Monday, June 11, 2012

11 Days Korea Trip 2011 Free n Easy - Day 2, Jeju

2 Dec 2011 (Fri)


Jeju/ Mysterious Road/ Manjanggul Cave/ Seongsanojo House Of Woman Diver/ Seongsan IIchulbong/ Trick Art Museum/ Dongmun Night Market/ Jungang Underground Shopping Centre


After a good night rest in Jeju, we had our first breakfast in Yeha Guesthouse. Well don't expect any international buffet in a guesthouse, it's simple self toast bread, egg or cereal with milk. We had to prepare our own breakfast and after eating, did our own clearing up and washing.
For today, we had hired Mr.Won for 120,000 won for 8 hours (maarooii@yahoo.co.kr or hp : +82 10 3697 2303). He can speak English, Mandarin and Japanese well, and he also doubled up as our photographer. He reached Yeha at least half an hour earlier as he noticed him sitting there when we had our breakfast. He looked rather young so I didn't expect him to be our driver.

After our breakfast and when we came down from our room, he asked if I'm the one who booked his taxi. He realised he got his timing mixed up and he was too early. He used his handphone to access his email as he didn't use computer, my itinerary in MS Words was not received by him. Luckily I printed an extra copy and gave him on the spot.


Mysterious Road

Our first destination was Mysterious Road (there are 2 Mysterious Road in Jeju, we choose the one outside Loveland). Much had been said and shown on these road, so just a couple of photos here;
The man you see in the above 2 photos was not our driver.


On our way to Manjanggul Cave, Mr.Won said he would drive along the coastway to show us the scenery. In Jeju, there seems to be plenty of Windmill;
Not this type, of course;
On the way, Mr.Won told me that it is cheaper to stay in the New Jeju City than the one we were staying at which was the 'old' Jeju City. He said there are many new and better hotel than the one we stayed and cheaper, around 50,000 to 60,000 won per night.


We also passed by the Yongduam Rock (Dragon Head Rock);

 And that was our taxi driver Mr.Won and he was rushing to the toilet; 
One thing I liked about Jeju or Seoul, the toilets were clean and free. The only setback is that some toilets like our guesthouse Yeh, the toilet paper cannot be thrown into the toilet bowl and you have to throw into the dustbin besides it. Probably it's because the paper they used are not those soluable in water type, if I'm not wrong.
I really like the builing architecture in Jeju, very nice;
Some may choose to rent a car and drive in Jeju, but I choose not to despite driving for 30 yrs. The traffic light in Jeju is rather different, and I got a shock in the beginning: When Red Light on, cars can still turn even without the Turning Green or Filter Green Light. So it's best to leave the driver to my Mr.Won.


And that is Udo Island (Buffalo Head) which I actually planned to go but decided not to due to not enough time;


Manjanggul Cave

Finally we had reached the Manjanggul Cave, and this time of course was free admission again due to winning the new 7 wonders of nature;
It's definitely not for one with weak leg like me. The walk was long to and fro, luckily Mr.Won would wait for us outside and he told us no need to rush. Also it's rather difficult to take photo inside as it cave is huge and dark;
It is of course easier to identify Stalactites (top) than Stalagmites (ground);
Reaching out for the stalactities;
A closer view of the stalactities;
Of course these are what one would expect to find in a limestone cave.
You will see pole like this telling you how far you are from the end or beginning. Well we were now only 150m from the end;
Frankly there wasn't much to see when we reached the end. And now the last flight of stairs before reaching the exit;
At last we reached the exit;
See what I found when looking down from the outside of the Manjanggul Cave's toilet, a tangerine tree;

I didn't expect to see one with the fruits as I thought Winter might be too cold for it. But later I realised that I was wrong as I am able to find more throughout the Jeju island.


Seongsanojo House of Woman Diver

As we took quite sometime in the cave, we were very hungry when we were out. I told Mr.Won to drive us to the Seongsanojo House of Woman Diver (오조 해녀의 집) located near Seongsan IIchulbong (Sunrise Peak);
And what is nice to eat here, of course porridge, especially abalone porridge. As the menu was in Korean, Mr.Won helped us to order one each for all of us;
Each abalone porridge only costs 11,000 won and all side dish and drinks at no charges. The side dish if not enough, can take some more and at no additional charges. I invited Mr.Won for lunch of course for his hard work.


See how fast my daughter finished hers;




Guess who is Mr.Won or who is more Korean look;
You can see the Sunrise Peak in the background just shown on top of this white car outside the restaurant;
The  Manjanggul Cave, Sunrise Peak and this restaurant are all a short drive away. You may check out more about this restaurant here or here .


Mr.Won drove us to the Seongsan IIchulbong or Sunrise Peak. It was just a short drive away; 
Look at the trail of track at the distance up the peak. No, I'm not going to climb all the way up...so we just shopped around and had some snacks too.
You may also buy your famous Jeju chocolate here besides the Chocolate Land. You will be surprised that the price may be cheaper here;




Trick Art Museum


Our next stop was the Trick Art Museum (제주 트릭아트 박물관);
This is a must go and see and enjoy place for the family in my opinion. Some of the trick art pieces were really interesting and the whole place took us quite some time to complete. Here are some of it;



Some need careful alignment like this one;
Me doing handstand in the museum;
My wife doing her levitation;
Did she dropped into a manhole;
What we can see outside the Museum, but still raining quite heavily;




Dongmun Night Market


We didn't venture further as it's getting colder and winding. We also have to skip the visit to Seongeup Folk Village as it was still raining and getting late. So we decided to call it a day for Mr.Won after he had driven us to the Dongmun Night Market for dinner (제주시 동문시장).


As it was quite a distance, I almost dozed off. The sky was getting dark and still raining when we reached the Dongmun Night Market. Paid Mr.Won 120,000 won in a white envelope and said good bye to him. He even gave my daughter a Super Junior new cd after knowing that she likes Kpop.


Why is there a statue in the market? There were taps below the statue for you to waste your hands;
At least got a look and smell of how their wet maret like;


And what! Even pig head?



Try these;
Should have bought these sotong and eat live instead of the abalone;
We paid 10,000won for the above plate of live abalone. The woman sliced it for us and packet it so that we can bring it else where to eat.


The problem now is to find a place to eat our dinner (I thought there were some eating place at the Dongmun Market, but there were none). Lucily opposite there was some eating places. Crossed over via the underground shopping centre, which we didn't know until after dinner, that it was Jungang Underground Shopping Centre. Will talk about this shopping centre after dinner;


Finally we managed to find a eating place after crossing over via the underground shopping centre. Just a quiet eating place called Mok Dong Grill;
It was a rather small place and we were the only customers, probably due to the rain;


I chose this place also due to the Samgyetang (삼계탕) Korean Ginseng Chicken soup which only costs 10,000 won here;
We asked permission to have our raw abalone to be eaten there. It was rather hard to bite and chew, maybe should have bought the raw octopus;
Besides the Samgyetang, we also ordered a stew;
and a plate of sotong rice;

Actually there was no need for me to order the sotong rice as the Samgyetang came with glutinous rice stuffed inside it;
As you could see the spread on our table, it was really too much for us to finish them all including all the side dishes. Maybe we were also too tired to eat... and our total bill came out as 23,000 won. Also the Samgyetang was also nothing much fantastic about, can give it a miss too.




Jungang Underground Shopping Centre


It was still raining after dinner, and good that we managed to find our way back to the tunnel entrance to the underground shopping centre (we are all rather have poor sense of direction);
This was how the shops looked like in the underground shopping centre;
What we found in the middle of the shopping trail;
Interesting shop name;
Despite the cold weather, they still wanted to try the ice cream;
As we were all tired out, we decided to take a cab back to Yeha, and it was not too costly, only 3,300 won.

Here is more about the toilet in Yeha Guesthouse, depending on how you can adapt to it. For us, we don't like it at all. The toilet size is ok even though without the bathtub as we won't be using it anyway;

But after reading this in the toilet, I told my wife and daugther to bathe faster in case halfway through, there wasn't any hot water...
To make matter worst, read the upper note;


Oh no, it's similar to many years ago when we went to Taiwan, the used toilet paper got to throw into the little trash bin besides the toilet bowl;


The bin was so small and they didn't clear the bin throughout our 3 days 2 nights stay. Now I know why they have a can of refresher inside;




...Day 3 to be continued in next post.

1 comments:

BT TAN said...

About the Mr Won taxi, for 8 hours package, we set the itinerary for him? It is possible for him to pick us at Seogwipo hotel?
Thanks
BT

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