Today marks our first airplane ride since arriving in Tokyo over 3 weeks ago. We are scheduled to leave the main land of Korea and head to Jeju Island today! We woke up and Caitlyn definitely felt better than yesterday. Her foot is also back to normal, which we were very thankful for. The only remaining symptom was a sore throat when swallowing, but it was definitely manageable. We finished up the packing process, realizing that there was no way we could get David’s day pack zipped onto his larger backpack. Thankfully, this shouldn’t matter much as it wasn’t a lot of walking and we had to check the large bag at the airport anyways. We planned to get to the airport around 2 hours before our flight, which departs at 1:45pm, so we worked backwards to figure out what bus to take. When we got downstairs to check out, Caitlyn asked the front desk attendant if our planned directions to the airport were correct. We planned on taking an intercity bus and transferring to a local bus that would take us to the airport. The lady called two people over who spoke better English and they told us that it is a good method to get to the airport. We thanked them and headed to the station. We arrived after a little confusion, as this was a different, and much smaller station than the one that we arrived at a few days ago. We went in and asked the ticket lady if we can take this bus towards the airport and she said “no no no” and basically shut the window. We walked to the other station, only a few blocks away. We asked the ticket lady there and she said there is a bus that frequently travels to Daegu (the city with the airport), and offered us a few choices for the time. We chose the first available option and sat down to wait for the bus. We grabbed some drinks for the bus ride from a convenience store in the station, and soon the bus came. We put our bags in the cargo bay and hopped on and into our seats. The ride took about 50 minutes, arriving a little early. We got off basically at a local bus stop, and quickly ran to open the cargo door as we didn’t know if the driver knew we had stored bags in there. We grabbed the bags and the second we closed the door, the driver left. We walked about 10 or 15 minutes to the local stop for a bus that has a stop at the airport, and then a short period of time before the bus arrived. We got on and sat down, keeping our bags on us as it was only a 15 minute ride and it is a pain to try to quickly get the bags on when we need to get off.
Finally we arrive at the Airport. Near the drop off, someone had left a luggage cart, so we snagged that and walked into the airport in luxury. We searched around a little for Jinair before realizing that this was the international flight building. David had noticed another building next door, so we went outside and saw that this was the domestic flights area. We entered and quickly found the Jinair counter, but it was roped off with no attendants in sight. We realized that it was only 11:20 at this time, and they probably don’t open until 2 hours before boarding. Another person here for the same flight put their luggage cart in front of the roped off area, so we followed suit and placed our cart behind his. We found a comfy seat, plug in our devices, and waited until 11:45. 11:45 comes and goes, and still no one is at a counter. Just at noon, a few employees enter and go behind the counters. They open the rope for a different airline, with Jinair still closed. We did some searching and realize that they don’t open up until 90 minutes before boarding! Eventually at 12:15 they open the area and we get to walk to the check in counter. We gave them our checked bags and were told to wait for 5 minutes while they run through the xray machine. After 5 minutes, we get up and head up the escalator to security. This went pretty quickly, though both of our carry-ons had suspicious looking items that caused security to search our bags. David’s items were the doorstop alarm and the in door safety lock, and Caitlyn’s selfies stick, 2 umbrellas, and about half of her bag were removed and searched. After explaining what a few of these things were, we were allowed to pack back up and continue. We were excited to get in, as we hadn’t eaten today and were both a little hungry. Unfortunately, this is a very small airport with only 3 gates.
The only food was a small Cafe that had a few baked goods. David grabbed a cream cheese muffin and caitlyn grabbed a bagel, which they offered to heat for her (it turns out they just throw it in the microwave with the plastic on and everything). We also grabbed beverages for the airplane and an iced coffee. It didn’t take too long until we boarded the plane, and the plane absolutely shot off the runway like it was in a race, flying the same way, and in about an hour we landed in Jeju
We found our bags quickly, and thankfully there is a good reliable bus from the airport that has a stop just a few minutes from our hotel. We found the hotel easily. The check in process was quick, and they even upgraded us from the smaller second building to a room on the 8th floor of the main building. We got up to the room, and we were very happy with it. Plenty of space for our bags and items, a nice bathroom/shower room with a small glass divider so that the sink and toilet area don’t get soaked, and a bed that seems more comfortable than our hard bed in Gyeongju. We were also pleased to be able to see a good amount of ocean from our lovely view!
We wasted little time as it was already late and we have only a few short days in Jeju. We set off first to the Jeju Folklore and Natural History Museum, which was about a 40 minute walk. If parts of Gyeongju felt like a beach town, all of Jeju is an absolute beach island. Tropical trees and beautiful ocean views everywhere. Many parts feel like you’re in Hawaii (neither of us have been to Hawaii, to be fair).
We arrived at the museum with about an hour until closing, so we paid the small entrance fee and got down to it. We explored multiple halls, starting with the natural history hall. They had whale skeletons, lots of taxidermied animals shown in their natural habitat, and other cool exhibits.
Next, we saw the Jeju history section, where we saw traditional houses, clothing, tools, boats, and more.
From here, we found the marine life area, where we saw taxidermied fish, sharks, and whales. We even found what we think is a preserved dolphin, which was kind of gross, but also cool.
We did go in one last hall, which contained some old books valuable to Jeju, but English translations were lacking here so it wasn’t very interesting and we flew through in 3 or 4 minutes. We finished up the entirety of the museum in around 40 minutes, so we spent the next 20 minutes exploring the grounds outside and looking at the statues and sculptures. A cursory look online had said 1-2 hours minimum if rushing, and 4 hours at a slower pace for the museum, with one reviewer saying you could end up here all day if not careful. We have no idea how these people think you could possibly spend that much time in this small museum. We figured if we had gone at a more reasonable pace, it may have taken us up to 90 minutes at the absolute most.
It was 6:00 now and all we have eaten so far is a muffin for David and a bagel for Caitlyn, so we decided to search for food. We struggled on both Google Maps and Naver Maps, so we decided to just walk towards a shopping arcade in hopes that they had some food stalls too. Oh man did they. We arrive and there is music, flashing lights, tons of young people eating and walking around, and so much food. We do a quick walk through and find well over 10 things that looked tasty. We first settled on grabbing some grilled squid. It was a little chewy, but it tasted nice with the sauce. Next was Caitlyn’s choice, and she had been wanting to try the black pork Jeju is famous for, so we grabbed a spicy grilled skewer of it. We then headed to the end of the food stalls towards the lobster and crab places. Most stalls were fairly quiet, just selling their food like normal. The shellfish places at the end had party music BLARING, and the kitchen staff all did choreographed dancing and had flashing lights and used massive blow torches to torch the food and make gimmicky jokes with. This seemed to work, though, as the biggest lines were for these places. We picked the half lobster and crab combo. The lobster came with cheese on top, which was a little strange but actually worked alright. It also came with a claw, but without it being cracked open we struggled to eventually get the meat out. The crab was red crab meat overtop some flame grilled rice placed in a red crab shell. The crab was pretty good, but seemed strangely close to imitation crab meat in texture and coloring. The rice was delicious, though, and the sauce that came with it was nice. Still a little hungry, David went back and got a black pork pancake with garlic. This is essentially a neutral batter made with egg, and some black pork. They add garlic at the end and put it on a cook top with some oil. It was actually a little disappointing, with no identifiable black pork and a very bland flavor. It had to be drowned in sauce to be enticing enough to eat. Caitlyn found a place that glazed tangerines very similar to the strawberries, so she got a skewer of those. She claims that this was way more delicious than even the strawberries, and instantly fell in love with this fruit snack.
We should mention that Jeju is known for a few things: fresh fish/shellfish (conk, abalone, octopus, and a few others are very popular), tangerines, and black pork. The shellfish is popular as Jeju is famous for its female divers who can hold their breath for minutes at a time and dive down up to 100 feet to collect different fish and octopus. These women often continue this practice into their 80’s! Black pork is a Korean breed of pig that is which come from Jeju and is known as the wagyu of pork. You will find fish that is dived for/fished for in jeju and black pork on a ton of menus. You will also see Jeju tangerines for sale in multiple shops on every street, as well as cute tangerine hats that everyone wears. We walked around for a while through some shopping areas and checked out Black Pork Street to do a driveby on a restaurant we were planning on eating at in the future (looked and smelled good. Lots of patrons. Definitely eating here!).
Jeju is not known for having any type of nightlife, but we wanted to check out somewhere to grab a drink. We found one place that was open and seemed up our alley called “All That Jeju”. It was only 10 or 15 from our hotel, and even closer to where we were at the moment, so we headed towards it. We theoretically arrived, but couldn’t find it anywhere within the radius on our map apps, so we decided to give up and head back to the hotel. We stopped by a CU Mart less than a block from us and grabbed a beer to share and some coffees for the morning. We got back around 10 and worked on the blog for a while before heading to bed around midnight.
David’s thoughts of the day: In comparison to Japan, there are a few big differences. In Japan, the street food is constantly mind blowing. There is good street food here, but it can be hit or miss. Also, the convenience stores here make me miss the ones in Japan. The ones in Korea are very similar to a small one in the USA. In Japan, they have everything you want and then more things you didn’t know you want. Also we kind of miss izakaya style restaurants in Japan. Don’t get me wrong, we are having a blast in Korea, and absolutely love Jeju (our favorite part of Korea so far), but we have been reminiscing on a few things in Japan today.
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: Cars in Korea are a lot more similar to cars you would find in the US. In Japan, even in the smaller cities and out in the country, all of the cars were tiny. When you’d see the occasional Camry or sedan that size, it looked comically large compared to the normal cars. Most cars here are the same size and style as you’d find in America (aside from pickup trucks and some of the vans).
Steps walked: 18,754
Miles walked: 8.89
Bluming Travelers 