Ulleungdo Island: Day Two.

Fortunately, the bus was pretty quiet, so we were able to get a little bit of sleep. I can pretty much sleep anywhere, so I was lucky, but it was a restless sleep for most, I think! We arrived at the beach around 4am, and the two buses just parked. We slept on the bus for another 2 hours until the leader, Max, woke everyone up and told us to get off the bus and watch the sunrise. We all grabbed our cameras and made our way out to the beach to get some pictures. It was FREEZING!! We all had on pants and light jackets, but we didn’t anticipate the chilly morning breeze coming off the ocean. Brrrr!

Lisa and I took some great photos of the sun coming up, so that was beautiful! We made our way back to the bus, grabbed some money, and ran into a store nearby to get some coffee. Just what I needed! We got back on the bus and drove about 30 minutes towards the harbor. We stopped in a small town and grabbed some breakfast. We had about 30 minutes to eat, so we just sat outside on benches and ate our food. We hopped back on the bus, and went on our way. Next stop…Mukho Harbor!!

When we arrived at the Harbor, we grabbed our bags, got off the bus, and were each handed a ferry ticket. We had to fill out our names, phone numbers, and passport numbers. In no time, we boarded the ferry, and we were on our way to Ulleungdo Island!! The ferry would take us 3 hours, so we pretty much passed out right away! I slept for most of the ferry ride, so that was nice.

When we got to Ulleungdo Island, we got off the ferry and walked up the street to a truck. The island was BEAUTIFUL!! The air was filled with the sound of people, motorbikes, the smell of fish (not so pleasant to my nose…), and there was a nice cool breeze coming off the ocean. I was so excited to FINALLY be at the island!! We threw our bags in the back of the truck and walked about 8 minutes up a big hill to our hotel. We sat on the steps for a while, waiting for Max to sort out the keys to our rooms. There were 128 people total on our trip, so it took some time. We were told to divide ourselves into groups of 4 or 5. There were two girls sitting in front of Lisa and me on the steps, so we asked if they wanted to room together. They agreed, and we became fast friends! We grabbed our key and went to our room. We introduced ourselves and started talking right away. The girls are Kelsey and Elaine. They both work together, and have only been in Korea for a few months. The four of us bonded pretty quickly, and stuck together for the rest of the trip. Randomly rooming with people can be pretty risky, but Lisa and I were lucky…these girls were great!!

Our hotel room was a decent size (for Korea), and we were all pretty pleased. We had a full bathroom, with a bathtub?! (Also a big deal for Korea.) There were four sleeping mats and four pillows, so we would be sleeping Korean-style for this trip…Woot! We made ourselves comfortable, washed our faces after the long trip, and headed downstairs to get lunch.

The hotel was connected to a small Korean restaurant. Adventure Korea had pre-paid for some of our meals, so that was nice. We went in the restaurant and helped ourselves to the buffet. There was rice (of course!), kimchi (of course!), noodles, fish, and soup. I don’t eat fish, so I helped myself to rice and soup. We sat down at a table and talked with our new friends. After lunch, we had some break time before hiking.

We all met on the front steps of the hotel at 3:30pm. We were going to hike to a lighthouse and go bridge jumping…SO FUN!! The hike was much longer than we anticipated, so we definitely got a workout! It was a beautiful hike, and the weather was perfect! Fall weather in Korea is my favorite. We hiked for an hour or so, and finally made our way to a lighthouse at the top of the mountain. It was a very modern-looking lighthouse, with a house attached where people lived. (It made sense after that long hike…can’t imagine hiking THAT every day to work!!) Our group took a photo at the top of the lighthouse, and then just enjoyed the beautiful view. On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at a bridge, and had the option to jump off if we wanted!

I held the cameras and took photos and videos of Lisa, Kelsey, and Elaine. Max was in the water the whole time with a camera attached to his helmet. He was recording people jumping in. It was really fun to watch everyone jumping off the bridge! I got some great shots, and didn’t have to endure the FREEZING water! Win-win!

Lisa and I walked back to the hotel after she finished jumping a few times to change clothes for our next adventure…riding a cable car to the top of the mountain! We met again on the front steps and walked FOREVER to get to the cable car. We toured a museum all about Dok-do Island, the controversial island that Korea and Japan are fighting over for ownership…They handed us our ferry tickets, and we got into the cable car. They piled so many of us into the cable car that it was nearly impossible to take any photos or see out…bummer.

When we got to the top, we went exploring. We took some photos and walked up the mountain a bit more to see an AMAZING view of the whole island! It was breathtaking! The sun was setting, so we got to take some amazing photos of the pink and blue sky…something that we just can’t see in Seoul. Lisa and I got some photos with Max, he became our new best friend quite quickly! He was an amazing tour guide, and was so much fun to be around! When we were done, we rode the cable car back down the mountain. At the bottom, we took a short trail to the side of the mountain where we could sample medicinal water. I was expecting natural spring water, so I took a huge gulp and nearly spit it out! It tasted like pennies!! They told us it tasted like copper because it was natural, and that was the healing part of the water. That was an unfortunate surprise…We made our way back down the mountain, and went back to the hotel restaurant for dinner. Dinner for me was again only rice and soup because the main dish was seafood. Blah.

After dinner, Lisa, Elaine, Kelsey, and I went to the local market and bought drinks and snacks. We headed up to the rooftop of the hotel to relax and enjoy ourselves. We had a great time, but we were completely exhausted from the day. Not many people from our group were up there, so it was nice and quiet. We stayed up on the roof looking at the stars and enjoying the peace and quiet. Such a nice change from Seoul!! At around 11pm, we all decided to call it a night.

To be continued...