Doing a trek in Jeju isn't the same as walking anywhere on the main peninsula because you need to make special travel arrangements. You can get to Jeju Island by plane, but from Seoul, you can also take a train down to the south coast, then take a ferry from the mainland to Jeju. So I had to think about plane tickets, and just today, I went to a local travel agency and got myself a round-trip ticket from Gimpo to Jeju and back. This means I now have travel dates, and they are as follows:
Depart Gimpo Airport: Wednesday, September 28, 2;05 p.m.
Arrive Jeju International Airport: Wednesday, September 28, 3:10 p.m.
[hike 17 days, from 9/29 to 10/15, but stay until the 17th, then leave on the 18th]
Depart Jeju International: Tuesday, October 18, 7:50 p.m.
Arrive Gimpo Airport: Tuesday, October 18, 9:00 p.m.
Depart for Sangju Station: 10/20 (time to be determined)
[hike 4 days, from 10/20 to 10/23]
Depart Andong Station (or bus): 10/24
So Kevin's Walk 6 is a two-parter this year. I have a sinking feeling that the Jeju hike is going to be hot-hot-hot the entire time, and the Andong hike will be a lot cooler. Late October is full-on fall on the mainland.
Next up: I have to turn in my vacation-permission form to our HR office, fill in my exact travel dates on my travel calendar, make a new tee-shirt design, and go about the laborious task of making reservations at every pension I'll be staying at in October. Here's hoping everything isn't all booked up already.
I guess one thing I'm looking forward to, about Jeju, is seeing what it looks like now. The last time I was there was in 1986, back when I was a high-schooler. A lot has changed since then, no doubt. I've heard about the Chinese invasion of Jeju (i.e., tourists), and how the island has commercialized. Will I be as wowed by the scenery as my Korean buddy JW was? I think JW is a sucker for "postcard" moments—pretty waterfalls and such. He's not really in tune with what makes a place truly unique, truly special. Waterfalls and other natural scenes can be beautiful to me, too, but not when they're overrun by thousands of sightseers all doing the same thing. That's one reason why my first love is the Four Rivers trail: much of it is empty of everyone except the occasional bikers, which means I can enjoy the scenery in relative solitude. I'll be curious to see how true that is for the Jeju Olle trail.
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