Tag: jeju city

Jeju Island {days five and six}

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BBM KOREA | Jeju Island, South Korea After a few wonderful days in Jeju City, our vacation was dwindling down to just two more days. We had a few things left on our to-do list, one of which was visiting Manjanggul Cave, a UNESCO World Heritage sight that is a cave formed from a lava tunnel.

We started our fifth day in Jeju City making our way to Manjanggul via a journey of bus rides and transfers. Once dropped off at the bus stop we continued on a mile or so walk that was actually quite picturesque. We followed a long and sleepy tree lined road, speckled with wildflowers, until finally making it to our destination.

BBM KOREA | Jeju Island, South Korea | Manjanggul CaveWhen we arrived, we were greeted by a vine covered staircase entrance into the cave.  We followed along the one kilometer path through the lava tunnel enjoying the chilly climate that was so different from the sweltering streets of Jeju.

Though dark, the tunnel acted as a museum at some points, sharing information of how the cave was formed thousands of years ago. We explored for a while taking in the dimly lit scenery and appreciating the great, nearly unimaginable, stalactites.

Later we headed back into the city towards our hostel and geared up for our final day on the island.

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BBM KOREA | Jeju Island, South Korea | Iho Tawoo BeachOur last day started with us packing our bags and quickly dropping them off at the airport before catching a cab to the beach to soak in some sun before boarding our flight that evening. We had an incredible cab driver pick us up who tried his absolute best to communicate with us in his broken English and we attempted our best broken Korean. Though we had to act out words for ‘beach’ and ‘swimming’, he had no problems telling us his opinions of what was at the time the upcoming 2017 presidential election.

We spent a few hours on Iho Tewoo Beach swimming, snacking, and reading before grabbing another taxi back to the airport.

BBM KOREA | Jeju Island, South Korea

After six glorious days, we boarded the plane with salt-water in our hair and and sand in our bags.  We watched from the airplane window as the sun set and we flew back into Incheon, and back to our regularly scheduled lives of teaching English. Though short, it was an incredibly rejuvenating summer vacation and exactly what we all needed.

Jeju Island {Days Three and Four}

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BBM KOREA | Jeju Island, South Korea | SeogwipoAfter a few days exploring Seogwipo we would be traveling back up to Jeju City, but not before paying a quick visit to Art Street and stopping  by the sweetest little tea shop we had seen from the street the day before. We drank our tea and bought our home-made knickknacks and then went to board our bus back to the northern side of the island.

Once we made it to Jeju City we took some time to explore, found a great Italian sport for dinner, and walked along the coast as the sun set. Something I loved about this particular stretch of the coast was that it reminded me a lot of Chicago. While the lakefront of Chicago has some beaches, most of it is a walking path which was similar to where we found ourselves in Jeju City. It was a wonderful little unexpected taste of home.

On our first full day in Jeju City we decided to venture out to Udo Island, a smaller island off the coast of Jeju known for its peanut ice cream and serendipitous delights. It was an adventure getting there, two busses and a ferry, but it turned out to be one of my favorite days that I’ve had in Korea thus far.BBM KOREA | Jeju Island, South Korea | Udo Island

Minutes after exiting the ferry we were eating our first helping of their famous ice cream, just before renting scooters to tour the island on. We scooted our way all around Udo until we found a beach to settle on for a while.

At the end of the day we returned our scooters, got another serving of peanut ice cream, and boarded the ferry once again ready for our long bus ride back into the city. It was an incredible day spent frivolously enjoying island live and gloriously taking in a healthy dose of nature that we generally are lacking in mainland Korea. For anyone who travels to Jeju Island I sincerely recommend visiting Udo Island, its well worth a day trip.