Woah Nelly! My First 72 Hours in South Korea

hmmmmm…what to do.

I have instructions on how to take the bus to the hostel.  I watch bus after bus pass, trying to understand which one to take.  Finally I see the bus I want, and board to ask the driver.  He doesn’t speak English but a man approaches and asks if he can help.  He says I am on the wrong bus.  I get off and stare at the bus schedule some more.  Unlike everywhere else I have traveled (South America, Canada, Europe), there is no guessing at what a word means by the spelling.  I have no idea what anything says – a wholly unique and terrifying experience!  I ask three random people that look to be under age 25 if they speak English.  They all say “no”.  Finally, I walk to what I think is a taxi line and show the address of the hostel (written in Korean) to the driver.  He nods and I get in.  15 minutes later I arrive at my hostel, which is on the sixth floor of a building on a busy, wide street.  I ask to leave my bag and have four hours to kill before check-in time.

I walk the streets looking for a place to eat.  It is HOT.  I find a place called Bagdad Cafe and hope I can read the menu.  Fortunately, it’s in English and Korean and I order my first meal in Korea: Tikki Masala.

Later the owner arrives and being that I am the only customer, he introduces himself.  His name is “Sobo” and he is from Nepal.  He married a Korean woman he met in India and they have lived in Jeju for ten years.  After much talking about Nepal and Jeju, he offered for me to visit him and his wife and child for tea sometime.  Very nice.  We talked about the Jeju Olle trail and he said that in ten years, he had never met anyone who was going to walk the whole thing.  Uh oh.  Given that its only been open since 2007, that isn’t as bad as it sounds. But all signs are suggesting that maybe this is not a normal thing to do and maybe the infrastructure is not there.  I still don’t know.  I don’t care. I’ll figure out a way but I think this is going to be more of a challenge than I realized.  However, I’m not going to kill myself over it – just do what I can.  When and if it stops being fun, I will change course.

Back to the hostel I find myself in a lower bunk in a room with six beds.  Thankfully, the room has air conditioning.  I met my Korean roommates.  One spoke pretty good English and the others spoke just a tiny bit.  One young woman offered me her food in very limited English and in between adorable mouth-covered giggles.  One woman asked me how long I was staying and I talked to her about the hike. She found out I needed a tent and spent considerable time calling friends searching for one.  Her friend offered his own tent to loan which I appreciated but declined because I would likely ruin it. I’m not known to be tidy or gentle. Super nice though.

Day 2 – Jeju City

New friends

The next morning two young women sit and talk with me.  One asks me if my hair color is natural.  “No” I say and explain that while my hair is blonde, it is not this blonde.  Then she asks if we can be friends on Facebook.  They are highly giggly and it seems that I am the best comedian ever.  They giggle wildly, with mouths covered, at everything I say!  They are in university and are envious of what I am doing.  I tell them that I am old and saved my money for a long time and no have no babies, no husband, etc.  They seem awe-stuck.  When they realize they must go to catch their plane they make pouty faces and it is a drawn-out oddly (to me) child-like goodbye.  It must be a cultural thing.  It’s all a cultural thing I suppose because people are people.  Anyway,  I asked for their picture for the blog and they posed in what they tell me is a Korean way. I wished them a safe journey and off they went.

I went to the grocery store hoping to save some money and ended up paying $11 US for a box of cereal, a quart of milk and a small bag of almonds.  Will have to rethink my strategy.

Spent considerable time sleeping.

Day 3 – Jeju City

I ventured out to get a tent today.  Quite impressed with myself that I actually got one.  I am told that there are campsites along the Jeju Olle Trail and on the beach so that may be in the cards.

I figured out the ATMs.

With the help of the hostel staff, I made a reservation for a room in a private home at the start of the first trail of the Jeju Olle Circuit (there are 21 “tracks” which should take a day each).  There is an information center nearby.  If all goes well, I will start the trail on Sunday.  I bought cookies and nuts as provisions in case of camping.  However,  I just ate all the cookies while writing this post. 🙁

My guess is that there is nothing about this experience that will resemble the Camino, but having faith in where my heart has taken me, I trust that this experience will provide me with exactly what I need.  I am going to go with the flow.  Trust.  Be open.  And walk.

That is, if I can get on the right bus to get to the trailhead…

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