time, the school implemented some changes to the class schedule that upset a lot of the staff. That, combined with a lot of turnover (nearly all of the foreign teachers begin and end their contracts during the summer months) and the usual shortages of copy paper and toner, created a somewhat toxic environment. We were all pretty stressed by last Monday.

Tuesday: Arrival by Ferry and Jeju City (제주시)
We all arrived at the island via a ferry that one of our Korean co-teachers, Hanna, booked for us. (Hanna is actually a native of Jeju and has been very helpful to us in making travel arrangements, in addition to banking and pretty much everything else.) We had to be up at 5 a.m. to catch the free shuttle bus that took us to the little coastal town where the ferry departed from, but once we got moving it was very comfortable (and a beautiful ride).

We docked at about 11 a.m., and then Joel and I hopped a bus (with the help of a different co-worker this time) to Jeju City, the largest city on the island, while our co-workers caught another ferry to Udo Island (another, smaller island off the east coast of Jeju) to go camping. We arrived in town about an hour later and, after lunch and checking into our hostel, set out on foot to explore the city. We walked along the seawall and out to a pier with a lighthouse. That evening we had black pork, meat from a variety of pig that the island is well-known for. Yummy!

They even provided an apron for me so that I wouldn't stain my nice white shirt! 

Wednesday: Inseong-ri (인성리) and Cheonjiyeon (천지연) Waterfall
We spent most of our trip at a hostel called Island Guesthouse. The guesthouse is in a small village called Inseong-ri, about ten minutes away from Moseulpo (모슬포). While it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, the house itself had a lot of character, run by a very motherly Malaysian woman named Ailing. We met some really interesting people while we were there, too, including a guy from Texas who recently moved to Gwangju!

Once we checked in, we headed to Seogwipo, which is a smaller town on the southern coast of the island and the top honeymoon destination for Koreans. The town several romantic attractions, including a teddy bear museum (which we did not go to), a sex museum (more on that later), lots of shopping, and several waterfalls. We decided to just kind of meander and eventually found our way to Cheonjiyeon falls. (As a lover of waterfalls, I was kind of obsessed with seeing as many as possible on the trip.) It a smaller waterfall, but it was still lovely.

After some fried chicken in Inseong-ri, we returned to our hostel for card and board games. I learned a new game called "Shithead" from some very friendly Irish people while Joel played hardball with the rest of the guys in Monopoly.

Thursday: Typhoon and the Olle 10 Hiking Route
Our original plans for hiking on Jeju were to climb Mt. Halla, a dormant volcano and Korea's highest peak, on Thursday. There are several trails up the mountain, including one that very gradually goes up (and supposedly doesn't confront you with DEATH at every switchback like Kalalau). Unfortunately, those plans were thwarted by a freaking typhoon that swung just south of Jeju on Wednesday night and pounded us with rain and high winds until Thursday morning.

Nothing like a typhoon to spoil your mountain climbing plans.

By late Thursday morning, however, it looked like it was starting to clear up, so Joel and I decided to hike the Olle 10 route along the Yongmeori (용머리) coast, which Ailing recommended to us, instead. The Olle routes are a series of hiking trails around the island, anywhere from 10 to 20 km (I think). There are currently 19 of them, and they are working on the last two so that hikers can circumvent the entire island. Anyway, our particular route was 15 km long and took us along several beaches, through some wooded areas and a few coastal towns, and some WWII sites and farm fields toward the end. Aside from the humidity and the wind, it was beautiful! And thus I (re)discovered my intense love for hiking (which has lain dormant ever since I nearly died on Kauai). We started just after lunch and finished the trail around 6:30.

Friday: Cheonjeyeon (천재연) Waterfall, the Museum of Sex and Health, and Jeongbang (정방) Waterfall
The weather was sunny again by Friday, but since we were pretty tired from our previous day's hike (and Joel's feet were rapidly blistering from all of the walking that I had been making him do), we decided to stay in Seogwipo on Friday and check out the other two waterfalls and the sex museum (which, incidentally, still involved a lot more walking than Joel bargained for). First, we went to Cheonjeyeon falls, which is a set of three waterfalls next to a Buddhist temple (and overseen by a massive, and massively tacky, metal bridge). Of course, the waterfalls were gorgeous, but we had to scale probably 500 stairs to see all three of them. After that, we grabbed some abalone porridge for lunch and made our way to the Museum of Sex and Health.

In case the existence of a "Museum of Sex and Health" (and in Korea, no less), has left you scratching your head, you are certainly not alone. A brief history: Jeju has been a very popular honeymoon destination for Koreans for a long time; however, Korea's extremely conservative and heavily Confucian culture made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for young couples to learn anything whatsoever about the birds and the bees. A few avant-garde hotels began hosting some really, ahem, sensual shows for their guests that doubled as inspiration and education - and thus, Jeju's "sex culture" (or something) was born. The island is home to two main sex attractions: Jeju Loveland, an outdoor sculpture park with sex-themed art (which we did not visit), and The Museum of Sex and Health (which, as the world's largest sex museum, I am appalled that it does not have its own Wikipedia article). Its purpose is to serve as an educational facility with material and displays on absolutely every single sex-related topic you could think of (and plenty that you could not have ever thought of, even on drugs). You are not supposed to take pictures inside the museum (but I did anyway). So much has undoubtedly been written about this museum that it would be absolutely pointless for me to describe it here. If you're curious, just Google it.

The bus stop.

After the museum, we went to the third and final waterfall, Jeongbang falls, which empties directly into the sea. It was the largest and most impressive waterfall of all three, and the only one where people were allowed to swim. It was also Joel's favorite.

Saturday: Seongsan Ilchulbong and Return to Jeju City (제주시)
On our last day, we decided to head to Seongsan to climb Ilchulbong, which is a crater formed by a hydroeruption and of the three UNESCO-designated sights on the island (and, sadly, the only one we visited). Yet another hike up several hundred more stairs brought us to the crater, which can only be seen from a viewing platform (walking into the actual crater is prohibited to preserve the delicate ecosystem there). We had a fabulous view of Udo and the ocean. Then we headed down and back to Jeju City for one last evening in town. We spent a little bit of time in one of the casinos (which is only open to foreigners - gambling is illegal in Korea - who were nearly exclusively Chinese). We finished our vacation by firing off Roman candles on the waterfront.

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We caught a flight home mid-morning and came back to do laundry, cook dinner, and tidy up the house. I know this entry has been long, but I wanted to get it all down while I still remembered everything. It was a wonderful experience - we are already thinking about when we can go back so that we can climb Mt. Halla and hopefully visit the lava tube caves (the other two UNESCO sites). I took a metric shit-ton of pictures, which Joel will hopefully post soon.

제주,감사합니다!