We arrived to the port city of Seogwipo with gale force winds and pouring rain. It had been thundering and lightening for the previous two hours and we were kind of surprised the port wasn’t cancelled. Seogwipo lies on the southern coast of the island of Jeju. At 708 Sq miles, the oval shaped island lies in the Korea Strait, 51.4 mi. south of the nearest point on the Korean Peninsula.

We had planned to hike Mt Halla today, on the island of Jeju, but cancelled when we saw the forecast. Instead, we opted to take the shuttle into town and visit the Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market.

The cruise terminal is quite a distance from where the ship docked, so they have a covered moving walkway. Actually, there were a total of 5 moving walkways and soon we were in the terminal going through South
Korea’s modern immigration system. A quick scan of the passport and the face, and you’re done! We paid $20USD, charged to our onboard account, for a roundtrip shuttle ticket.

The drive is about 20 minutes and we must have passed 20 greenhouses. Jeju has a subtropical climate and is renowned for its unique agricultural products grown in volcanic soil, most notably tangerines, which make up over 99% of South Korea’s production. Key crops include Hallabong oranges, carrots, white radishes, cabbages, broccoli, green tea, peanuts, and cactus. It is also famous for seafood, pork, and natural skincare products.

Once in town we walked around a bit and shopped for Korean cosmetics, and then found the market. This is a huge market where the locals and the tourist’s shop alike. There were chocolate covered oranges, chocolate chip cookies with orange flavoring, orange juices, orange cosmetics, and orange cakes. There was also Korean bbq, deep-fried pork belly, whole roasted pigs and chickens. There were veggies, clothes and home goods, next to a fish mongers. We even found a yarn shop and stocked up. This place was hopping and it had a great atmosphere.

With Kathyn and Kevin, we decided to stay in town and have some lunch. We found a small restaurant and ordered some traditional Korean fare, mostly by pointing at the photos on the menu. We had grilled pork belly, spicy beef soup, kimchi and rice. It was delicious.

As we had to be back on board by 2:30p, we made our way back to the shuttle. We kept getting weather alerts on our watches for high winds and heavy rain so decided to head home. We would have loved to continue exploring this massive market.

Tommorow: Yatsushiro, Japan