Koh Samui

Directly following our flight back from Chiang Mai, we spent the day in Bangkok and then took the night bus down to Surat Thani and then a ferry across to the island of Samui. 

We arrived at the ferry port in the early morning after an uneventful ride south. The night bus ride wasn't too terrible.... No, the terrible part was the ferry over to Koh Samui. We sat outside on the upper deck, mouths firmly pressed closed, hands balled up and white knuckled, eyes fixed on the horizon. Our mantra became, "I will not puke. I will not puke. I will not puke..." As the boat sped through tossing waves. 

A group of attractive Australians stood talking and laughing at the railing, like an ad in a travel magazine. I watched one model-esque tanned male flip his hair back in the breeze, as I continued to stare fixedly at the horizon, trying my best to ignore the retching sounds of the Chinese man sitting behind me. 

Finally, we arrived at the island, white faced and grateful to be on solid land. We took a cab to our hostel and sprawled into our beds, exhausted but ready to hit the beach. 

A good summary of our time on Koh Samui is as follows: We ate a lot, we swam a bit, we did nothing.

Unfortunately the weather was constantly overcast, but it didn't stop us from laying out on the beach all day, trying to catch some rays.

Chilling at a cafe in Bangkok

Jeoji Oreum and Beach Day with the House

Today the whole of Jeoji House took a trip to our namesake oreum and the Hyeopjae Beach. Once again the weather was wonderful -- clear and sunny, without a cloud in the sky. There was a slight cool breeze playing around us when we reached the top of the oreum for lunch and a rest.

The beach was also very nice, albeit windier. I went swimming in my clothes since I managed not to bring a bathing suit, but a lot of the students ended up doing the same. We had a recklessly fun time just running around through the water and sand. I felt so free, being off campus. It was nice to bond with some of the girls in the house outside of a boarding/ academic context.

To see more, go to our house blog.

Hwasun Beach and Sanbangsan Temple (화순금모래해변 & 산방산)

This past Thursday was a prime example of things not always going exactly how you think they're going to go, but still working out for the best. We went to Hwasun beach thinking that we'd kayak, but quickly learned that the weather was too windy and the water too rough to paddle out on the sea. Instead Anna suggested we take a walk along the closest Olle trail, and so we found ourselves trudging along the beach, scrambling over rocks, climbing countless stairs, and pulling ourselves up a steep gradient using a rope.

Once we reached the start of what looked like an actual trail through the woods, we encountered a Korean man and his family. In English the man told us, "You can't go that way. There's a big spider on the path." And we stood there thinking, this must be one massive spider to turn away a big Korean guy and his family. Although I was wary, Anna was undeterred. The two of us scouted a little father into the brush, leaving Oli and Reesha behind. We quickly came across the spider, which was brightly colored and hanging out on a web crossing the footpath, so Anna took a stick and moved the spider out of the way. No big deal. 

I've noticed that many of the Korean people I meet while hiking Ole trails are incredibly well outfitted with all the right brightly colored hiking gear, but when it comes to getting their hands dirty they're fairly inexperienced with the outdoors. 

Anna and I reached a viewing platform at the top of the cliff, but since Reesha and Oli didn't follow us, we had to turn around and go back the way we came, making a detour around the cliff, we reconnected with the olle trail on the other side and continued our hike through a rolling field and then along the coastline.

From our perch on another seaside cliff, we looked out and saw gorgeous hidden beaches lining the coastline.

Some of the cove beaches were closed to the public, but we found one that we could walk onto. Nobody kicked us off at any rate... We sunbathed and swam for a couple hours. The sea was so warm and the rocks on either side of us kept away the worst of the wind and waves. 

We moved on, walking along the beach, continuing towards distant Sanbangsan. The beach was riddled with interesting rock formations and caves. The rocks looked almost like plastic, the were so odd. It was like lava flow trapped in time. 

Apparently at some point we had separated from the olle trail, which was above us, and we were below on the beach. We could see stairs leading up to a viewing platform, but had to get up to them somehow. I know it's terrible, but we ended up scrambling up a giant sand dune in order to reconnect to the trail. After our haphazard ascent, we reached a viewing platform where we could look out on the beach we had just crossed, and we could even see our original starting point, Hwasun Beach (next to the industrial park in the photo below).

 

The olle trail eventually led us to the base of Sanbangsan, which is a huge, very steep oreum that is visible even from my room at NLCS Jeju. Since the sides are so steep, it's impossible to climb to the top of this oreum without ropes and equipment, but there is a Buddhist temple set into the south side with stairs leading someways up the mountain and ending in a grotto.

As soon as we stepped foot onto the temple grounds, we were suddenly assaulted by a group of Korean men, who were keen to show us around. One in particular was especially enthusiastic, waving his arms around pointing at things and speaking to us very loudly in Korean. We were a bit annoyed by this and managed to escape his attention eventually. We climbed up many stairs...

And more stairs...

Forever stairs...

Beautiful photo by Row of the inside of the temple

...Until we reached the very top of the temple, which was basically a big Buddah set into a cave in the side of the mountain. In fact, I learned recently that Sanbangsan means Mountain Room Mountain, named for the grotto room called Sanbanggul.

At the top, we came across the Very Enthusiastic Korean Man once more, and he convinced Oli to go up to the Buddah and pray. It was a hot day, so we took a rest on the benches near the grotto and were approached by yet another Korean man with a ponytail. So excited to see foreigners, he immediately dialed up his wife, a Korean teacher, and handed his cellphone over to me. I chatted with his wife on the phone for several minutes, and she told me about her husband being in Jeju on vacation while she was back at their home on the mainland.

On our way back down the mountain we quickly made our way past Enthusiastic Korean Man, and encountered a new person: Short Korean Man, who was so impressed by Anna's height that he struck up a mainly Korean conversation with her. The two of them took a picture together and we moved on.

At the ticket booth at the base of the mountain we ran into the other half of our group, who had left later in the day after having a lie-in. They had just arrived by taxi and hadn't yet seen the temple, so we made plans to meet up again in an hour, and we went for a quick lunch as the other group climbed the many stairs.

Then, WHO DID WE SEE AT LUNCH???? Why it was Very Enthusiastic Korean Man and his friends. As soon as we walked into the restaurant they called out to us loudly in old man Korean, with a lot of deep loud voices and saliva flying everywhere. They had already had a bit to drink. By this point we accepted that this was our fate -- too many chance encounters to call it anything else -- and sat down at the table next to them.

They poured us drinks and we toasted many times and ate seafood pajeon (Korean chive pancakes). Just as they were about to leave, Ponytail Korean man saw us at the restaurant and came in. He told the other men about our previous encounter up on mountain near the temple, and explained to them about me chatting to his wife on the cellphone. Of course then we had to toast to THAT too. But we were all laughing and having a good time, even though I speak 10 words of Korean and they spoke even less English.

After lunch we met up with the other half of our group, who had finished their hike up to the temple. We walked along the beach, and sat briefly to appreciate the view of Sanbangsan from afar:

After a beer at the cafe, You and I, we called it a day and headed back to NLCS, recounting our unexpected encounters and discoveries along the way. 

[Some photos courtesy of Row, Anna, and Reesha]

Camping on Udo - Day 2

Below is a picture as the sun was rising on Thursday morning, the morning of Chuseok. All through the previous night, the wind blew constantly, making the tent flap around, making sleep impossible. Many of us were up at around 3 or 4am, since it was quieter outside and the temperature was surprisingly mild. 

We had a lazy morning before hitting up the ATV/ scooter rental shops to rent some transport to see the island. Took us a few tries to find a place that would rent to us without international licenses, but finally we came across a place that set us up with a couple ATVs and scooters.

We used our two hours to see a lot of what must've been the southern part of the island. We stopped off at a small tourist town and went down countless steps onto a black sand beach. There were a lot of people around, so we just followed the crowd of people heading into a cave on the beach called called Dongangyoeng 동안경굴 cave. The footing was rocky and hard to navigate, but we made our way up a small pile of rocks, through the cave wall, and into the huge black cavern.

Next we rode across a bridge and parked near a pier with a lighthouse. Brad's up there in the picture. Pretty sure climbing the lighthouse is not allowed. Once he came down the ladder, though, all of the other Korean tourists swarmed around the base and tried their hand at climbing up...

We returned our ATVs and scooters and spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and swimming. There were TONS of tourists around for Chuseok, and it was a little overwhelming. We would go into the water to swim and when we came out onto the beach there would be a load of tourists exiting a bus and standing there taking pictures of the beach (and therefore, us).

That night we played cards and were joined around the our fire by Sean, a Canadian man who teaches English near Pusan. He was camping around with his dog, Alley, for the Chuseok holiday. Some other people wandered over to our fire as well. We met a Korean couple and their two daughters, who instantly bonded with Jen after she gave them OJ and dried pineapple. Another visitor included a pregnant woman and her slightly intoxicated husband, who were both really nice.

That night we shared our campsite with at least three sets of other campers, but despite the noise, the smells from their cookstoves, and the full moon illuminating the landscape, the wind had died down, and weighed down by exhaustion I fell onto my sleeping bag and had a much appreciated full night's rest.

Camping on Udo - Day 1

Happy Chuseok! Aka Korean Thanksgiving. All of the students have left campus and that leaves gap assistants and staff members to get up to whatever we think is fun. Nine of us from the gap program chose to go camping for two nights on Udo Island, and so we left on Wednesday, early afternoon, and took the 3 hour long bus trip from the education city to Seongsan Harbor and then the fifteen minute ferry ride to Udo.

Once we got there, we walked for about 15 minutes along the shoreline road until we came to Hongjodangoe 홍조단괴해변, a coral sand beach, where we were able to set down our gear and set up the tents we borrowed from the school. We were so lucky - our campsite was situated right on the beach next to a small town with a CU store and cafe, along with other conveniences. The biggest and best surprise was that there was a bathroom with working toilets right across the road from where we camped. Such a lifesaver.

It took a while to get situated and set up camp, but once everything was pretty much set up, I took a dip in the ocean and we watched the sun set over the sea.

It was then that I realized we were in paradise and we are some of the luckiest people around. Even though I wasn't too hungry, I decided to go along with some of the group to eat BBQ, and I'm so happy I did. We walked along the road for a bit until we came across what looked like some guy's deck with picnic tables and grills set up. There were people eating grilled meat and fish and drinking bottles of wine and soju.

I think it must've been some kind of illegitimate restaurant off of this guy's deck. Anyway, he grilled us up some of the best pork I've ever eaten and we ran down to CU to get some beers and stuffed our faces for the next hour. Then, the guy pulled out a saxophone and started serenading the whole group with old school easy listening that sounded a bit like the Korean version of Enka.

 

That night we built a fire on the beach and gathered around for hours, just chatting. It was so nice to feel like we were finally in Korea, and it felt so good to get away from everything at the school, if only for two days.

Chuseok 추석 Holiday

At 3:30pm I officially start a 5-day long break for Chuseok (Korean version of Thanksgiving) and look at this weather!

Some of the other gap assistants and I have decided to go camping on Udo Island from Wednesday (tomorrow) until Friday. We've borrowed tents and gear from the school and we'll be camping on the beach (which is free to do on Jeju Island). Can't wait :D

On Saturday we're probably going to hike up Mt. Halla, the tallest peak in South Korea, which also happens to be a dormant volcano. I've heard it takes all day to hike up, but the climb is worth it, and from the top of some trails are incredible views.

At the school it poured all through the morning and I was feeling pretty pessimistic when I met up with the group to go on our morning hike. As we walked out to the bus it was a torrential down pour and I figured I'd be soaked through within the first 2 minutes of hiking.

Driving south, the rain increased in intensity, but the bus driver still hurtled the bus forward through the deluge. Jeju drivers are crazy.

Then suddenly, nothing. No rain, dry roads, sun peeking through the clouds. I guess this is what island weather is well known for. We left behind the wall of rain and spent the rest of the morning sweating in the glaring sun and trudging through humid, thick air.

The view from the olle trail we walked today was gorgeous. We were right up on the coast, and the whole walking path was a raised wooden platform with good footing. The downside was that there were many tourists on this part of the olle trail.

Nearing the end of our walk, we went down some stairs and onto a boulder beach with tide pools and sand lice scurrying around. The kids clambered over the rocks for about half an hour and the sun continued to get hotter and hotter as it approached noon, so we made our way back up the stairs and to the bus. The way back to campus was uneventful, but I knew we were nearing the school when we reentered what I'm calling the "bad weather bubble," because we hit the wall of rain and from thereon it continued to pour the whole way back.

Rain cloud overtaking campus early this morning

The OCEAN !

For the past week I've been dying to see the ocean, but things just haven't worked out. Since I had the afternoon off, I borrowed a bike from school and set out to find the coast. It's not too hard to find a place to view the ocean, just head straight in any direction.

I cycled west and then south down Rt 1020, past farmland and a couple of oreums. The open field here are very pretty, but the buildings are mostly run down and small. All the land here is encircled by low  walls made from volcanic rock, and it reminds me of the old stone walls you can sometimes find running through the forests in New England. Here the walls are continuously maintained and to me appear to be precariously balanced with spaces in between the rocks. I've heard it said that the reason the rock walls have holes is to let the constantly blowing wind through, especially important during typhoon season (the current season).

Another interesting thing I've noticed is that all of the farms have a very distinctive smell. It's unfamiliar and a bit unpleasant. I haven't figured out what it could be, maybe fertilizer? Many of the farms here grow oranges, but all of the fruit is green at the moment.

Anyway, I knew I was getting closer to the ocean when I approached one of the distinctive oreums I can see from my room. I circled around the oreum, went down another stretch of road, and came to a town. I wove through a narrow street of small houses and came to a very small seaside park. There was only enough space for a couple of benches and exercise equipment. In the distance was a sort of a jetty sticking out into the ocean, and piled right beyond the massive concrete platform were giant concrete things that kind of look like jacks. I have no idea what they're called.