제주도! Jeju-do!!

During our week off in the first part of August, Lauren, Derek, and I subwayed, trained, taxied, and ferried our way down to Jeju Island off the southern coast of mainland Korea.  This is a popular destination for many Korean citizens as well as foreign visitors.

The island, known locally as the "Korean Hawaii", was formed entirely from volcanic eruptions.  It is now host to beaches and beautiful island scenery.

It was a bit of a journey to get there because we waited so long to make our summer plans.  Flights were all booked so we went the ferry route.   Sidenote, we are so thankful for our frined Allen (Younghwa) for all his help and assistance during our multiple cancelled legs of the trip.

Our ever changing Itenerary

 We left our apartment early Tuesday morning to hop on the subway in order to make it to the KTX (high speed train) station to catch our train for Mokpo (Southern coastal city) where the Ferry leaves from.

We arrived in Mokpo approximately 90 minutes before the ferry left and figured we could walk to the ferry terminal (an easy 20 minute jaunt).  This would have been no problem had it not been 85 degrees, 90% humidity, and pouring rain.

Never the less, we boarded the ferry not sure what to expect.  We purchased the "general seating" tickets for this trip.  These tickets are great for the budget conscious traveler who is familiar and comfortable with sitting on the floor...not so much for our chair adapted American bodies :(  It was a long 5 hour ferry.

We arrived in Jeju around 9:00PM without accommodation, hoping for the best.  We happened upon a shabby motel with vacancy and accepted it as such, Korean floor style and all.

The journey to the island and the first night was no doubt a task, but the next 2 and 1/2 days were quite wonderful as we saw beaches, checked out the largest lava tube cave in the world, tried our luck at the casino, and visited the loudest club on the planet... with 12 patrons including us...


Overall the trip was quite a success.

Some locations:
N 33°14.718 E126°30.524 - World Cup Stadium
N 33°14.669 E126°33.716- -Seogwipo Hotel
N 33°31.758 E126°46.273 - Entrance to Lava cave
N 33°31.758 E126°46.273 - Beach

And the exhausting trek home...

** Editor's Note **  

I wanted to add that Christopher didn't really feel comfortable with Derek and my "get on a bus and see where it takes us" mentality for this trip.  So after about half an hour of that adventure, Chris got us in a taxi headed for well-known beach.  He, being the incredible "plan man" that he is, was then promptly on the phone with the free foreigner service (an awesome service here in Korea - just dial the area code you are in followed by 1330 and you can get free English help with practically anything) and had booked us a two-night stay in a very clean, inexpensive hotel in the much more agreeable part of the island.  I love my husband's go get 'em attitude!  I'm so thankful for his dedication to keeping us coordinated :)