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Resumen del episodio
In this episode, Ed and Sora wrap up the Hidden Jeju series by exploring activities perfect for slow travelers who want to experience Jeju on a deeper level.
Slow travel doesn’t require months of time; even a week or 10 days works if you’re intentional about skipping the tourist checklist and pursuing meaningful local experiences.
The episode covers four off-the-beaten-path activities: walking rescue dogs at a no-kill shelter, Buddhist temple stays, hands-on haenyeo diving experiences and performances, and plane spotting at secret locations near Jeju Airport.
This is also the final episode of Handy Korean with Sora Ssaem, where they finally teach the most important phrase they’d somehow never covered: 감사합니다 (thank you).
Puntos clave
- Slow travel is about depth over breadth: stay longer, see fewer places, meet more people
- No-kill dog shelter volunteering: contact jeju.now on Instagram or email soraya@vamosajeju.com to arrange
- Temple stays: four temples in Jeju offer overnight stays; two program types (full itinerary with 4am wake-up vs. relaxed rest); food is vegetarian and bland (no garlic or strong herbs); book at the national temple stay website; vamosajeju.com/temple
- Haenyeo experiences: shallow-water diving with a haenyeo guide (wetsuit, basket, catch pre-planted seafood); Woman Divers Kitchen offers a media art dinner or a theatrical play based on an 89-year-old haenyeo’s life story, followed by Q&A
- Plane spotting: Dodubong Oreum for distant views; Granada Cafe rooftop for runway shots; spots along Rainbow Coastal Road and near the runway approach lights for planes flying directly overhead (bring earplugs); rental car required for the best spots
Coreano práctico con Sora Ssaem (쌤)
- 쌤 (ssaem) = shortened from 선생님 (seonsaengnim), meaning teacher
- 감사합니다 (gamsahamnida) = thank you (formal); trick: “come some eat up”
- 고마워요 (gomawoyo) = thank you (casual); 고마워 (gomawo) = even more casual
- 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo) = hello; trick: “onion on sale”
- Pro tip: mumble and bow — Koreans will appreciate the effort
Próximos pasos
- Plan your Jeju trip at vamosajeju.com/trip
- Suscríbase a la serie de 14 correos electrónicos en Vamos a Jeju.com/comenzar
- Sigue a Vamos a Jeju en Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.
- Comparte el episodio con tus amigos para ayudar a que el podcast crezca.
- Visita vamosajeju.com para artículos, videos y recursos
Transcripción del episodio
What Is Slow Travel?
Sora (00:18) Hello everyone! Welcome to our podcast, Vamos a Jeju. And today we are gonna talk about slow travel. Because we’ve been talking about DIY travel a lot. And among DIY travel, I heard my co-host Ed, he told me about slow travel many times. So for me, I’m not really familiar with slow travel. So can you tell me more about slow travel, please?
Ed (00:48) Hey Chingu, so slow travel is basically how my wife and I have been traveling for the past several years. The nice things about slow travel is number one, once I’m in a location, I stay in a place for a long time. So I can maximize what I spend on the air ticket and still do my work when we’re not doing travel-y stuff. That’s number one. Number two is by slow travel, we then get a chance to meet more people. And that’s how you and I became friends really, because it was during one of my first trips to Korea, it was a slow travel thing. We were there for a relatively short three and a half weeks and you happened to be our guide for Gyeongbokgung and then because we were there a long time we were able to meet up again for a meal and then I think I had two more slow travel sessions in Korea and each time we would meet up and that’s how we became friends. In fact I would say that without slow travel there is no Vamos a Jeju podcast. Do you think that’s a fair statement?
Sora (01:41) Yeah, I think so. I think so. For slow travel, like you need long period time, like long vacation, because you retired like early, early, early. So yeah, that’s why it’s possible. But I think like it’s really like fascinating. It’s like you can experience the culture and you can like experience like living there.
Ed (01:58) Right. And so just because I say that my slow travel is like for two months or something like that, it doesn’t mean it has to be that long. You could actually do a fairly short slow travel for like a week or 10 days. It’s just that with slow travel, we’ve chosen to like not go after everything that’s on the list of places to look at. There’s always an infinite amount of places that can go to. We just very intentionally choose to limit that to the things that we really want to see, not something that everybody must see, and then we try to find unique things that are quite special in that local area that is meaningful for a traveler to do.
So today let’s focus on four of these activities that aren’t actually going to be on most people’s travel plans, but which we think will be very meaningful if you have a few more days and you really want to experience Jeju on a deeper level. So some of these ideas are plane spotting. Another one is going to be on basically Haenyeo experiences. Then there’s temple stays and finally the two of us love this: walking rescue dogs in a no kill shelter on Jeju. Does that sound good Sora?
Sora (03:28) Yeah, it is, it is. It’s hard to do these kinds of experience without knowing the local here, right?
Walking Dogs at the No-Kill Shelter
Sora (03:28) Okay, so this dog shelter, I have like some people still ask me like, do Koreans eat dogs? And I’m like, no way, dude, no, it’s like 50 years ago, please, we don’t. And like most of Koreans, we love dogs. We love especially dogs and cats. We do have many many dogs right now. I mean, like especially in Jeju, people like to walk their dog like around the nature.
So some people from mainland bring their dog to the Jeju Island through the airplane. Anyway, but still we have some problem with those street dogs because street dogs are kind of not friendly. So people get scared. So when people report their street dog, then they will go to shelter. And then maybe if there’s no adoption, something happens later.
Ed (04:37) Put down.
Sora (04:48) Right. So, but this shelter, there’s a lady, she never lets them go to these kind of shelter. So I really like this idea. And when we moved to Jeju, my husband and I, we were thinking like, we want to do some volunteering and then we love dogs. So why don’t we just go this one? And then it turns out like best, best decision ever. And then when I heard that Ed is coming to Jeju and I was like, okay, I’m bringing him to the shelter.
Ed (05:11) Just listening to you talk earlier, I realized that I’ve misunderstood things. I always thought that these dogs were abandoned by their owners, but they are actually street dogs. They’re strays.
Sora (05:22) Some of them were street dogs, some of them were abused, some were abandoned, like many different cases.
Ed (05:29) Right. I see. Yeah. And I have two more observations is that some of these dogs, you can tell they have been abused before. They are very afraid of people. Actually, no, they’re very afraid of male voices. So, yeah. And then the other observation I had was like your husband, Jaden, he is so awesome because what the audience doesn’t know is that Jayden is very allergic to dogs. And so this guy, even though he’s allergic to dogs, he still goes in there and volunteers and walks the dogs and he’s wearing a mask. He’s wearing gloves. He’s got to basically disinfect his whole body after he’s done walking the dogs. And he does it like almost every week. So the level of commitment it takes for a person who is allergic to dogs and still does this, I’m just so impressed with Jayden.
Sora (06:22) But he told me they’re happy. That’s the reason.
Ed (06:31) I see that a lot of Koreans on weekends actually show up to walk the dogs. How is this organized? How is it that this has become an activity that people do on weekends?
Sora (06:41) This organization with the lady, we start posting this volunteering on Instagram and then it become quite popular and I also like posted on my blog and we start like marketing this volunteering and then some parents they like to bring their children to walk the dog because it’s hard to do it in another shelter because they don’t want the children to do it. But the lady, she likes to give the children like animal therapy at the same time and then the animal have like good experience together. So it’s beautiful experience.
Ed (07:20) Right. So Sora, like when I was there, I always found like I was the only non-Korean walking the dogs. And I guess my question is, if our listeners listen to this episode and they go like, I want to walk some dogs too. How would they get started? Especially since I know the team there, they don’t speak much English.
Sora (07:42) Right. I mean, you can actually send the message to jeju.now, like j-e-j-u.n-o-w on Instagram for the volunteering. But yeah, she doesn’t speak English very well. So if you really want to go for shelter dog walk, just send me an email.
Ed (08:04) And the email address is…
Sora (08:06) Soraya at vamosajeju.com.
Ed (08:09) And we will have this in our show notes in case you don’t have a pen to write that down. Dog walking at the No Kill Dog Shelter. Some of my favorite parts about walking a dog is when we take them to the field at the end and then we give them treats and the dogs are so cute. Like they are all trained to like sit down and look at you with those sad eyes and then put that one paw up.
Sora (08:19) It’s really really cute. They know how to behave with people.
Ed (08:35) I’m not gonna talk about… let’s move to the next one, which I have zero experience about and is temple stay. This is all you Sora.
Temple Stays in Jeju
Sora (08:43) So temple stay was my recommendation because I really love to stay in the Buddhist temple and like having a night there it’s very unique experience and actually in Jeju we have four different temples which offer a temple stay and one of them is my favorite temple, the name is Gwaneumsa. So in temple stay, there’s two different kinds of program. So one is with full itinerary. You do everything, like every activity what monk usually do, like you’re going to wake up around four or five a.m. You do meditation and cleaning and all of these activities. It’s very busy, but you’re gonna experience like full, full Buddhist life. And the other one, second one is the easy one. You don’t need to do all of this activity. You can choose which one you want, but it’s more like rest in the Buddhist temple, rest in the quiet, tranquil in the mountain. What do you think?
Ed (09:47) I guess I have a few questions. Number one, do you have to be a Buddhist to stay at a temple?
Sora (09:53) No, I’m not actually like Buddhist Buddhist, but I like Buddhism philosophy, but I’m not Buddhist. Any religion can go.
Ed (10:01) Okay, so any religion or no religion, it’s fine. Second question. I’m used to sleeping on the floor on a futon and all that, but not everybody is going to be excited about sleeping futon. Are there options where there’s an actual bed for a temple stay?
Sora (10:19) Some temples they now have the real bed but some of them no. But you can check this on the website. It is better to do the research before you choose one.
Ed (10:33) Okay. Is there a central website for all of Korea where you can sign up for a temple stay in English?
Sora (10:42) Yeah, in English, yes.
Ed (10:43) And so if I want to, well, I will never do that, but if somebody wants to do temple stay, how do they find out more information on the temple stays?
Sora (10:53) We actually have a temple stay website for whole South Korea, but of course we are going to prepare one more blog posting for you again. So it’s gonna be vamosajeju.com/temple.
Ed (11:07) That’s another question that I forgot to ask. It’s like, is the food vegetarian, vegan? Meat eaters will have to do without meat for a few days, right?
Sora (11:15) Yes, of course. Just one day, one night. But the food in temple is not only vegetarian. Also, they don’t use strong herb, like garlic or green onion, those kind of strong ones, they don’t use it. So it’s very bland. But it actually cleans your body and your spirits and your mind.
Ed (11:45) So, so, it detoxes your mind and body is what I’m hearing you say. So let me get this right. We’re going to sleep possibly on the floor, wake up very early, do lots of cleaning and then eat bland food. That’s that.
Sora (11:49) So exciting, isn’t it? So exciting.
Ed (12:07) But having said that, I know this is something my wife would actually enjoy doing. She just came back from a Vipassana retreat.
Sora (12:13) I think she will love it. Michelle will love it.
Ed (12:27) Yeah, you should go with her to the temple stay and I’ll hang out with Jaden.
Haenyeo Experiences
Ed (12:27) Okay. So next up, we have this thing that is on Haenyeo experiences and I know recently you told me you just applied to go to Haenyeo school so again I’m going to hand this over to you because I don’t actually have any Haenyeo experiences to talk about.
Sora (12:39) So for this haenyeo experience, we have talked about this like in the previous episode, the woman diver in Jeju, and we have the diving experience for it. It’s not like deep deep dive, but there’s like sea farm in front of the village, so the woman diver will help you to catch the seafood in the sea. So like it’s gonna take around one hour. So you wear a wetsuit and then get the basket, traditional basket, and then go into the water diving two meter maximum. Then you will see some conches, abalones underneath. And then it’s really, really hard to find. So the woman diver will help you like one woman diver was like next to me, she was like there there there, you go there, so I was like, I see it! Then get one.
Ed (13:32) So like maybe she’s like, there, there, there, there’s one there because I put it there for you earlier.
Sora (13:37) Exactly, yes, yes, yes. And then later they will give you some seafood that you just harvest now.
Ed (13:40) Yeah, it’s… I say that kind of jokingly but it is actually a very practical thing because where they let you do the Haenyeo experiences is very shallow so it is not realistic to expect actual wild abalones and conch in the shallow water. It’s just not possible, it’s not realistic. It’s as part of the experience, I guess.
Ed (14:05) So that is the actual Haenyeo experience going to the water but then you mentioned also there’s another experience where you watch a performance and then there’s a dinner with Haenyeo.
Sora (14:16) So now we have a program called Woman Divers Kitchen and there’s two different branches. So the first one has like media art and then the actual woman diver serves you and then explains about the seafood they catch. So it’s gonna be like course meal with the media art about the sea, ocean and then the life of woman diver. It is very interesting.
And the other one is actually a play. There were two or three young actresses from Seoul and then they had a play about the life of woman diver. She is actually around 89 years old. And based on her real story, they made a play. The real story, like based on the history, you know, the Japanese colony and April 3rd incidents and all of this. So you’re gonna see those play for about like one hour and then they’ll give you like of course seafood and like some Jeju traditional food for buffet. And then the best part is Q&A session with the 89 years old woman diver. So if you have any question, you can just ask to her because they can like translate English as well.
Ed (15:36) That’s for the Q&A, but for the media art performance as well as for the play, obviously it’s not in English. So what, where does that leave people who don’t speak Korean?
Sora (15:46) I’ve already taken many of my guests to this show and of course, there’s no subtitle, no English explanation for the play. But I’ve seen some of them crying because you can feel it. You don’t really need the language, just emotion. Like you can feel it. So I think you don’t really need the translation but of course I do explanation for background’s knowledge so that they can assume what’s happening and then feel the show better. They do have some of like English flyer so you can check that if you are there and also there’s some English website of the place.
Plane Spotting
Ed (16:29) So the last one on our list is plane spotting. This is something that…
Sora (16:34) This is about you.
Ed (16:34) Yes. Well, you, Jaden likes that too. So it’s at least two people like to watch planes land and take off. So if you guys remember, back to the episode on Oreums, we talked a lot about being able to watch planes land and take off from Dodubong which is an Oreum that’s just north of the Jeju airport. And this is a good place to watch planes take off and land. But because I like looking at maps and I like finding places where people don’t go to, there’s actually several spots that is right under the flight path of planes landing and taking off. So daytime or nighttime, you will actually see the plane fly over you. Like I’m no joke, they’re literally flying over you. And it’s pretty, pretty cool.
Another cafe called Granada Cafe, brings you pretty close to the runway. You’re not under the flight path, but you can go to the rooftop and then that gives you a very great vantage point to see the planes land in front of you. And so if you want to take a picture of a plane landing with Jeju city in the background, that’s a great spot.
A third place to see planes land and take off is actually on the other end of the runway. It’s along the Rainbow Coastal Road. And that one, depending on which way the wind blows, the planes may be landing or taking off in one direction or another. For all these locations, we’re going to have them in the trip finder. If you pick plane spotting as one of the activities, you will then get the Kakao map locations sent to your inbox.
If you want to be right under the flight path of the planes, the place I’m talking about is actually very close to the flashing lights that guides the plane in. So you’re actually going to be right where the lights are. And so you might want to have earplugs because when the planes fly over you, it’s very, very loud. And if you go at night, it is really cool.
Sora (18:21) It’s very, very interesting. Yeah, I think my husband will love it.
Ed (18:27) Yeah, you need a rental car. It’s impossible to get there without a rental car.
Handy Korean with Sora Ssaem — Final Episode
Ed (18:27) So today we talked a lot about some activities that are really great for people who are into slow travel. And again slow travel doesn’t mean long slow travel, it can be short slow travel as well. Maybe this is your second trip to Jeju or maybe you just don’t really need to go to like the top 10 places that’s talked about on Instagram. So these are some options that you can do that will give you a very localized take on Jeju as a destination.
And now we’ve reached the part of our show where we’re going to teach you some useful Korean phrases: Handy Korean with Sora Ssaem!
So Sora, I’m actually a bit surprised that your cheer was so energetic because actually we have some sad…
Sora (19:29) It’s not sad! This is our last session of Handy Korean with Sora Ssaem. Because I think we have gave you everything you need for your… I mean like the essential one.
Ed (19:43) And before we get to what we’re going to cover today, it occurs to me, Sora, we never actually explain to people what Ssaem is. So Sora is your name, but what is Sora Ssaem?
Sora (19:56) We didn’t do that in the first episode.
Ed (20:00) Not a single time.
Sora (20:02) Okay, so we’re doing it for the last time. Okay, so Ssaem is actually because you know like lots of Koreans like to shorten everything. So Ssaem comes from 선생님 (seonsaengnim) which means teacher and then of course we don’t want to say 선생님, three syllables is too long for us. So we just make it Ssaem.
Ed (20:24) 빨리빨리 (Pali Pali).
Sora (20:26) And then make it Ssaem. So Ssaem is actually teacher.
Ed (20:29) So if a teacher’s name was Sam, it would be Sam Ssaem?
Sora (20:35) Exactly, yes. Sam Ssaem? Sam Ssaem? Yeah, it’s nice, yeah.
Ed (20:39) But that would probably never happen in Korean names.
Sora (20:43) But we do have some international like English teacher. They are in the elementary school. So it can happen, of course.
Ed (20:46) English teachers! Right, so… Can happen, Sam Ssaem. Okay, gotcha.
So that is so interesting to me, but folks, your last Korean lesson on this show is not about 선생님. It is actually about another word that also surprisingly we’ve not yet covered.
Sora (20:59) Yeah, it is the most important phrase and we haven’t covered. How come? We’re like, we didn’t do this? Oh my god. This is like, how do you say thank you? I think probably everyone knows by now. So if you’re interested in Korean culture. So in Korean, how to say thank you is 감사합니다 (gamsahamnida). 감사합니다. If it’s casual, it’s 고마워요 (gomawoyo). This is also difficult but anyway. 감사합니다 is more respectful way, more formal and 고마워요 is more casual. So if the person you’re talking to is older than you, then it’s better to use 감사합니다.
Ed (21:53) So one thing I want to say is that if the audience finds 감사합니다 to be a bit more difficult, you can actually make it sound even shorter.
Sora (22:04) Even you can just say 감사합니다. 감사합니다.
Ed (22:17) And for English speakers when I teach, when I tell my friends how to say thank you, I will say like “come some eat up.” So “comes-ham-nida.” Come some, need a. Need a, like “need.”
Sora (22:30) What was that? Again, come some eater? Neither, neither.
Last week I heard another trick for 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo). Because I only use like “onion” and “haseyo.” 안녕하세요. But another friend told me you can say “onion on sale.” It’s like, 안녕하세요. Onion on sale. So it’s like, huh, can be. Onion on sale, onion on sale, onion on sale. Is it?
Ed (23:01) Hmm? Yes, yes, I hear it, I hear it. Yeah. 안녕하세요! So, 안녕하세요. But again, important to mumble.
Sora (23:09) Yes, exactly. And then make the last syllable longer.
Ed (23:18) So we have 감사합니다. And I don’t know if 고마워요 is going to be helpful audience. It might be a bit harder.
Sora (23:24) Yeah, I don’t think so. 감사합니다 is better, right?
Ed (23:27) Yeah, but if you hear like on K-dramas and two very close friends or family members, they say thank you, it will actually be even shorter. It will be 고마워 (gomawo). Yeah. But, if you’re visiting Korea definitely stick with 감사합니다. 감사합니다. 감사합니다. Mumble and bow your head.
Sora (23:36) Right, come on. Thank you.
Ed (23:47) So that wraps up our last session of Handy Korean with Sora Ssaem. If you are listening to this and you feel like, wait, why? No, we want more Sora Ssaem. Well, let us know.
Sora (24:01) You can let us know on Apple Podcast Review. So we will consider doing it again. Then it’s gonna be a little more difficult than Handy Korean with Sora Ssaem.
Ed (24:12) So it’s gonna be Difficult Korean with Sora Ssaem. I don’t know. I think we just scared everybody away.
Next Steps & Sign-off
Ed (24:20) And so we’ve come to the end of the show. I just want to remind everybody that again, we have the Vamos a Jeju Trip Planner app. And that is available at vamosajeju.com/trip. Again, it’s v-a-m-o-s-a-j-e-j-u.com/trip.
Sora (24:42) So one more thing, did you know it’s very easy to share our show with your friends on Apple Podcast? Just tap on the horizontal three dots on the top right corner and tap on the share show icon. And if you’re using Spotify, you can find the three horizontal dots near the top right under our show art and you will see the share icon.
Ed (25:04) And with that, all that’s left for us to do is to say… Annyeong! 감사합니다! 안녕히 계세요!
Sora (25:10) Annyeong! 감사합니다! Onions on sale!
