Day 18: Even More Places...
- Emily
- Oct 20, 2018
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 13, 2019
My list of places I wanted to visit today included 5 that I really wanted to see and 3 extra places if I had time. I started off the morning nice and early again so I could try and get everything done. My first stop was a lot farther than the one yesterday and it was super hard to find an exact address for KakaoMap.
Stop 1: Sangdeokcheon Chestnut Path
This was one of 10 places that a website recommended visiting in Jeju. It's a long path with huge chestnut trees on either side that is supposedly very pretty to walk through. It took me a couple bus rides to get to the round-a-bout that the website mentioned... and then i got confused. There were basically no signs anywhere and nothing looked like it could be a path to a bunch of trees. I eventually found a small sign near the round-a-bout and it showed that there were several paths that could be taken. There were two to get to the chestnut path and both were about 2 km long. I wasn't really sure exactly where the entrance was but there was a road near the sign so I started walking down that one. The walk was not very interesting and I made it about 20 minutes in before I started to really feel like I was not going the right way. There was a big factory at one point and it looked like they had tried to block off the road. No one else was walking and I couldn't see any kind of tree path in the distance. 2 km is a long way to walk not knowing if I was going the right way so I decided to turn back around. The total distance to go there and back would have been over 4km and I had other places I wanted to see more. I decided it would be better to go to a place that I actually knew existed rather than spend half the day looking for this tree path. I made it back to the road and the bus stop. Fortunately, I only had to wait for about 10 minutes for the next bus to arrive and I was fairly close to my next stop.
Stop 2: Bijarim Forest
This is supposedly a major tourist destination in Jeju. The area around it had lots of rest stops and places selling oranges. There was also a convenience store nearby where I stopped to get some water and a red-bean bun. I've found that I really really love red-bean desserts. Fortunately, red-bean paste bread is a very common thing to find in convenience stores and subway stations. It's a sweet bean paste that has a thick texture to it and there are lots of buns and rice cakes filled with it. After getting my snack I went to the ticket office to buy a ticket to the forest. This was when I realized that the age bracket for Youth is 12-24 not 12-18 like I had originally assumed. So I had been paying almost double the price for all my tickets up until this point... oops! At the ticket booth I had to show my passport to prove my age when I said youth ticket, I'm not sure if it's because I look super old or they normally ask everyone this. The forest itself was really beautiful and it smelled ridiculously good. They had a bunch of cool trees including a Japanese cinnamon tree. I listened to music and enjoyed looking around... until I saw the watch out for snake signs.
I started paying more attention to the ground after that (kidding). It wasn't a very long walk and the path was easy so it was a relaxing place to be. There were also a lot of cute little benches in the forest where people were sitting and reading. If I was in Jeju for a longer period of time this is definitely a place I would be happy to spend an entire day at. When I made it back out I went back to the same bus stop and waited to go to my next place.
Stop 3: Manjanggul Lava Tube
I had to wait almost an hour for the bus to arrive but it was nice and sunny out so I just sat on a bench and read. I was the only person on the bus to the cave (I was the only person on a lot of the buses this week). I don't normally like caves because I feel a little claustrophobic but the pictures made it look really big inside so I figured I should try it. I bought my ticket and headed down.
The cave was huge! Really wide and big and comfortable to walk in. The temperature in the cave was much cooler than the temperature outside so it was a nice break from the heat.
The path in the cave was 1000m long (it went on for longer but people could only walk this far). There were signs throughout the cave explaining different features and how the lava created them. At the end of the path there is a huge lava column which, according to the sign, is the largest lava column in the world. Everyone was taking selfies with it!
One thing I noticed about the cave was that almost everyone that was walking through it was speaking English. There were tons of foreigners and even a group of three guys that were walking and talking about a work proposal. It was so strange to hear that much English after hearing almost none for the past two weeks. Even the other tourist attractions I had been to didn't have this many foreigners or people speaking English. After I got out of the cave I saw a small museum and restaurant. The museum was interesting. It had information about how the cave was formed, who was the first to find it, and all the different creatures they had found in it. The spiders that they displayed looked super creepy and I was glad I hadn't come across any of them.
The restaurant beside the museum looked good so I stopped in to get some bibimbap and grape-coconut pop.
Stop 4: Hamdeok Beach
My next stop was originally going to be a beach called Woljeonggri Beach. However, while I was waiting for the bus from the cave a guy stopped to talk and asked where I was going next. I told him the beach and he immediately said 'oh no don't go there, that one's not very famous'. He recommended Hamdeok or Gimnyeong beach instead. Hamdeok was also on my list of places to go so I decided to choose that one. I passed by Gimnyeong on the way to Hamdeok beach and it looked nice but it also just looked like the same beach I could see at Hamdeok.
I am glad I chose Hamdeok! It reminded me of Grand Bend because there was a huge street in front of the beach that had all sorts of different restaurants and cafes. There were groups of people playing volleyball and tons of spots to take pictures. The volleyball looked like some kind of tournament because most of the teams had matching coloured shirts on.
I walked down the beach for a bit and took a lot of photos and then started back to the bus stop.
I got distracted by a huge cafe on the water and stopped to get some desserts and a drink.
Then I wandered down more of the beach near the cafe.
When I finally made it back to the bus stop it was almost 6 pm and there weren't a lot of buses running back to the side of the island where my hostel is. I had wanted to go to a place called Sangumburi on the way back but it was a 50 minute bus ride there and then another 50 minute bus ride to the hostel. It was also out in the middle of nowhere so I wasn't sure if I would be able to get a bus back once I got there. I decided to head home instead because it would take almost an hour and a half to get back. Fortunately there is a bus that drives around the entire east side of the island and I could take it all the way to my hostel without having to do any transfers. The bus ride took forever but I just played a BTS game on my phone. The BTS game is a rhythm game where you play songs from different albums and can use the points you get to upgrade member cards. Since I have been bussing so much and for such long distances for the past few days I have had a lot of time to play it... You will be proud to hear that, out of over 6 million players, I now place in the top 50 for several of the songs (I am clearly using this vacation time well)! The walk back was super cold and I was going to get noodles but ended up grabbing a bunch of red-bean buns instead (oops). There is a chain bakery called Paris Baguette that I have been able to find everywhere I go and they have super yummy dessert items that I suck at saying no to. So that was my really healthy dinner.
When I got back I decided I needed to shower. I sat on my floor for a bit trying to convince myself that the cold shower wasn't actually as bad as I was remembering it. I turned the water on and it was definitely still awful. So I gave in and went downstairs to speak to the owner. It ends up that there is a thermostat thing by my bed that I have to turn on and then set the water temperature. I can also heat the floors with it! I didn't really care about the floors though... I was just thankful I didn't have to have another freezing cold shower.
Hope everyone is doing well,
Emily
(October 13, 2018)
Forgot to add these to my post yesterday but this is the main bus stop by my hostel as well as one of the views from the bus:
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