The World is a Book, Let's be Page Jumpers!

Having lived and studied in South Korea's Seoul for half of my 21st year on earth with 20 years spent in sunny Singapore, I have had a bucketful of (mis)adventures to tell but none are as eventful as the week I spent on Jeju Island in which was tossed about in the sea for 13 hours, conquered the highest peak in South Korea without hiking equipment and survived a bike accident unharmed and almost missed the last ferry home.

We would not have survived without the locals and this entry is dedicated to the South Koreans affected by the recent ferry disaster.

When I received news of the capsized ferry, I was haunted by the merry faces of the people I met on my own ferry trip- how are they doing now?

I remembered the high school student 'Hannah' I had met on the journey. I remembered how her mom offered us Gimbap for dinner (a.k.a. the Korean 'sushi') and how the child had held my hand and laughed when we were prancing around on the deck to the music pulsing in the night air before fireworks exploded overhead against the star spangled sky and the entire ferry rocked in merriment as the locals sang and danced in the darkness to 'Gangnam Style'.

One of the best moments of my Jeju adventures were spent on a similar 6825 ton ferry that departed from Incheon port. It was a simple semi-cargo ferry that had minimal facilities and unless you had the luxury of having a premium suite, you'll have to embrace the opportunity to share a room with close to 50 other individuals and sleep on the wooden floor with a blanket and a rock-hard traditional pillow - a ferry meant for transportation than comfort and travel.

It was a 13-hour ride and we snacked with kids who were attracted to us because we were group of foreign students (clutching school notes and chips) conspicuous among the Korean families who were either busy playing traditional card game of 'Go-Stop' or conversing in local dialects. It was probably the longest ride of my life on a water-transport but possibly the best because I was thrown into a dance battle within a circle of Korean elderly who moved so much better than me in a freezing night.

I fell in love with the rocky seas and the taste of warm pomelo tea and the retro tune of Korean Pop Music in the 60s and 70s.

Hannah the high-school girl cuddled with us on the ground that night, not far away from her parent's "territory" and we had laughed at that culprit who sounded like a boar and managed to unnerve 50 occupants with his thunderous snores.