Roaming Korea’s West Coast and Jeweled Jeju Island

 We had the pleasure of taking a ten day road trip down the west coast of Korea, enjoyed sights inland and landed on the tips of South Korea before taking the ferry to Jeju Island. Driving in crowded Korea is a challenge; driving without navigation in a country where there is very little English is either very adventurous or borderline insane. Thank the Lord; our paths were covered in His grace, safety and security.

Our mistaken turns were too numerous to count, we started by turning north instead of south, not a good move when in South Korea, and ended our trip by turning west instead of east! Very fitting. . . . :0)

Our first stop was Mallipo Beach and the name reminded me of Malibu Beach! About one hour away from Anyang, this beach is worthy of a weekend retreat!

deserted beautiful sandy Bay in March!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then doubled back on the Expressway and made our way to Gongju. We walked the steep terrain of the Gongsanseong Fortress and saw amazing views of the Geum River. We found the Tombs of King Muryeong and his family. An interesting museum as the King’s Tomb was discovered recently in 1971 when the city was working on water pipes. There is an exact replica of the tomb inside the museum. We ducked down and entered the spacious domed tomb. Bless the lovely lady who did her best to tell us about the museum; broken English and all.

Silkworm jail!

 

seriously steep terrain of Gongsanseong Fortress


replica of King's Tomb, photo courtesy of the Internet

 Further inland we found Jeonju. Luck was with us, we found several hotels, looked at a few before committing to stay and found one with an enormous red Jacuzzi tub. It was a two towered hotel; one side was the Beast, one the Beauty. We stayed two nights in the Beauty side!



Bibimbap rice dish, some broth soup on the right.

Jeonju is famous for bibimbap (rice and veggie dish served in a sizzling hot pot with a raw egg on top. Because it is so hot, one stirs the egg and it cooks inside the rest of the ingredients). The city and area is renowned for the bibimbap because of the fresh vegetables which are grown and harvested in the surrounding fields. Interestingly enough, we didn’t find bibimbap but found fresh bean sprout soup, later we found out this is a common soup for Koreans, dubbed the hangover soup! On our way of out of town, we saw a busy restaurant, took a chance and stopped for lunch. The lady told us they served Korean fish. We are always a little concerned if it will be cooked or raw . . . we were hungry and took a chance. It was delicious; along with the multitude of side dishes we were served. I took a picture of menu to ask a Korean friend what we ate. EEEEEEGADDDS! It was fresh water eel that lived and swam in the rice fields!!!! Oh my!

First item on the agenda in English says and means "Fresh Water Eel Soup!"

 

Local older gentlemen enjoying a lively board game on a park bench
at Hanok Village. One probably arrived on the bike in the background!

.Cushions in place of chairs, low tables to write, eat and play games on. Sleeping mat in the background

Jeonju offers visitors a taste of rich history and has a famous traditional Korean Hanok Village. With over 800 Hanok houses this village cluster is a living breathing replica of times gone past, while incorporating and adapting to the 21^st Century. The Hanok roofs curve to the blue sky, and the newer tea houses, souvenir shops and restaurants welcome visitors.  


Intricate beautifully sculpted roof tops in Hanok Village

The Candy Men on a street in Hanok Village selling yummy chewy candy. When we bought the bag it was in bite size pieces. One night in our very warm hotel room and it melted into one big piece! Koreans sleep, eat and sit on the floor. As a result, the floors are soooooo hot, and it seems to be heating where the temp is controlled by others.



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We  visited the Jeonju National Museum before we left for Suncheon, a southern coastal city about 50 mins southeast.

We stayed two nights in Suncheon at the Hotel Venezia which overlooked several dormant farmer’s fields. Traveling in March isn’t quite late enough to enjoy all the signs of spring, however, misses the crowds of Koreans also enjoying their country. The first day in Suncheon we spent our time traveling back to Jeonju to retrieve our forgotten feather pillows and upon returning south, we visited the 2012 Expo City of Yeosu. Meandering on the little island of Odongdo which is connected by a walking causeway, we enjoyed being near the ocean again.

 

 

Leaving Suncheon was a character building experience! Getting on the Expressway 10, we discovered we were going East instead of West. Getting off is not easy; you have to wait for an interchange and the interchange does not allow a simple UTurn. Every time we got off at an interchange it seemed to add hours to our trip! We headed back to Suncheon to find the Expressway 10 West. Good news. The bad news became evident when this highway turned into Expressway 27! What happened we do not know! Off at the next interchanged helped us return once again to West Suncheon. With exasperation and desperation I pulled into a police station. Playing more charades and with pleading in my eyes, we were escorted by the police car to the Expressway 10 West. It was about a 20 minute drive confirming we were thoroughly lost! It appeared we could get off Hwy 10 onto highway 13 with ease and make our way to Wando the port city to catch the ferry to Jeju Island. Not so . . . . . . Looping back on a different highway we gratefully found highway 13. With another hour drive ahead of us, I was concerned we would miss the Friday ferry. The next ferry left on Monday! We made it in time; the ferry terminal was eye-popping in many ways. We discovered we had to park our car, go into a building to pay for our car; a whopping W164,000 (about $150.00 for a one way ticket and a hour and ½ ferry ride). Wait, that is not all; we then discovered we had to purchase walk on tickets another W34,000 each. When loading the car onto the ferry, Glenn had to get out and walk to the passenger terminal. He came back to the bowels of the boat to retrieve his passport. We went upstairs and were kicked off the ship. Back to the passenger terminal we went. We did not know what the procedure was and couldn’t find anyone with English to help us.

We waited inside with the crowd and were loaded by a ‘forklift’ walkway and were on our way.

Jeju Island is not a sleepy little island as the pamphlets portrait “Little Hawaii”. We got lost AGAIN, couldn’t find a hotel and spent another 3 hours looking. Tired and hungry we stopped to eat and I almost tackled two Caucasians; later I found out they were German and the Korean man with them helped us find a hotel. Actually, we paid a taxi driver to lead us to the hotel once we verified the name and location! It was a common occurrence on our Korean meanderings.

Two nights at the December Hotel (one I could remember and pronounce with ease) gave us an opportunity to explore the Island. An evening walk was delightful as we found 1^st street. Each city in Korea has a 1^st street, a street where folks wander to eat, shop, visit and sip coffees. 1^st street is blocked off to cars so the wanderings are safe and slow.

Jeju Island is famous for three things; women, wind and rocks. On our visit, the wind was bitter cold, clashing with the delicate cherry blossoms which tell us spring has arrived. The Jeju Island women are strong, hard working and well respected for their contributions to Island life. The lava rocks are everywhere, created from the long ago volcano and used in so many ways. Rock fences were prevalent and skillfully made.

Other attractions and adventures we enjoyed included the Jeju Art Museum and the  Jeju Island National Museum where we scored and ENGLISH map of Jeju Island! Best prize yet! The Haenyeo Museum where women still dive without diving gear to fish from the bottom of the Sea was amazing and respectful to the Korean women.

Woman in the purple top and her diving gear (black wet suit) on the side. Her 'kitchen' includes the pails around her. Men enjoying really fresh and raw abalone and soju. One man tried his best to get me to go and have shots of soju and fresh abalone. Maybe another day . . . .

Our second day on Jeju we found the Trick Art Museum which made us laugh a lot!

The World Cup Stadium was enormous and The Museum of Sex and Health was, hummm, shall we say revealing and although there was very little English, no translation was required! 

Glenn suggested this was a true form of the meaning of 'dickhead'. No other photos shall be displayed . . . .



 

 

 

 

We finished our day by wandering through the car museum viewing some antique and mint condition cars.

Our friends from Anyang joined us for two days. We stopped at Hallim Park to see the waves smashing against the lava rocks; always amazing and memorizing to watch the powerful ocean or sea.  Miniature World was next and we walked around some of the world's most recognized and famous buildings and wonders.



Cleo Kyung

After that we took a peaceful and warm walk through the Botanical gardens.  

Happy Hairy Man!

At the Sogipo Port we saw the breathtaking Cheonjeyeon waterfall and one last but freezing stop at Sangumburi Crater completed our day.

Mount Hallasan, the volcano mountain

We really appreciated the living and breathing 'Korean navigation system' with our friends being on board as well as eating the different foods they ordered for us! I ate more eel, yes, I must admit it was good, ate a piece of raw fish in a bibimbap dish and we had delicious famous Jeju Island fish called Eungarchee. Our final meal was Black Jeju Island Pork. This was of course served as a Korean BBQ, synonymous with YUMMY!

Beautiful Bomhee was our chef for the delicious Korean BBQ!

Our trek back to Anyang only involved two wrong turns; took us a total time of 12 hours including the disorganized loading of the ferry and ferry ride. The Korean countryside is very beautiful with many family burial sites on mountainsides. The burial sites are easy to identify; big mounds which rise above the ground, often in a perfect circle with cement at the foundation and vegetation planted around the site. We crossed many rivers and enjoyed the ‘mountains’ of Korea. The mountains are not like the Rockies or Coastal mountains, more like the foothills. Nevertheless, we took pleasure in roaming the Korean peninsula, even taking in additional sites due to our many wrong turns!