This is where Mokpo becomes exactly what I was looking for. Sure, it’s probably the farthest I could be away from Seoul, but it’s also the shortest and cheapest trip possible down to Jeju Island. On that note, let me just throw out another wonderful perk provided by the FB program: you go to orientation, get to know a load of other people your age, and then suddenly scatter all across the country. What this means is that you have people to see and reasons to travel to various locations all around Korea; Jeju is no exception. The Mokpo-Jeju ferry takes anywhere between 4-5 hours depending on the wave conditions. That means I spend the first 2
hours running around the top of the boat, checking out the beautiful island scenery and then the final hours wondering where the hell Jeju is and why the boat has to keep rocking back and forth. Well, any potential hard feelings were quickly wiped away once I reached the island—had a glorious burrito at ‘Zapatos’ (Jeju has a nice, trendy, expat scene and hence a of number of excellent restaurants in the downtown area) and relaxed with a few brews and a smile at one of the nearby beaches. Damn, the beach is always nice. There are 5 of us ETAs in Mokpo, all of whom came down on this trip to meet something like 9 or 10 scattered around the island (when I say scattered, the Island really isn’t that big—despite slow speeds you can drive…or scooter…across it in about an hour).
Furthermore, Jeju isn’t exactly Hawaii, but it might as be since all I got was sunshine and a sea breeze for all three days. The first night there was also spectacular—as Dave took us out to the Factory (some sort of Andy Warhol retro hole in the wall) and introduced me to one of Heaven’s gifts known as Amaretto Beer. Then we capped the night off at a few random Korean joints with some wonderfully cute Korean girls that Beilin brought out via her host family. I’ll gloss over some of the details at this point, just let it be known that I got a pretty late start the next day. That was not, however, for nothing—as we spent the next afternoon back on the beach taking in more sun and sporting around the ocean on sea kayaks. I’d
forgotten how much fun kayaking can be, let alone on the open ocean. With the wind blowing and a hefty waves here and there—catch one just right and you can ‘sail’ for quite a ways or else find yourself diving head first into the ocean. These were open kayaks, of course, and the beach was all sand—so no death defying experiences just yet...those were saved for the next day when we rented scooters. In a nutshell, Korea hasn’t embarked on this utterly confused safety culture that America seems to savor. Let me give you an example: you head to the scooter shop and, in broken English of course, they ask you “do you know how to drive a scooter?” “No,” you respond. “All right, here’s the keys.”
Fifteen bucks, no signature, and a short lesson on how to turn the thing on—you’ve got yourself two wheels of insanity for the day. I mean, you can also rent cars and golf carts—but who doesn’t like the feeling of 100cc between your legs and a sea breeze through your hair? Dave by the way should be dead, or the bus should have a head-size dent in it—I don’t know which—but it was still fun as hell. Well, as of this writing I’m still alive and crawling my way through the washing machine known as the Jeju-Mokpo ferry. Next goal: rent scooters and drive across Korea; it can be done.
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