Jeju Island. Korea: The Islands of the Gods.

My dear friend had returned to Korea in December 2016 and for me it was a big loss. We managed to keep in contact and see each other during working events, but it was not enough to feel the void.In 2018 I happened to go to China for work, near Shanghai. While I was looking at the map (every serious traveller does so), I spotted Jeju Island. I remember Jeju Island because when I was a teenager, I had a pen-friend from Korea (pre-internet era) and for years we had corresponded in English. Once, he had sent me a picture of himself and some of his friends on a ferry: “I’m going to Jeju Island”. That’s how Jeju became part of my imaginary. 

While I’m staring at the maps, an idea forms in my mind. I grab my phone and text her : “Hey, what about meeting in Jeju next summer?”

Needless to say, she agreed immediately.

That’s how my trip to Jeju was conceived. 

We would have dived together again.