Jejudo

Outside of Seoul, Jeju was the place I wanted to visit the most in Korea.  It is a fairly large island off the Southern coast and is referred to as the Hawaii of Korea.  My plane arrived around 5:30 PM and I decided to try and take the public bus to the bus stop near my hostel instead of a cab ride.  Google maps and booking.com directions told me to take bus 37, so I waited twenty minutes and then hopped on when it finally arrived.  I was looking for a stop labeled City Hall, but as we kept going, I realized we were leaving Jeju City and I was nowhere near this fabled exit....It also didn't help that some of the stops are only labeled in Korean, and the bus only stops for a few seconds before taking off again.  I ended up riding the bus to it's end point before taking it back to a random stop in the city.

From there I asked some local kids how to get to City Hall and they told me to hop on bus 500 for about 20 minutes.  I was thrilled to find that bus 500 went back to the airport;  Two hours of aimless wandering to get back to my starting point.  About 15 minutes after leaving the airport I started to question whether the stop existed and saw a sign for Citizens Hall. I thought perhaps it was just a translation thing and hopped off.  Turns out I was wrong.  At this point it was dark out and I figured I should just cab it, so I walked up to a cabbie and showed him my hostel confirmation email with the address on it, which he then proceeded to delete.  As he hands back my phone in confusion, the lady he had dropped off popped over and they started yelling at each other!  Asian people look and sound crazy when they yell, so I got the hell out of there.  I wandered into a bakery and the teenage girl there told me I was actually pretty close and could walk there in ten minutes, she even drew me a map!  All in all, it took me 2.5 hours to travel 4 kilometers...In other words, I suck at life. 

The next day I was planning to climb Mt. Halla aka Hallasan, which is the largest mountain in Korea at 1,950 meters.  However, I ended up getting rained in, so just spent the day exploring around town instead.  There are five main trails on the mountain, so I decided to tackle the two trails that go to the top of the mountain, Seongpanak (9.6 km) and Gwaneumsa (8.7).  The trail lengths also don't factor getting from the bus stops to the trail heads, so all in all it was probably around a 20km hike.


I took Seongpanak on the way up, which was a super easy trail with a gradual incline.  You do have to bob and weave around the hundreds of old Korean hikers though, which gives the trail a little more adventure.  They all wear full hiking gear: Windbreakers, pants, hiking boots, dual hiking sticks, and sun visors.  I may not meet their style requirements, but apparently it didn't hurt my ability to hike about 30 times faster than them.  When you arrive at the peak of the mountain, there is a lake called Baengnokdam, that sits in the crater of the extinct volcano.  I refueled with a Clif Bar and a Snickers and then headed down the Gwaneumsa trail to get back down the mountain. 

Once a crow, always a crow.  You know nothing Sean Lowe.

Baengnokdam (White Deer Lake) - Legendarily named after a Shinseon (spirit) deer came from the stars to drink from the lake

Koreans love hiking

Since I got up the mountain so quickly in comparison to the locals, I was able to enjoy the views on the way down without constantly weave around other hikers.  It was probably the most beautiful trail I've been on in Korea, amazing views in every direction.  The Gwaneumsa trail is the only one of the 5 routes that has no bus stop, so I was planning to walk to the main road until I found a bus stop, but I ended up just hitchhiking my way back to the city instead.  The dude I road with even gave me a free can of chilled coffee and told me if I ever needed a ride in Korea I just needed to tell the driver country road, and then proceeded to sing an a capella rendition of John Denver's, "Country Road, Take Me Home".  You never know what your day is going to hold, but it's almost always amazing :).  

Gwaneumsa Trail

The park has really nice bathroom facilities

Hallim Park is a recommended destination for tourists on wikitravel, so I decided to go there the following day.  I didn't really have any expectations or know what it would be like, but I ended up liking it quite a bit.  There are a bunch of different types of gardens, a reconstructed folk village, two caves, and some interesting birds.  It takes about 2 hours to see everything, but I'll just do a picture tour instead of rambling.

These fountains are all over Jeju

Bonzai Garden

I didn't experience autumn last year, so seeing the colored trees was pretty cool

White Peacock - some peacocks have a genetic mutation called Leucism, which turns their feathers white.  It's not albinism, as their eyes actually stay blue...fascinating

The park also housed some really cool fossils of creatures called Trilobites.  I couldn't read any of the explanations since they were in Korean, but I have previous knowledge from reading Bill Bryson's book, A Short History of Nearly Everything.  Drawing from what's in that book, I'm about to science you up!  Trilobites were anthropods (the family that includes insects and crustaceans) that dominated Earth's waters for about 270 million years before going extinct, which is twice as long as the dinosaurs' reign.  How do they stack up against us?  Humans have only roamed the Earth for 0.5% as long as they did.  They're also one of the first complex creatures we have record of, so they're kind of a big deal!

Why are fossils so cool?  The chances of becoming a fossil are incredibly small, some scientists think only one bone in a billion becomes a fossil.  So if everyone died today, 270 million people with 206 bones each, only fifty bones would become fossils.  Everything has to go right, which is why the majority of fossils come from the ocean.  Your bones have to be untouched from being eaten and sealed from elements that would make them decompose.  Only 15% or rocks can preserve fossils, so you have to be in the right area and then the molecules in your  bones have to be replaced by dissolved minerals, which basically preserves a copy of the bone.  What are the chances of that happening?  So if you think about all the animals we have fossils of...what about all the ones we don't?!?!  Literally any creature you can imagine could have existed at some point, no one can disprove it.  For instance, did you know that at one point horses were the size of house cats and raccoons were the size of small bears?  How amazing is this planet?

Alright, nerd rant over, but we both know you thought it was kind of cool :).  The park was adjacent to Hyeopjae Beach, so I hopped over there to check out the legendary Jeju coastline before heading back to town.

Trilobite fossils!

The ostrich is such a creepy looking animal, but I love them

I swear when I grow up, I won't just buy you a rose.   I'll buy the flower shop and you will never be lonely...

Barehanded fishing, Creed Bratton style

Old lady walking with her cane in the ocean.  This is a perfect example of why you should live....until you die

A field of cairns (rock stacks).  #MotherEarth

Jeju is home to three UNESCO world heritage sites, Hallasan was the first, so I decided to spend a day checking out the other two: The Manjanggul Lava Tubes and Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak).  My first stop was the tube caves, which was 2.5 kilometers from the nearest bus stop...I'm convinced that the reason the bus stops are so far away from the actual destinations is to make sure everyone stays skinny;  There are hardly any overweight people in Korea, it's remarkable.  I've been to quite a few caves on this trip, but these were definitely unique as they are a combination of lava and limestone.

It was nice that the cave wasn't super touristy like the one I went to in Halong Bay, Vietnam.  You could actually walk on the cave floor and feel the water from the stalactites dripping on you as you walk through, giving it a proper spooky feel.  BTW, I totally figured out how to remember stalactites from stalagmites.  Stalactites hang from the ceiling, so they need to hold on tight.  I would be the greatest science teacher ever...other than the fact that I'm not even remotely qualified and all the students would be super unfocused due to my incredible good looks...

Manjanggul is the world's longest set of lava tube caves

My only complaint is that you are only allowed to roam 1 km of the cave, the portion with bats is closed off :'(

Luckily Sunrise Peak was on the same bus route, so I hiked the 2.5 km back to the stop and made my way there.  My hostel's direction sheet said there was a stop named Seongsan Ilchulbong, but alas there was not.  Thus I missed the correct exit and had to hop off and catch the reciprocal bus to get back.  Apparently failing miserably at using the Korean bus system is an area I excel in.

The Peak itself was a pretty quick hike as there are dedicated stair cases for ascending and descending.  There are a few hundred steps to climb, but it only takes ten minutes or so if you have the thighs of a thoroughbred and the calves of an Olympic hurdler.  Suprisingly, it wasn't super packed with people at the top, so I was able to crank out a time lapse.  Jeju definitely has some stunning scenery.

The mini-volcano is supposed to resemble an ancient castle

If I hadn't made me, I would have been made somehow. If I hadn't assembled myself, I'd have fallen apart by now.  If I hadn't made me, I'd be more inclined to bow, the powers that be would have swallowed me up, but that's more than I can allow

Is Jeju really like Hawaii?  I guess I'll have to go there to find out...

I decided to climb Mt. Halla one last time before leaving Jeju, so I chose to do two of the paths that converge at a place called Witsae-oreum.  I took the public bus to the entrance for the Yeongsil trail, which was 2.5 kilometers downhill from the actual start of the trail.  Thus, once again, I was disgustingly sweaty before even reaching the trail head.  The trail was only 3.7 km, so it only took about an hour to complete.

Once I reached the Witsae-oreum shelter I had a choice of two trails to go down, so I went with Eorimok trail (6.8 km), because it is the most popular path at Hallasan.  The views on both trails were fantastic, but Korea seems to have this giant pollution cloud hovering above it, so as you look to the horizon everything slowly dissipates into a fog of obscurity.  Both trails were pretty easy and were a mix of wooden steps, walkways, and rock pathways.

Crazy how plants thrive everywhere, these purple flowers lined the cliffside

This ain't no sham, I am what I am.  I leave no time for a cynic's mind.  We will run and scream, you will dance with me.  They'll fulfill our dreams and we'll be free.  And we will be who we are and they'll heal our scars.  Sadness will be far away

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue.  And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true...

In the end Jeju was pretty cool, but it's basically just like the suburb of a big city being placed on an island.  The public transport system wasn't the easiest and most attractions were pretty far away, so you could only see a few each day.  I had to head back to Busan in order to get a Japanese Rail Pass, since you can only purchase them outside of Japan.  The price was also frightening at $560 for 21 days, but every travel forum I found recommended getting it.  After dropping that much on a rail pass, I couldn't bring myself to spend any more money in Korea, so I ate like a bird and drank only water.

Japan is the place I have desired to go above all others.  I love Japanese culture; The classical traditions and samurais, the modern craziness of their Anime and video games, and of course it's appeal as the Mecca of cutting edge technology.  Going to Japan is a dream come true for me, but is Japan my dream country?  That's a story for another blog....

Random GoPros

Thank God I'm not in Kansas anymore...

I can't even remember how many mountains I've climbed....

As tiring as it is getting to the top, it's almost always worth it

Keep the earth below my feet.  For all my sweat, my blood runs weak. Let me learn from where I have been.  Keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn.

Cactus Corner

Me and a rogue peacock

Sometimes in life you know you're on the right path, that you're exactly where you need to be...If you're not on that path, maybe you should go look for it :)

She got the power of the hootchie, I got the fever for the flavor of the cootchie.  And did I mention, hey pay attention, gonna take that booty to the nudie dimension! I got the green glow under my car, I got the boom boom system you can hear real far!

Hiking - Free, Beaches - Free....There's a reason I spend most of my time where I do :)

# of Haircuts this year: 0

You go to the top for the crater, but the view overlooking the city is way cooler

Sunrise Peak Crater

Everywhere you go in Korea is packed...Definitely not for agoraphobics

Yeongsil Trail

What I look like without make up