Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Steelrails]

[drydell]

it's worth a trip for the magic road... that was great.

[rainman3277]

While living in Florida and on a tour of St.Augustine, as the tour guide was talking about how old the building were my Italian roomate leaned over to me and unimpressed said "my house is older than this".

If you come from somewhere starved of nature like Seoul, Jeju might be a wonderland. For me it wasn't much to write home about cause it wasn't anything I hadn't seen every day growing up.

Don't judge someone else's experience based on your own. Give it a trip and see for yourself. There are worse ways to spend a weekend.

[Smithington]

Jeju- DOH!!

Actually the place was pleasant, and a nice escape from the pollution and ugliness of Seoul. Best thing is, a return ticket sets you back no more than 100,000 won. When Korea is driving you nuts and you can literally feel your blood pressure rising, a few days in Jeju is the ticket.

Solitude. The ocean. Fresh air.

And only 35 minutes by plane.

Is it over-hyped by the Korean media? Absolutely, what Korean thing isn't over-hyped in this country. (Remember, kimchi isn't just tasty, it also cures cancer.) Is the whole "wonders of the world thing" farcical? Duh! (It was voted on by Korean netizens for goodness sakes.) But I wouldn't let the Korean hype result in waygookin giving Jeju a pass. It's a cheap, pleasant sanity break that won't set you back a couple million as a trip to Thailand might. And did I mention that you can be there in half an hour?

Forget the Arirang garbage comparing it to this or that natural wonder. But Jeju isn't to blame for that blather - Korean uber-nationalism is. If there was not a single Korean nationalist on the peninsula to spout arirang nonsense, jejudo would still be a pleasant place to visit.

[Zyzyfer]

[Who's Your Daddy?]

When you arrive at the airport take a taxi to the bus terminal, from there you can get a bus circling around the perimeter road. I stayed in Pyeoson-ri, at a small love motel called Beachy motel. It's a nice place across from the pyeoson beach. There's also a nice folk village in town. (Reminds me of my single days.)

http://place.map.daum.net/7903451

[3DR]

My girlfriend and I went there a few weeks ago. It was my first time and even though it was raining the whole time, I quite enjoyed myself.

Riding the ATVs on Udo was great...even in the rain.

One scary moment was that it was the end of the day, and we still thought we had enough sunlight to see Hallasan. We ended up driving to the mountain and it got dark quickly. We were the only car on the winding road that goes up the mountain for almost an hour and a half. Got out of the car to try to take a picture of the landscape and looked back and it was pitch black...looked like the setting for a horror movie.

[seoulsucker]

I had a really enjoyable trip there with my gf (now wife) in 2008. We rented a heavy scooter and did the entire perimeter, with side trips to some of the adjacent islands.

It has a TON of potential as a great holiday getaway, but 99% of it (or at least did) completely caters to Koreans who just don't know any better. Anyone who has traveled to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, etc. will be seriously underwhelmed. It's very "dumbed down" in a Korean travel sense.

For example, in about 75% of the towns we visited, we were presented with either raw fish or the famous "black pigs" for dining options and that was literally it for miles in any direction. Even my girlfriend was psyched for some BK when we got back to Jeju City.

[edwardcatflap]

That was pretty much my experience too. I was in a reasonably large town in a touristy area but there was nothing to do in the evenings except sit in on the floor/cheap garden furniture in one of those neon lit Korean places. Not a decent bottle of wine to be had anywhere either. Most foreign tourists would probably want to go to places with a bit of atmosphere and have a decent choice of drinks.