How funny! I wrote few travel posts on
Jeju but I didn't mention how we got there! Ommo! There are a few ways to go to Jeju. Take an airplane if you are a person who doesn't like waiting at a red traffic light; or hitch on a night ferry ride if you would love to experience total darkness in the open sea and a slight feel of 'titanic'; or lastly swim across the ocean if you have the stamina of the Hulk or Captain America (post-Avengers dilemma).
With me having the time and wanting to be a little adventurous, my cousins and I decided to take the long night ferry from Busan. Tickets cannot be bought earlier, we have to be at Busan to buy it. Of course, our hostel owner was kind enough to help us call and book :) There are 2 types of ferry and it departs on different days, so make sure you buy the correct ferry on the day you aim to depart :)
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| The jetty |
It will be a 10 hour ride, so we can choose to stay at 1st class, 2nd class, or 3rd class. 1st class was way too expensive. 2nd class you'll get a bunk all to yourself and 3rd class? 3rd class is like this:
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| Sharing the whole floor with more than 100 passengers (If there really are that much) |
Seeing that we want to have a great morning when we reach Jeju and we didn't want to place our bets that we'll be fine sleeping on the floor, we took the 2nd class. It's quite similar like Malaysia KTM night train! We had our own reading light beside us, and the bunk was wide enough for us to toss around, to turn left and right. Sheets were clean, pillow was comfy enough and the blanket was thick and warm.
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| This is how it look inside. Very comfy! |
There's a restaurant in the ferry, a very simple one which serves simple meal. As long as it was filling to the stomach, we were happy. Cost us about RM18 each per person, quite pricey for such a meal but what more can we ask for when we were on a ferry. We had chicken, soup, and another dish which I forgot what it was, I think it was ddeok-bok-gi
aka spicy rice cake.
Every room has about 8 to 10 bunks, and our rooms are not locked. Some times, some locals tried to play some tricks. They might purchase the 3rd class ticket, but then walked into the 2nd class area to check which bunk is empty, and they'll gladly take it. Smart move.
View was quite nice when we just got on board around 6 to 7 in the evening. We still get to see the bridge, the fishing boats, and other ferries. When the ferry ventured further into the sea and time started ticking away, we starting to see small yellow dots around us; those are other ferries, or fishing boats.
But later on when it's about 10, it's total darkness. To some extend it's quite scary and the scene of titanic ship hitting the unseen iceberg disturbed me so I ran into my bunk and sleep! Thankfully I was so tired that even the TV was switched on because some ajosshi wanted to watch some funny programme, I dozed off quickly. And it was a good sleep. I woke up, went on the deck and thanked God for creating such a beautiful scene for what was in front of my eyes:
And there it was,
Jeju Island :)
