December 30th. My last full day on Jeju. My legs hurt, I smelled like a football locker, but that was okay, I had one more day that I could take advantage of.

The main attraction of Seongsan, the most easternly situated city on the island, is to hike sunrise peak. I got up at 6 am, threw my shoes on and headed out the door.

Another Day, Another Mountain…

Forgetting the fact I was climbing another extinct volcano, I was heavily huffing and puffing at this point. The layer of overcast that showed through the blue light didn’t overly build my confidence.

 

I got to the top to see a ton of people already positioning themselves along the bleachers they’ve set up on the one end of the crater. Contrary to what I was told, you can’t actually hike the rim of the crater. Thanks fun police. But it does give you an absolutely insane view of not only the sea but the entire valley behind the you.

 

 

As the blue turned too lighter and lighter shades of gray, we all realized we weren’t going to see much of a sunrise. Bit of a let down, but the view behind all but made up for it.

I climbed down, checked out of my hostel, where the nice gentlemen let me keep my bag there until I returned, which meant leaving it on a picnic table right by the door…. Good thing it’s Korea where you can forget a purse on a bar for 20 minutes and it’d still be there.

An Island’s Island

The last thing I had on my list of Must Do’s was to visit and circle Udo island. Taking the ferry over is super easy, and despite previous years, they’re running almost every hour. BUT the last one is at 5, and it’s in your best interest to make sure that you’re aboard that last “train out of town”.

Arriving there’s a handful of shops all trying to rent out scooters ATV’s and bikes as well as these Mini Reliable-Robin 3 wheelers. Although unless you have an international drivers license, you’re slated just to the bikes. Although other people have said they’ve been able to talk their way past this, every vendor I talked to was pretty insistent despite my best efforts. For a few thousand won (5??) I rented the biggest mountain bike they had, plugged in my ipod, and then peddled off. With all that said, I’m glad I ended up with the bikes. It let me go my own speed, I could take it off the road, and it meant an endorphin high for most of the day.

As I started around the Island, the overcast passed by, and the blue sky cleared open. The cool breeze was barely noticeable, and it wouldn’t have mattered as I was more concerned with the blue sea, white sand, and black rock contrasting the coast. The entire circumference is a little under 20 km, and I took a good 3-4 hours to go around, stopping for lunch at an amazing mom and pop pork burger place mid-way around the island. The Light House isn’t far past the ¾ point (Depending the direction you took), and I have to seriously recommend either walking or biking up to it.

 

 

Udo turned out to be the highlight of my trip, neck and neck with Hallasan. It’s a beautiful island that makes it seem like you’re in Hawaii or the Caribbean. The sun was getting low, and I still had to take a bus back to Jeju-Si to catch my flight back to the main land the next day. After the ferry and grabbing my bag and directions from the hostel owner, it was back on the road once again. Using my bag as a bench, I was waiting again for another bus to another city. The bus eventually came, and I eventually arrived to Jeju-Si. The next morning, Dec 31st, I packed my bags, and before even noon, I was on a plane back to Busan.

It was one of the must fulfilling trips I’d ever had and it was a phenomenal way to cap off an incredible year already. It was trips like that that made the anxiety and risks of quiting a good job, and moving half a world away all worth it.

Although the trip to Jeju was over, the trip wasn’t done yet. A handful of friends and I had all taken that week off scattered through out Asia and we all planned to come back the 31st to spend it in Busan to ring in the new year, then hike to Gwangali Bridge at dawn to watch the first sunrise.

New Years

After a few delayed flights, we all finally met up together at a Guesthouse we frequent. Drinking wine and beer on the guesthouses rooftop patio, we met up with the rest of our group. The clock struck midnight while we lit sparkles and candles and all sang and cheered. After a 2 am third dinner (when in Rome…) we decided it’d be best for a Jack-Baurer-Power-Nap before tackling sun rise on the bridge.

Around 5 am, we all pulled each other out of bed, team effort at it’s best. We walked, and walked and walked for probably close to 3 miles through the brisk morning air before finally coming up on the mouth to the bridge that had already been closed off. We walked up with a wave of other people, all with the same idea, as a pair of monks chanted at the top of the bridge.

We staked out a spot and seriously had to stand our ground. Competition was fierce. As the blue sky began to give way to a ring of red and pink along the horizon, there was a band of thick gray along the horizon. I was thinking I missed the one on sunrise peak due to over cast, and it looked like the same way here.
I was sleep deprived, cold, tired from the trip, and to be honest, maybe a little was getting a little cranky at this point. Then, almost as if out of the blue, this sliver of pink sliced through the gray and the entire bridge of people all let out a cheer.

It was nice to see how another culture does the new year. We have our traditions, and after years, they can start to feel like going through the motions each year. To do something new was incredibly refreshing. To be on the far east coast of Korea, and to see the first sunrise of the year, I honestly could not think of a better way to do it.

It’s going to be a good year at that too; I’m going to make sure of that. As I write this, it’s 10 too midnight, somewhere over the south China sea on my to Bangkok.

Adventure time.