Jeju Island, A Freedom Camping Paradise

 Perhaps the greatest destination to camp in the world is Jeju Island in South Korea. I mean specifically for long term travelers on a budget of course. Although, I had gotten off to rough start. As a vagabond without a job or source of income at the time, it was my noble goal to explore the developed country without paying for accommodation. My first stop in South Korea was Jeju Island and I was nearing my 1 year of constant world travel anniversary when I arrived. 

It was the first time I'd ever visited South Korea. My first impression was that everyone looked like Psy. I arrived on Jeju Island in a city named Jeju. I suppose I was in Jeju, Jeju.  Hahahahahaa. 

Anyway, I didn't book anything or research anything. I was stubbornly proud to be a "real" traveler who boldly explores the unknown and lives in the moment no matter how much of a pain in the ass it is to actually live out that mindset sometimes. 

One of the first things I decided to do was grab a bite to eat. I looked for something quick and cheap and ordered whatever the hell this stuff is below. It looked good but they asked me if I was sure I really wanted it when I ordered it. 

Ah, my first taste of Korean food. Really fucking spicy! I tried but honestly could not finish it.

I was in the city and started walking towards the ocean expecting my camping out experience would be similar to my great days in Hawaii, where I would I often walk down the beach until I found a good spot. There had always been a beach nearby in all my experiences of islands so far. But this time, I was disappointed to only find loads of piers and concrete meeting the coast. So I walked down the coast expecting to eventually find a beach within decent distance since I was on an island. I walked and walked and walked.. Anyway, Jeju island is a fantastic place to camp, just need to get away from the city first.
Eventually, I had wasted enough time and needed to get a hostel, it was forest themed.. as you can see. You can also see from the sign in the picture, it's name was The Forest. 

 Very surprisingly, check out was at 10:00 am. Which is very early for a night owl like me. I have stayed at many hostels or hotels around the world and although check out times vary, I had never encountered a check out time as horrendously early as 10:00 AM! In Tijuana I had a 1:00 PM check out, China was 12:00 PM, and I've commonly experienced 11:00 AM. But 10:00 AM is freaking early as hell especially for ones on holiday and can't even sleep in much since you need to wake up before 10 to be able check out at 10. Oops I'm super complaining and bitching about a first world problem.

It's not that big of a deal I guess.

   

After that I took a bus out of the city and got off at the nearest beach. To my pleasant surprised the beach had free wifi. 

Trying to improve my screwed up shoes

Finally, I had started to live out my frugal lifestyle in Korea.

The next morning I noticed an Unesco site on my map and I started walking and walking and walking in that direction. Jeju is a dot on the world map and it never ceases to amaze me how long it takes to walk a decent part of a fraction of a small dot relative to the Earth. It doesn't look so far on the map but humans are so small.   

When I had gotten close enough to it but was exhausted, I found a great beach to camp on for the night, actually I nearby a resort but nobody cared. Which is what is great about Korea.
That night I was in a convenient store and what I had been noticing about convenient stores since arriving was that there was always what looked liked small bottles of wine right next to the beer. And they were very cheap! So, I got a bottle of tried it. I wasn't sure if it would be wine exactly but I was expecting something winey and fruity from the appearance but to my surprise it was not wine, it was much stronger and tasted kinda like vodka. I drank the bottle that night and the good thing is I got more drunk than I expected to pretty cheaply. Later, I learned that stuff was soju and often the locals mix it with beer.

I finally made it to the Unesco site, but not before hiding my backpack in a heavily wooded area of course. 
There was a small entrance fee to visit the natural scenery which pissed me off cause I don't normally believe in paying for nature, however, it was a wooden walkway and steps so it made me feel better because then I'm paying for the maintenance of that. There was also a beach there and many tourists.   

I had payed for a bed a grand total of 2 times in Jeju and that was in the 2 main cities, the rest of the time I camped and what blows my mind is how easy it was. Usually I have to hide or police or someone will harass trying to force me to pay for accommodation like a good tourist, although I'm not really hurting anybody. This was a problem especially in developed countries and touristy places, Hawaii, for example, can be a freedom camping nightmare. 

Food in Korea was unique and fucktasticly delicious. ohh and the toilets were pretty fancy too.

Jeju island is notorious for penis-head looking statues. 

I eventually found my way to the southern city Seogwipo.

Sorry, for my Shitty photos. My pictures will be better in the future now that I have the new Gopro 5 which has a backscreen, I should be able to tell if the photos I take are blurry or not when I take them. 

Anyway, this is hilarious. If you zoom in on the orange and read..

"After using the toilet paper, please put it in the toilet"

I thought this sign in the bathroom was hilarious and hard to believe it's necessary. I asked somebody about it and they told me it was because of Chinese tourists! 

I saw a snake in this forest..

now that I had been in the city, I headed for the bus station. I wanted to go to the mountain in the center of the island. My map also said that there was a campsite near it. However, the bus system does not go near it. it's a long way from the nearest bus stop. I didn't want to take bus then walk a long time to a campsite then climb the mountain then walk back the bus stop,  I sat down feeling a bit defeated and started looking at my map. Then an older man probably about 60 was standing over me and looking at my map too. He didn't speak very much English but somehow communicated wanting to know where I'm trying to go. I assumed he was a taxi driver but when I asked "taxi"? he replied "no money". I couldn't believe it but a random stranger gave me a free ride there and even helped me set up my tent before leaving. The campground cost a small fee, but it was convenient and nice. The next day, it was finally it was time for the hike up the mountain. 

I was chillin' in this cave near the top, eating snacks that I packed my bag with and watching people walk by and surprised when they saw me.

On the way down a man named Jeremy talked to me because he saw me in the cave. He was with his Korean girlfriend and after talking for awhile he offered me a ride. I'm so lucky to meet nice people and get a ride to and from the campsite. 

At the bottom of the trail was this cool blow off station. I guess for sanitation we used these gun things that blasted out fast moving air.

We all got in the car and Jeremy drove us to another part of the island. Then we camped on this beach. The beach was actually in a town but literally no one cares in Korea. We even asked some security people if it was alright and they said it was legal.

 At the end of my stay on the island, I went back to Jeju city and someone showed me the awesomeness that is Korean BBQ. 

My next destination was Busan, across the water and on mainland Korea. Kinda strange but a flight was actually quite cheaper than a ferry, and faster as well. Usually the longer and/or less comfortable options are more expensive! that's how the world works but not always. 

Well, that's pretty much a summarization of my time in Jeju, but it's not really complete. There is one place I particularly would like to see there, Love land, which is supposed to be an outside statue park filled with statues of people having sex. I approached Love land but noticed that everyone there was couples and figured I would come back someday with a girl.   

To be continued...