Jeju Island

I like to think that I’m fairly cultured, fairly educated, and mildly well travelled. The truth is none of that extended to the continent of Asia — or rather, it didn’t, until a few weeks ago.

I recently travelled to South Korea for a two-week run of the country. It wasn’t comprehensive by any means and one area that stood out was Jeju Island. I spent 3 nights on that island and find myself wishing it had been 30. In fact, I’d be lying if I didn’t casually internally debate on moving there.

There are a few places that give me a deep, quiet peace just by existing. The Party Tree at Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand, in the dark. 30 feet under the water in Cozumel scuba diving in the early morning. The 20-mile stretch of I-35 that I keep secret on the exact whereabouts of.

I felt that same level of peace from the moment my flight touched down on Jeju Island until my flight back to Gimpo took off. It’s worth noting that the route from Gimpo airport (GMP) to Jeju Island (CJU) is the most travelled air route in the world.

I’m not sure what about it made me feel the way I did. I could argue that it was exotic. It’s often referred to as South Korea’s Hawaii. It could be an extended and amplified version of the South Korean culture that I fell in love with. Or it could also be that until 3 months ago I didn’t know of the existence of this island.

While all of those are valid, at least on a personal level, the thing that stands out the most is just how absolutely fucking beautiful the island is. I hesitate to send you to Google or YouTube to look at photos because I’ve yet to see one that does even a modicum of justice to the beauty that exists.

Silly, but on the way to our first hotel, we came to a clearing that had a roundabout that immediately made my jaw drop at how beautiful it was. See it here — though that’s context, not proof; like I said, no photo actually captures it. At the center of it sat the same sea of green that had surrounded me since I landed in Seoul, except here the elevation rose and fell with a gradual, deliberate importance that seemed to demand study rather than just a glance.

Because I wasn’t driving, but we did rent a car, my travel partner may have a different viewpoint, but there was something unique, beautiful, and oddly, in many cases, a different museum of some sort around each corner as we drove around the bulk of the island.

The only real letdown of the whole trip was wishing I’d had more time on the island — and maybe the drinks at the JW Marriott, which somehow left me stone sober six deep.

Seongsan Ilchulbong had been on almost every list I saw while researching the trip, and while some things didn’t make the cut due to timing constraints, this one did — and seeing it is a core memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life. The first clear view of it came while driving towards it. It stood there almost like I knew it would be there, that it HAD to be there — how it was framed against the ocean surrounding it, like it cemented that there was a God and he had a ball designing this place. I never climbed it, and despite the name, I didn’t see it at sunrise. It hit its own register entirely — nothing else on the island did quite the same thing to me.

We found a cafe the first night called Colosseum — unique in vibe, decor, and menu, and a 10 minute drive from the hotel. It’d be easy to chalk that up to luck, but I’d bet there were another five places within that same 10 minutes that had their own unique flair. That’s just Jeju, and Korea at large: there are infinite places with real character that don’t skimp on aesthetic while still being incredibly functional.

Jeju was the middle of my trip but the first place I’m writing about. I’m doing this because of the obvious impact it had on me and because I couldn’t wait to try to do the island the justice that it deserves.

I only spent 3 nights on that island but I still feel incredibly lucky to have been able to see it at all. It’s worth the trip, worth money, the jet lag, the language barrier and any other manufactured reason you could come up with. Visit because you can, because you deserve to, and most of all because I’m still trying to figure out how to get back.