South Korea's Jeju Island offers hidden pleasures for travellers

blares away in American English and signs proclaim: "We love having you here!" Past Jeju city there are farms with green hedges and basalt stone walls, forest-covered hills in the distance, and breezes play with the golden eulalia grass.

Sub-tropical Jeju-do wraps you in its lush, salty embrace. It feels cosy, which is surprising considering what a tough place it was to live until recently.

Jeju Island has lured me here with its otherworldly aura of ancient matriarchal traditions, 18,000 local gods and goddesses, abundant myths, and the striking Easter Island-type Grandfather Stones ( dolharubang), which were carved to scare off invaders. I'm welcomed with a lunch of grilled mackerel with sea salt, and seaweed and sea urchin soup.

I learn from a feisty young woman with dyed red hair that this volcanic "island across the water" was once a separate kingdom from the Korean mainland and, at a different time, a place of exile. Previous generations spoke with such a strong accent that other Koreans couldn't always understand them. It became a self-governing province again in 2007.

The population is only 500,000, yet it's three times the size of Seoul. So while it's no desert island - it was Korea's "honeymoon island" for decades - it's relaxed and rural, albeit with luxury resorts. There are now cute replicas of the Grandfather Stones.

What was a rugged place of "wind, rocks and women" has been transformed into a holiday island. I soon put away my business cards.