Our Self-Drive Journey in Jeju Island (Day1-1)

Considering the nation largest island, Jejudo Island is located over at the southwest of the Korean Peninsula, an hour domestic flight ride from Gimpo Airport.

Jejudo Island (제주도) is a volcanic island in the shape of an oval that measures 73km from west to east, and 31km from north to south. As Korea’s most southern region, the weather on Jejudo Island remains significantly warmer than the mainland even during the cold winter months. (cr: KTO)

Do You Know:

Jeju Island is also known as “Samdado Island”(삼다도). Sam(삼) means 3, while Dado(다도) means most/many. It means on Jeju Island, the 3 things that you’ll see /experience the most are Rocks, Wind and Women.
Wind from the ocean blows steadily throughout the year and past volcanic activity has littered the island with an assortment of beautiful and unusually shaped black rocks. The island’s reputation of having an abundance of women points back to the time when fishing was the primary means of income and many men were lost at sea.

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Upon arriving over at Jeju International Airport, we were warmly greeted by the Jeju Tourism Organization Team.
Thank you for the warm hospitality and all the informative info(s) regarding Jeju Island! (:

**TAKE NOTE**

For those who’re renting car over in Jeju, you’ll need to head over to those counter booths located along the walkway once you stepped out of the immigration gate after collecting your luggage.
There’re quite a couple of them over at the airport and I believe most of them understands simple English. Do head over to the respective counters with your booking details and they will direct you to the shuttle bus, where it will ferry you to the car rental company.(about 5mins ride away from the airport)

As for Calvin and me, we had made a reservation with Jeju Rent-A-Car. (Currently, the site is only available in KR; but there are staffs who understands English over here. You can drop them an email over at JJRENT15883301@gmail.com.)

Small office over at Jeju-Rent A Car

A sample of the car rental rates. Do check it out on their website HERE.

Friendly staff helping me out on my reservation.

Worried about getting lost? There’s GPS(in both Korean & English for now..Japanese will be available in the future!) to guide you along the way~

ㅋㅋㅋ..
Go Addy! Both Calvin and I were her first passengers for her virgin drive in Jeju. =P

Along the way…

Calvin giving an expression of… worried or happy?

If you had downloaded the itinerary that I had provided over HERE, you would have realized that we’re travelling in a anti-clockwise direction starting from the West.

Do You Know About Jeju Olle Trail?

In the local Jeju dialect “Olle” was originally used to refer to the narrow path between the street and one’s doorstep. Hence ‘Olle’ is an only path that is come out from a privately secret room to an open space and a first place to meet the world. If the road is connected, it is linked to the whole island and the world as well. It is the same sound “Would You Come’ in Korean language, so making Jeju Olle sounds the same as “Would You Come To Jeju?” (cr: Jeju Olle & KTO)

At the same time, “Jeju Olle Walking Trail Festival” is an event which will be held yearly, roughly near to the Autumn season. The festival usually last about 4days(each day with a different route to complete); while you can also try walking the full 16routes within a week and get 16different stamps on your Jeju Olle Passport. ^^

Our first Pit-Stop:

Jeju Olle Trail Route no. 16 (Geumsan Park)

Geumsan Park is consider one of the smaller Tracking path where the locals love to pay a visit whenever they are free. We learnt from a local that Geumsan Park is a place where one could find peace within the park.(I have no idea why but it reminds me of Kungfu Panda.ㅋㅋ)

Olle Trial Ribbon Markings

These Blue and Orange ribbons are signs or marking where you could check it one is on the right track while trackking.
Blue ribbon – Trail no. walking in Ascending number
Orange ribbon – Trail no. walking an Descending manner

Next up, we drove over to Gueom Port which is a short distance away from the Park.
*Read more of the description from Calvin‘s post. :P*

Getting our stamp! Yahooo~ Route 15 completed! ^^

Yeah! That’s me on the wheels. =D

Pit-Stop 2: Hyeopjae Beach

Hyeopjae Beach is a popular beach among both the locals and tourists. Those beautiful white sand comes from the large amount of crushed seashells which have been mixed in within the sand. The long seashore stretches for 9 km and has cobalt colored seawater and evergreen forests scattered around the vicinity, making the scenery very beautiful. The little island behind it is “Biyangdo Island“.

Feels like jumping into the sea and have a swim in those clear blue water!! *sighz*

Spotted a cute restaurant name ‘Big Burger’ and we decided to give it a try.

Cute cozy little restaurant and is managed by a local family.

And they sell some local Jeju souvenirs too~

When our food arrives, we were totally ‘WOW‘ by the size of it.

So huge right!
So this restaurant really sells BIG Burger. LOLS!

*nom Nomm Nommm*

I’m ending this entry off with food again *hahaha..evil me*
But I promised ext entry up will be something interesting and NOT ending it with food again alright!

Stay tunned to (D1-2) entry! ~ 😀

[Photos with watermark are taken with Casio Exilim ZR700]
[Photos w/o mark credits back to Calvin, Addy, KTO SG & JTO(Jeju Tourism Organization)]

xoxo,
yyann