Day 16: Namwon and Scooter Pick Up

I woke up nice and early Thursday morning (9 am). I had to be moved out of my room by 10 am and I wanted to get to the next place as soon as possible. Jeju island is split into two areas (from what I understand). There is Jeju, which is the big city area (upper half), and then there's Seogwipo which is the countryside (lower half). The first night I stayed in the city but I would be spending the rest of the week in/near Seogwipo (I'm still a little unsure of the geography). The area that my hostel for the week would be in is called Namwon.

This was an image that I saw around the island a lot. It was at every major tourist attraction and on a lot of the bus stops. The upper part of the island is Jeju and the lower part is mainly Seogwipo. If you look to the right of Seogwipo you can see Namwon. There is a huge mountain in the middle of the island called Hallasan Mountain.

The bus to Namwon took a little over an hour and I didn't have to transfer which was nice. It was so cool to watch out the window and see the changing scenery. Jeju city area is a lot of big buildings, but once I left it there are so many trees and fields. I could also see mountains in the distance from basically anywhere. It reminded me a little of the bus ride my family took to get to our hotel in Jamaica earlier this year. Some of the houses in the country side area look very similar to those in Jamaica. Many of them are also much more colourful than houses in Canada. There are tons of pastel pinks, bright yellows, and blues. While we were driving I also noticed lots of fields with orange trees and greenhouses. I later asked a friend who lives in Jeju about them and found out that Jeju is the primary place in South Korea where these oranges are grown. The specific type is called dekopon in English but they are called hallabong in Korean (named after Hallasan Mountain). They are sold all over the island and there are tons of fields and green houses full of them.

The buses here go so fast and they lurch around a lot so it was an interesting drive! Once I arrived I started to get really excited. My hostel was a short 2 minute walk from the bus stop and it was right by part of a seaside walking path that goes from Namwon Keuneong cliffs to a place called Soessekak Estuary which is a waterway surrounded by trees that people can kayak or paddle board down. It was such an amazing feeling to just stand by the water and enjoy the sun. I felt so relaxed and happy. It was warm and nice out and I was finally starting to feel like I was on vacation!

Unfortunately I completely forgot to take a picture but I did take a video (I can't post videos on here though). I then realized that I couldn't move into my room until 4 pm and I had no clue what to do since it was only a little before 11. I face-timed my mom for a bit and showed her the area while sitting on a picnic bench outside a restaurant. It was really nice to share my excitement with her and chat.

The hostel building is attached to a cafe that opened at 11 so I went inside once they had opened up. Fortunately, the people working at the cafe are the same people in charge of the hostel. They said I couldn't move in early but I could wait in the cafe until 4 and they let me put my suitcase in the room early. They were so nice and even gave me some free tea to drink while I waited. They couldn't speak much English so we had to communicate a fair amount with Google Translate. I always feel bad when I can't communicate well or understand someone here. I know it's inconvenient for them and I feel like I should've taken the time to learn the language if I was going to visit and enjoy their country. I will have to work hard to learn the language.

The cafe is really nice! There are books everywhere and they play awesome music (a fair amount of BTS but also lots of other non-pop Korean artists that I like).

At around 1 pm they said I could check into my room so I went upstairs and unpacked. They let me pick my favourite between two rooms and I took the one with the window facing the water. The room itself is so happy with lots of windows and space. There is also a balcony that is hidden behind these cute grey curtains that are filled with cutouts in the shape of stars.

I got everything set up in my room and then I lay down to relax for a bit before I went back out. I played Gaeko's "Vacation" and a bunch of Younha and BtoB songs and it was super relaxing.

I found this app called Google Trips that helps with creating and planning trips. Users can look through locations people have recommended in the area and then save the ones I was interested in. I looked through all the recommended places in Jeju and saved the ones I wanted to see. There is a map view in the app where I could view a map of Jeju and see where all my tagged places are. From this I was able to put together a rough itinerary of what I wanted to do each day. My plan for the day was to go rent a scooter to travel around the island and then go to Jusangjeollidae and Cheonjeyeon Falls. Jusangjeollidae is this huge rock formation and cliff in Seogwipo and it is relatively close to Cheonjeyeon.

I bussed into Seogwipo to pick up my scooter. I got an international drivers license before I came to Korea so I was able to rent it no problem. Since it is off-season (tourist season typically ends in August) I paid 20,000 won per day. I was super excited and decided to rent it for all 6 days because I thought it would be amazing... regrets.

Trying to learn to ride a scooter for the first time in a tiny alley is terrifying. In order to accelerate I had to twist the handle towards myself and I ended up doing it too much and almost shooting into a bunch of other scooters on the side. I was definitely feeling relieved that I had also bought insurance. I eventually made it out onto a big street and wobbled all over the place while going about 20 km/h. So many cars passed me and I was super freaked out riding it. After a couple of minutes I was feeling more comfortable and I even made it up to 50 km/h. I was starting to feel happy that I rented it because it was beautiful and sunny out and I could stop every 5 seconds to take pictures of my view.

My adorable scooter. If you look close you can see my phone on the closest handle. There was a little holder for it covered in elastic bands that I had to wrap around my phone to make sure it didn't fall off.

My GPS said it would take 16 minutes to drive to Jusangjeollidae. It definitely took longer than that, but I eventually made it. The place had cute little parking spots for scooters since they are so common. I paid the entrance fee and wandered around for a bit looking at the sculptures and cliffs. There were even palm trees which made me super happy!

There was also a field of fluffy looking white plant things across the path from the cliffs so I went over to check them out. While I was walking over there were a couple of older guys that stopped to ask where I was from. They asked if I was from America and I very quickly told them that I wasn't. The people here don't seem to stare at me as much as in Seoul and they seem a lot nicer so I am excited to meet people! I found the fluffy plants and took a couple photos. There were lots of people taking fancy looking photos in the plants.

Best picture to represent how happy I was to be in Jeju

Grabbed a quick snack outside the ticket office. It's basically a pogo but a lot doughier on the outside and it's a super common street food snack.

Once I was done exploring I hopped back on my scooter and drove to the falls. Unfortunately, I got there right after they had closed... so I took a sunset picture and got back on the scooter to go home.

This was the part of my trip when I realized I made a big mistake renting the scooter. While the scooter is very lovely for little seaside rides in the warm sun, it definitely is not enjoyable at night when it is cold and windy and I have to go 70 km/h on a highway when the top speed it can go is 50. It was so stressful and cold to drive and I just wanted to ditch it on the side of the road and get on a warm bus so I could stop shaking. I made it to downtown Seogwipo by 6:30 and decided I wanted to return the scooter. I took a detour back to the scooter place and tried to return it. Unfortunately there wasn't even a partial refund so I kept the scooter just in case I wanted to use it for short trips later. The drive back to my hostel was awful, but I eventually made it. I parked the scooter behind the house and ran upstairs to try and warm up under my blankets.

When I had finally stopped shaking I went downstairs to the cafe and the lovely people who work there gave me more free tea. They also recommended that I try the noodle place across the road (where I had waited earlier this morning). It was delicious and exactly what I needed to warm up. I got 고기 국수 (gogigooksu, I think that's the romanized way to write it), which was meat and noodles in soup. I put tons of kimchi in it and was feeling warm and full by the time I walked back to my room. I passed my scooter along the way and took a few seconds to glare at it and before going upstairs.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(October 11, 2018)