I got into Jeju late in the evening.  Luckily I found a jjimjilbang almost right away.    I parked the bike and went off in search of some geniune Jeju cuisine.  First on my list was Jeju yuk-gye-jang.  After an hour of unsuccessful searching I went into a PC bang and ate ramen noodles!  There were plenty of sea-food places, but it wasn’t what I was in the mood for.  I did some research on Jeju, a few things caught my eye, the first of which was ichulbang, sunrise peak.  It’s off the east coast of Jeju and I figured that by getting up at 4:45 I’d make it there in time to catch the sunrise.  Jjimjilbang sleeping can range from good to horrific depending on the quality of the spa and disposition of the other sleepers.  My worst case scenarios have been miserable wooden floors without pillows accompanied by the snores of 30-40 Korean men.  How the women of this country ever get to sleep is a mystery to me.  I wouldn’t be suprised a bit to find out they’re partially deaf. 

This particular Jjimjilbang was thankfully quiet, but unaturally hot.  I slept in fits on a straw mat.  At 4:45 I woke up to discover a Newfie shaped shadow of sweat soaked into my mat.  After a quick shower I was on the road again. Almost.  I forgot my usb key in the pc bang, fortunately the person who found it gave it to the staff instead of keeping it.  It would have been a terrible loss.  All my elem school lesson plans and supplements were on it, not to mention some valuable files like my latest resume and  some specialized software that I find indespensible for my job.  Now I’m back on the road.

Ichulbang is almost 50 km away and I already know I’m not getting there before the sunrise.  It’s not a problem though, early morning driving is great. The roads are empty and the landscape here is unbelievably green.  It’s also clear that today won’t be sunny and although the sun will rise, there will be no photographic evidence of it to be had from ground level.  When I arrive at inchulbang I’m in for another shock.  It’s completely fogged in.  I climb it anyways, it’s only ten minutes and nothing is open at 6:00am except the ticket office.  Somehow I wound up spending an hour here looking around the place.  I’m off to Seogwipo, that is until I see a sign pointing to a cave and folk village 15 km away.   The folk village is interesting, I think of the three little pigs as I drive by houses with straw roofs.  Eventually I get to Micheon Cave which is surrounded by ‘Inchulland’, a little park with no rides but some interesting statues and an art center.  I find the cave entrance.  I immediately feel cool air on my feet, knees waist and finally it hits my face as I descend the steps into the cave which itself is large and cavernous.   It’s lit well enough that I can follow it as far as I’m allowed easily. But I play with K’s camera taking shots with varying degrees of shutter speed looking for the right amount of time to faithfully record what I see with my own eyes.  Too dark, too bright, just right.  I settle on 6 to 8 seconds depending on the lighting.

Once I get out I find the cave has fogged my lens.  No amount of cleaning will straighten it out,  I suspect my lens cloth is only making it worse, as the filter and lens are now wet and streaked.  Maybe I’ll go to Emart later and buy some lens cleaner, but for now I pack it up and make my way towards Seogwipo City on the South coast.  After lots of windy roads I find myself in front of word cup stadium, and next to Emart.  No lens cleaner? Really?  I curse my luck and  walk over to tourist information next door.  They recommend a yuk-gye-jang restaurant and show me on the map where to find it.  They also recommend a place where I can try galchi-guk, hair-tail soup. 

I search and search for my elusive yuk-gae-jang only to be denied again.  I settle on hae-jang-guk in a little restaurant.  The Koreans were suprised to see a foreigner and at first they don’t know what to do with me, but their trepidation melts away when I ordered the meal.  Thank goodness I speak a little Korean.

I head over to the hiking inn to see if I can get a cheap room for the night.  It’s just too hot and humid for me to set up my little tent.  I need sleep.  There’s nobody around for the first twenty minutes or so, until a tall guy from the UK walks in and starts calling out:  Anyeong-haseyo?  Magically a little ajuma appears from upstairs and starts to speak to both of us.  She wants us to take an ondeol room together.  We explain that we don’t know each other, she repeats herself, we say seperate rooms are fine, repeating that we’re strangers.  She repeats herself, reminding us that by shacking up we can save 15,000W versus getting solo rooms.  The other guy looks at me and says, “Well I’m ok if you’re ok.” Sure, why not.  This is how I met Arthur.  After introductions we made our way to the room and set our stuff down.  A little more small talk and we’re getting on pretty well.  He’s back-packing and on the tail-end of a six-week Korean holiday.   He’s off to do some site-seeing.  As for me, I’m off to take a nap.   since we’re both travelling solo we agree to meet up for aroudn 7 or 8 for supper.  We’re both keen to try Galchi-guk.  Five minutes after he’s gone I’m blissfully asleep. 

It’s nightfall by the time I’m up.  About ten minutes later Arthur knocks on the door and we’re both off to Ne-geo-ri Sik-dang.  Seogwipo’s famous seafood restaurant.  It’s packed, but luckily two people are paying for their meal as we enter so we get our seats right away.  We each order the galchi-guk and and split a grilled fish dish called galchi-gui. 

The galchi-guk was AWESOME!  A unique taste amongst the (many) Korean foods I’ve had the pleasure of sampling. It consists of a mild fish broth with some Korean pumpkin slices and a couple of pieces of cut-up galchi, a white-meat fish that was delicious .  The tastes came together in just the right proportions.  My only complaint was the bones.  I think galchi is probably Korean for ‘a million little bones’.   Strangley enough, I hardly encountered any of the little bones as I ate the Galchi-gui.  We both shared stories of our trips and experiences over here, it was really interesting to get a point of view on Korea that hasn’t been tainted by the hagwons.  We compared our plans for Jeju and both settled on climbing Halla-san the next day.  We left the restaurant after what we both agreed was a great meal and went back to the hotel to rest up before the hike.