Today we woke up pretty early and got some hangover soup not far from the hotel. Then we went to the bus stop to catch the bus that would take us to Hyeopjae beach about an hour away, only to miss it by a few seconds. Since this bus runs only every 40-60 minutes, and the stop is in an active construction site, we took a taxi to the beach.
The beach had very clear blue water and white sand. The weather was too cold for swimming, and it wasn’t allowed at that beach anyway. Most villages on this island have statues on their beaches honoring the haenyeo “mermaid” free-diver fisherwomen. We found an overpriced cafe with a view near where we were dropped off and ordered two drinks, to see the sea without the wind in our faces.
Leia found a seafood restaurant and we had their set meal including a seafood pancake, some seafood ramen, and abalone porridge (a sort of seafood risotto.) It was all delicious.
We went to a large park nearby full of palm trees with lava tube caves, various pretty birds, reptiles, bonsai, a folk village showing the traditional structures of Jeju island, and a rock collection along with many flowers and exotic plants like cacti. Not bad for a single stop at a nearly random village!
We bought a twisted cinnamon donut and a can of local beer called Hyeopjae Sunset, and walked through a campsite and along a low ridge trail overlooking the beach to drink the beer on the adjacent Geumneung beach during sunset. These beaches were not busy this time of year and we saw only a few other sunset-watchers, some watching from their tents.
With the sun having set behind us we walked back to a Chinese restaurant near the first one we ate at, and ate tasty japchae clear noodles with pork in a thick sauce. We then hurried to the bus stop, with a quick stop into Starbucks to purchase a couple of overpriced city-specific mugs as gifts.
The bus arrived promptly, and we had to switch buses which missed the next one by a minute again. Leia was so flustered that she forgot her hat on the bus and some Korean ladies had to shout to her to take it, and then she threw her phone under the bus and Guy had to save it from being run over. We only had to wait about 15 minutes for the next bus though.
On our way to the hotel we stopped at a convenience store again, topped up our transportation cards and bought more unfamiliar snacks. Guy chose a bag of sweet caramel clusters (clusters of what? Unclear, but they're processed in a facility that also handles beef, squid, pork, nuts, sulfates, phosphorus, shellfish, corn, and phthalates.) Leia picked a box of shortbread wafers (?) called Butter and Shelter. We're really enjoying trying all the strange snacks at convenience stores.
Our phones were dead so we charged them in the room for half an hour and then went next door for pork shabu shabu. The family that worked there seemed concerned about making sure we ate everything correctly, and they had to show us how to make rice porridge with the remaining broth in the pot when we were done.
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