VISITING GAPADO, JEJU, SOUTH KOREA

There might not be anything to do there in the traditional sense for tourists (think museums, statues and memorials) but dive in among the houses and yards, talk to the people - you’ll have such a rewarding time on this little piece of isolated Korea.

It’s like stepping back in time to how Jeju once was before mass tourism arrived.

I hope to run a full story with details for the September issue of Jeju Life - so people can get out there and visit before the weather turns for the worse.

But for now I’ll leave you with an excerpt of what I’ve written so far and a collection of images from the day.

Back out on the main road that intersects the island I pass an assortment of residents going about their business. All stop to look at me as I pass. And I oblige them with more waves and smiles. Four old ladies with push carts occupy the whole road. I wave. They flash me toothy grins as they continue to the local church for a service. Next a father and daughter pass by on a scooter and say ‘hi’. A Haenyeo in full gear ambles down the street. A man in a pickup truck brushes by and offers us a lift somewhere. Making a stop in a store (almost someone’s front room) for ice cream a mother and son look up at me and the kid just can’t stop staring.

GAPADO, MARADO, DEL.ICIO.US, JEJU, SOUTH KOREA

Jeju might already be one of the furthest locations south in South Korea, but if you really want to go south then you’ll be needing to go to Gapado and Marado. These two tiny islets lie off the south-west coast of Jeju. That’s where I’ll be heading tomorrow.

Gapado is first on the agenda and the larger of the two. I haven’t been here yet so it’ll be new territory.

Marado, however, has been visited before, around this time last year. It’s almost as flat as a pancake and with no natural shade can be extremely hot in summer. There’s endless blue sky and ocean around. Food consists of seafood Jajangmyeon.

What I like about Marado is that it’s firmly OFF the foreigner tourist trail. Meaning that very few actually make the trip out here - even if you’re a resident.

It’s relatively easy to get there. Catching a bus from the Jeju City bus terminal will have you at Moseulpo harbour in about one hour. From there take the ferry.

When I was first getting the magazine going I did write a story on Marado which can be read here. It’ll be re-written for publication at a later date.

And in journalism news.

With a plethora of Journalism topics to blog about, tonight I’ll pick up on a post made by Matthew Ingram about the questionable usefulness of Del.icio.us for bookmarking stories:

It has occurred to me over the past year or so that while I religiously bookmark things, often dozens of them in a single day, I rarely go back and look them up. If I’m writing about something and I remember some details, I type them into Google and eventually track the page down.

It’s something I do too and have realized that I don’t actually go back to read my del.icio.us bookmarks often. I input fragments of what I remember about a page into Google and that’s usually enough to track down the relevant page again.

Having said that, I do find del.icio.us fantastic for finding quality pages that don’t have intrusive Google AdSense advertisements plastered all over them. Which is becoming a real issue these days.

FROM OSAKA, JAPAN TO JEJU, SOUTH KOREA, GUEST BLOGGING, BRIAN MILLER, AUGUST ISSUE OF JEJU LIFE

This morning I returned from summer vacation in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan. I had a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing time in both cities. Universal Studios proved to be the Osaka highlight while the massed, red, torii gates of Fushimi-Inari were for Kyoto.

A heartfelt ‘thank-you’ to Brian Miller for guest blogging while I was away. His photography based posts brought in a new theme to the blog that I wouldn’t have touched upon in the depth he did. My favorite post however, has to be him detailing the ‘Jeju Bible‘ that yes, unfortunately for us all, doesn’t seem to be in print anywhere/anymore.

While on vacation I was able to finish Sara Lacy’s new book on the rise of web 2.0. It’s a great read and provides the background stories on all of the sites we use (take for granted) today: Facebook, Flickr, Slide, Digg and LinkedIn.

And finally:

This afternoon I stopped by at the Jeju-Si office to collect the August issue of Jeju Life. We’ll be distributing over the weekend.

It’s our best issue yet.

MORE ON KCTV ENGLISH NEWS JEJU, THE BIJARIM FOREST, WORLD’S THIRD BUSIEST PASSENGER ROUTE, JEJU, SOUTH KOREA

I was able to find a work around to view the KCTV English News Jeju, which involved right clicking on the black Video on Demand box that appears after selecting an airing date here. Click ‘View Selection Source’. Finding the line “param name =”Filename” value= “http://www.kctvjeju.com/a/200807/080718n5.asx” I copied the url directly into my browser (Firefox) to view. Here are links for the first five bulletins:

- Monday July 14th
- Tuesday July 15th
- Wednesday July 16th
- Thursday July 17th
- Friday July 18th

Despite warnings of Typhoon Kilmaegi visiting the island, the weather today in Jeju Si remained bright enough for a drive into the eastern interior. The Bijarim (Nutmeg) Forest proved to be a pleasant stroll capped off with viewing a tree that was over 850 years old.

Finally, in an interesting Jeju ‘fact of the day’: the route between Gimpo (Seoul) and the island is the third busiest passenger air route in the world with 858 flights a week (as of September 2007).