Jeju!

Last week was a vacation because of the Chuseok (Thanksgiving) holiday. So everyone returns to their families in rural areas or travels abroad. I went to Jeju Island with two teacher friends from my city. (Natashia is a South African girl who just started teaching; Matt is an American, fluent in Japanese, who has been teaching at a private school for a few months here.) We taught on Monday, then left for Gwangju by bus. We walked around with our heavy packs and decided to drink and sing at a norebang. Then we went to a jimjilbang, which is a segregated nude bathing facility with a large common floor area for sleeping. It is a great place to experience some amazing hot tubs and massages and sleep for under $10. On Tuesday, we took the early bus to Mokpo, and thought it would be cool to see the city. So we walked from the bus terminal to the ferry terminal for several hours and got to see an industrial city with plenty of fish smells... The ferry was packed with lots of foreigners and Koreans sleeping 3rd class on a floor. Luckily the air and sun were nice so we could spend the 4.5 hour trip on the deck. We met a "couch surfer" in Jeju, a hyper-friendly Korean high school girl who showed us the city and found us a place to sleep. It's called a minbak, which was a single room with no bed and a common bathroom. The old man who ran the place was grumpy about how we folded and slept on his sheets and yelled at me for not using the cold tub water correctly for bathing, but he was nice enough to give us rides and snacks. On Wednesday we walked through Manjang Gul, (almost) the world's longest lava tube cave system, which was basically very cold and dark and... rocky. Then we got lost in a hedge maze for about 30 minutes which was quite fun. It was great seeing little kids getting yelled at by their parents who could see them but couldn't get to them. Then we went to a nearby beach and swam out in shallow water, past a sand bar, to body-surf in some large salty waves. On Thursday we took the bus to the South part of the Island, Seogwipo, and did some exploring. We walked along a beautiful part of the Olle trail along a rocky cliff coastline. We walked down a ways and found a small cliff to jump off, though it wasn't much fun climbing back up on a razor barnacle rock with the waves pushing us around! We saw a beautiful waterfall and started to hike to another, but realized it wasn't flowing because of the lack of rainfall. So we went to Waterworld, which is underneath World Cup Stadium, built for the 2002 soccer games. It was a jimjilbang plus an indoor water park with false waves, a tubing circuit and water slides. Matt and I couldn't figure out where to get clothes for the water park, so we wrapped 3 skimpy towels around our wast and proudly walked to the front desk. (At that point we realized we could rent or wear our own clothes). After this adventure, we strolled out on the stadium field and filmed ourselves doing some victory dances, naming ourselves "Team Win." On our way out, we realized that Natashia had lost her hiking stick. So we found a freshly fallen bamboo tree and cut it up into three nice sticks, which were the envy of hikers the following day. Next we got some snacks and dinner, played some pool and darts, then had a relaxing night at a motel (shower, but no bed). On Friday, we got up early, made some tuna fish sandwiches and took a bus to Mt. Halla, an inactive volcano with a large crater. Fortunately, we hitchhiked to the trail head in time to get to the top before it closed. We hiked the steep staircase and lava rock up to the 6,400 ft rim (highest point in South Korea) and made our way back down the longer easier trail. Matt literally ran down the mountain, using his bamboo stick to propel himself over rocks and Korean families. Natashia and I took about 1.5 hours longer and enjoyed a nice conversation. That night Matt stepped behind the bar at a slow club and mixed us all some strong cocktails. Saturday morning, we went to a scuba diving company, met some more "couch surfers" and waited for the tide to fall. We took a water taxi to a nearby large island and unloaded the gear on a flat rocky outcropping. Natashia and I snorkeled in some trashy heavy tide water, while those with experience went down 20-30 meters with tanks. It was fun seeing them from above and getting pushed around in the strong current with the fish. It was also a nice place to relax and draw some beautiful scenery. That night we took a taxi back to Jeju city, where we stayed with our new scuba diving friend. She is a private school teacher from Kentucky, living in the biggest, nicest flat I've seen in Korea. We all went out for some nice Indian curry and hit the packed dance floor to finish the night. Sunday was a relaxed morning of coffee shops and waiting for the ferry, leaving at 4:30PM. The ride back was in a much larger boat, which made for bigger rooms to stay in and less swaying boat motion. There was a nice restaurant and norebang on the boat as well. Once we got into Mokpo, we had to beat other foreigners for a taxi to the bus terminal, and we got on our bus with 2 minutes to spare. From Gwangju, we took a taxi to Namwon. The driver knew he wouldn't make more than about $55 on us, so he drove at 90-100mph, making a 1 hour trip last maybe 35 minutes. Thankfully, I made it home safe, before midnight and got some rest before my 8 classes on Monday. What a week!