a coast full of wishes and a sky full of dreams: jeju one

"We Love Having You Here." Jeju's greeting, on banners and highway arches and posters, was such a great welcome, and such a mutual feeling. I LOVED being there. Loved it.  For almost a week during my Chuseok holiday (Korean "Thanksgiving" for honoring the ancestors), I spent my days in a fluid heaven, where ocean sky land all morphed around me, constantly shifting, continually amazing.  Blue green white black in every shade.  Thanks be filled me.  The colors of Jeju are lush in their vibrance and stark in their contrasts.  Lavarock, glorious in its black porous mystery, binds the scenery together, whether in stone-stacked wishes or in bulging-eyed grandfather statues.  The sea writhes against the coast and disappears into the sky and the sky leads you into the peaks of Mt. Halla, the green carrying you right back down to the sea.  The effect of it all sort of rolls you around in a sensory overload of wonder.  Pure blue green sea mist bliss.

The flight from Gimhae in Busan was unbelievably short.  We were already landing and the attendants were still handing out beverages.  Descent with the tangy taste of Jeju tangerines.  Sadly, my vacation was rather lacking in citrus, but to my surprise the price of the famous fruit was ridiculous (mainly because it had all been packaged up and sent off for Chuseok).  The island was bigger than the maps made it seem, and Jeju-si (city) greeted us, looking like a lazy version of most other Korean cities, but all made up in palm trees.  The sea, the sky, the clouds, the green...woah!!!  What a great backdrop for this city to cozy up to.  But we hopped right onto a bus and skipped the city, watched it fall away through the bus windows, replaced by vegetation both wild and neatly manicured and divided into lavarock-lined squares.  We coasted through a twisty ride that took us right into the misty robe keeping Hallasan from our view and made our way to Jungmun.  45 minutes by bus and we had reached the southern coast.

Our pension for the first half of our trip was in Jungmun, nestled back a bit from the resorts, surrounded by short thick orchards of early grapefruit I originally took for limes (so green!).  The next morning we dove into the trees guerrilla-style and liberated a fat, lumpy, ripe-looking grapefruit to be our companion, burden, and photo prop for the remainder of the day.  We never did eat it, but left it sitting on the table of our kitchen the day we left, so I guess we only took it for a bit of an adventure before returning it to its home.  I'd like to think our fruit enjoyed our mischief.

The first morning I woke early and walked into town hunting out a store, breakfast, something.  It was a bit of a hike, and I was rewarded with some amazing views of a river and waterfall, the sleepy town waking up, sun kissing all the Minbaks (guest houses) and seafood restaurants.  Hiking back, with heavy bags in the steamy morning sun was not quite as enjoyable, but I played the adjuma a bit, proudly bent over with my haul.

That day we found no luck renting our scooters, so instead wandered down to the coast by the resorts.  We found the coast, golf-course green lawns suspended on sheer cliffs over the sea, but not so high as to make the beaches inaccessible.  We found the "secret beach" mentioned in Lonely Planet, right underneath the Hyatt, and five minutes hike down the olle (walking trail) brought us into some prehistoric paradise.  The cliffs scooped around us, black stone walls tucking us into a little beach (white sand here)  left us feeling completely isolate --until some newlyweds wandered down for some sexy photography, and then some Koreans (high heels included) were headed in as we were hiking out.  Our not-so-secret secret beach was a fantastic start to the day, though.

We were enthralled by these crazy black and green spiders that were literally everywhere on the island.  The walk from that beach to the next had us stopping every few feet trying to take pictures of them, but the elusive buggers wouldn't let my camera work its magic.

The rest of our beach exploration took us up by the Hyatt and a short walk down the cliffs on the other side to a bigger beach of calico sand and a backdrop of a pre-pubescent jungle (sure was trying though).  Into the water (warm water!!!), we stripped down and rode the waves and I found myself bubbling up with the ancient volcanic charge of the island, or maybe just joy, but whatever it was, I felt phenomenal.
The sand peppered us in so many different colors, left us gritty and sparkling, as we walked through the trees with our grapefruit, feeling the hum of bugs and leaves and wind and wild that lapped the edges of the well-groomed resorts.  Then we crashed the Hyatt.  Showered off our grit, laid in their lounges, accepted the warmth of their full-sized towels and played rich divorcees.  Next time, we'll be sure to take our gold sandals and giant jewelry to play the part even better.

That night we played chicken with a storm that never seemed to come, but watched the wind play tricks with the land over a bottle of wine on our balcony.  The three of us marinated in the feel-goodery of our adventure, the wine warming us up enough to send out our own wishes, creating and stating our futures, locking into them the sure things (like ocean views and wild leaves and skies that never stand still) and inviting all the wonder and adventure of the unsure.  Magical, spiritual, cheap-wine drunk revelries...what greater way to give our thanks on our official Chuseok evening?

The next morning we were up early to good news--we had scooters!!!  This was my must for the trip, and the taxi dropped us off at a little shop where we picked up our rides and became road warriors bonafied.  I felt like Mad Max or Che on holiday.  It was AWESOME!

But after a brief lesson, helmet selection and decisions on direction, we were off.  We cruised along the coast, the whole time Jeju playing tricks on us with its beauty, trying to distract us enough to get us in a wreck.  But we prevailed!
We found a spring-fed tide pool by accident, and had a very cold dip (toes only for me) with a few children and nearby fisherman before getting back on our bikes and making our way to Cheonjiyeon Falls.

This waterfall is supposedly the only one to feed directly into the sea in all of Asia, but the way Korea claims all of its landmarks are the -est of something makes me wonder how accurate this fact is.  Either way, it was stunning.  A very short walk down some stone steps, led us to some great photo-ops, which Koreans love to take full advantage of.  There was also a group of them under a tarp picnicking--two other things Koreans love, avoiding the sun and communal dining outdoors.
We climbed down into the mist, right next to the roar, and let the force of that water talk to us.  These moments, when even together, we slip into silence and let the sights speak to each of us, are so powerful and restorative.  The whole vacation was like that.  Especially when I was on the scooters ^_^.

After the falls, we took off down the coast in search of a beach but let the look of a coming storm scare us back to our resort.  The storm never came, but we were rewarded with another beautiful waterfall when driving back, and Kate and I parted ways with Candice and made our way back to our calico beach for a bit more ocean bliss.  While we were there, we ran into pals from Busan, other EPIKers.  Chris joined us for swimming and lazing and big talks on the beach, and we shared our secret of the Hyatt service with him.  Then Kate and I hopped back on the scooters and headed inland.

We cruised up towards Hallasan.  Neither of us wanted to devote a whole day of our trip to climbing it, but seeing the view of the island was on my list.  Hallasan peeks over the whole island, a gradual cone that spikes into a long-dead volcano crater right in the center.  The highest peak in Korea.  Half the day you can see it from anywhere on the island, and the rest of the time, clouds hide it away.  Kate and I scooted our way up to the 1100meter high rest area.  The sun was shining, but dipping low, and for the first time I regretted my lack of pants.  We cut through the forest and curved through switch back and I was so proud of myself for my road skills.  We had it down.
We stopped at a giant white satellite that was shooting signals out into space, trying to communicate with whatever was out there.  No answer so far.  Keep trying Korea, it's almost the future.
The satellite was so impressive though, this giant white machine cutting through the forest, little black grandfather statues protecting it.  Such an odd juxtaposition of past and future over looking the entire island, clear out where the horizon blurred and earth and sky didn't seem to mean anything anymore.

We finally made it to the lookout point.  The island was beautiful from this high up.  Unlike mainland Korea that is full of low forested mountains, Jeju is mostly flat (or gradually slanting up towards Hallasan) and covered in low forested volcanic cones.  The effect is beautiful and alien and a constant reminder that we are in a place so unlike our home.

After enjoying the view and braving (Kate not me) the worst toilet in Korea, we made our way back down the mountain, back to the resort, shivering as the sun went down and the wind whipped us into tears.  Thrills to the max!  Our day ended over drinks and a delicious pizza at the local Western restaurant Gecko's.  We colored menu placemats and cheers Jungmun goodbye, preparing to head East in the morning.