There is enough here to keep you occupied for a month of Sundays so plenty of ideas to take away and germinate before you plan Jeju adventures of your own.
From battling monsters of the deep, to flashing passing seamen, to sharing a beer with your favorite village grandfather, there are ample ways to test your mettle as the winter descends and the days shorten. On the other hand, just go for a bowl of gogi guksu or do a shift in the local CU Mart.
Why not choose a handful and see how many you have done by next year? Good luck!
1) Witness Jeju United win the K League Classic (Simon Edmunds)
2) Learn ceramics from a Jeju master (2-6 Vika Safarian)
3) Get phenomenally good at yoga, taught by Reike, a Korean master
4) Attend Buddhist sunset service at least once a week
5) Paint my car with Jeju scenery on it
6) See the sunrise from Seongsan Ilchulbong
7) Climb a real rock on Jeju’s dry riverbeds with Jeju’s “dirtbag climbers” (7-9 John Burgman)
8) Drink a pint of delicious stout or pilsner at Boris’ Brewery
9) Get down and dirty at a kimjang making kimchi
10) Swim naked in the Yellow Sea (10-16 Tom Summers)
11) Stand in the eye of a typhoon on Suwolbong, overlooking Chagwido
12) Drive the southern coastal road, waves crashing on your car, in a typhoon
13) Survive a blizzard on Mt. Halla
14) Have a morning battle with an octopus before eating it for breakfast with a bottle of soju.
15) Eat a fresh sora (turban conch) straight out of the sea
16) Outdrink the principal at a school dinner
17) Have a BBQ on Hyeopjae Beach and watch the sunset (Kaye Miles)
18) Get hassled by the man for being out in the surf when it is “too dangerous” (Isaac Bettis)
19) Night-hike on Yongnuni Oreum and lie in the crater filled with moonlight! (Eun-young Lydia Park)
20) Participate in a Jeju Furey beach volleyball event (20-21 Troy MacLellan)
21) Paraglide off Darangshi Oreum on a warm, sunny and slightly breezy day
22) Dive like a haenyeo (22-27 Olive Ocampo)
23) Get lost in a Halla forest in spring
24) Learn Jeju dialect
25) View sunrise and sunset from Mt. Halla
26) Climb Mt. Halla in winter
27) Travel around Jeju on a bicycle
28) Go swimming at Donnaeko (28-29 Jonny Richardson)
29) Climb Mt. Halla at night
30) Dive into a sea of phosphorescent bacteria by moonlight at Oedolgae (30-34 Ptolemy Barnes)
31) Try not to retreat from the blazing inferno at the fire festival
32) Eat hoddeok (Korean-style pancake) at Dongmun Market
33) Snorkel at Biyangdo
34) Skype my parents from the top of Mt. Halla (where there is wi-fi, apparently)
35) Win a horse race (35-44 Seonyoung Kim)
36) Do the penguin swim in January
37) Watch the full moon at Darangshi Oreum during Chuseok
38) Camp at Gwaneumsa in heavy snow
39) Do midnight squid fishing
40) Have a sand bath at Samyang Beach as black sand is good for neuralgia
41) Get stung by a jellyfish and then romanced by a sexy paramedic
42) Visit gotjawal after sunset to see the fireflies
43) Walk all 21 Olle courses
44) Make a ganse rag doll
45) Surf at Jungmun before a typhoon (45-53 Sonya Kim)
46) Gather wild bracken in the spring with Jeju halmang (grandmothers)
47) Ride a horse on the beach
48) Pick Jeju tangerines
49) Stay at a guesthouse and drink with total strangers
50) Go to Mt. Sanbang and drink its spring water
51) Go dolphin-watching on a yacht
52) Go to the Yellowtail Fish Festival and catch a fish with my bare hands
53) Sledding at Mabangmokji in heavy snow
54) Wear a hanbok to the park during Chuseok and pose for pictures with Chinese tourists (Wanda Wynn)
55) Be a scooter delivery guy for one day - No helmet, no speed limit, no rules! (55-57 Steve Tessaniar)
56) Talk about the past, present and future with a group of Korean War Veterans over a beer
57) Swim into a Jeju tangerine sunset, be picked up by a fishing boat and spend the night at sea
58) Try Jeju raw horse meat (58-66 Kristen Bialik)
59) Eat raw squid by Seogwipo harbor
60) Take a ferry to a surrounding island
61) Have a kimbap picnic by a waterfall
62) Learn how to scuba dive or surf
63) Check out the surfing competition at Jungmun Beach
64) Go for a submarine ride in Seogwipo
65) Invest in some Korean-style neon hiking gear and test it out on Halla
66)
Watch haenyeo in the shadow of Seongsan Ilchulbong, or Sunrise Peak
67) Run the Jeju coastal road stopping at random guesthouses (67-73 Darren Southcott)
68) Clandestinely scale Halla’s slopes through dense woodland and riverbeds
69) Listen to stories of Jeju’s history with village elders over some pork and soju
70) Become Jeju Island’s “Swampy,” stopping any new airport construction
71) Feel the volcanic rumblings of Mt. Halla (as long as they remain rumblings)
72) Witness the full force of the Hancheon river after a typhoon
73) Work the weekend graveyard shift in the City Hall CU Mart
74) Learn Chinese and translate a Jeju life book for Chinese residents in Jeju (74-77 Kim Jinmi)
75) Write a novel in Jeju dialect
76) Make a music video with Jeju grandfathers and grandmothers in Jeju dialect
77) Publish a book of photos taken at 100 locations by 100 people in Jeju
78) Play the piano for everyone at the staff-less Noeul Undeok on Jeju City Coastal Road (78-79 Bogyeong Kim)
79) Enjoy gogi guksu at Jamae Guksu on “Noodle Street”
80) Spend the night at a cottage in Jeju Stone Park (80-83 Kim, Dong Yun)
81) Walk all the Olle courses
82) Build a beautiful new beach house
83) Walk in an autumnal woodland and enjoy the cool breeze
84)
Take a random rural road and hike up an unknown oreum (Taylor Scaggs)
85) Try all of the patbingsu on the island (85-91 David Hollis)
86) Camp on the beach and wake up to the sound of the waves
87)
Run from Seogwipo to Jeju City and then jump into the sea at Iho
88) Make my own galot outfit
89) Witness a village shamanic rite
90) See sunrise at Seongsan Ilchulbong and sunset at Mara-do
91) Spend a weekend in Seoul speaking only Jeju dialect
92)
Swim in Oedo cold pool and share a makgeolli with the owner (92-93 Matt Harris)
93) Eat Jeju haejangguk (far better than the mainland stuff)
94) Own a beachside cafe and play the guitar all day (94-99 Ko Eun Young)
95) Meet Captain Clean and clean a beach for the day
96) Stay at one of Jeju’s five-star hotels
97) Cruise to China on one of Jeju’s luxury cruises
98) Write a story for The Jeju Weekly
99) Host couch surfers and show them Jeju’s sights
100) Understand Jeju (Anonymous)
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