For our second night we went to the Podo Hotel, run by the PINX golf course. As far as I know, the Podo Hotel is one of the very few truly top-class hotels in Korea. Come to think of it, unlike Japan, Korea doesn’t seem to have many hotels ranked above the Shilla or the Lotte (the Park Hyatt, maybe?). The hotel sits about halfway up Hallasan, and the road up to it is narrow. There was hardly any traffic so the driving wasn’t hard, but at night the entrance was difficult to spot and I drove right past it and had to turn back.
The entrance
Maybe because a golf tournament was on that day, there were cars from affiliated companies parked outside. The hotel itself is a single-storey building and not that large, so we were in our room in no time.
The bed
The bed is wide and comfortable. The complete opposite of the night before. We only picked this hotel as a last resort because every mid-range place was fully booked, but the facilities were so good that I was genuinely impressed.
The table
A welcome fruit plate, a candle and a vase are set out. It feels less like a hotel than a resort.
The furniture
The room is simple but spacious, and the furniture is neatly laid out. The TV remote was fiddly to work out and gave me some trouble, but apart from that there were no problems.
The ceiling
The indirect lighting is soft and subtle. There even seemed to be a breeze moving through the room, so the roof must be built to open up.
The welcome fruit
The Podo Hotel gets its name because seen from the sky it looks like a bunch of grapes (“podo” is Korean for grape), but I never expected grapes to show up in the welcome fruit as well. Staged, surely?
The hot spring
This is one of the Podo Hotel’s proudest features: the bathroom in the room has a tub plumbed with hot spring water. Common enough in Japan, but I never imagined Korea would have a hot spring inn with real onsen water. It melted the fatigue away and left my skin smooth ^_^
The bathroom
A whole day’s fatigue washes away. We had already ticked off everything we really wanted to eat and do in Jeju on this day, so for the third day the plan was a late start and a leisurely look around.
Late-night udon and soybean powder ice cream
Room service offers a wide range of dishes, so I ordered this hotel’s signature ones: giant prawn udon and ice cream, which is a curious pairing.
The udon
This isn’t the Kansai style but proper Sanuki udon, so the noodles have a firm, springy bite. Barely any different from what I ate in Sanuki itself. Japanese capital is apparently behind the Podo Hotel, which is why Japanese-style touches like the hot spring and the udon turn up. And the cooking is good enough that it doesn’t lose much to the real thing in Japan. I had no idea Korea’s travel culture had come this far.
Giant prawn tempura
Prawn tempura needs to be about this size before you can really enjoy biting into that plump, springy flesh. A truly great prawn should be delicious right down to the head, and this one didn’t quite get there, but it went beautifully with the udon.
Soybean powder ice cream
In Japan this is a fairly common menu item known as kinako ice cream, but in Korea the Podo Hotel seems to be about the only place that serves it like this. Like the giant prawn udon, it has a reputation for being delicious, and it really is an addictive flavour. I reckon it would taste good made at home too.
We ate a proper late-night snack, finished off the welcome fruit and drifted off to sleep at our leisure. Lighting the candle on the table made the mood romantic, too. A good hotel is part of the trip. The room rate is a little steep, but the Podo Hotel was worth going out of your way for.