Olle? Olleh!

Tree, people, beach, rock, cicada… you name it I feel it.

Olleh. It is not a yay! in Spanish. It is a word for walking paths in Jeju, only.

Olle is a Jeju word for Jeju’s stone wall alley. Now it’s a symbol word for’walking slowly along the way.’ in Jeju.

It was on my rough itinerary in jeju. So I got the map at the airport and my hostel happen to be really close to one of the course looks really great which is besides of beach. Okay now I have all I need!

Five days of stay the chance came in fourth day. The night before all of us had a kind of good bye party for two girls who stayed at the hostel. And we all chat and I brought up the olleh walk. Lydia, who’s from the states were really interested so tomorrow we are going to go olleh 10.

After heavy rain the night before, sky is slowly clearing up. Not too hot, not rain so perfect day for walking around.

Coincidental Lydia and I are both photography buffs so we are going to continue our passion  along the way.

Olleh 10 course and this day gives us a lot of stories. It was wild and epic. Let’s talk it though.

There are lots of buses to offer olleh course. It is just a 5 mins away so bus it is! Only one downside in jeju when you have a plan, that is a bus timetable is not very accurate. So we decided just take a taxi, which costs us about two bucks. With our cameras, slippers (we had no choice but don’t do it!) , that seems like a wise choice. Well but the taxi driver doesn’t seem to know where we are going witc is unusual for taxi driver in Jeju. But he insists go with him cause he’s going to call around and takes us there. He actually did. He figured it out where we are going. There are olleh I formation centers all the begin and end spot of courses. So he brings us there. What a sweet man!

“oh sh*t!!” that’s the word I hear right next when we got off. Lydia left her brand new tripod in the cab!!! We just stopped. We don’t know the name of driver, taxi company, taxi number, no nothing. We were playing with it last night and really looking forward to use it today. We freeze like 5 minutes and she closes the case with “it could be worse.” true. I sure do know.

So let’s move on. There are orange and blue arrows on the street as a guide. Oh and he ribbons in same color. So those are giving us the comfort feeling of we are on the right track.

Olle 10course leads us to beach side road. There are little arrows on the bottom. How cute is this? Orange is on your way and blue is the other way. There will be shown in this post, but there are ribbons on the tree with same color to let you know you are on the right track.

On the way, we saw beautiful light houses at the end of the land. Even though we didn’t have the tripod we want to take a picture of them. (You see how excited we are about photography today?) The light house is out of olle path, but since we are out walking and enjoy the view, thought why not?

Big red lighthouse was beautiful. It is a bright red so really photogenic. Suddenly there was a man shouting us something and waving like something’s wrong. We were quite far away from the road so we couldn’t hear him nor recognize him. I ran, and there he was, guess who? The taxi driver! He knew we didn’t bring the tripod out and he drove all the way down here, looking for us. We were even out of olle path. Can you believe him? Who does that? Obviously Korean, or should I say Jeju-people does. He was so excited to find us and say just pay him for gas money. Of course! Lydia gladly, I mean gladly pay him – way more than he asked from the first place. Wow he just blew our mind. Pretty amazing, hu? Wait till I finish this article. There’s more.

Now, photography begin! Lydia got her brand new tripod back, so we have more exciting photography time.

After photo shoot of light house, we again follow the path. Two ribbons and two arrows to comfort you ‘you are right on track’. Just fascinated by that. You will know once you are out there, you could feel quite lost. I mean, just dead quiet dirt load, nothing there and just you. If you are not sure, just walk toward anywhere. Then you could find blue arrow pointing at you or the orange one that does.

Olle course 10 has it all. Beach, the natural road which didn’t covered by concrete, trees, calm and oh yes there’s people. The start of course 10 was just a view of beach. Then after this turning point we are walking into little bush. Surprisingly there are people camping, drinking, eating and enjoying. They were really happy to see us two girls and invited us to drink a can of beer of have some pork or eat some cool watermelon. How sweet are they.

This little bush just right beside of beach was my favorite part of olle 10 course.

Trees are not too tall like in the mountain, they are not too dark green, and they grow beautifully. And this, I saw this beach, sand and trees grow right after the salt water it stop, and admire the view.

Sweet old couple hikers. We wave or greeting each other on the Olle path. Which is unusual thing in Korea. (really.)

At the end of the hill, here’s a cute little guy. He or she waited for 9 years under the ground and having their prime time. Let’s hope he or she have a blast!

He is another symbol of Olle. A little donkey.

Now, after the little hill, huge series of patch is waiting for us.  Potato is only thing I can recognize but they look healthy and delicious!

Songak san (Mt.Songak) is the center of Olle 10, this mountain hold course 10 together. There, that unrealistically beautiful mountain, named Songak.

There was just one little patch has bright color, which is this flower. I have no idea what’s this, just I know this brighten up the whole neighbourhood.

This point was almost 1/3 point of olle 10 but we already pass two and we were starving, seriously. Well, easily thinkable we spend way much time for photography and ribbons (in my case). I realize that olle walking path is not just ‘walking’ but ‘trekking’. Light breeze, welcoming sunshine, beautiful scenery are all there but aren’t just that. You need water, snack, and good walking shoes like the gears you are supposed to have for hiking or trekking.

We are in the middle of potato patch and pretty flowers and we could see no buses of cars. So there goes extreme thought. “Should we hitch?”

Lydia is from States, and I’m from here but Seoul, and neither of us never hitch hiking before. Lydia said you don’t do hitch hiking in city of States, and I could see why I mean I see news. And Seoul, I actually don’t need to hitch hiking because our subway goes every inch of city, and it’s dangerous you know. Nevertheless, we are starving and hot, we decided to try it. It’s Jeju, what could happen?

Fortunately after few minutes later we saw a SUV is comming. They were a young couple, we thought they were tourist but they live here. I ask them “Please drop us off the nearest restaurant district.” Assume there could me better transportation than in the middle of potato patch.

They drop us off in front of Songak san. Apparently that is a tourist spot, there goes lots of restaurants. Countless seafood restaurants (What do you expect? You are on island!), tourists, cars. Seems like every visitor of island are gathering here. But I can see why. Look at that. How amazing is this? I said it many times in before posts; Jeju Island is made by volcanic activity, so this island is basically looks really exotic.

But you know what they say, ‘A loaf of bread is better than the song of many birds.’

It was amazing and all, we need food, instantly.

We eat sea urchin bibimbam(Mixed rice with vegetable and urchin) and ear shell porridge which are Jeju specialty. It was really amazing. Maybe because we were deadly starving? Could be but I believe this fresh seafood is that good.

Food was the secret ingredient. It cheers us up, big time.

Now, back to the view. It was the most beautiful view we saw today. All the trees and beach were great for sure but this is magnificent. The tip of island is there, huge yet mysterious. There were more mysterious looking caves on the way down. Jeju Island has a long history related to military, so those were soldier’s training spot, apparently. Besides all that history, this geological feature of the wall was amazing.

I’ve never seen such thing like this. Jeju is that mysterious land. All the black layers and bright green plants are also such a photogenic. It makes me say something like “I can’t believe this is Korea. I feel like I’m in the different country!” What an oxymoron thing to say.

This is inside of the cave. Square, moss or some other plant only grows in volcanic area.

When Lydia takes a picture of me. This is one of my favorite capture of the moment.

And yes. I do love take a picture with ‘Danger’.

Look at all the shapes. Amazing aren’t they?

We spend lots of time there to take numerous pictures.

Now it’s time to go back. Lydia has to move to different accommodation today, so we didn’t have that much time. However you know the bus in Jeju, there’s one bus in every hour. At least it was in where we were. in the grocery store for some soda and snack, we asked specific time of bus to Ilsung ri (Where our hostel is), and the bus is in 40 minutes according to time table. “Are you that busy?” The owner of store asks us. “Well, 40 minutes are kind of long time to waiting for a bus but we don’t want to spend our money on taxi so we are going to wait.” then he said “I’ll be heading out to city in about 10 minutes, so why don’t I drive you there?”

Guess what we said? “Oh yes, yes, a thousand times yes!”  well I wanted to. But it was such a grateful offer. Wow what a day.

So he drove us to city, around the start point of olle 10 and we got home by taxi.

What a day! Truly, what a day!

Amazed by analog-beauty of Olle, scenery of Jeju, and all this wonderful incidents caused by people on the road.

One short day, in the emerald Jeju, olle 10 course above all.

Thanks to all the sweet people we met on the road, a sweet couple who willing to drive us hitch-beginners, sweet old guys invited us to have some beer and some food, the grocery store ajussi (old man in Korean) who kindly offer us the ride, and most of all, to my friend Lydia gives me the most hilarious day during my short break. Let’s go photo shoot together!

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Could life be so easier if we have these marked arrows?