Day 20, last hurrah

I'm back at my apartment in Seoul, and my computer isn't cooperating, so I'm tapping this entry out on my phone, as I've been doing for nearly three weeks.

My final day on Jeju-do was what the French would call mouvementé, i.e., hectic or full of activity. I crossed much of the island at least twice, and I learned a lot about the bus system in Jeju, which you can't quite trust. Naver might tell you that a bus is on its way at a certain time, but when you get to the bus stop, the computer screen there will show an arrival time that's 15-20 minutes later. 

I also used a cab once, although not to get to the airport. Using a cab to cross a chunk of the island will cost you a pretty penny: at present, the base fare for a Jeju cab is W3,300, which is slightly less than the W3,800 base in Seoul. The island is around 75 km wide along its east-west axis, and about half that distance going north to south. Traversing 30-some km by cab will cost you at least W50,000, so don't do it often. My day took me from the extreme eastern part of Jeju to the northern part to reach the museum, which was close to the international airport. From there, I went all the way down to the southwest, to Moseulpo, to track down that bakery. I bought my food and made my way back up to the airport.

On the 251 bus ride to Moseulpo and that bakery, there were two bits of drama, one minor and one serious. First, a hefty girl got on the bus and immediately launched into a loud cell-phone conversation, something that is frowned upon when it comes to bus etiquette. Every bus has a huge TV screen on which are broadcast these public-service ads explaining how to behave politely in public, and one thing the announcements focus on is loud, rude conversations. After a few minutes of this noisy verbiage, the bus driver could take it no longer, and he shouted at the girl to end her conversation. The girl hung up, shut up, and got off at the next stop. Maybe that was her actual stop, or maybe she was just embarrassed. Second, and more seriously, an old woman hastily and clumsily tried to get off the bus at her stop, but she somehow managed to step off the bus and fall backward, cracking her skull hard on the bus's lowest step. I felt the vibration of her impact. Some people on the sidewalk immediately ran over to help the poor woman to her feet, but it was immediately obvious that something was wrong. The bus driver asked whether the woman was bleeding, and someone said yes. The driver grabbed a bunch of tissues and handed them to one of the strangers helping the woman. "Call 119!" the driver suggested. That's the Korean version of 911. The old woman, for her part, bravely tried to stand and walk, but after taking two steps, she sank into a squat and stayed there, clutching her head. I didn't see what happened next, but I hope the woman did end up getting the 119 treatment. When you're as old as she was, and you suffer that sort of blow to the head, any number of injuries are possible, from internal bleeding to problems with the neck vertebrae to an actual cracked skull, which can lead to edema, i.e., a swollen brain.

Before all that happened, though, I first went to the Jeju National Museum, which is apparently called the National Jeju Museum in Korean. Although the place looks huge, the general public has access to only a small fraction of the building. There's an outside exhibition space, but it didn't seem to have much going on; some parts of it were still being developed, as evidenced by the presence of construction equipment on the grounds. For the most part, the outside space looked more like a tranquil picnic area than anything else. There were things to see once I finished outside and went inside, and that took about an hour. The interior is designed to guide the visitor on a specific path; you walk slowly along and appreciate the exhibits as you go. I wasn't sure what to expect; what I saw was a lot of displays and text devoted mainly to ancient history and previous centuries. There was almost nothing about modern Korea, except maybe at the very end of the permanent collection. Another space was devoted to what was billed as an "immersive experience," which turned out to be a nifty, CGI-heavy movie that was an artistic interpretation of a bygone Korean's testimony about being lost at sea, discovering islands off the Korean peninsula, and returning to Jeju. 

With the museum and the food quest done, I took a slow bus to the airport. (Each of these bus rides was a couple hours long, so I spent all day looking out at either towns or the countryside.) It was sad to know I'd soon be leaving Jeju, but time only ever marches forward, and forward we must all go. 

At the airport, I encountered a problem when I tried checking in my bag. The ticket agent explained the situation in brisk Korean; I didn't catch most of what he was talking about, but it sounded as if there were some kind of trouble with the general checking of bags on this flight, and I wouldn't need to check my bag. He told me to go to a different counter across the way to get checked in, so that's what I did. A young lady helped me through the check-in process, even giving me an exit-row seat, which is more roomy for big guys like me. (In the States these days, you have to pay extra for such seating, if I'm not mistaken.) I didn't want to list my backpack as a carry-on, though, because I had a multitool in there that I knew would get confiscated at security, and that's exactly what happened. I'd been able to bring the multitool with me down to Jeju because I'd had my backpack checked at Gimpo Airport. For what it's worth, though, it was only a tiny dollar-store multitool, so I didn't feel its loss too keenly or anything.

But that wasn't the end of the departure shit-show. My ticket showed that my flight was leaving from Gate 11, so I made my way there and waited, eating my glorious meal. I had arrived two hours early, so I had plenty of time to kill, and after not having gone to the bathroom all day, I was looking forward to dropping some kids off at the pool before getting on the plane. Alas, despite the food, nothing happened. My guts remained stubbornly reticent while I looked at the departure marquee for Gate 11 and noticed that there was a flight only a few minutes before mine that was departing from the same gate. I sensed trouble. 

Sure enough: the flight before mine got delayed by 15 minutes. This shoved it right up against my own flight's departure time, so as you might imagine, my flight ended up being delayed a few minutes, too. The two flights were still listed uncomfortably close together in time, and I began to wonder how the staff would handle nearly simultaneous boarding.

My flight was 8986; the one right before mine was 8982. The staff had 8982 board first, then quickly shifted to boarding my flight. A lot of people got confused as to which flight was boarding at what time. I wasn't confused because I'd quietly noted all the status updates as they appeared on the marquee. 

When it came time to board my flight, though, the passengers from another arriving flight streamed out and through our same gate right as we were boarding. This created a traffic jam that was resolved by choreographing who went through the gate at a given time. Not only was it confusing to have two departing flights at the same gate only ten minutes apart, there was also this nonsense to deal with as crowds of arriving and departing passengers had to move through each other. Somehow, the chaos was kept to a minimum, but it was a pretty disorderly scene caused by weird and awkward scheduling. I had no such trouble leaving Gimpo almost three weeks ago, but leaving Jeju was a mess. I'm not impressed with the airport's organization, which reminds me of how disorganized Charles de Gaulle Airport used to be before they added some new, better-designed terminals. 

After that, it was just a matter of following the crowd. We got checked through Gate 11, but instead of going down a jetway to the plane, we had to take a bus to the plane and climb a half-covered stairway up to the jet. I'm glad it wasn't rainy, or that would have increased our collective confusion and misery. After all that silliness, though, I was delighted to discover that I had a whole row of seats to myself, and the row in front of me was empty as well.

It's an hour-long hop from Jeju to Seoul; the flight went by quickly. With no baggage to claim, I simply left the airport. I took the Line 9 subway to Express Bus Terminal Station, transferred to Line 3, and reached my final stop, Daecheong, without a hitch. I now have a one-day break, which I'm going to spend repacking some provisions for the Andong Dam walk. I'm also going to visit the office with a quickie lunch of spaghetti and meatballs to fulfill my duty to make an October meal for the crew. The meatballs will be homemade, but the sauce will be bottled stuff I found in my building's grocery. Short notice and all that. After lunch, I'll visit the bus terminal to get a ticket to Sangju City for the following day, which will also be Day 1 of the Andong walk. (Day 1 is only 10K, so I can afford to leave late.)

When I got to my building, I went to the lobby to pick up two packages that had been waiting for me for a while: (1) my long-anticipated methyl cellulose (for making veggie burgers), and (2) my bucket of Mountain House dried food, some of which I'll be using during the upcoming hike to the Andong Dam.

Below are some photos from the final day of my Jeju trip. I'll caption them later, but I think you can figure most or all of them out without captions.

Seong-san in the morning

waiting for the bus to take me to the museum

Even the flowerpots have dragons.

National Museum

I knew I'd better take a lot of shots outside the museum because who knew what the rules were re: cameras inside the building.

small font: The place where history and culture breathe.

large font: Jeju National Museum

If I were a baker, I'd make grist-mill-shaped cakes.

less of an exhibition space and more of a park

kids (they saw me and said, "Hello! Hello!" in English)

not sure what they're working on here

another disaster cartoon to love

this hall wasn't open

entering the main exhibit space

Entry was free.

A lady staffer said indoor photos were okay.

the "immersive space"

announcement of what's coming

You get the illusion of standing on a ship at sea.

Multiple projectors work in unison to produce the effect of being in the scene.

looking down at the "ship's deck"

rooftop garden... turned out to be small

My museum visit took about an hour. On to finding my beloved food!

got caught photographing this guy

just a little cool outside, and this dude's in a thick winter coat

In-bus violence (esp. against the driver) can lead to three years' imprisonment.

my bakery!

I asked the guy who helped me out whether this bakery was a chain because I was hoping I could find a branch in Seoul. He said this bakery was, alas, unique. On the bright side, this means I have an excuse to come back to Jeju-do.

that lovely, lovely pizza-thing

one of two croissant-shaped salt breads

another shot of Halla Mountain

caught sleeping

can't wait to bite into this

that buttery interior

Note the close-together departure times for Flights 8982 and 8986 (my flight).

in the plane after much hassle

taxiing

The rest of my exit row is empty.

The row in front of me (also an exit row) is empty, too.

final approach to Gimpo (I saw Namsan along the way)

Some videos from the immersive experience: