Jeju Island, South Korea

 Notes from the journal:

5/27
• Landed in Jeju, tried to walk 30 mins to our Airbnb but ended up on a freeway and walking thru bushes so went back to the airport and took a bus
5/28
• Woke up early to climb the tallest mountain in South Korea!!
• Hopped on a very crowded public bus with a bunch of kids going to school, waited forever at a bus transfer point and met some other tourists planning to climb Hallasan who we ended up seeing several times throughout the trail
• I was stressing a bit about the buses taking so long because we had to check in for the hike at a certain time and be at certain checkpoints along the trail by early afternoon
• Hiked about 13 miles with 4,000 ft elevation gain in the national park. Tons of stairs and muggy heat but the summit had amazing views of the island, ocean, and the crater lake. We were also carrying all of our luggage for all of Asia because the trail is point to point and we were going to a new hostel
• As soon as we got off the mountain (on the other side) we realized our bus to Seogwipo was coming in one minute so we sprinted to the stop and barely made it on. The ride down the mountain was crazy and was a glimpse into what the buses in Busan would be like
• Checked into our hostel and went to dinner down the street. Had amazing spicy beef soup, seafood soup with abalone, mussels, clams, crab, and shrimp, which tasted very fresh
5/29
• Ate the free hostel breakfast and walked to Olle Course 6 using the Naver app, which first took us along a stream and then straight through a Korean funeral which was incredibly awkward ๐Ÿ˜ญ
• Saw the Sojeonbang waterfall next to the sea and stumbled upon the Honeymoon House cafe, which had amazing coastline views and a shady patio. Everything was expensive so I just got a 2000 won egg tart so we could sit outside and read for awhile
• Walked towards Olle Course 7 and found a food street along the coast where we had abalone porridge and amazing grilled mackerel (in full fish form with the eyes, mouth, teeth, tail, fins, etc.)
• We randomly ran into the kind owners of our hostel while walking around Seogwipo and talked to them for a bit
• Reached Olle Course 7 and played on rocks at Hill of Storms by the sea
• Walked along the sea in the shade to the Oedolgae Sea Stack and stopped by a cafe on the path to have some Jeju carrot juice and plum juice with a beautiful view out the open windows
• Sat on a bench by the sea to read and a very vocal cat paid us a visit
• Walked to the Seogwipo Olle Market (best market food in Asia so far) where I got a black pork and octopus filled bun and Tyler got a black pork kimchi roll
• Went to the same dinner restaurant from the night prior to try the iced cuttlefish soup. The same group of locals was sitting in the restaurant again and were excited to see us.
5/30
• Woke up early and booked it to the bus stop, rode across the island for about 1.5 hrs to the airport and checked in for our flight to Busan. Our middle names weren’t on our boarding pass so the check-in agent just wrote them in pen

Read if I referred you to this post:

• Highly recommend summiting Hallasan but don’t underestimate the hike if you aren’t accustomed to long, intense hikes with lots of elevation gain. Need to get permits in advance and pay attention to checkpoint times.
• Jeju island overall was amazing in my opinion and very worth visiting! Seogwipo was my favorite part of Korea due to the gorgeous scenery and being a very pleasant, walkable city.
• In Seogwipo I would recommend everything discussed above! I think the name of the dinner restaurant we loved (due to great food, kind owners, and very reasonable prices) is ์•„๋ž‘์กฐ์€๋ง›์ง‘ but I could be incorrect.
• We didn’t get a chance to visit but I’ve heard Jeju Loveland is fun











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