My disappointing trip to Geoje Island.

Geoje, Geoje, Geoje! Where do I begin? Well, let’s start off by saying that this post is in no way intended to bash anyone or discourage anyone from visiting Geoje. Geoje Island is beautiful and I have heard many people go on about how amazing their experience was so my experience should not be taken as facts, it is just my experience.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, I would like to start off by saying that I have never wanted to leave a trip or place so badly as much as I wanted to leave Geoje Island! Now I thought about not writing this piece but I realised something. A lot of people who travel always only tell us great things about the places they’ve visited which is great and positive, I guess. But the honest truth is that like many things in life, you will not love every trip you go to or every excursion you try, and that is also okay. There’s this perception that we create that it’s always amazing and I hate to break it to you but it’s not always amazing. And I think there is a lesson in that too.

Anyway going back to Geoje Island. So the trip took place over the long weekend of Chuseouk. Chuseouk is the Korean Thanksgiving. It is a great time for family and it’s a special holiday that everyone looks forward to. Because of Chuseok we had the weekend plus three days off from work, yaaas! My friend, Thabile and I decided to sign up for the Geoje Island tour. It was a tour with a tour company whose name I will not mention because, despite everything, the staff was really hospitable and kind.

Thabile and I.

Anyway, the day to leave for the trip arrived and I wasn’t really feeling excited, it’s like I knew something was going to be shady. Anyway, we get to Geoje and we pass by these really nice looking motels and we start to get excited, thinking that the bus is going to stop there but no, the driver continues and makes a stop at this one pink, oldish looking building. Ai, ok re tla reng? (What can we say?), it’s not as great as what we expected but ke okay. They said we'd be sleeping in beach houses...Ai the beach was there and the house was near it so I guess ke they weren't lying BUT yoh! Ai anyway...

Unimpressed! 

So we get off the bus and the rooms are being allocated. We are told that those who booked last will be sleeping on the mattresses on the floor. “On the floor?? What?? Haowa guys!” I look at Thabile and I can see that she is just as shook as I am. Anyway, we hear names being called out and dololo our names. Ai, be ke di bala (I read the situation), and realised we were part of the floor sleeping group. Funny thing is we booked a while back, but okay we will take the “L” and sleep on the floor. Plus apparently, that is how Koreans do it so…(rolling eyes emoji).

Cool, we go put down our bags in the room and guess what we find? JOCKEYS! We are not only sleeping on the floor but we are sharing a room with males. We saw a pair of jockeys lying on the floor and we went to report our horror. At that stage, we assumed there were two guys and we felt uncomfortable. We checked the list and we were assured that there were in fact two ladies plus us. Turns out the guy has a unisex name, so they assumed he was female, ai! But at least it was one guy and not two. He turned out to be a great source of entertainment so in the end, we enjoyed having him there, I guess.

After that whole bed situation, I was pissed. I really was but I thought let me just calm down. After the boat cruise, which I enjoyed because of the punch, we decided to go for a swim at the nearby beach, and even that was a disappointment. Due to the large amounts of dirt on the beach, we decided to go back to our room.

That punch got me through a lot...

Later on that evening we had a braai. I think for me this was one of the highlights of the trip. I enjoyed the lamb chops, salads and punch. After that, we had a beach party and we met some great people. There were a lot of South Africans on the trip and it kind of felt like we were at home.

The next few days were also filled with lots of broken promises and disappointments. I remember talking to one of my friends on the phone and telling her that I wanted to go back to Busan. Nothing was as expected and as promised. Dreams were sold and I had bought a truckload!

On one of the days, I took a long nap and had a conversation with myself. It went a bit like this: “Moghel, you are disappointed, I know, and you are allowed to be. For the remainder of the trip, try to find the silver linings and enjoy making friends with those around you.” I suppose that pep talk helped because after that I was over it!

Me, no longer caring.

I was not really shocked about anything anymore hahaha. I literally couldn't give a rat's ass what came next. When we went to this island and we were told that some people were going to be left at a beach while the rest went on the tour of the island, I wasn’t surprised when the “beach” turned out to be mediocre. I laughed and thought it was a joke when I saw it but I was not shook. Or when we were left on an island, that had absolutely no activities and nothing to see and do, for a whole afternoon, I was not surprised at all. Or when we were taken to a great museum park that had so many things to do and told to be back in an hour and a half (how can you give us 90 minutes to explore such a great place but give us a whole day to explore a small quiet island??), I was not touched at all. Zero cares given!

The mediocre beach. I can't believe they left people here.

There were good times though, I won't lie, like when we went to the botanical garden which was really beautiful, or when we visited Windy Hill. Those places were pretty and Thabile really enjoyed herself there. I was really happy to see her so excited. She really saw the beauty of Geoje and to be honest a part of me envied her. I had heard so much about this place and was looking forward to seeing it but for me, it didn’t live up to the hype.

Slaya moghel, slaya!

Anyway, there were activities that we could choose to do such as snorkelling, canoeing, car racing and luging to name a few. In the eleventh hour, I decided to go luging and it was tons of fun.

Luging.

The day to go back to Busan could not have come soon enough and when it did, I was so happy to be able to leave. The bus ride was long because of the Chuseok traffic but eventually, we made it home (excited face emoji).

Leaving Geoje like...

I guess the moral of the story is that not every trip you go on will be amazing and that’s okay. I felt bad for a while about not ‘enjoying’ it. You know how in life when someone feels what is considered to be a ‘negative’ emotion, we tend to tell them to cheer up and encourage them to try and be positive - almost like feeling 'negative' emotions is a bad thing. I realised that it’s okay not to like something. It’s okay to feel sad. It’s okay to feel disappointed and angry. Those feelings are just as valid as the more 'positive' emotions we are encouraged to show. And I think when you can truly allow yourself to feel your emotions and interrogate why you feel the way you do, you can get a better awareness and understanding of yourself.

Okay hahaha, I just went all Iyanla on y'all, lol. Anyway, if you are ever in Korea and looking for a place to visit, try Geoje Island. Hopefully, you’ll have a better experience than I did.:)