That time I got stranded in the middle of nowhere in Jeju (제주)

The beginning of the hike to the top of Baekyaki Oreum located in Jeju Island, South Korea. Picture taken in early December 2023.

Have you ever wondered what’d it be like being in the middle of nowhere, in a foreign country without any WiFi or sort of internet connection, on a winter night, without any shelter and barely any light source? Well, that’s exactly the kind of adventure I (unwillingly) partook in on the island of Jeju (제주) back in December 2023 during a holiday (yes, it took me exactly a year after the holiday to finally write about this 🙃).

On this very day, my partner and I, being travellers who prefer the lesser known spots compared to tourist hot-spots, had decided to visit the Baekyaki Oreum Volcanic Cone (백약이오름)¹, which was lauded by plenty of folks over on Reddit. This spot also happened to be relatively nearby where we are exploring at that time, i.e., Manjanggul Lava Tube (만장굴)², which is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage. Now, for those who are uninitiated, Jeju island, as opposed to the capital of South Korea, i.e., Seoul, is much less developed in terms of public transport. This is why we had to take a Kakao Taxi instead of public transport (none were available) to reach our destination of desire. Note that in the heat of time, we did not consider ”how to get back” — this will come back to bite us later. Upon arrival, we marvelled at the scene with a verdant pathway towards the peak of the oreum, and proceeded to hike to the top, which offered even more breathtaking sceneries.

After climbing back down from the peak — moments before realising we’re stuck here for the night.

Since the oreum is located in the middle of nowhere, there’s absolutely no pavement to walk on, and no street lights beyond a few feet away from the entrance of the oreum.

We spent a good chunk of time up there admiring the views, before finally climbing back down to start figuring out how to best get back to our AirBnB stay before it gets dark. Here’s where the trouble started: my partner and I realised that there is absolutely no cell tower reception, and no public WiFi available at this shelter-less area. To add insult to injury, all the other hikers have left the place before we realised the hot soup we’re in. Since the oreum is located in the middle of nowhere, there’s absolutely no pavement to walk on, and no street lights beyond a few feet away from the entrance of the oreum. Despite the lack of pavement, we speed-walked the along the road to check if there’s any bus stops before the sun fully set — we found only one, and it consisted of just a bus-stop sign, a singular street light and nothing else to shield us from the cold. Note that this bus-stop is somewhat far from the oreum entrance.

We waited at this bus-stop in hopes of boarding a bus, but no buses ever came. At this point, the sun has fully set, and the dark had blanketed the sky. We ran out of options since our phones have effectively become paper weights, which left us only one thing to do to get back to safety — that’s right, hitch-hiking³. The frequency in which cars drive by in the middle of nowhere is extremely low, albeit not zero, which means we still have a chance of getting back alive without starving for too long. We raised our hands frantically whenever we saw a distant light approaching us in hopes of kind-hearted strangers stopping their cars for a couple of helpless foreigners. We almost lost all hope after having about 20 cars ignore us (they are few and far in between), when a fancy-looking black car finally stopped for us! Boy, I can’t express enough the elation I felt that night as I was already shivering from the freezing temperatures. As we approached the car, we realised that the driver barely spoke any English and didn’t understand what we’re trying to say (in English and severely broken Korean), but he gestured to let us in anyway.

A kind-stranger who let us into his car for a ride back home in the middle of the night from the middle of nowhere.

We showed him on our phone using translation (thank heavens I downloaded offline translation) where our AirBnB is, and shortly afterwards he started driving. For the entirety of the journey, we’re acutely vigilant of the direction in which the stranger was driving in, in case he deviates and was up to no good. However, as we approached our destination, we managed to have some small talks with the driver despite the language barrier and realised he’s a kind-hearted man after all. As we alighted from the car, we offered to pay him handsomely for his kindness, but to our surprise he refused. We said our farewells, and we returned to our AirBnB to end the eventful day.

Thus, I’ve learned an important lesson: When on Jeju Island, either rent a car to explore the island, or plan well ahead if you’re using public transport or taxi, or you may get stranded in the middle of nowhere without any cell tower connection, especially in the winter!