This weekend I decided to make a solo trip to ulleung-do island!
Ulleung-do is an island east of mainland south korea and it takes 3 hours bus ride from Seoul(Dongseoul bus terminal) to Gangneung and another 3 hours of ferry to get to the island. Most locals know of this place but have never been there before because it is so hard to get to! The island does not have an airport and the only means of getting to the island is the ferry whose operation is susceptible to weather conditions.
The island is famous for its seafood/squid, pumpkin and its beautiful scenery. Definitely you have heard of Jeju island before, and the scenery and backdrop is similar. But definitely come to ulleung-do if you want a less touristy experience.
I originally intended to stay 3 nights here but was forced to cut short my trip to 1 night due to weather conditions. The option was to stay for 7 nights and wait out the weather conditions. But my wallet could not afford it.
Note that this is my second attempt at trying to reach this island. The first time I booked my Airbnb rooms without checking the weather and it turn out that Typhoon Kongrey was passing by Korea/Japan and it would affect the trip. I decided to wing it as the typhoon would only affect one day of my booking thus i could still go the next day. However the winds were still strong without the typhoon and i was still grounded on the mainland. Forced to watch the rain by the window. A lot of time was spend indoors and eating warm food (gingseng chicken and potato kalgatsu and potato pancake). I spent the day in a shopping centre to wait out the typhoon as a match against a typhoon wind and umbrella will result in your umbrella being spoilt. something like this picture comes to mind. My pants and underwear were soaked and it was a sad and moody day. The typhoon was so bad that the shopping sign fell. Luckily no one was hurt.
Here are some of the pictures from my succesful trip!
I spent 24 hours on the island and managed to catch a sunset and a boat trip around the island the next morning. After the boat trip, i rushed to take my bag from my accommodation and rushed to get the ferry out of the island.
Nicholas Tan
