Welcome To Jeju Island, FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Welcome to Jeju. Not looking at the greatest day today, but the weather forecast says it should clear up tomorrow, and there should be a nice stretch of sunny days ahead of us. So, yeah, I'm just trying to find something that's open right now so I can just get out of the rain 'cause it's starting to drizzle and just kind of chill out until I figure out what I want to do.
Well, that's not what I expected. On the map, there shows to be a river right here, but it looks like it's kind of dried up right now, or maybe it's dammed off at the top. I'm going to have lunch right now. Looks like I just got dropped off in the middle of Jeju City. It almost looks like any other place in a way—very hilly. To get to the restaurant where I signed in from the coast, it's just like a gradual incline all the way. Today, I'm just going to chill out, eat some food, maybe even go see a movie, just take it easy for a day. Because from Busan to Samcheonpo kind of wrecked me, I just want to get off the bike
and chill out for a little bit. So, I'm just going to explore Jeju City a little bit first. I met somebody in Paju a long time ago—now it seems like forever ago—when I went to that nature fall at the jjimjilbang. There was a guy in there with his girlfriend who said hello to me and mentioned, "Hey, I live in Jeju and have a place you should stop by." So, I've been in contact with him, and he recommended this place. So, Jay, if it’s not any good, I’m blaming you. But there's a line out the door, so I'm guessing it's going to be pretty good. So, which is the best? I’m sure it's all good. This is... okay, that's what
I was thinking. What is beltfish? Beltfish... mackerel, maybe? I've never heard of beltfish. It all looks good—stone rice with roe and seurchin. I'm not sure what that is either. I was thinking about the abalone, but that's number one. I always go with number one. Oh, okay, I've seen those at the market. Sounds good. Yeah, those long, slimy-looking guys... I think they have the gnarly-looking teeth too. They offer ten different sides before they put down the main dish. All right, so one and one in here. Okay, I did read about that online. I did a little
bit of preparation. One scoop of margarine, one scoop of some of the special sauce—not sure what that is—but that butter is going to have no problem melting 'cause that is freaking hot. Nice and savory, nice and hot. That fish has a lot of meat on it, too. It doesn't have a real fishy flavor, though. Some seaweed here... fried pancake-y veggie thing. I don’t know, I guess just like Korean barbecue, maybe you can even mix it up? I don’t know if that's how you're supposed to do it, but not bad, not bad. Onions are good. I finished,
and I just realized I didn’t even touch this. So, I’m guessing I was supposed to pour that in there based on the table next to me. Oh well—still good. Good morning from Jeju. I had myself a little scare this morning. After I had lunch yesterday at that delicious fish stone hot pot—whatever you
want to call it—I went to the movie theaters just to check out the times. I was chilling out by the park benches in front of that convenience store for a long time, actually, 'cause it was rainy and just really bad weather. Well, fast forward to this morning. I’m packing up all my stuff, trying to get ready, and I can’t find my sunglasses. I’m like, "What the hell, man?" You know, I’m thinking to myself, "I only went to one other place yesterday besides the hostel where I stayed. Like, what the heck did I do with them?" So, I thought, "All right, let’s go back to the restaurant. Let’s go back to that convenience store. Those are the only
two places I went yesterday." They weren’t at the restaurant, so I went to the convenience store, thinking, "Eh, I was outside, maybe somebody picked them up and just took them." But someone had placed them on the side over there, and I don’t know—I guess they sat there for about 24 hours until I came and picked them up. My buddy Nick T here stumbled upon what looks like a public bath. This is the first time I’ve seen this kind of public bath in Korea. He stepped
out for a smoke and then stumbled upon it. Wow, okay. You take off... you drink? Can you drink it? He’s drinking. Oh, it comes from underneath the ground. Oooh, it's chilly! Is it? It’s cold. It’s cold. I guess maybe back in the day you could come here and bathe. This was probably hot water. How long has it been closed? Two years? They re... guess. Ah, okay. Cold spring water. Uh... America and... what? England? I don’t know. The UK? Um, England. England.
This is the men’s bath, and the women’s bath we already checked out because he said it was okay. But let me go show you what it looks like. It’s a little different. Thank you. Thank you. The ladies' bath is... okay, yeah, I think it’s... yeah, I don’t think there’s anyone... yeah, I guess they don’t use it this time of year. But this one’s a little, uh, a little different. They have the stream that runs through the middle. They’ve got this over here. There was a lady over here actually when we walked over here the first time. She was washing dishes or doing something over here. And so, yeah, that’s really, really cold.
But anyways, welcome back to Jeju, and, uh, yeah, the tour starts today. My buddy Nick, he flew in from Japan. He arrived this morning. A lot of you guys have probably seen him. He’s in the very first video. This is my buddy that cycled with me through Japan. He pretty much cycled probably about 90% of the Japan trip with me, from Tokyo all the way to Shimonoseki. At the end of my Japan trip, I said goodbye to him, and then I went to Busan, and the rest is history, right? So, I think this is his restaurant. Oh, really nice. Yeah. Yeah. And so, this morning, like I said, we stepped out—or he stepped out for one second. He’s like,
"I’m going to go have a smoke and walk around," and he stumbled upon this. And so, it’s great to have another person to find places like this. Oh, look at this. That’s pretty cool—some 3D art. So, I’ve been in Jeju now for two days. This is my third day, and the weather just hasn’t been very, very good, actually. So, this guy has himself a little seafood restaurant.
Oh, wow, what’d he say? He caught all of these guys in the ocean and then sold them off? Check it out. Nice. Check out this big old fish. Oh, okay. Damn. Yeah, those are some big ones. Coffee? Nice. Wow, look at this. This is really cool. Huge compass up here. Nice little spot. Yeah, beautiful. I’m telling you, Korea has a lot of little, small places like this. Every little small town is done up really well with painted murals on the sidewalks and walls and whatnot. Hey. Hi. It’s okay, it’s okay. Yeah, wow, aren’t you cute? Oh my gosh, aren’t you cute? Oh my gosh.
Hello, hello. What a cutie. Oh yeah, cute. Coffee, or is that... cheese? That’s... oh, what’s going on over here? Some foreigners? Yeah? Oh, nice. Australia. You should... you should sign one name. I know. Oh, who is this? Kan... Kan... Ka... Ghana? Ka... ghh. Nice. A lot of pictures of... damn, look at this one. Oh man, they really put the sugar in coffee. Whoa, my god. Wow. Are you kidding me? Wow, this dude is serious. Wow, wow. I mean, look at this one here too. It’s like bigger than my head. Oh my god, that’s got a bigger chest than I have. Yeah,
these are the instant coffees here, and they have a bunch of sugar already in them. Yeah, it’s just... you don’t need to add any. Hey, nothing much going on. That beginner way, for sure. Yeah, this reminds me of the east coast too, like up by Sokcho and Yangyang, but kind of a little late in the season though. Play "On the Road Again" on Spotify. Time,
baby. Did you miss it? I missed it. "On the Road Again." This was, uh, yeah, this was our song in Japan. Start the day with Willie Nelson, and then I just continued on in Korea. So, started with Nick T. Hey, what’s up? You see a lot of places like that—like small, little farmhouses. Is that just like a little vacation hut pretty much? Yeah, it’s cute. It is cute. And so, finally kind of feels like I’m getting out of the city a little bit, clearing up a bit, seeing some of the coast. But I kind of feel like it’s going to be like the east
coast when I was going along from, like, you know, Sokcho all the way to Pohang—like every 10 km or so, maybe 5 km or so, you’re going to run into a small little town. So, I figure it’s going to be pretty busy kind of all the way around the island. I think maybe some walkers like this. Fighting! And so, just hope the clouds burn off and we can get some clear blue skies. But definitely one thing that’s going to be very different from the east coast and Jeju is all this lava rock. Jeju is basically one big volcano. It’s crazy. I went to a museum yesterday and watched the video of the history of Jeju, and it basically just rose from the bottom of the ocean. Tons of different
volcanoes. Back in the day, when it was being made, it was probably pretty violent and crazy. But, yeah, look here. You got your own little toilet seat right here. Your own little squatter. What a spot, what a spot. Is it possible to see inside of it? That’s very interesting. Yes? Yeah? Ah, is it open? Uh... they have the key? Just... okay, okay. Thank you so much. Something interesting—some more military stuff over here, huh? Korea? Mhm. Ah, vehicles. Okay.
They modified it with the forklift. Okay, yeah, yeah. So it was like a crane thing? Okay, you’re right. You were right. Yeah, nice. Very cool. Yeah, you were happy—you were there. Yeah, I knew it. Nick was like, "No, I think it’s just a crane." It’s been turned into some sort of tourist attraction, but then it says "Tiger Tank" on the side of it, huh? Oh, this audio? Uh-huh. Car? Oh, you can cruise around and play? Drive around in it? Drive,
man. It’s exactly what I thought it was. Wow, cool. Nice. Do you get many people that come and ride it? Yes? Yeah, okay, many people. Many people—children. Oh, the children love it, I’m sure. Yeah, and only here? Only here. I see.
What is this? A café? Mhm. A fish café? Fish café? Okay, just call. Okay, cool. All right. Just... you want to take... yeah, yeah, maybe have a look inside? I don’t know. I’m from the US—USA. You? England? England. Are you from Jeju? Yeah? Right around? Then they put a freaking... some sort of gun up there. I wonder if it shoots fire.
Oh! You okay? Yeah, pretty simple setup here. Yeah, here are the crane operators, huh? I’m sure it’s one hell of a ride. Hottest ride in town! Let’s try both. So, I think maybe Jeju oranges might be really popular here. Getting a bag too? Let’s get a bag. Yeah, one bag sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Come on up, and then one more juice. Two juices? Yeah. How much is juice? Oh,
this? Applause Got some oranges. Still drizzling on us—ready for that clear blue sky weather. Those are good, huh? Yeah, taste really good. Let’s try the juice. Little juicy, eh? That’s cute, boy. Look at that. I guess this is supposed to be like the rock sculpture that you see everywhere. Oh man, that is the best Sunny Delight I’ve ever had in my life. Oh yeah, oh, that’s so good. Refreshing. Oh, so good. Hey, I think this is it—the Korean restaurant. Nice. This has to be it. The family has been making this for... you know,
15-plus, 20 years. Usually, back in the day, these were kind of stuck next to a house.
2024-12-07 14:33
