자주 Jeju [Korea]
I'm saying this upfront: we did not have enough time in Jeju. Our "three days" in Jeju was more like one day, since we arrived late on the first night and left early in the morning on the last day. There was a bit of poor planning with this segment of the trip overall: we booked a nice hotel with a pool, only to discover that the pool wasn't open yet for the season. Ah, the perils of shoulder-season travel (still the best considering the beautiful weather and lack of crowds though)!
Upon landing in Jeju, we quickly discovered that establishments close MUCH earlier here than in Seoul. We rushed to get some seafood, and we were rewarded with super-tender grilled mackarel. We also stopped by a McDonald's, where I got a unique strawberry oreo McFlurry.
For our one real day in Jeju, we decided to explore the north area. Note that Jeju has a LOT going on — we totally missed out on Mt. Hallasan, Seogwipo and a bunch of waterfalls, and the Osulloc tea museum / surrounding tea fields of Jeju. But hey, we got to experience... the Olle trails?!?! More on that (probably tactical error) in a bit.
Morning by the sea
in the morning, we took an hour-long taxi ride to Myeongjin Jeonbon abalone restaurant. One positive about our time in Jeju: we picked our meals extremely well. This place offered an abalone bonanza, and it was only ~$30 CAD! I especially loved the grilled abalone and abalone congee (I try to replicate the magic with the two-minute Costco version, to minimal success).
Pineapple bun version of Jeju's icon, with a full-sized statue for reference.
Right outside the abalone place, we saw our first glimpse of Jeju's iconic statue, in a delightfully miniature pineapple bun form. I've shared these pics of Henry with Lisa in recent years, and she's gotten an absolute kick out of them.
From there, we set off on the Olle Trail. Jeju is known for a scenic hiking path along its perimeter. It's supposed to be beautiful and gamified with a fun booklet to collect stamps at all the landmarks. Unfortunately, we were totally baited! The walking path was super hot and a little difficult. The little Olle-dog landmark seemed to always divert us to beaten down trails and random farms in far places instead of the paved paths right beside the ocean. The Olle trail also gave me the honour of surprising me with my first wild snake sighting.
The Olle trail had a bunch of super un-scenic produce drying along the road, like seaweed, green onions, and whatever that mystery hay-thing is.
Eventually, we made it to Woljeong beach where we stocked up on snacks at 7/11 and finally got rewarded with Jeju's famed landscapes. The sand was so white and fine, and the water was a beautifully clear crystal blue. The boys spent a bunch of time here clowning around with crab walks and slapping games.
Afternoon inland
From the sea, we headed inland to experience Jeju's volcanic activity up-close at the Manjanggul Lava Tube. Here, we did a 1km walk inside a cave that kind of hurt and was >10ºC colder than outside. What a shock to the system! Here, we also realized that Jeju is where the locals go on vacation. Korean tourists were surprised to discover that we were Canadian, since we were the only international tourists around.
When we saw it, we couldn't unsee it. Sorry to this local tourist we chatted up.
We also raced around a delightful hedge maze. Guess who won. 😉
For dinner, we opted for another one of Jeju's delicacies: BLACK PORK. This was life-changing. We went to G-Dragon's favourite restaurant, Donsadon Pork Barbecue. It's his favourite for good reason. It was sooooo delicious. Dare I say it was the best pork I've had in my life?
To cap off the night, we visited Loveland amusement park which was... very explicit. I was shocked to discover that some people take their kids here. To cleanse our minds, we got some more McDonald's as the perfect bookend to our one real day in Jeju before jetting off to Busan. Next time, I need to spend WAY more time here to do it justice!
Trip date: May 21-23, 2019