I Disappear for Three Months

Tomorrow I'll leave South Korea's Jeju Island for the City.

Growing up I was always an urban native. I travelled, studied and worked between the West and the East mostly in cities. Yet, like many native metropolitan people, I am sick of many city problems and prefer to stay away from the hustle and bustle.

Three months ago, on 16th February 2025, I left the city for a remote island in South Korea known as Jeju. My visa allows me to stay for up to three months. Once in a while, I decide to go for a city escape. Over the past decade or so, I moved to many places for a city escape, including the countryside of the UK, Jeju Island of South Korea and vacation islands across Southeast Asia.

In Jeju, the past three months have been spent on healing, seeking solitude, applying for research grants and fellowships and doing a lot of blog writing.

(Image: Taken by myself)

Oh, I have been so fortunate to live near the beaches too, so I have often taken a few hours going for a walk along different beaches and hitting nearby beachfront cafes.

I have met many restaurant and cafe owners throughout the past months. A lot of them used to live in metropolitan cities, led by Seoul and Busan. Eventually they relocated to Jeju to do their own businesses and take advantage of the surrounding nature and the inner peace, calm and Zen that follow.

Gradually, I have realised that I speak softer with people, walk slower than usual, and am more willing to embrace the surroundings. Even when making piano music for my meditative music channel, I have found myself tending to explore softer, slower and more gentle piano music tracks.

I enjoy this kind of life.

• Allowing myself to empty my mind upon sunset, or

• waking up late without any rush

I wish I could have stayed here for longer. Yet, I know after I get upset, deflated and furious about the unjust and unkind in the city over the coming months, I will return here for healing sometime next year — because it has become my yearly routine to visit Jeju once per year since late 2022.

So, I know what my script will be: life will, once and again, be unfair to me while living with the maddening crowds in big cities, until I return here to retrieve my wellness and my calm.

It is good to have a city escape once in a while, isn’t it?

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