Jeju Island Part II: It's Time to Ride

While my sleep-deprived students were pulling their hair out over final exams earlier this month, I was able to sneak back to Jeju Island for another four-day weekend! It was equally amazing the second time around, but quite a different experience.

The difference was mostly due to the weather and my chosen mode of transportation. First things first: I rented a scooter! A pink scooter! It was definitely illegal (I have neither a motorcycle license nor any kind of international license, which in turn mean that I coudn't get any insurance) but SO fun and liberating. No more hop-on, hop-off buses for this girl! It was definitely the best way to see Jeju - the roads are good; other drivers were (mostly) nice and let me have my own lane; and everything is well labeled so even with my crappy tourist map I found my way pretty easily. I saw lots of beautiful little spots just by pulling over for a break, and driving again after so many months felt great!

I had to feel bad for the guy who rented it to me - he was so nice and politely listened to my b.s. ("...no, I don't have a license....um, no, I've never driven one of THESE exactly") but I could tell he was worried. He must have warned me a dozen time to be careful and drive slowly, and he drove me to a parking lot so I could practice a bit before hitting the streets. I was a bit shaky at first and surely inspired no confidence, but got the hang of it quickly - it's like a cross between a bicycle as far as balance goes, and a snowmobile as far as acceleration and braking go.


As far as the weather goes, Korea is in the middle of the monsoon season, which means: constant and crushing humidity, a lot of rain, cloudy skies when it isn't raining, and little direct sunlight. I was VERY lucky with the weather though - it was cloudy and really really foggy almost the entire time, but it only rained twice in four days, and both times it was just a sprinkle for about a half hour! Somehow there was even enough sun to give me a weird scooter tan - on the back of my neck and tops of my arms and legs only!

So for four days I mostly just puttered around Seogwipo and the southern half of the island, did a little beach-hopping, and saw some new nooks and crannies that I missed last time when I was just out to see the major tourist attractions. Check out my pictures if you want to know exactly what I saw! http://picasaweb.google.com/kristin.laufenberg/JejuIslandPartII?feat=directlink