Thursday, May 30, 2013

Jeju Island: Part 1

Jeju Island (제주도’Jeju-do’) is considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, and it is indeed a beautiful island.  I recently visited and was able to spend 4 days and 3 nights on this island. I’ll be dividing this trip into 5 different posts

To get to Jeju Island, you have two options:

1)      Take a plane. Many planes for Jeju depart from Seoul and Busan. From Busan, it is about an hour-2 hour flight. From Seoul, it’s about a 2 hour flight. Ticket prices, if booked early, cost about 70,000 won or roughly $70. If booked later, it will cost about 150,000 won or more of you depart from Busan.

2)      Take a ferry. There are four main ferries: the the popular ones departs from Busan and takes about 12 hours overnight to reach Jeju whereas the other departs from Incheon and about 13-14 hours to arrive. Other ferries depart from Mokpo, taking around 3-4 hours, and from Wando, taking about 3 hours. From Busan, the ticket price is about 48,000 won or roughly $48. If you're bringing a car, that's ok. Most ferries take cars (though there is obviously a fee for that), except for ferry from Wando. Make sure to call the ferry provider before you bring your car.

To get around Jeju, you have three options:

1)      Take a bus.  This can be difficult. You have transfer buses and it can make getting to certain parts of the island difficult.  Fare is 1,100 won. Have a T-money card or Cash Bee card so that you don’t have to pay extra when you transfer to another bus. On the other hand, many consider this the cheaper option of getting around Jeju. However, you will be sacrificing convenience for cost. 

2)      Take a taxi. This is an expensive option, but it helps you get to parts of the island that buses don’t go. Starting fare is 2,200 won.

3)      Rent a car. This is what my friend and I did, and I feel it is the best option. You can get around the island with ease and don’t have to worry about things such as last bus. It also makes it easy to see the entire island. Since my friend is Korean, all he needed was his Korean driver’s license. Foreigners can rent cars, but they have to have their international/Korean driver’s license. For the entire four days, renting the car was 60,000 won , plus gas (which was about 50,000 won per fill-up).

My friend and I decided to take the ferry from Busan, because 1) we’re cheap and 2) we had never experienced it before. The ferry departed on Saturday at 7 PM. The ferry can be accessed by the Busan subway line; it’s at Jungang Station.

The ferry itself is similar to a jjimjilbang in that you sleep on the floor in a communal room. However, you can upgrade your room to a private for the extra cost of about 20,000 won. In the communal rooms, you are given a blanket and a black rectangle to use as a pillow. These blankets are not washed regularly so they feel kind of icky, but, the ferry is pretty hot so my friend and I actually just used them as padding rather than as an actual blanket.

The biggest drawback to the ferry was that on the day we departed to Jeju, it rained, so the ocean was super rough. The rain made the night very uncomfortable, despite having an almost empty communal room. Because of the discomfort, on the ferry back to Busan, my friend and I made the decision to get drunk so that we could sleep easier. The sea wasn't that rough on the way back, but the room was over capacity on the way back, so the alcohol did help us, giving us a very comfortable night of sleep.

**It’s important to note that the ferry does not have a shower (at least in the communal rooms), so I HIGHLY recommend that you bring wet/baby wipes so that you can feel slightly clean. My friend and I didn’t do this and felt absolutely disgusting on the first day of our trip.**
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