Jeju Island

Jeju is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Korea and is a very popular vacation destination. Even though it rained most of the weekend it was still really nice. Jeju could easily be a month long trip but we only had two days so we selected a few really good spots. Our first stop was a beach:

Next was an hour long taxi ride to our hotel, the Tae Gong Gak. Really nice hotel run by some really nice folks, Sylvia and Thomas. They were extremely helpful in planning our time on the island, recommending places to eat, etc. They even washed and dried our clothes after we got back from our adventures.

For dinner, some of us went to Twins Sushi House. We ordered the largest seafood assortment on the menu, and were not disappointed. Most of the dishes were raw, and about half were still moving. I had some (very) fresh octopus tentacles which actually latched onto my tongue as I chewed them. Weird. And here's a video clip of me eating a fresh snail.

 The next morning we headed to Seongsan Ilchubong (Sunrise Peak), a volcanic crater on the eastern side of the island. The weather held out just long enough for us to get to the top before it decided to start raining for the rest of the day.

For lunch we found a place that served soup. Soup is safe, right? Apparently, we ordered soups with cow intestine, stomach, and congealed blood. Mmmm. After that, one group decided to check out some caves, while the rest of us decided to go to Udo Island. Udo is a smaller island thats a 15 minute ferry ride away from Sunrise Peak (Thanks JK and Sheal for the recommendation). The entire island is gorgeous. You could take a random picture just about anywhere that would be postcard worthy.

Deciding to embrace the rain, we rented ATVs for $30 and rode around Udo for two hours. I had a sweet pink helmet with goggles.

 

For dinner, we had dak bulgogi which is spicy grilled chicken with rice cakes, ramen noodles, and cheese. A very welcome 'normal' meal after the moving seafood and weird cow soup.

The next morning we only had a couple of hours before going to the airport. Three of us with similar flight times decided to check out one last attraction, the Mysterious Road. This is just a stretch of road that looks like its going uphill, but its really going downhill due to an optical illusion. There was a line of cars that would pull up to where it starts and switch into neutral to roll 'up' the slight hill. It took us 10 minutes to even figure out where the 'mysterious' stretch was. It was interesting...just not worth the 20 minute taxi ride.

After this short two day trip I definitely want to come back to Jeju sometime. Maybe in the spring, and when I have at least a week or two to go around the entire island. I wouldn't mind staying at the Tae Gong Gak again. After we got back we received an email from Sylvia, the hotel owner. Most of the people who stay at the hotel make a drawing which gets put up in the lobby. So Sylvia wanted to let us know that she had posted our drawing and had also uploaded it to their website. Nice

For the complete photo album of everything in this post go here: 

Jeju Island

Feel free to ask questions if theres anything you want to know more about.