Scaredy Cat Travels

Busan & Jeju Island

ONE DAY TO GO! And American Airlines is hounding me about switching flights tomorrow because they are overbooked.

Before I launch into our plans on Jeju Island, I want to note and sort of apologize to everyone that knows me, I recognize that I have been acting like I am the only person ever to go to Japan and Korea and that it is the most interesting thing to happen to anyone ever in the history of the planet. Mian.

Transportation: taxis & planes & a rental car

Hotel: An Airbnb Pension

Plans: If we have the energy in the morning, the plan is to explore the Songdo Beach area even if we aren’t staying at the Fairfield Inn.

Songdo Beach is quieter than some of its counterparts. The Cloud Trails (a marketing person name for some fancy bridges) extend out into the water while cable cars overhead lead up to even more lovely seaside trails.

Also nearby is the Gamcheon Culture Village, an artsy area that started out as a shanty town in the 1920s, built by the Busan government to house low income workers – close enough to town to get to work but far enough out to not “bother” the residents. During the Korean War, the area housed thousands of refugees fleeing the encroaching North Korean military. When developers wanted to tear down the small buildings to make space for more high-rises, the locals took out their paint brushes and turned the area into rainbow. Now the village is home to artists, murals and what looks like a million photo-op coffee shops.

All of these potential activities look amazing, really. But I know at some point, probably more than once on a trip this long, we’ll abandon all plans, hole up in the hotel and watch k-dramas or play video games all day. Sometimes I just don’t have the bandwidth to navigate strange metro systems or try to remember the Korean word for restroom. Sometimes you just need a recharge day. I really hope it’s not in Busan though.

There’s one more place that Jackson and I want to visit before we leave and that’s Magnate, a cafe owned by the father of BTS’ Jimin. We’ll go, pretend to like coffee and hope that Jimin has a sudden urge to wait tables that day.

I know that we’ll never fit all of this in before our flight to Jeju Island later that afternoon. We have some difficult choices ahead of us.

Semi-Spoiler Alert – In the great Busan hotel mystery, odds are leaning toward the Fairfield. I managed to spend too much money and get enough Marriott points to completely cover one of the rooms now which makes the total cost difference even more significant. Jeju Island’s souvenir game looks strong, so I’ll need my pennies to purchase lots of Halabeoji merch. I still have time before I need to cancel the Hyatt, so I’ll wait a little longer just in case I win the lottery.

Now who wants to start taking bets on whether or not I’ll remember to cancel in time?

Halabeoji or Dolhareubang, if you’re wondering, are mysterious stone guardians found all over Jeju Island. Dolhareubang translates to “stone grandfather” in Jeju dialect (Halabeoji is modern Korean for grandfather). The stone relicts were placed outside of gates to ward off demons, but were also known to aid in general protection and fertility.

I read an article (or part of one before I got bored) all about the commodification of the grandfathers and how it was robbing the grandfathers of their true symbolism and the island of its heritage. While that may be true, I am so going to look for some Halabeoji merch. It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.

Side Rant – When you start to learn Korean, ALL the lessons tell you that romanization of the language is terrible and does not accurately represent what the words sound like. I can vouch for that now. For instance, halabeoji should be pronounced something like “ha-lah-bo-jee”. I don’t think that is conveyed by the official romanization so these “halabeoji” and “mian” references are killing me. I actually have a very hard time reading romanization and identifying the words they represent. Side rant over.

Fun Fact – Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) is similar in format to the English alphabet and is super easy to learn.

The flight to Jeju Island is a quick one hour hop. For the first time on the trip, I’ve rented a car (other than LA which doesn’t count). There are public buses that traverse the island, but they’re slow and our Airbnb pension is not in the central, more touristy part of Jeju. Nope, had to be extra.

To drive a car in Korea, you need an international drivers permit which you can get from AAA and costs $20. You have to be 21, so I got one for me and one for Jackson, so I can have a beer with lunch. It made me wonder if I was supposed to have one when I drove in France. Be sure to call AAA and make sure they have them in stock before you drive all the way across town in traffic. Not that that would ever happen in real life but just in case.

I had a moment today where I thought this pic just looks like a nicer version of where I live now.

By the time we land, get the car, get lost and finally find our Airbnb, it will be getting late. For this evening, I really just hope to visit a convenience store to get some snacks and beer and settle in at our place.

Fun Fact – Jeju Island was created by eruptions of Mount Halla (or Hallasan – “sahn” is mountain in Korean), the volcano at the center of the island. Mt Halla is the tallest mountain in Korean at 6400 feet (no smirking from Colorado) and now thankfully dormant, so I only need to have tsunami nightmares.

If Jeju Island is as aesthetic as it seems, Jackson and I will be in heaven. All the rentals and restaurants we’ve looked up are perfectly decorated for an Instagram shot. And if they aren’t, they have that original rustic island vibe which is accidentally Insta-worthy – even better. Not that I even use Instagram or the Facebook, but we just like things that look cute.

With that in mind, if we do wander out it may be to this adorable Italian restaurant not far from the pension. (If everything in k-dramas is true, and don’t tell me if it’s not, pasta is very popular in Korea – especially as a date night.)

Scaredy Cat rating: Three paws. There’s a lot for me to screw up here.

I am nervous in particular about the Korean address system. It is very different from the US. They modified it a few years ago to make it more internationally friendly but it still confuses me. So much so that I can’t describe it. Maybe there’s a YouTube video about that. Jeju Island is pretty small by Texas standards so at least we can’t get lost forever. If we can find the road by the ocean, no matter which direction we drive in, we’ll find our pension eventually.

Fun Fact – To enter a location in GPS on Jeju, you use the phone number and not the physical address.

Not So Fun Fact – Google Maps does not work in South Korea.

The $$$ – The cable cars in Busan are $12-$15 per person if you book them through Klook. $12 is for a normal car. $15 is for a “crystal” car with a glass floor. Flights for the three of us in economy from Busan to Jeju = $245 total. Rental car = $240. Two international drivers permits = $40. The pension is $299 per night. There were cheaper options but it’s me.

Fun Fact – I may be afraid of everything but there is no way on God’s green Earth that Ryan Anthony would have gotten in that crystal cable car. I spent many a day in a regular cable car in Vail with Ryan on the floor with his head down. I’m pretty confident Tony DiLorenzo has some similar stories from when they were roommates in Salt Lake City.

Hotel #9 Extended

Our first “not a hotel”. I was too nervous to try renting an Airbnb or pension in Japan without knowing the language, but I’m hoping I can muddle through in Korea.

There were so many affordable, cute options on Airbnb (and none on VRBO if you’re looking) – especially if you were just looking for two people. I waffled between little homes with walls made from the black rocks from ancient eruptions to a completely modern, all black and silver house with an enormous Darth Vader painting on the back porch. But I ended up booking a cute apartment in a small resort area right by the sea. Let the nightmares commence!

The apartment has just two beds and one bath but we can make that work for a couple of nights, especially in exchange for a great view. It also has some nice common outdoor spaces – one with a plunge pool

I considered staying in Jeju City or in Seogwipo, the two most populated areas of the island but the smaller communities like Aewol and Gujwa appealed to me more in the end.

The Vader house

Jeju house with black stone