Ulleung-do & Dokdo, the Hawaii of Korea
Written and photographed by Lea Moreau.
Have you heard about the “Hawaii of Korea” – those mysterious islands lost in the middle of the East Sea?
As far back as I can remember, long before I decided to move to South Korea, I recall myself looking at old pictures of Ulleung-do in my grandfather’s library. He was passionate about culture and history, and had a book covering South Korea. Little did I know of the importance of Ulleung-do and Dokdo to Koreans.
This year, as you may already know, we could not manage to travel abroad (hello, corona). But I was craving for new adventures and kept looking for some of the most remote places I could find on Korean territory. My choice went to Ulleung-do and Dokdo, both known to be pretty difficult islands to reach due to weather conditions and their location.
I asked my friend Tomi if she was ready for the trip of a lifetime, and we both decided to go on a five-day camping trip in Ulleung-do!
Beginning our trip from Gwangju, we took our car and drove all the way to Pohang. After a night in town, we departed on time and took the 8:00 a.m. ferry to Ulleung-do. I am not going to lie: The seasickness was pretty bad, and I felt sick all the way to the island, which took three and half hours. (Tip: Take some meolmi-yak [멀미약, motion sickness medicine] with you, as you will probably need it). Arriving around lunch time in Jeodong Port, we enjoyed the first meal on the island: jeonbok juk (전복죽, abalone rice porridge). It was delicious!
After fully filling our bellies, we went to the Ile Café (이레 카페) in order to rent our motorbike. The owner was super kind and offered to rent his motorbike for 45,000 won a day. It was definitely the best choice we could have made in order to travel freely around the island. No need for taxis or buses, we could stop by any attraction we wanted to and fully explore any of the roads on the island. (Tip: Note that you need a Korean driver’s license, and previous motorbike riding experience is a plus).
We asked if we could leave our backpacks in the coffee shop for a few hours and went on a ride to find the best camping spot. A few kilometers away, we found the perfect location facing the ocean and close to a local shop. We put up our tent, and then the adventure could really start. The weather was perfect for most of our trip, except one rainy night. On the second day, we decided to ride around the island. We took a lot of pictures along the way. The roads were sometimes in pretty bad shape due to the last typhoon, but it definitely made our trip more interesting. Needless to say, the island offers some of the most amazing landscapes and drives along the coastline, which really gives you an incredible opportunity to admire the sea views from every angle.
I brought along some French foie-gras (liver) and Tomi some red wine, so we found the perfect spot facing the sea and stopped for hours, eating our toast and happily celebrating our crazy trip. On the way back, we took hundreds of pictures while looking at divers ready to do some scuba diving and ended our day by admiring the sunset while riding our bike.
We forgot everything closed early on the island, so we decided to celebrate our Chuseok holiday in a BBQ restaurant. We watched a Na Hoon-a (나훈아) concert with the restaurant’s owner and ended up drinking soju and dancing with our masks on all night. It was an unforgettable experience, one where we all forgot the hard times and just appreciated celebrating life as one united world despite one of us being French and the other American, together with our newfound Korean family.
On the third day of our trip, I managed to book our boat tickets to Dokdo. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, as most of the time, only 30 percent of the ships are able to leave due to harsh weather conditions. On Chuseok Day, the sea was so quiet and peaceful with not even a single wave. We felt the island wanted to welcome us and show us what tranquility could bring when peace prevails. The Dokdo islets have a long and painful history, being the center of a diplomatic dispute between Korea and Japan that goes back more than 300 years.
While visiting Dokdo on Chuseok Day, we both wanted to celebrate our new home – Korea – and feel the energy of such a place on a meaningful holiday. We took pictures and cried while feeling the meaning of the islets to Koreans. We were so proud and happy to have made it so far! That day, we also realized how Koreans love and cherish their land, and that it is important to remember history so that the next generation will protect this part of Korea.
On the last day, I really wanted to film some drone shoots in order to show my foreign YouTube followers the beauty of Ulleung-do. So, we went back to the best spots, and I filmed almost all day. It was great to share this filming day with my best friend, and we had raw fish (회, hoe) to celebrate our last day on the island.
Ultimately, we went back to Pohang and ended our trip full of happy memories and thousands of pictures. We will definitely go back to Ulleung-do as soon as the weather allows us. Until then, thank you, Ulleung-do. You were so great to us!
The Author
Lea is a French travel specialist currently based in Sunchang, Jeollabuk-do. She works with local government entities in order to develop tourism in the Jeolla provinces and actively promotes both Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do on social media and Korean TV. She has created two YouTube channels in order to share her passion for travel, while giving useful tips and advice. You can follow Lea both on Facebook and YouTube at Leadventure. For more information about travel in Jeolla, check out Lea’s other YouTube channel at Jeolla Go.