Oct. 12-16, 2023
Although I have been bikepacking, bike touring and camping around Japan for the last 3 years for almost 5000km, this is the 1st time I brought my bike overseas and going solo, in a country where I don’t know its language and Google Map does not work, so I was quite nervous but also excited! I could have rent a bike locally instead, but I chose to bring my own bike, because it was supposed to be a practice for my much longer, further future trips! As it is my 1st overseas bikepacking trip, I decided to take less risk and travel light, staying at guesthouses, no camping and no cooking, but I also tried to minimize my budget by only staying packpackers (renting a bed instead a room)!
Jeju is the biggest island in Korea, and also a popular resort area for Koreans. It is located at the southernmost of Korea, highest elevation 1950m, circumference just roughly 200km.
There is no direct international flight from Japan to Jeju (although there are ferries from Kyushu of Japan), so I had to transit at Seoul (GMP) and take out my bike for immigration customs, and then check-in again for the Jeju flight. Fortunately, the free shuttle bus between International and Domestic terminals of Gimpo Airport is extremely convenient! You will find the obvious circular bus route map and the Yellow bus right in front of Exit of Arrival Hall every few min. or so, and it only takes 1 few min. of bus ride.
The foods on Korea Air was just okay, but I do appreciate that little tube of Gochujang (Korean sweet and spicy sauce). If you never tried it, you must try! Also, I found the convenient stores in Korea are quite similar to those in Japan, except somewhat different collections, of course, but they have good coffee machine and large varieties of ready-to-served foods, in fact sometimes I even found my dinner there!
As an island, Jeju Airport was certainly much more busier than I imagined, even after dark, there were still so many traffic and several car lanes around the airport, so I took a taxi to my hostel, instead of assembling my bike in front of airport.
It turned out to be a good decision! The taxi cost was less than I thought (KRW 6500 for about 2km). Also my hostel had an empty spacious lobby with soft music, so I could re-assemble my bike relaxingly, so I could store my bike at their basement.
Before I have taken many local flights inside Japan, mostly by ANA. They also checked inside my bike carrier bag carefully, but they never asked me if I have removed the air from my tires… This time, I have taken Korea Air. They didn’t bother to check inside my bike carrier bag at all! They just put the whole bike carrier bag through the X-ray machine, but they did ask my repeatedly if I have removed the air from my tires (I didn’t!)
I became a bit worried because it was my 1st international flight with my bike, so I removed the air… There came the problem! I don’t have enough power to pump up my tires with the portable pump! I was all sweaty and tired, finally I had to look for some strangers to help me at the hostel lobby… Fortunately, I found a kind muscular guy who just came back from gym, and didn’t mind to sweat again!
Also, there was a guy with mini velo checked my tire pressure for me… little did I know that, I would see him again! We rode opposite direction, but met again on the road, exactly halfway around the island on my 2nd day!
Next morning, I woke up in the dark (it only became bright by 7am) and started to make my breakfast… Almost all my hostels in Jeju had self-served breakfast with only eggs and bread. There were tray of raw eggs and kitchen, so you can just cook your own eggs and eat as many eggs as you like!
Since Google Map is useless in Korea, I mostly use only Maps.me and KakaoMap. I was so excited to reach the seaside road! There is main road 1132 around the island, which has big sidewalk for bikes/pedestrians, but if you want to ride along the sea, you must look for smaller seaside trails.
Also, I immediately found Dol hareubang (traditional rock statues) everywhere, in front of shops, building and beaches. I always could not tell which were real (ancient) and which weren’t. I have seen Moai in Easter Island, they were massive, and have very different facial expression from these in Jeju.
Other than Dol hareubang, there were also so many statues and pictures of Haenyeo (sea women) in Jeju. I found many Maps and Signs on the way, but they were only written in Korean that I couldn’t read. Many seaside roads were painted in Rainbow colors, which were quite cute! Also, other than white sand beaches, there were even more black sand beaches and black rocks around the island. Later I even found them sold as Foot Scrub in the market!
Most of the restaurants were only written in Korean and no photos, so it was a bit difficult for me to look for lunch. I finally settled at a popular restaurant at seaside, which served soup noodles. Apparently, Korean people are used to eating together, so many cuisines are large sizes (for multiple persons). It is not easy to order for one person. My lunch was a simple but delicious (and non-spicy) seaweed and lamb meat soup noodles, served with Korean pickled vegetables (my favorite!)
When I rode further south, Hallasan seems to be always at the background. Also, I found many statues of horses, some real horses also on the way. It was actually quite lovely. The southern part of Jeju had much less traffic, and I could enjoy the sea view, as well as some mountainous and forest view too.
My guesthouse was located in a seaside small town which had convenient stores and a few restaurants. It was such a small place that my guesthouse didn’t even have lockers! It has a nice sitting area outside, so I had some chit-chat there with other girls staying in same room as me. It has washing machine free-to-use and large laundry racks, so I did my laundry while eating dinner at the small quiet lobby…
(Day 1) 80.55km