Day 4: Jeju and it's Unesco World Heritages

Day 4 in South Korea (second day in Jeju), we hired a taxi guide to drive us around.  We have planned our itinerary in such a way that on Day 1, we will explore the places of interest around where we stayed (Seogwipo) on foot.  Come Day 2, we will visit places that is away from where we stayed. :)  So, for a fee of W130,000 (Approx. RM377), we explored Jeju from South to West to North and back to South and... it was really nice. :)

This is Mr Won, our taxi guide for the day, who came highly recommended in TripAdvisor and a few other websites.  According to the various websites that I've googled, his schedule are usually fully booked.  We were lucky to get him for a day cause someone else cancelled their's. Mr Won do not ask for deposit to confirmed the booking.  He keep his words and expect the same.  :)  He easygoing, jovial, kind and he speaks English.  It may be important to some of you who is worried about the language barrier.  He will follow your itinerary (if you have one), or you can just follow his! :)

Mr Won

Email: maarooii@yahoo.co.kr

Mobile: +010 36972303

Note: A comment on my blog stated that Mr Won did not show up on the date he supposed to take them on a tour on the island.  Therefore, I strongly recommend for any future readers or visitors to the beautiful island to engage other guide/drive.  It's just lucky us that we had a great experience with him as our guide.

Mr Won pick us from our hotel at about 8am and our first stop for the day was Seopjikoji which was made famous by a Korean drama shot here - All In.  Never a big fan of K-Dramas except once in the bluest moon when I just want to sit in front of the TV from morning till night and rot.  Believe me, it rarely happen.

Reason of visiting was because I wanna marvel at the beauty of Seongsan Ilchubong (Sunrise Peak, a Unesco World Heritage) from afar before hiking up.  To see it's unique shape and understand it's placement on the island if you know what I am saying.   From this photo you will notice a long stretch of wall made of stones stacked together.  In fact, most fences in Jeju are made this way.  To divide lands, plantations, houses.  Sort of cool isnt it?  We walked passed stone walls like these at one point while trekking on Day 1.  On closer inspection, we noticed they are cemented together.  No wonder it doesn't crumbles.  I thought I could send it crumbling down like Jenga with one kick!  :p 

Beautiful isn't it.  A little white light house perched on top of the hill overlooking the bluish sea. Perfect spot to build a little white house for my retirement. :)  The greens were so green and the blue were so blue.... so pretty.

The weather was glorious that day, total opposite of the day before.  Love the sun.  Love the breeze.  Love how my hair were all messed up from the cold wind blowing on my face.  It was so cold.  I am so missing that weather as I am typing this.  The long stretch of walking path overlooking the sea.  Nice.  As like the rest of the places we were to visit that day, we enjoyed each of the place till our hearts contend before moving on to the next.

Seongsan Ilchubong (a.k.a. Sunrise Peak) was just a short drive away from Seopjikoji.  My initial intention was to hike up and catch it's first sunrise in the morning.  But when I found out that the sun rises at 4:30am in Spring, I changed my mind.  Come on.... 4:30AM??? Forget it!  Lols....

I fell so in love with it.  Hahahahaha.....  Anyway, once up there, I thought the crater feels smaller than this.

Seongsan Ilchulbong actually rose from under the sea in a volcanic eruption over 100000 years ago.  It has a crater of about 600m in diameter and 90m high.  Apparently, during peak of spring, the peak will be surrounded by bright yellow coloured rapeseed flowers.  Unfortunately, when we were there, it was almost end of Spring.  So, no yellow flowers.  Did caught sight of some at farms, but it was rather pathetic... :p

And so... we begin our hike.  The entire place was packed with tourists.  We almost ran up the peak if not for the few pit stop we made to catch our breath.  Just wanna hike up to see what it is all about and get away from the crowd. :p  If you plan to visit Seongsan Ilchubong (you must visit), try avoiding 9am - 11am.  I read that's the peak time for buses of tourists.

The view from halfway up.

And that fading mountain faraway is the infamous Mount Hallasan.  I believe it would be an awesome place to hike.  Just a pity we didn't have enough time.

And voila... here's we are, at the peak looking into the crater!  The green look so fluffy and nice to jump in.  Hahahaha.... read that in rainy season, rain water will be caught in the crater forming a small little pond...

Oh yeah, there is an entrance fee to Seongsan Ilchubong.  Just W2000/person (approximate RM5.60).  Minimal fees.  

After Seongsan Ilchubong, enroute to the Haenyeo Museum, I saw these windmills and prodded Mr Won to stop for some photo taking sessions. :p  Well, can't help it.  Never seen an electric windmill like that.  We don't have them here in Malaysia.  It looked so cool.  A little romantic even. Just like in movies... hahahahaha....

There are many museums in Jeju.  I do not understand the point of visiting museums like Teddy Bear Museum, Sex Museum, Trick Art Museum, Loveland, The Maze and etc.  I believe with money, it can be built anywhere else in the world unless of course Jeju aspired to be the island with most museums. :p  Of all, we picked to visit Haenyeo Museum, the one and only museum we visited in Jeju.

Haenyeo refers to female divers who dive into the ocean water to gather various shellfish, seaweed & etc without the proper scuba diving gear.  They just have with them a pair of goggles, a float to mark her location, a basket to put her harvest and a weeding hoe.  They would dive as deep as 20m, hold their breath for as long as 2-3 minutes and when they surface, they would make a whistling sound which is their unique way of breathing out the carbon dioxide and breathing in fresh oxygen. 

And so, at the Haenyeo Museum, we get to see a more realistic view of a Haenyeo's lifestyle.  Picture above shows the different tools used by a Haenyeo.  Totally unique to Jeju!  A history of more than 200 years if not mistaken and is still in practise today.  Today's haenyeos are mostly old ladies.  I won't be surprised if they are the last generation of their kind.  It's a pity our children would not be able to witness them.

It cost only W2200 per person to enter the museum (RM6 approx.).

We headed down to Manjanggul Cave after that, another Unesco World Heritage.  Basically, most places of interest in Jeju is a Unesco World Heritage.  Manjanggul Cave is one of the finest lava tunnels in the world, formed when lava sprouted from deep in the ground to the surface.

Lava marks form on the wall and ground of the cave from a long time ago.

The temperature inside the cave is rather cold and the dripping icy spring water doesn't really help.  I think it is in here that I caught a cold that left me with a fever, croaky voice and tasteless tongue for the rest of my trip.  It was hard enough for them to understand my English in silky voice and now they have to decipher them in my croaky voice.  It was funny..... hahaha.... 

There are a variety of structures inside the cave including this one.  It cost W2000/person to enter the cave (RM6 approx.).  Basically, it cost more or less the same for entrance everywhere in Jeju.  Manjanggul Cave opens daily from 9am to 6pm. Happy exploring!

Here we enjoying our late lunch of Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Broth) which we had Mr Won brought us to.  A place away from the tourists which frequents only by the local! :)  It was the most delicious Samgyetang I ever had!  (the last delicious food that I could still taste in Korea!  After that day, it was bland all the way...hehehehe) .

Check out it's texture.  Oo la la... all soft and smooth and not forgetting that huge ginseng!  It was so aromatic!  I couldn't quite remember how much it cost us in total.  That the problem with blogging about it 2 months after the holiday! My bad.... Damn those chicken.... my stomach is growling now!

Have you heard of the mysterious road of Jeju?  Well, this is it, when we pass thru it after lunch. The mystery of the road is, at the downhill slope, if you put your car on neutral, it will move uphill instead.  There were many tourists by the side of the road pouring water on the road and it flow uphill instead!  Cool isn't it?  They said it's an optical illusion.  But I still couldn't quite make out what is it that we see that makes us feel opposite?  And so I thought, the eyes tells the brain what to think first before anything else thus the result.  You get what I mean?  If I am blind, I would not think it is a downhill slope.  I might feel it is uphill actually.

By time we get back to Seogwipo, it was already about 5pm ish... we made a quick stop at Jeobang Waterfall and guess what we chanced upon?  Some haenyeos serving freshly caught shellfish on the rock!  Such a beautiful setting.  I was all excited!  I could almost taste it in my mouth!!!

The husband and Mr Won was against me sampling them citing that my tummy would not be built for it and I remembered arguing about how the soju (rice wine) would kill whatever germs it has!  Lols...

I almost drooled into the plate will taking this picture.... so fresh, sweet, and delicious!  All from my imagination of course.

What a life!  Enjoying super fresh shellfish sashimi by the rocks with beautiful sunsets, soju, and friends.  Damn! Damn! Damn!  Lols...

A haenyeo busy cleaning up the shellfish prior to serving them fresh!

Super awesome background setting. :)  I simply love these kind of stuff.  Locality!  No frills stuff.

And this my friend, is Jeobang waterhall.  Just another waterfall that flows out to the sea.  Ok ok nice la... but would be nicer if it is summer and we are allow to play in it!  Lols... And that, would be super nice!!!

The husband posing for me.  I took many nice pictures of him.  And he took many crap pictures of me. :D  That makes us a perfect pair.  My strength, his weakness.  His strength, my weakness.  Lols...  

Entrance to Jeobang Waterfalls = W2000/pax (RM6 approx.)

That pretty much wraps up our short trip to Jeju.  2 full days/3 nights.  Picture above show little buckets of colourful flower in full bloom lined both sides of the street n Seogwipo.  Pretty sight indeed everywhere we turn!

Nice golden hill in the background....

That evening, we went for a last minute shopping for local produce like Jeju Chocolates at the Maeil Olle Market before calling it a day!

I hope this little entry would be able to assist you in your plans to visit this Island of Thousand Gods.  It truly is beautiful.  Missing it already. 

Should this entry fail to provide you with the info you required, always visit the Official Site of Korea Tourism Organization.  They have one awesome informative site!  Happy researching!

Day 3 : Island Of The Gods - Jeju

Oh my.... I am only at Day 3 of my Seoul/Jeju Travelogue.  By this rate, when will I ever reach Day 8?  Next year perhaps?  With more trips coming up and not forgetting the dailies.... OMG OMG OMG...Lols....  I need to buck up.!

Anyway, so, this is Jeju, also known as the Island of the Gods.  All I can say is, it felt as if I've live there! :)  I love it there!  It was a pity that we only have 2 full days on the beautiful island.  Initially, I learned that 2 full days would be sufficient for Jeju and so I purchased the domestic tickets.  Later on, as the date was nearer, I did a thorough research and realized that to fully enjoy Jeju, 2 days would not be possible.  Especially for me, I love nature.  :( At least a week would be lovely!  But nevermind, another time.  Maybe I shall retire there. Lols...

One thing about South Korea is, their weather forecast is extremely detail and accurate.  The night before, the Iphone says it gonna be a rainy tomorrow and true enough, rainy + gloomy.  The rain we experienced on our first day in Jeju were in fact look just like some heavy fog; like those in Genting, where it was just foggy and you won't get drench.  We were out exploring umbrella-less.  What we thought was just fogs turned out to be super dense drizzle.  We were drench within seconds.  Lols...  Got into a G26 (Korean version of 7Eleven) and grabbed an umbrella immediately.  Interesting. :)

As we explore, we stumbled upon the infamous Maeil Olle Market in Seogwipo and had a great time checking out the local produce and sampling a variety of yummies.

Jeju is known to be the main exporter (or only exporter) of Hallabang Orange which I called it the nipple orange.  Well, it does look like boobs don't it? :p  As usual, when come to local stuff, I couldn't resist and bought one to sample. I happily paid 2000W for one.  Only while I was munching down that it crossed my mind, "Isn't it a little expensive for an orange to be RM5.60?".   I thought I was conned.  Anyway, sometime later in the afternoon, I bought another bunch from a street vendor which also cost about the same each.  Was told by the guide we hired for the next day that it is expensive during this time cause it is not in season!  No wonder.  

There were many varieties of stuff sold in this Olle Market.  Assortment of kimchis, fruits, seafood, meat, fried chicken, hanbuk (korean costume), kitchen utensils, mini markets, vegetables, snacks, stockings... basically everything that you would need, even shoes!  Oh yeah, plenty of umbrellas too.  Shouldnt have bought from G26 cause it was much more expenive.

Many different kind of shell fish but I only know abalone.  :p  Dont know what are the rest!  And this is  not even a lot yet.  Wait till you see Noryangjin on our last day!  That's a lot!

Since we have yet to have our breakfast, we decided to try some snacks here not knowing exactly what it is.  I always finds it very exciting sampling foreign snacks.  

I was so happy when I discover it has a hotdog within it.  It was a breaded hotdog bun on skewer or something.  Yummy!  Lols.... Another fun thing of being in Korea besides not speaking the language is everything you order or buy is a surprise.  You never exactly know what you ordered or bought!  Lols... Take food for instant, you can't ask them what is it?  Or how it taste like or etc.  You just point at it and hope for the best!  Lols....  So imagine how exciting the first bite is!  Cause your brain can't exactly tell you how it should taste or smell since you dont even know what it is.  Therefore you wont have a preset mind on it...hahahaha...

Oh yeah, they even sell undies too.  I took this picture cause I thought the flowery ones will look rather 'sexy' on the ajumas!  Hahahahaha....

All the vege were so huge, green, nice & fresh!

Came across a stall that sells herbs & dried goods.  The above pictures are prepacked herbs for cooking Samgaetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup)!  I bought some home but ended up giving them all to my in-laws since they cook everyday.  Not sure how it turn out though.  If not mistaken, it was about 3,000W per pack.  (RM8.40).

I also bought some of these.  Approximately 7000W (RM21) for 100gm or something.  About 3-4 pieces.  I later learned from the expert at a famous local samgaetang restaurant that they are real.  Just that they are not grown on a specific famous ginseng land.  

Another snacks - tempura prawn & squids.  It was delicious.  It was basically our breakfast that day.  Together with that breaded sausage thingy.  One thing we noticed about the Korean's gastronomic is, they love fried food.  Most food are either fried or grills.  

A Tofu stall.  Clean & neat.  Very well organised.  I've never came across a tofu stall/factory here in Malaysia.  Most tofu that I've seen are distributed to vegetables stall in the market.  We don't have a specialized tofu stall like this one here. 

Went for coffee at a corner shop after filling our tummies at the market.  I tried my hand at coffee art and DIY-ed a 'love' in the husband's latte!  Lols.....

Some seaweed yummies I bought from the market.  We basically munched on this throughout the day as we trekked on the Olle Trail.  It was nice.  Walking in cold weather, talking and munching away at the same time.  hahaha... ended with lots of crumbs all over me... hahahaha...

Me enjoying my java while people/car watching.  The beauty of travelling free & easy is, you get to laze as long as you like.  Till you are tired of people watching, then you can move on.  There is no time constraint.

The symbol of Olle Trail.  So what is an Olle Trail?  It was actually a trail made from the hidden and forgotten routes of Jeju Island, which cars can't access.  The routes will take you to forest, mountains, beaches, and remote places and offer unrivalled views over Jeju's unique, dramatic, volcanic landscape.  For more info on Olle Trail, you can visit their website HERE.

We finds the trail rather nice way to explore the island.  Basically allowing one to see at things from different perspective where we get to enjoy what the Island of Gods have to offer.  The beautiful colours Spring would bring (in our case), the cool breeze, fresh air, birds watching...  At one stretch, we even caught sight of a white stork/something like that.  Lols... Not familiar with bird species.  Nice!

A view of the harbour we caught at one stretch of the trail. :)  Nice right?  Foggy isn't it?  It was actually drizzling!  Yeah, and so, we were walking, along the trail, hand in hand, under an umbrella, irritating the life out of each other, while munching down seaweed yummies.  Romantic?  Lols...

Outside the entrance into Cheonjiyeon waterfall, a photo session with the mysterious & unique Dol-harubang (stone grandfather) statues where you will find them everywhere around the island.

We waited quite a while to have the waterfall all to ourselves.   There were plenty of Chinese tourists who just wouldn't care less and climbed into your frame of picture.  Hmm....really, have plenty of unpleasant experiences with them too from wherever we travel.  I wonder... Maybe it is just us that is not used to it. :)

Note: It cost 2000W per person to see this waterfall if I remember correctly. :)

After Cheonjiyeon, we walked to the harbour at the Seogwipo marine harbour.  We wanted to go for a Seongwipo Leisure Cruise around the island so that we get to enjoy it's beauty from the outside.  Unfortunately, due to bad weather, it has been cancelled that day. :(

Note: The cruise cost 15,000W per person and run at 11:00, 2:00, 3:20, 4:30.

Nevertheless, we had great fun playing with the umbrella (trying to destroy it more like it!). :)

Plenty of trees like these with little red berries all over.  Looks yummy but luckily was told that they were not edible. :p

Here I am, forgotten how to set the auto-timer.  I was trying to run for it in two seconds I think.  I realised that my long legs were not as long as I thought they were.  hahahaha...

We walked trail 6 for almost 13km - thru roads, parks, slopes, people's house garden.  There were not a single rubbish bin at sign and yet, everywhere is perfectly clean.  What is WRONG???  Was it them or us?

Arriving at Oedolgae Rock Formation after a really long walk and was greeted by this beautiful scenery of a cliff.  There was a story behind it, a legend or something, I forgotten what it was all about.

Apparently a part of the famous DaiJeungKam series were shot at this very spot.  In fact, I also noticed that most places in South Korea are made famous by movies. :)  Here you have it, Malaysian version of the famous Dai Jeung Kam.  Lols... I thought the cardboard fit my face rather nicely... hahahahaha...

You know something?  Let me share with u a little secret.  Blue water like this, and cliff like this always makes me feel like jumping in especially on a hot day.  It felt so refreshing!  Or I love sitting by the cliff watching my feet dangling.

I thought this photo turned out rather nice.  We approached another fellow tourist to take for us. :)  Tips: If you are using a DSLR, make sure you have a simple point and shoot for situation like this!  Chances of having the photo turning out well is higher with a point and shoot for a non-dslr user.

We took a cab back from Oedolgae instead of walking as the sky were getting dark.  Got back to this bbq shop around the corner from our hotel and ate our hearts out.  Total awesome.

The owner even shared with some home cooked meals for her family.  It was basically the most delicious meal we ever had on our first three days in South Korea.  We had two kinds of pork, assortment of side dishes that came with it, rice, liquor and the total bill came to about RM70+.  I thought it was rather reasonable.

The husband & I got all happy after finishing up just a bottle of soju, giggled and laughed as we walked out the restaurant, into the streets, checking out all the other shops.  It was so funny.  Not sure what it was that was so funny though.  You get what I mean?  Lols...

We learned later that people in Jeju are generally well to do from agriculture.  Most shops in town were just side businesses.  No wonder they are still sustainable despite of not much crowd.   Another thing is, there were plenty of shops selling hiking stuff - shoes, hiking stick, bags, clothing and etc due to the geographic nature of the island.  If you wish to get quality hiking stuff, there are plenty of options here. A little pricey though.  :(

Nevertheless, it was a great, happy & giggly Day 3 in Jeju!