I first visited South Korea in April, 2014. I was very interested in returning. One thing I was conscious of was the weather. I thought September would be ideal, not as hot as July. Surprise, it was HOT.

I flew from Brisbane via Sydney to Seoul Inchoeon Airport. I spent the night at an airport hotel before heading over to Seoul Gimpo Airport to catch a flight to Jeju Island. Fun Fact, GMP-CJU is the heaviest traveled domestic flight in the world.

Jeju Island is known as the Hawaii of Korea. Per Wikipedia, there is 3,459 islands in South Korea, with Jeju being the largest. First impression was it’s was very green, HOT and HUMID. I can’t stress enough how humid. I had grand hopes of sightseeing, but I did not plan on it being so hot and humid or getting a migraine. The combination of the 3 meant I was able to join the lovely suite at the Grand Hyatt Jeju

I am going to blame the heat on what happened next. I decided to take a taxi to the O’sulloc Tea Museum. It was interesting to learn about the tea production.

I managed to avoid the snakes which was a relief. I did however make a silly mistake. I took a taxi out there but did not really think about how I would get back. After about 20 minutes of trying to find a taxi I gave up and got on the bus. Apparently you need a certain payment, which I did not have. Could have been a transit card, cash, credit card. I am not sure, because whatever I had did not work. A nice lady took pity on me on paid for my ride. I blame the heat for my stupidity.

After the bus fiasco, I hired a car to take to me Seogwipo-si. I saw a lot of Dol hareubangs which means stone grandfather in Korean. I was also able to visit  Cheonjiyeon Waterfall, which was stunning.

I highly recommend visiting Jeju. There was so much more to see then what I saw. I barely scratched the surface. Just be mindful of the weather, if heat is not your friend.

After a touring around Jeju, I head north to Busan. Leaving the greens of Jeju I expected Busan to be just another big city. It is a big city, but it’s a coastal.

I headed over to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. It was beautiful, I was not able to explore it properly. A lot of stairs and again it was quite warm.

If I am honest, if you asked me why I was going to South Korea, my answer was to eat chicken. It’s reported that fried chicken was introduced in Korea but the American soldiers during the Korean War. Korean Fried Chicken, KFC, has become so popular there is even a Chicken University. I did managed to eat my fair bit.

I probably should have rescheduled this trip after breaking my ankle. I really thought I would have been ok 3 months later. Joke was on me. Also I did not factor in the heat. I did my best, but felt like I spent a lot of time in my hotel. I will go back, maybe in the Spring or Fall, when I avoid the high heat. I highly recommend a visit and spend as long as you can, there is so much to see!