We have now left the peaceful temple of Hwaeomsa, and are heading towards the famous Jeju Island, number one holiday destination for Koreans. Most people take the plane there, but we chose to take a boat. We thus stop first in Mokpo, where we spend a night while waiting for the next ferry, and which has nothing really special to offer. It is for now the poorest region we have seen in this country.

The next dady, we thus embark for a sea trip that will last about 4 hours. The inside is rather nice, there is a big common area where we can eat, have a coffee, play arcade games and we even assist to a concert (that hurts our ears more than anything but the intention was there)! We are also given a ‘room’, that consists only in a place where everybody sits on the ground, nothing very exciting.

When we arrive in Jeju, we just missed the only bus that could take us to our destination. Because we don’t want to wait another hour, we start walking. It’s exactly what I wanted to avoid, because I don’t really enjoy walking over 30 minutes with my big backpack, that hurts a lot if I carry it a long time.. The atmosphere is thus a bit tense, during the hour of walking that separates us from our hostel, and we are happy to arrive. We are in Jeju City! 🙂

We feel welcome almost right away on this island where even road signs wish us a good stay. Jeju City is the first step of our tour of the island which is going to last about ten days, through several cities along the coast.

We wander in the markets and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of the place.

But we don’t stay too long here, because we are in a hurry to see the rest of the island. After two nights, we take a bus for Seongsan, to the east.

The city itself is small and doesn’t have much to offer, but it is a good starting point for other attractions close to there, as well as for reaching Udo, another much smaller island. There is nonetheless a nice hill that we climb at dawn. The weather doesn’t let us see the sunrise, but we still enjoy the view. There are so many people present!

There are also many young people in the hostel where we are staying. At night, we are invited to take part in a barbecue; we miss the meal, but join them a bit later. It is very funny, because they are all wasted, but as soon as the clock turns 11 pm, it takes all this very drunk group of fifteen young people less than 15 minutes to quietly go to bed. It’s surprising ^^

We are also quiet, because a long day is waiting for us! That’s for next time!