We woke up ready for Angie to pick us up at 9:00 as per usual, but we got a message from her asking if we were okay to push it to 9:30. We didnt mind, as this gave us a little more time to get ready for the day. Angie started by asking us if we want to go see a mountain, which we agree to. Unfortunately, it started raining pretty soon after we got in the car.
Angie said we shouldn’t go to the mountain because the ground gets really slippery, but offered for us to go to an art museum. We look it up and find that it is the Arte Museum, an interactive exhibit similar to TeamLabs in Tokyo. We arrive and purchase two tickets with a tea in the cafe at the end of the museum. We went ahead and put our bags in the free lockers and walked towards the first exhibit.
We walk in and first find an exhibit with mirrored walls everywhere and projections of autumn trees and leaves as well as colorful flowers.
We moved on to the sand waterfall room. This was named aptly, being a round room with projections of a giant sand waterfall pouring sand all over the floor.
After this we went into a MASSIVE room with beautiful dynamic projections of the history of art over time, landscapes of jeju, and other beautiful images and visuals. We spent over 40 minutes in this room alone, appreciating the unbelievable experience.
After this, there were a few smaller and less impactful rooms. One neat one was an area (pretty much for children) where you could color in pre-drawn animals on paper provided by the museum, scan the pictures, and your drawing would appear on a giant screen along the wall, moving around as an animal. Caitlyn worked very hard on a monkey, and David contributed by giving it a gold chain and a tribal tattoo.
We finished up the museum and went to the cafe at the end. David got the iced Udo milk tea (milk tea + walnut brownie syrup + barley cream) and caitlyn got the hot tangerine camomile tea (camomile + grapefruit and tangerine syrup + tangerine cream). Both were delicious and sweet, and we shared them both with heavier preference towards our respective choices. The coolest part about the cafe was that when you placed your cup on the table, a projector placed a blossoming flower inside the center and made it grow. This worked no matter where you put the cup, which was really neat.
We finished up and left, being funneled through the giftshop. At this point, David realized he couldn’t find his sunglasses. We wondered if they fell in the locker and we missed it when we picked the bags back up. We asked an employee and they let us back in. The locker was empty. We then thought maybe they were in the cafe, but no luck either. Caitlyn was pretty sure they were in the room and David just forgot them, but it shouldn’t be a big deal because it was cloudy and rainy and the forecast predicted it would stay that way. Opening the door to outside, we realized that we were wrong. The sun was clearly trying to make up for the morning and was shining as bright and hot as we have seen on the trip. This was in huge conflict with every weather app and website we checked this morning. Back in the car, Angie said that the mountain should be great now as the sun was out. We agree and she drives in the direction of the mountain. She asks us about lunch today and we say we’d rather do something cheap and easy like bimimbap, as the first day was good but very expensive. She says she will look into it after she drops us off. The car finally stops on the side of a road, and Angie says “I meet you at the bottom near convenience store”.
It was a big complex, seemingly free, with lots of large Buddhas and many steps to climb and see new areas.
We did find another bell to ring, this time free! It had a sign saying if you ring it 3 times, no more and no less, and your wishes will come true. We each rang the bell 3 times (total bell count in Asia thus far is 4 rings per person), remembering the power you feel from ringing a large bell.
We finished up after 30 or 40 minutes and decided to cross the road heading downwards, as we believe this is where Angie wanted us to go. We were really confused and a little frustrated, as there was no discernable pathway or clear end goal in sight. We passed by people’s homes and walked through what felt like desert, all with the heat blazing down on us and David wishing he hadn’t forgotten his sunglasses. We get to a fork in the road and decide to head left. This was probably the right way, as we did find things to do, however we still don’t know what Angie wanted us to do or see.
Eventually, we find a ticket booth to go on a walk on neat volcanic rocks along the coastline. We paid for 2 entry tickets and began following where we saw people heading. It wasn’t a super tricky walk, but the ground was a bit wet and quite uneven.
What made it more interesting is that there were thousands upon thousands of little water cockroaches similar to the ones we saw at the beach the other day, only these were more silver/bronze than black. They ranged from tiny, around the size of your pinkie nail, to up to a few inches long. They were wicked fast and absolutely everywhere. Thankfully, these also didn’t seem to like humans and moved when you walked nearby. We were looking down near other rocks closer to the water, when David noticed a dark color on some of them. We then realized that the bugs would congregate in the thousands all in one area at the edge of some rocks. Feeling brave and curious, David started loudly walking towards the rocks. As he stepped down, like Moses parting the Red Sea, the cockroaches fled. This was both wild and disgusting to watch.
We made it through a decent part of this walk, then decided we wanted to head back and cool off and grab lunch.
We texted Angie and she said to meet us near the bathroom. We find signs for a bathroom, but there is literally no way for a car to get here so it is clearly the wrong bathroom. We find another bathroom, but no Angie. She says go to the parking lot. There are multiple parking lots everywhere. We eventually find her, but she doesn’t see us and starts driving away. We are hot, frustrated, and a little mad at Angie as this is not the first time that as a tour guide, she drops us off somewhere without telling us where she dropped us off or what we’re supposed to do. We finally get her to stop and we get in the car. She asks how it was and we tell her we didn’t know where we were going. She laughed and said “sorry, I will take you to lunch now”.
A few minutes later she drops us off at a restaurant, saying her friends recommend this as a cheap place and that locals eat here. We go inside and are seated, with no one in the restaurant speaking a word of English. Thankfully, body language and gesturing works great. We are directed to the menu on the wall. There were only maybe 5 or 6 menu items, a bimimbap, two kinds of soup, steamed black pork dumplings, and one or two that we weren’t familiar with. We looked around to assess the typical portion size, and decided to do what most people did and each grab a soup or bimimbap and share an order of dumplings. We ended up going with the mushroom bimimbap and a noodle soup to split. This was one of our cheapest meals we have had, but it was all locals so we were hopeful. It ended up being DELICIOUS. The bimimbap came with barley instead of rice, and the ingredients were so fresh and clean and tasty.
The noodles had the most amazing flavor and texture.
The dumplings were delicious and definitely one of the best we’ve had. We were so happy that we were brought here and definitely consider it one of the best if not the best meal we’ve had in Korea so far.
We meet back up with Angie and she was surprised we liked it so much as it was a cheaper spot. She said that her friends say it is all locals who eat here, but almost in a way that we wouldn’t be happy with that. We decided to mentally forgive Angie some for dropping us off in random locations as she did bring this place into our lives. This didn’t last long. The next spot Angie brought us to, she drops us off and points straight, directing us to go that direction. We ask how long to spend here and she says 30 minutes or so. We get out and walk straight until we realize that she was wrong and this was a road leading to a climate and weather center. We head back and choose a different path, seemingly leading up to an oriental gazebo.
People were relaxing inside, some sitting against the wall and some laying down, but it didn’t seem to have any significance other than a place to escape the sun and rain. We continued walking for a few hundred feet and found a small overlook over the ocean with the path ending just past this. It was pretty, but it was underwhelming enough to make us question if this was even where we were supposed to be dropped off.
We walk back and sit in he gazebo for a few minutes, realizing that there is no way anyone could spend more than 5 minutes at this stop, so we were confused about the other 25 minutes.
We go back down and get in the car. Angie takes us next to the Sinchang Windmill Coastal Road. We see a bunch of large windmills along the coast as well as some coastal walkways and some large sculptures. Angie drops us off near a small park and says “you go” and gestures us out. We get out of the car and start going through the park, hoping to find signs or a path guiding us.
We realize that there is no path here, but we do see what looks like a walkway over the coast a few minute walk down the road. We head that way, walking along the side of the road, and again frustrated that we seem to have been dropped off at wrong spot. We eventually get to the pathway and we walked along the coast for a while, enjoying seeing the fish and crabs in the pools of water alongside the walkway.
We were both thirsty and tired from the hot day, and decided to head back to Angie now. The drive home appeared to take around an hour and 20 minutes, which would get us back 15 minutes past our allotted time. The booking listing said if we go past our time, it is a charge equivalent to ~$20 USD per hour, which is not a bad price, but we didn’t want to be charged especially as any extra time taken today was due to our driver leading us in the wrong direction. Angie offered us to go see a cafe street as well as a beach, but we decided that as we were tired, didn’t want to go over in time, and that we would rather go to our cafe over picking one out on the cafe street, that we wanted to go back home. She seemed surprised, but took us back to the hotel. Caitlyn slept most of the way, as she tends to on most transportation, and David worked on the blog. Back at the hotel, we say our goodbyes to Angie and went up to the hotel to freshen up briefly.
Next up, we went back to the cafe next to our hotel (Monsieur Bubu). We ordered our favorite cherry blood and start talking with the guys behind the counter. One of the guys spoke good English, so we asked him about the nightlife and if there were any bars. He was a little confused, so we asked if there were places to drink beer. He told us that there aren’t really western style bars in Korea and that it is mostly cocktail bars. We haven’t been able to find many of these on Naver Maps, so we ask him where a good cocktail bar is. He looks at us a little funny and says “we are a cocktail bar?” It turns out that after 8:00pm, this place turns from a coffee shop to a cocktail bar. We had spent each day here on the close side of this U-shaped bar. Apparently the other side and the bend of the U both have walls of liquors that we have totally missed. There were a few bottles of liquor displayed near us, but one was the whiskey for the cherry blood and we just hadn’t questioned the other 4 bottles. We laughed about how we had missed that for 3 days and thanked the man. We told him that his English was great, and he said that the bartender actually speaks great English and is the best of all of his coworkers.
We said our goodbyes and next went to an underground mall that was just a few blocks from our hotel. It was mostly clothing and some stores with beauty products, but we walked the whole thing anyways. Caitlyn was out of hairspray, so we stopped into a small shop with hair products. Two elderly women were sitting there, and it became apparent that one was the shop owner and one was her friend who was hanging out with her. The friend spoke better English, so she helped translate and find Caitlyn a hairspray. She was very kind, funny, and had high energy. She was making jokes about how some of the hairspray were “for old ladies who want their hair stuck hard” and mimed knocking against her head as if it was hard like a rock. She asked us about our jobs and where we were from and seemed super excited to spend some time talking with us. Caitlyn ended up buying a hairspray, and before we left, the ladies excitedly gave Caitlyn a ton of free samples of shampoo and argan oil. Caitlyn loves free samples, so this made her incredibly happy.
We tried to find some food, but we didn’t want a sit-down restaurant so we opted to go back to the food market and try some foods we hadn’t gotten to try. We shared a mixed shrimp and pork dish, which was called sweet and sour, but with Korean flavors and not like the Chinese one we get in the USA (though it is similar). This was pretty filling, but we each wanted a little something more.
We separated to scope out the market, and meeting nack up, Caitlyn informs David that she found a practically hidden entrance to a beer spot that let you bring in outside food. David grabbed a simple grilled shrimp skewer and Caitlyn grabbed another black pork skewer and we headed to the beer place. They served local draft beers from Jeju, so we grabbed a lager and an ale (both used tangerines). We grabbed a seat and a friendly server walked over to us and started chatting with us. She was probably a little older than us, but had more energy and a higher social battery than both of us combined. We walked about our trip, her life as a farmer, her recent scuba diving adventures, some vacations she has gone on, and she was so excited to add us on Instagram and keep up with eachother.
Before we left, she told us to hold on a second and grabbed us two Jeju Island beer cups that she wanted us to have to remember Jeju. She was so sweet! We have mixed feelings about the cups, as we LOVE them, and want to have them forever, but now we have to work hard to ensure we can safely transport them for the next 3 months. We said our goodbyes and kept walking the market.
Caitlyn really wanted one more glazed tangerine on a stick, but the place we had gone before wasn’t open today. We kept seeing people holding them, however, so we kept walking through the market. Eventually, we did find a stall that took cards (we just finished our cash), and Caitlyn grabbed one last Jeju Island tangerine.
We walked back towards the hotel, excited to check out the cocktail bar. The entrance is the door just to the right of the coffee bar, and we walk in to see a VERY fancy looking cocktail bar. We walk in and are greeted and seated. We look at a menu and see that these look like very nice cocktails, with the most expensive probably being around $8 USD! As this is happy hour prices for cocktails at home, we were elated.
David opted for an old fashioned to feel out the drink quality and Caitlyn got a gimlet. David felt the gimlet was very good, but Caitlyn usually likes more lime in hers. The old fashioned was enormous and delicious. We told the bartender, named Joy, that his English was great and his coworker told us that it would be. We told him we didn’t know this was a cocktail bar and he said he heard about us from his coworker when he started his shift.
Caitlyn had seen a drink being made for another customer that was also smoked and asked for that next. David wasn’t sure what to get so he asked Joy to make him something with bourbon, so he made something with bourbon and vermouth as well as a few other ingredients. It was delicious, and Joy told David that he made it a double (A little scary, but we hadn’t really done any drinking today so it was also very appreciated). Caitlyns drink was called the “katharsis”, as “it lets you get rid of everything you’re holding onto” per Joy. The recipe was 2 or 3:1 rum to amaretto, a pinch of cinnamon and a squirt of lime. Stir with ice. Smoke with Applewood and leave the smoke in for10-15 seconds. Serve with large cube and half cinnamon stick. The fun part was they put the drink in a treasure chest that when you open it up, smoke pours out and a light turns on inside the chest. The drink was AMAZING.
We were going to be done after this, but it was so good that David had to order a katharsis. We didn’t get an extensive description for Caitlyn’s last drink, but he said if we like the katharsis she would like this one.
Prerty soon after this, Joy went to the kitchen and came back out with a bowl of what looked like 3 small scoops of ice cream. He told us this is a housemade kaymak ice cream with olive oil and pepper. It was absolutely delicious, and such a unique combination of flavors. We recommend everyone to try icecream with a little olive oil. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s damn good.
A little boozed up, we joked with Joy about how we were within stumbling distance of the hotel and thanked him for his drinks. We told him that we love good cocktails at home, and these remind us of delicious cocktails we may get at our favorite spots. He thanked us profusely and then covered his face and said he is so shy with compliments. He shook our hands and thanked us and wished us safe travels and a good trip. Of course, before we left, we had to sign the guest book!
We decided to stop by a convenince store as David wanted a small snack to make sure to soak up the cocktails as tomorrow we fly out of Jeju. He grabbed a pre-packaged container with some pieces of artifical crab meat and we went back up to our hotel. The flight tomorrow is pretty late, and Angie told us today that for a domestic flight in Jeju that we only need to show up 30 minutes before. We planned on an hour and a half before, as this made us a little nervous, but we had plenty of time to finish packing in the morning.
David’s thoughts of the day: Hotels in Asia don’t seem to anticipate that people on both sides of the bed will want their devices charged. Only 1 or 2 hotels (the APA ones, I think) have had USB or power outlets on both sides of the bed.
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: Finding any bar in Korea has been so difficult. You can find places that sell alcohol with food, but there are almost no casual eateries and even fewer places more focused on selling drinks.
Steps walked: 19,564
Miles walked: 9.31
Total miles walked in Jeju: 35.25
Bluming Travelers 