To Geojedo I Go!

I’m going to skip a couple of events here and go right to the traveling bits. I’ve realized I’ve gotten into the habit of writing huge articles and I’d rather go back to bite sized descriptions in shorter stories for everyone to read. I’m planning on writing a longer-form article in a week or so that covers an epiphany of mine I’ve had while traveling, but for now, enjoy a tale of a known-but-less-visited place here in Korea.

A coworker of mine recommended a place far to the south in South Korea that they used to live before coming to Seoul. I’d never heard the name before, which meant it got some serious points in my book for where to visit. Near to Busan, but not quite, I made my way over to the Seoul bus station and grabbed the first bus south that I could. To Geoje!

This is, by land area, the second largest island in all of Korea. It’s beaten out only by Jeju, but not nearly as well visited. I’d say this has to do with the multiple mountain peaks and valleys between that aren’t terribly well connected. Regardless, these people make it work and have done so since something like 10,000 BCE. Only around a quarter of a million people live here at present, but boy do they have a nice island.

I spent my first night walking in the area around Gohyeon where the bus dropped me off. Surrounded by skyscrapers with mountains beyond them, I noticed a gentle mist rolling through the sky. Starbucks and a Burgerking let me know this place was a modern one, but I felt a great sense of local flavor walking through the area I simply never experienced in Seoul.

The next day I decided I decided to strike out and find what I could to experience. From where I stayed that wasn’t too easy, especially since the local bus schedules are rarely translated frequently into English. I heard of this cool little place called Oedo Botania in which a nice man and his wife decided to cultivate over 500 species of plants on a basically uninhabited island in the 1970’s.

I quite enjoyed the trip. Apparently, there was a Netflix Reality Show set here around two years ago, which would explain the popularity of the place. A large tour group (40ish people) of only middle-aged women got onto the ferry with me. They seemed to be having a grand time, especially when they fed the seagulls from the boat by throwing prawn crisps into the air. I was happy they seemed to be having the time of their lives, though twice they conspired to oust me from the seat I was sitting at by gathering about and talking loudly until I left.

The ferry also made a pit stop at Haegeumgang, some rock at the far end of a peninsula. I’m not sure why everyone on board seemed to lose their shit over getting to take a picture with this islet. I mean, it looked nice for sure, but there are so many rocks in the ocean that spire into the sky – and especially around this part of the country – I’m not sure I’ll ever get it.

The island proved to be quite gorgeous, and I was ultimately happy to have gone. Parts were closed off, but I didn’t feel like I missed anything. They even have a small little church that not many others seemed to realize was there. Overall, I’d probably recommend it to anyone heading this way, as it’s one of the few places that is “easy” to get to without a car.

That night I simply walked along the coast and got to check out the smaller communities whose lifeblood appears to be the weekend vacationers looking for a cozy place to sleep. I had a beer and enjoyed a miraculous salted caramel Einspänner on an essentially deserted beach. In fact, most of that area was deserted. Which, honestly, I enjoyed. Korea works hard to make areas someone MAY use as beautiful as it can, even if there isn’t anyone there to use it. Seeing a place that could be filled with laughter and community instead occupied with nothing but silence holds a certain type of beauty. It was rare to come by in Seoul.

I also discovered something called a Dutch Wife at the Geoje Museum. At least 700 years old as a concept, these things are designed to avoid heat during summer months when sleeping. Being a romantic and having been in similar situations in the past, my first thoughts were “That’s so sweet, the husband wants to cuddle his wife but can’t because she’ll get too hot so he uses this.” Turns out it exposes as much of your body’s surface area as possible. Which makes far more sense.

Finally, there was one attraction here that I didn’t go to that I now kick myself for having not made the time. There is a POW Camp Museum that I passed three times, one of those times hearing a military bugle call. Turns out that during the Korean War, Geoje was used as a POW camp for captured North Koreans and Chinese troops. I knew this and decided to opt out, but having researched it later, I wish I’d gone in! Quite the political intrigue at this camp involving the kidnapping of a US general, negotiations, and a propaganda victory for communist forces over UN. I highly recommend people look it up.

I only spent two nights on Geoje and set out the next morning at around 7am for a twelve-hour journey I was led to believe would only be six. That’s life though, and the subject of my next article.