It was a lazy morning, packing up just before checkout time, getting brunch at the Flying Pan, and heading directly to the bus terminal in Gangnam to go to Gwanju. I tried to study on the luxury bus, but kept dozing off.
Arriving in Gwanju, I immediately tried to find a seat to get on the internet to find the specific address of my airbnb, but apparently the bus terminal is a popular place on a Sunday afternoon. It’s weird that this Airbnb is only two blocks from where I stayed the last time I was in Gwanju. I’ve barely done anything the town, but there is a familiarity to it. Remembering how bad the sidewalks were, I wanted to catch a bus over to the Airbnb, and after waiting 15 minutes, the bus just blew by the bus stop. So, I walked the 2km. It’s a nice apartment and an even nicer neighborhood with a good selection of supermarkets and restaurants.
I was briefly tempted to buy a bunch of junk food, breakfast, or stuff to cook in, but I went for an “Imperial” set meal at the Chinese restaurant, including noodles, dumplings, pork, and a coke. I’m still full from that meal.
I didn’t even have time to watch a movie or anything in the evening before I just passed out from exhaustion.
| Brunch for 2 | 63000 |
| Bus ticket (premium) | 28100 |
| Coca Cola | 2000 |
| Airbnb | 59.93 (USD) |
| Chinese food | 18,000 |
| Total: | 1075 RMB (USD 159.85) |
Despite going to bed early, I still slept in. And following the standard morning routine, didn’t get around to lacing up my running shoes until 10am. After a long run, of which the last 15 minutes weren’t logged because an incoming text message stopped the tracker, I quickly showered and went downstairs to eat some baekban. I had a new contender for best meal in Korea. Not only was it relatively cheap, the servers were aggressive to give me more food, not only refilling the side dishes, but giving me an entire new plate of bulgogi. It was also the first restaurant I went to where you had to take your shoes off.
I was so stuffed I had to take a nap after that, but I dragged myself out of bed to hit a neighborhood coffee shop before 2pm where I could save a dollar on the coffee (morning special). I’m amazed by how dog-friendly Korea is, I’m constantly finding people bringing dogs with them into restaurants and cafes. This cafe had a dog locked up in the employee room, but it escaped once. A nearly perfect sphere of fur ran up to me, yipping and demanding I pet it. I couldn’t stick around the coffee shop too long because I needed to find an ATM. It appears I was down to my last 50,000 Won note, and that might not be enough to even get me to Jeju Island.
The quest for cash was onerous but ultimately successful. I must have tried quite a few ATMs, but there were 3 main problems. One, UnionPay isn’t widely available in the insular Korean banking system. Two, my Chinese bank card is chip only (no magnetic strip). Three, I don’t know if China has made any new regulations barring foreigners from withdrawing cash outside of China. After a number of failures, I got some cash. The ATM happened to be in a supermarket, so I picked up some snacks and a salad because I wasn’t sure I could eat another full meal that day.
Back in the apartment, I ended up devouring all of the food that night (despite hoping to save some of it for the next day), and going to bed early again.
| Baekban | 6000 |
| Coffee | 2900 |
| Groceries | 6070 |
| Total: | 14970 (90.6 RMB) (USD 13.47) |
I overslept again and needed to get out the door pretty early because there were a lot of unknown elements in the route to Jeju. I originally wanted to go via Mokpo, which is only an hour from Gwanju, but upon further review, I realized the ferries leave at 9am and 0030. Wando, two hours south of Gwanju, became my second choice with two ferries in the morning and one at 4pm. While I was half certain, I could just roll up to the ferry terminal, buy a ticket, and embark, I also remembered my troubles in Weihai where they cutoff ticket sales when they started embarkation, hours before the scheduled departure.
I walked the mile to Gwanju’s bus terminal, got a 10:00am ticket to Wando. Considering, how my weight had ticked up several days in a row, and I had been overeating a lot, I considered fasting the day. However, in the 20 minute wait before my bus, I decided to get a bagel from Dunkin Donuts.
I spent the whole two hours of the bus ride studying vocabulary. After two brief stops to change passengers along the way, we pulled into Wando’s bus terminal and I hoofed it the mile to the ferry terminal. It doesn’t matter where I go in Korea, but I always see a foreigner within about five minutes. While stopped outside a corner store, double checking the map, there was some white dude on a bicycle. Wando is a tiny little town, but okay.
When I finally got to the ferry terminal, the irony of the day arrived. I was an hour too early to buy a ticket, with sales only starting at 1:30. I drank some water and crashed on a seat with the free available WiFi. Then I remembered, I left my plug adapter in the Airbnb. I specifically reminded myself that morning to NOT forget it. I think I might be almost done with Korea. My SIM card done. My 8 dollar plug adapter lost.
After buying my ticket at 1:30 and confirming that boarding didn’t begin until 3:30, I had time to think about lunch. I headed across the street and had some bibimbap with seafood. I kept up the study, and with plenty of time to kill, also had an affogato from the chain cafe in the ferry station.
After the long wait, we got on the ferry. I was the only person dragging luggage, but that makes sense if most of the passengers had cars, the Silver Cloud being a car ferry first and foremost. My 3rd class ticket entitled me to a windowless room with a shoe locker and a 46 person capacity. Fortunately, there were only a handful of people, but it was annoying to have to take my shoes on and off. I didn’t mind laying on the ground though. The 2nd class cabins were roughly the same size with smaller capacity and windows. I wonder what 1st was like. Bored, I bought a snack from the onboard convenience store and explored the ship. I spent two hours in the aft of the ship, enjoying the sun and doing a bit of studying until I got too cold, then headed back to the room to nap. The 2.5 hour journey felt much longer than that.
We arrived at dusk, the terminal was deserted with no schedules on display for me to plan my escape from Jeju. With a Wifi connection, I was able to check directions to my hostel, another 2 hours away. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait more than 2 minutes before a bus came barreling along, and some 16 stops later I disembarked in roughly central Jeju City. I walked to the next bus stop to wait for the cross island bus that would take me to the southside of the island where I had foolishly booked my accommodation. That hour long bus ride seemed to be 80% twisting mountain roads, but at least I had a seat for myself and my luggage.
Back in civilization, I got off at my stop and followed the navigation to my hotel/hostel. It’s a hotel, but there is a hostel attached to the first floor. Just one dorm room with barely anyone staying there. There is a huge lounge with pool table and foosball, free real coffee, and free bike rental. I’m surprised there aren’t any backpackers, but I guess there is a lot of competition.
Tired, but still vaguely aware that I should eat, I went out to wonder the streets, which were all marked as “something something famous food street”, and a huge market, which was closed/closing. I settled for a sundae gukbap (blood sausage soup with rice), which was again much more food than I really wanted, but it was good.
And sleep.
| Bus to Wando | 18600 |
| Blueberry bagel w/ cream cheese | 1600 |
| Ferry Ticket | 29900 |
| Lunch | 10000 |
| Affogato | 5500 |
| Onion ring chips | 1500 |
| Sundae gukbap | 7000 |
| Hostel (@ 5 nights) | 356 RMB |
| Total: | 804 RMB (USD 119.5) |
Running Total: 16324.9 RMB (USD 2426.7)
Daily Average: 281.5 RMB (USD 41.8)