I'm excited to go to Jeju cos we were going to self-drive there!!
Our flight on JejuAir was at 9:45am and we needed to make our way to Gimpo Domestic airport.
JejuAir is a budget airline like our Tiger Airways, and the fare is so cheap! *happy*
The fare was only SGD 90+ per pax for a round trip!
Asked the hotel reception for the bus schedule and the direction to walk to the bus-stop. It was only a 2 min's walk away, just by the main road. yay!
It was -6°C this morning! Waiting for the bus, we were blowing out 'smoke' from our mouths haha...
The bus came soon after and we were on our way! Can't remember how long the bus ride was. i think close to 30-45min..
Reaching Gimpo airport, look at the sunrise 😍
Our breakfast was Paris Baguette! My friend told us it was cheaper in Korea so we MUST eat this when we are here. And so we did... haha many times!
Look how cute their coffee cups and sleeve were!
:)
Brought a small luggage along with us for our 2 days in Jeju.
We left our 2 bigger luggage with Hotel ShinShin. My colleague told me to book back the same hotel when we come back from Jeju so that we could deposit our luggage with them. Good idea! cos imagine having to bring along 2 huge luggage onboard the airline and everywhere we go in Jeju.. Moreover, i don't think we are able to check in so much baggage onto a budget airline.
Anyway, we checked in this small luggage and were ready to board the plane. There's a shuttle bus to fetch you from the airport to the plane.
When we were on the shuttle bus, one airport staff hurriedly came up the bus and shouted for my name. I didn't hear it but hubs said that she was calling my name. Huh.. what happened?
She spoke in Korean so i wasn't really listening. haha..
We beckoned her to come over and she said with her substandard english that there's a spray in our luggage so we could not board this plane. Thus, we followed her down the bus.
After that, a man (another airport staff) came over and said we could still board this plane, but our luggage would go on the next scheduled plane (which was an hour later). He asked for our luggage key and password.
We just passed them our key and left to board the plane haha.. Amazing trust we had. haha
On board JejuAir.
We reached Jeju airport at 10:55am.
Was abit worried where our luggage would be. So i managed to find one airport staff and asked her.
It's abit hard to explain in English so i used Google translate (my best friend in Korea!) .
It's amazing lor. just type in english and Korean words will come out hahaa.. She read and said, "Oh, Next flight 15min!"
Wow, meaning our luggage would arrive in 15min, ahha.. not 1 hour later. Phew!
Waiting.....
by the way, we were using the Wifi Egg we got from SG Changi airport. Cost 5 bucks a day and can have multiple users hehe... no need to buy SIM card like we used to. and the wifi was very stable!! (need to order in advance though!)
Finally our luggage came on the next flight and we went to take the shuttle bus to Lotte-rent-a-car!
(Anyway, they did not remove our hair spray in the luggage so i don't know why they needed to open it. Maybe they were afraid that we hid some kind of poisonous spray inside. haha.. and they put back our luggage key into the pocket haha..)
Jeju airport control tower.. like our Changi de haha
on board the shuttle to bring us to the car rental place.
It was a 5min's drive away. We already reserved a car (Hyundai Avante MD) on their online website. 2 days car rental cost around SGD 120? Cheaper than getting a chauffeured car. I researched that it cost almost 200 bucks per person per day zzzz
Suan le la.. ownself drive sua. We heard the traffic is not very heavy, so it's quite a breeze to drive here. Most people self-drive here. The only downside is it's Left-hand drive unlike in SG, so need a little time to accustom yourself. With the GPS, it will lead you to where you want to go. Very idiot-proof :)
Of cos, you could also opt for public bus... but it's like 1 hour frequency. Once you miss it, that's it. Everything needs to be delayed by an hour.. and the bus rides are long and usually do not take you very near to any attraction, so you still need to walk ~20min to reach your destination. And in this freezing weather and without a map, it's a feat to do that haha..
Okay back to the car rental...
We both did our International driving license back in SG. Without the permit, you are not able to drive here. Just need to go to the AA (we went to the one at AMK) and show your IC and driving license, they will be able to issue your international license on the spot. like in 10 min? Very fast and convenient! of cos you need to pay SGD 20).
Initially, i did not want to do up my license cos i've not been driving for ...... erm. i lost count? My license was issued in 2004. Ok 12 years haha.
But hubs got foresight so he asked me to apply anyway, JUST IN CASE. and we were glad i did....cos........ read on haha
Our queue number..
everything in Korean... dunno how to read. By the way there's this super amazing app called Google Translate (not the one i mentioned earlier. but this is an App. It can translate pictures of korean words to english! like i could take a photo of this ticket with the app, then i just swipe across those korean words and it will automatically be translated to english! like MAGIC!!)
when we were at the counter, the lady checked both our International driving permits and passports. Then she told us that Sam cannot drive as his name differs from his passport. Cos he did a change of name earlier this year and his driving license still bears his old name. The driving permit will follow his old name, but his passport's name is the new one..
She said i would have to drive. 😱
晴天霹雳!!!! ⚡⚡⚡
in my heart i was like.. "WTF i can't drive! i've not touched a car for 12 years so how to drive?!!??! omg omg... somemore im in a foreign land. oh no, im gonna bang the car! die le siao liao siao liao larrrrrr...!!!!"
But hubs was calm so i sort of stopped behaving all hysterical and followed the person to our car.
The guy taught me how to use the GPS and how to navigate. Everything was in Korean.. they did not have an english GPS now but we could switch the audio to english, so the commentary is in english. In Jeju, you just need to enter the phone number of the destination (works like our SG postal code) into the GPS and it will guide you there.
So the guy left us (heng ar!) with the car and i ran out from the driver's seat to the passenger seat immediately, haha.. Hubs took over the wheel and quickly drove off. I was damn scared lor! Like we were doing some illegal thing!!!
thank God we weren't caught haha.
It's left hand drive so we needed to keep right. In SG we always keep left.
Our first destination was Seongeup Folk Village to have their famous black pig BBQ for lunch.
We googled for people's blog where they have good reviews of the place. Took us awhile to find it.
I had to knock on doors to ask for the specific directions to this place. I even went into one house with 4 ajummas (middle-aged aunties) sitting together in the living room talking haha
One of them was very helpful and pointed us to the right direction :D
We reached!
It's a family-owned restaurant.
There were not many people inside and service was quite good. haha.
Side dishes which we didn't really touch. hahaha
Our black pork belly and spicy black pig.
the person (i think it's the son) helped us to BBQ and cut the pork belly. The meat is quite tough in my opinion.. maybe BBQ too long? dunno. but it's still tasty.
After that, we left the place and drove to the next destination in my "Must-visit" list - Seopjikoji
So fast sun setting already!?!?!? 4pm+ nia!
i dunno what's up with this place and where this leads to.. i just know i googled and they said it's very scenic and it's some korean drama shooting site. Doesn't matter.. the wind was way too chilly and we were freezing from the cold! We were just so distracted with trying to keep warm haha..
Brrrrrrrr..... can don't so cold anot?
trying to act normal to take a wefie.
we were trembling haha....
sibei ugly de photo zzz. i look like a wrinkly ajumma
Anyway, we couldnt tahan the cold anymore. my head throbbing liao.. way too cold... the wind was going to kill us here hahaa... so we quickly hopped back to the car.
Soon, it was starting to be very dark....
and we went to another place for dinner. We just googled for local's favourite. and this was another place very popular with the locals for their abalone porridge.
So we ordered Abalone porridge and another claypot abalone fried rice (i think?) haha... dunno how to read. Just anyhow order whatever the locals were eating. They gave a free side dish of grilled mackerel!
Abalone porridge...
doesn't look very appetising... tastes quite plain in our opinion. And abalone is crunchy one. not like the canned New Moon abalone u eat during CNY. Taste more like cuttlefish/sotong? the whole time i didn't feel like i was eating 鲍鱼. haha
the claypot rice was much more flavourful :)
they said to pour the kettle of water into the claypot after you have finished the contents and the water will become a v savoury soup!
We did that.... but all we found was a very diluted soup with 80% taste of plain water haha... we had 2 mouthfuls and just left it hahaaa...
When we finished dinner, it was pitch dark and the roads were very dimly lit. There weren't many street lamps so we had to turn on high beam to see the road more clearly. We headed to our hotel which was around 1.5hr's drive away. It was situated very close to the Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak). This is one of my MUST-VISIT in Jeju!!
i Googled the following:
Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak rose from under the sea in a volcanic eruption over 100,000 years ago. Located on the eastern end of Jejudo Island, there is a huge crater at the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak. The crater is about 600m in diameter and 90m high. With the 99 sharp rocks surrounding the crater, it looks like a gigantic crown. The sunrise from the crater is magnificent.
Source: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr
haha, as the name suggests, of cos must go there see Sunrise right?
go there in the afternoon abit no point correct anot? So i added "Hike up Seongsan Ilchulbong peak to catch the sunrise" into my itinerary.
That means we need to wake up and get our asses up that mountain BEFORE the sun rises.. which also means we need to wake up damn early. Thus, our hotel needs to be like BESIDE the attraction so we don't have to wake at 3am. i read some blogs that people wake up at 3/4am to travel there. omg. haha
Glad i managed to find one hotel, Hotel Aroha, which is just a 5min's drive from the peak. I think can walk 10min to reach.
Thankfully, winter's sunrise is usually very later.. so i checked that the sun will rise around 7am, hahaa.. so i think we can wake like 5am, slowly hike up and still be in time, hehe :)
Sufficient carpark space right infront of the hotel! YAY
nobody at the hotel lobby reception at 9pm... lol..
the room i booked in this hotel was damn lok kok and the cheapest (2 single beds) as i think we will only be here for the night and we'll be out early morning before dawn.. Just get the cheapest room la! SGD 92 per night.
It's really v v lok kok hahaa.. their deluxe rooms are soo much better (with big airy balconies!!) and not so ghostly. hahaa.. i think one of the worst hotel rooms i've booked so far. i really felt scared staying in here cos the windows shook in the wind the whole night (like there was something 👻 behind the curtains....) and the aircon switched off by itself every other hour (someone meddled with the control).. and i can't make out the korean words on it, even after using the Google translate, the words do not seem to make any sense... so i gave up. The hubs woke up at 3am and fixed the problem. i dont know how he did it but he's just good with it. Should have just gotten him to do it in first place, Tsk!
But location is DA BEST! Highly recommended to book the deluxe rooms with balcony!
Day 3 - Seongsan Ilchulbong, Manjanggul lava cave, Cheonjeyeon falls, Teddy Bear Museum
We planned to wake up at 5am.
But GUESS WHAT... i snoozed the alarm the next morning at 5am.....and only woke up at almost 6am! OMG WE ARE LATE AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO CATCH THE SUNRISE!!!!!!!
We jumped out of bed and did not even bathe. Washed up and brushed our teeth only. i didn't even put on make up and sam didn't wax his hair. haha.. we rushed out of the hotel to our car at 6:15am and drove to the peak.
i say we can catch the sunrise liao then come back and bathe since our hotel so near ✌️
On our way to the peak on the car.... we can see the sun peaking through behind the peak liao!! Siao liao la....gonna miss it liao la!
We parked our car and ran up.... we even ran past the ticketing booth and forgot to pay for the admission tickets! hahaha
my photos all very blur cos i was running but still wanted to take photos lol
the hike up...
274m to reach the peak!!! We can do it!
i swear i nearly died climbing up the peak. my legs turned jelly and i began sweating. i took off my down jacket and hubs just stared at me haha... he did not understand why i could perspire in this weather lolol... i couldn't breathe lor!!! just feeling so uncomfortable so i thought i was seriously going to die Lol... Luckily i didn't die.
Note to self- need to start exercising liao.
We reached the top!!!! YAY.... it was crowded!.. everyone was waiting...... the sky was cloudy and we could not see the sun. luckily it was cloudy, or else we would not have made it to see the sunrise haha
where's the sun??? (dont mind my unglam face)
coming out coming out!!!! Sun rays peaking through the clouds.
so nice!!
love this shot! haha
❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
it was all worthwhile!
Time to hike down.... ohh so this was how we came up haha.. just now too dark and i too tired to notice anything,.. was just trying to stay alive haha
this amazing view!
why am i in such a beautiful place hahaa
Tried out jumpshots! It was extremely windy and my tripod just toppled over so many times and my winter hat got blown away! haha.. managed to get this shot when the wind died down (for like 5 secs?) before the tripod fell over again haha
can you feel the happiness? Lol..
our hotel sign haha... can see better in the day.
see?
the bright and airy balconies of the deluxe rooms! Should have booked these! For hotels in Korea, they would usually leave the unoccupied rooms open. So we managed to sneak into one on our way out and saw how nice it was! haha
there was a 24h convenience store below the hotel and we bought hot coffee and milk.
These are so cute!!
Banana milk and chocolate milk. i bought the latter only because of the minion bottle. There were 3 different designs!
After we bathed and checked out of the room at 11am, we were on our way again! Today we were going to maximise the time and visit as many places as possible on Jeju island! cos tomorrow we'll be heading back to Seoul.
Googled for somewhere nice to eat... thankfully it was quite near. This place, Manna Sikdang, is famous for their mackerel.
outside see the shop like closed right? inside was a totally different scenario altogether haha
Super crowded and there was one last table for us! YAY!!
We had what the locals were all having...
Braised mackerel and cutlassfish. Free flow side dishes. i tell you, this meal was so delish!!!!!! Hubs said this was the BEST MEAL IN KOREA so far.... i think he'd forgotten about the gyoza that we had 2 nights ago lol.... or maybe he thinks this is better.
the sauce was so flavourful! and the fish was really fresh and delicious!!! i never eat fish with so many bones until so happy before lor.. we just kept eating and saying, wah... shiokkkk.... haha
After our very satisfying lunch, we set off on the road trip again! We were going to see the Manjanggul lava cave!
can i Google it again? hahaa i'm lazy to go research.... yes i will just cut and paste lol..
Manjanggul Cave is one of the finest lava tunnels in the world, and is a designated natural monument. A lava tunnel is formed when the lava that was deep in the ground spouts from the peak and flows to the surface. Manjanggul Cave has a variety of interesting structures inside including 70cm lava stalagmites and the lava tube tunnels. Only 1km of the 13,422m Manjanggul Cave is open to tourists.
Source: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr
The entrance of the lava tunnel :)
the inside...
it's alil damp in here... not very cold (as compared to the outside)... The ground is uneven so take care not to trip and fall over. Must wear flat sole shoes. my boots got kitten heels so abit hard to walk... plus my toes were starting to hurt alot.
Hubs' feet also becoming to feel painful..maybe the amount of walking we did the past few days, and the cold weather was not helping.
That's the end of the tunnel which was open to the public.. It's all natural forming...quite amazing.
Okay done, quick let's go to the next attraction!
Having a chocolate muffin from Paris Baguette on the way! so chocolatey so nice!
We parked our car near the Teddy bear museum cos Cheonjeyeon waterfall was just nearby...
Freezing so we stopped by Starbucks for a warm Mocha. The whole Starbucks cafe was filled with 90% Singaporeans hahaa... now i know singaporeans love starbucks.
So pretty!
Come Jeju must take with their mascot. hubs say this is a kukubird. Isst?? u mean Jeju's mascot is a male sex organ?? he didn't want to explain further and asked me to go and Google it.
okay i Googled it and it's called a "Stone granfather". no kukubird was mentioned in the article.. tsk.
We were going to see the Cheonjeyeon falls!
when we walked past here, i EXCLAIMED very loudly when i saw that mountain behind. OMG what's that mountain called??!! IT'S LOOKS SO MAGNIFICENT! i tried googling it but did not really get an answer. Is this the Mt Hallasan on Jeju island???
WHY SO PRETTY ONE!!!!
okay i wanna enter as fast as possible. i need to see the mountain.
sun o' sun, why are u setting again at such an early time? 4 plus nia.
This was taken at the observatory deck.
Can you see Cheonjeyeon falls below? but seriously, who cares about the waterfall when you have such an awesome mountain behind??? i'm so so so in love with it.
Can someone pls tell me what this mountain is? thank u
Next stop, Teddy bear museum!!!!
i'm excited to visit here cos i wanna buy a teddy bear home! My mission haha
We had like an hour here before its closing time.
Actually i just wanted to rush though all the exhibits and head straight to the teddy bear souvenir shop hahaha
This reminds me of my brother's family haha..
We were just looking at the exhibition on our own...and hubs came over and showed me a series of selfies he took with the bears. Lol...
Tiger woods
Bruce Lee
Michael Jackson
and this's funny haha.. Marilyn Monroe. wahaha
i was trying to find a nice bear from the shop and hubs came with this in his hands. This one's so cute!!!! Its fur is very soft to the touch and it has a cute face haha... Love rugged bears like this!
Mission accomplished! ✔
left the teddy bear museum a happy girl!
We headed back to our next hotel, which was located near to the Jeju airport.
On the way, we googled and came across this place selling Samyetang chicken (ginseng chicken soup)
It's also a family-owned restaurant and the boss has 3 beautiful kids. Service was good as well..
We ordered the Traditional and the Regular Ginseng chicken soup.
We sat like traditional Koreans! haha... so fun.. Took a photo of us in a very awkward angle with a selfie stick zzz haha... looks v weird but that's the only photo we had.
All meals come with their Ginseng wine /sake?.. which was very strong i feel.
And side dishes as usual... Eeee got chicken feet. no thanks. i used to eat this with my grandmother when i was young and i loved it haha.. but now i don't eat them.
Our soup came!
taste quite plain actually.. hmmm...
and i found a wishbone!!! Made a wish, hehe
hubs was sad cos he couldn't find the wishbone in his chicken. He also wanted to make a wish. haha
We drove 1.5hr after dinner to our hotel - Ramada Encore Jeju Yeondong.
THIS WAS THE BEST HOTEL SO FAR!!!!!!!! so nice and cosy!!!!! and cheapest!!! SGD 90 per night!! and it was a 10min drive to the airport... so we need not wake up too early the next morning (we were flying back to Seoul the following day!)
such a good buy hahaha....
Hotel was clean and the bathroom squeaky clean! Love this!! Ramada Encore has a chain of hotels i think... Thumbs up!!!
My teddy bear hehe..
Okay that's all for Day 4! dunno when got time to update Day 5 haha...im going back to work tomorrow!
Ciao!