Awesome Autumn in Jeju
Written by Maiya Kabyltayeva.
My name is Maiya and I currently stay in South Korea to study for a master’s degree. In 2017, when I came to South Korea for the first time, I totally fell in love with this country. I liked absolutely everything here, from Korean culture to Korean food, even despite the fact that the latter has a very specific taste and may not suit everyone. But as for me, I liked it from my childhood and can enjoy it any day.
When going abroad, probably everyone has their own “must-do” and “must-try” lists. So, the same applies to me. I had a lot of dreams related to Korea. My list included eating real Korean ramen, fresh kimbap, flavored samgyeopsal, and, of course, visiting well-known Jeju Island.
As you all know, Jeju Island is the most popular and largest island in South Korea. My first trip there was last year, and that trip was very spontaneous. One of my friends suggested that I go with her just one week before the trip. My friend started searching for information about Jeju, which we previously had seen in a lot of Korean shows and dramas. As you may know, autumn is the cheapest season of the year for traveling to Jeju; also, it was the end of the semester, so our trip fit in very well. Even though it gets cold there in autumn, the island is generally still very beautiful and, as a bonus, it is the tangerine season! Besides, for me it was the best way to end midterm week. Usually, you can buy a roundtrip ticket for $50 or even $20, so we bought a ticket and took 50-minute flight – no more. It was the shortest plane trip that I have ever taken. By the way, we got our tickets for about $20, and as you know, finding cheap ways to travel for students is crucial.
It was our first trip to Jeju. How surprised and astonished we were by everything. In retrospect, when I went to Jeju the second time, I did not really notice such details and felt somewhat jealous looking at tourists who were visiting not only Jeju but Korea for the first time and were even surprised by the toilet buttons and the non-existence of rubbish bins on the streets.
As for accommodation, after a short time surfing the internet, we booked two hotels on the island. The first hotel was located in Seogwipo. It was a really nice hotel and the service was next level. The most important thing was that it was near the tangerine gardens and the sea. The second hotel was located in the center of Jeju City; we chose this hotel because we were not renting a car, so it was important for us to stay near the airport.
In short, Jeju is a magical island. There is nothing that special about it, but the atmosphere feels like you are in another world. It is a totally different Korea, which reminds visitors of neither Busan nor Seoul. There is something soulful about the place, and at the same time, it is comfortable, cozy, and beautiful. Everything there makes you want to fall in love with the island and come back again. Moreover, there are so many delicious foods in Jeju, such as barbequed black pork and tasty fruit like tangerines and hallabong (한라봉, seedless mandarin oranges). The highest and most famous mountain in South Korea, Halla Mountain, is also in Jeju. The only thing that needs improvement there is transportation. You have to rent a car for some real fun.
The first place we visited after arriving on Jeju Island was a tangerine garden. We chose the Seogwipo district because there are huge tangerine gardens there that are not so crowded and that allow you to enjoy picking the mouthwatering tangerines that are specialties of Jeju Island. On the tangerine farm, you can pick locally grown fresh tangerines and take them home after the tangerine picking experience is over or send them to any address in Korea. By the way, tangerine picking is available also on the island during winter. It was an unusual but interesting experience for me.
The next place that we visited was Sanbang Mountain, which, though not very high, has an interesting and distinguishable shape. It is about an hour west of Seogwipo by bus, and the bus stops conveniently right in front of the mountain. If you go there, it allows you to capture a nice view of the open sea. There is only a temple at the top of the track, and when we went there it was closed. In my opinion, the climb to the temple and cave was not worth our time. Nature-lovers find this to be a peaceful and relaxing place, though. You can spend hours without seeing anyone. If that is your thing, then go and feel the nature.
When choosing Jeju as a destination for your trip, you must include at least two or three cafés to see, as they are just unreal there. Here, I would like to say that there is one special but simple drink which I used to see often in Korean dramas when I was a teenager: banana milk. Maybe you will ask, “What is so special about this milk?” I can say there is no secret; this milk is just very tasty, fat-free, convenient, and best of all, not sugary, so you can just stick in a straw and enjoy. I tried it once and loved it so much that banana milk became my favorite drink; I used to have it every day.
As for cafés in Jeju, I would like to talk about one particular place that we visited. I found an unordinary café named Yellow Café, and as you might have guessed, this café is dedicated to banana milk. Despite all our plans to visit popular sites and historical places, we went to this café instead. Yellow Café is also located in the Seogwipo area. I liked its interior; the concept is unusual. As banana milk is taken as the basis of the interior’s design, you can see a huge banana milk illustration at the entrance. The café has an open-space lounge zone with many guest tables, then some mini cabins similar to the shape of banana milk cartons. We chose the latter zone to comfortably hang out. By the way, regarding the café menu, there is a large selection of banana-flavored drinks. All drinks look very appetizing, and I wanted to try them all. Surprisingly, the price of the drinks is not as expensive as we expected, and most importantly, the taste was delicious.
As it turned out, this is not just a café, because if you go even further inside, you can find a small gift shop with various souvenirs and stylish things for sale. We next found an unusual photo zone, where you can take cool photos in front of a background with the inscription “Hello, Jeju.” In yet another photo zone, you can type your name on a keyboard and wait – your name will appear on the screen, but hurry up, as you have only 15 seconds to take a photo. I think active SNS users probably catch my drift. With so many photo zones and banana milk options to choose from, if you have a chance to visit Jeju someday, I highly recommend Yellow Café’s cozy atmosphere.
Once again, I would like to express my admiration for Korean society. After all, only Koreans can make a cult-like trend out of ordinary things like banana milk. Here I described some unique places that we visited in Jeju, though these are not all the places we visited. There are so many reasons to return. I recommend everyone visit this magical island – I promise you will not regret it. After all, every journey leaves in our memory only good memories and indelible impressions.
THE AUTHOR
Maiya Kabyltayeva is from Kazakhstan and has liked learning foreign languages since childhood. She thinks everyone has a dream in life, and hers was to start learning Korean in 2015 and come to South Korea. Now an MA student at Chonnam National University, she enjoys traveling in her spare time and the independence and confidence it inspires. Instagram: @maiyusha777.