The Road to 40 Day 332/365: Jeju Experience

We flew out to Jeju Island on this day, our first time to visit this place despite having been to Korea several times already.

Initially, we planned on just going here and exploring it for this whole trip, but we thought why not just go to Seoul again since we’re heading here already?

Our flight was at 1pm, so I had a bit of time to burn some of the fat I gained the night before with a quick run and weight training at the gym.

We still had time to grab some breakfast at the hotel before leaving, as it would be our brunch already.

We headed off to Gimpo Domestic Airport, which was again, a first for us. While there was no fuss heading in, our plane was delayed for about 40 minutes, so we had to wait more than we expected.

The flight was nice and quick, about 1 hour from Seoul. There was a bit of a queue before clearing the airport, but it was a manageable wait.

We decided to rent a car for this trip. They said it was the ideal way to get around the island. They have a good system for car rentals, as we just had to take a shuttle to the rental place. There, they checked my credentials and they directed us to where the car was parked.

Vino had a nice smile upon seeing the car. We didn’t get to take a photo of him getting all giddy before we put our bags in.

It was a good idea for us to leave bags in Seoul, because we wouldn’t have been able to fit our bags in otherwise. Hyundai Venue is quite a small SUV, and we didn’t have much room in the trunk.

The drive was really fun. It was my first time driving in a different country, save for that short drive my brother let me do back in Melbourne. The one thing I didn’t quite appreciate was the speed limits that I had to mind. Highways went up to 70 or 80kph, side streets are only up to 50, and school zones were only up to 30.

Theoretically, I could go faster than those, but since we’re in a foreign country in a rented car, we’re just choosing to follow the rules as much as we can.

There were sakura blossoms on the way, which was cool. However, at some point during the drive, it started to rain and there was a lot of fog on the road. Cars were putting on their hazard lights, and Che insisted that we should do it to. Initially, I refused, because it’s a bad driving habit to do so if you’re not stopping. However, the fog was really thick, and it was practically zero visibility beyond 10m of my windshield.

I was driving a car I’m not too familiar with, so I didn’t know how big our tail light was, and if turning on my dim lights would be enough for the cars behind to notice us. And so, the hazard lights went on.

We realized we haven’t really had lunch yet, so we decided to just get drive-thru food at McDonald’s. Sure, it’s not an ideal choice when in a new place, but Che and Vino were really hungry at this point.

Our place was about an hour away from the airport, and McDonald’s was about 10 minutes away. When we got to our place, we realized there were a number of interesting places around us.

It was already 6pm when we arrived, so we ate first. I volunteered to walk outside to get us water from the convenience store.

It’s a pretty quiet neighborhood, and while it was really dark, I could see that this was going to be a beautiful view in the morning.

I got to the convenience store to get water, but I took the chance to buy some soju and a Jeju tangerine-flavored makgeolli. As Che and I were drinking, we felt like our snacks just weren’t as nice to pair with the alcohol.

I went on another convenience store run to get some ramen, a Culinary Class Wars-themed soup, adn some chocolates.

We capped off the night with our drinks and our K-Drama. There was a proper bed on the second floor of the loft we’re renting, but we decided to just sleep on the floor with a matress so that we could have the TV with us.

It’s going to be our first day exploring Jeju tomorrow!

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