We ported at Jeju, a small island south of the mainland of South Korea in sleazy rain. Before we even got into the terminal, Sharon and I were soaked, The terminal is very modern and we were greeted by lots of Koreans and had our photos taken with them in their traditional attire.
Because of the rain, we abandoned our plans of visiting a closeness park with a waterfall and jumped on a bus to take us to the market in town. We exited the bus in the downpour and worked our way to the entrance of the covered market. The market was truly a working market. You could find everything from food, clothes, shoes, pots and pans, and fresh fish.
Jeju is known for it’s oranges they produce a variety called Hallabong (known for a top-knot shape) which are a hybrid seedless and very sweet mandarin orange. The variety is known for it’s sweetness and it’s high vitamin C content. The market offered them everywhere you turned and also orange themed clothing and chocolates filled with Hallabong flavored creme.
We wandered the rows of merchants and it was interesting to see the fish market area where you could pick your fish, albacore or octopus from a tank and have it cleaned and prepared for you to cook. If you like dried fish, that was available too.
The candy in the market was very unique and delicious. There were so many stores selling the Jeju chocolate with a variety of fruit inside. However, there seemed to be a price fixing on chocolate as every booth sold the candy at the same price and weren’t interested in bargining.
We enjoyed a lunch of sweet and sour pork and finished it off with a waffle filled with Nutella, then folded in half with chocolate ice cream. It was a great way to end our day at the market before facing the continuing rain.
The market was a photographer’s paradise. Sharon and I were able to capture so many unifier images and videos. It was a great day of experiencing the Jeju lifestyle.
We got back to our stateroom and warmed up while watching the sea begin to get rough as the port faced 40 knot winds.
As we carefully left port, we expect rough seas tonight and rain for our first stop in Japan tomorrow – Yatsushiro. We are looking forward to our time in Japan and can’t believe our trip is over half done.