Yesterday, our tour guide had informed us that there was a typhoon coming and that our lunchtime ferry was cancelled. Instead, we would be taking the last ferry out of Jeju early Sunday morning. So we all woke early, packed our things, and like the Jews leaving Egypt, boarded a tour bus for the ferry terminal. By the time we all boarded the bus, we were running pretty far behind schedule. We all knew it was going to be a close call getting to the ferry in time. If we missed this ferry, we would be stuck on Jeju until Monday, and 70ish English teachers would be late for their classes. Fortunately we made it to the ferry terminal with 30 minutes to spare.
The ferry terminal was a mad house. There were people all over the place, packed in like sardines. Our tour guide got our tickets and got us to the foreigner-only line. Passport and ticket in hand, we showed our documents and boarded the ferry. This ferry was much larger and because of that, our tour group was given its own private room. It was awesome. We didn’t have to fight other passengers tooth and nail for a spot of carpet. We had our own carpeted room all to ourselves. The doors were closed and neither one of the doors looked particularly inviting. I would have assumed the door to our room led to a janitors closet, but that didn’t stop Koreans from trying to come into the room every few minutes for the first half our of our voyage. They would poke their heads in, look around curiously at all the foreigners then close the door behind themselves.
Despite these adorable interuptions, everyone fell asleep and I watched some Brooklyn Nine Nine. Three hours later we reached port and everyone woke up. Our tour guide led us back to the tour bus and we headed back to Gwangju. On the way we stopped at a rest stop on the side of the road for lunch. I had pork cutlet and Nicole had ramen. Out front of the rest stop was a small ride for only a dime. I had exactly a dime leftover so Nicole hopped onto the kids airplane ride and away she went. Video below.
When we finally reached Gwangju, Nicole and I bid farewell to the rest of our travel companions and took a bus back to Gwangyang while the rest of our travel mates returned to Seoul 4 hours to the north.
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