Jeju-tour

Day 1: 9.81 Park, Hyeopjae Beach, and Aewol

9.81 park

A well-equipped amusement park.

Karting

We started with gravity-powered karts. Taking every corner without braking made the lateral acceleration very noticeable—and very satisfying.

Unfortunately, I had bought only four laps. It took three laps on track two to earn the master license, so I never had a chance to try the X track. The left lane on track two was slower than the right.

Laser Tag

Bullying the elderly.

Hyeopjae Beach

The water was brilliantly blue and clear. The water was a little cold in April, but still tolerable in shorts. The sea breeze felt wonderful. We had delicious grilled meat for lunch.

Aewol

After taking a bus from the previous stop, we walked half an hour to Aewol. The beach was not as good as Hyeopjae, but the many nearby cafés made excellent photo spots. We had steak for dinner, served with wonderful flavor in a cast-iron pan. Unfortunately, clouds rolled in that evening and hid the sunset.

Day 2: Wind 1947, Olle Market, and the Columnar Joints

1947

On the way, we stopped to see the cherry blossoms at Jeju National University.

This time the karts were diesel-powered. I kept the throttle down throughout the course; acceleration pushed me back into the seat and the lateral force in corners was obvious. Great fun, although the kart vibrated and my helmet kept trying to fly off.

Olle Market

We entered the market and immediately bought a basket of mandarins: thin-skinned, juicy, and delicious. We also tried grilled-meat sushi, baked buns, dekopon juice, and mandarin rice cakes. Everything was tasty.

Columnar Joints

Hexagonal columns formed as volcanic lava cooled. The weather was poor, but the photographs still looked spectacular.

Dinner was delicious barbecue beside the hotel. On the way back we picked up fried chicken and rice cakes, which were exceptionally juicy.

Day 3: Seongsan Ilchulbong and Udo

Seongsan Ilchulbong

A coastal peak that is not very high; ten or twenty minutes of climbing reaches the summit. It overlooks part of Jeju and the sea, with beautiful views.

Udo

We followed a small road and took a ferry to Udo, an exceptionally relaxing island. After renting electric-assist bicycles, we rode counterclockwise around the island. The scenery was peaceful and there were many excellent places for photographs.

For lunch we found a peanut-burger restaurant, apparently beside a seafood-rice shop. The pork was grilled perfectly and the beef was juicy.

On a small island beside Udo we tried delicious peanut ice cream. An elderly woman made it from scratch. The crushed peanuts were fragrant, while the ice cream was refreshing and mildly flavored, pairing nicely with the sweet peanuts. A slightly richer ice-cream flavor would have made it even better.

Wang captured the sunset along the way.

For dinner we found a potato-and-pork-backbone stew restaurant, a branch of Minsok Gamjatang. We seemed to have chosen well: every other diner was Korean, and an enthusiastic ethnic-Korean auntie from Heilongjiang even taught us how to eat it.

day4

snoopy garden

A beautiful garden with finely detailed landscaping based on scenes and stories from Snoopy, plus many dog-friendly paths.

Unfortunately, the themed restaurant had a one-hour wait, so we skipped it and ate a fragrant red-bean pastry at the entrance instead.

Woljeongri

Lunch was at a restaurant specializing in pork cutlets. The cutlet was juicy, but the earlier pastry had filled me up and I could not finish it. Woljeongri Beach was also lovely. The swimmable area was narrower than at Hyeopjae, but there were cafés nearby.

Before leaving, we ate some delicious fried chicken bites.

Afterword

Thanks to Brother Wang for leading the trip and Max Lin for the photography!