Incheon Airport/ Gimpo Airport/ Jeju/ Cheonjeyeon Fall/ Seogwipo Daily Market and Arcade
The flight took us 6 hours and Korea is 1 hour ahead of us, so we reached Incheon Airport at 7am (Korea time). Immediately we rushed to take the AREX (Airport Railway Express) to Gimpo Airport. We should have spend more time at Incheon Airport instead of rushing to there (due to my high anxiety...), since Gimpo Airport is much smaller and nothing much to do there.
We just followed the sign Airport Railroad (English sign) and we won't go wrong. I spent too much time checking on website on how to go to AREX station, and when I reached there I realised it was just too easy..just follow the signboard.
Here we are at the AREX Station, Incheon Airpot;
The interior of the AREX;
Finally we reached Gimpo Airport after a long ride. It will be better to allocate an hour for this ride in your planning. Once we reached the Gimpo Station, just follow the signboard out (most have English signboard, so not a problem). We purchased our T-Money from a convenience store (Family Mart) and again must tell them 1 was for student as the charges for the transport was lower. We paid 75,000 won for all the 3 T-Money;
Here are the T-Money;
Luckily there was the travellator to ease our walking;
Upon reaching the Domestic Flight terminal, it's not difficult to locate the Eastar Jet counter for check-in. But we were too early so had to be back in an hour's time.
We had our lunch at Gimpo Airport and regretted should have taken an early lunch at Incheon Airport as there will be more choices. Our lunch that cost us total 17,000 won for 3;
After checking-in our luggage, there was practically nothing much to do except to sit down and wait;
We took a good aerial view of the airport surrounding at this cafe;
Finally it's time for boarding and on our way to the boarding gate, we saw this huge drum;
After about an hour flight, we reached Jeju. It's a small airport and since the journey from airport to Yeha Guesthouse was not far (only about 4,000 won, should be lesser if the taxi driver can find the place), we took the taxi. It was not easy to locate the taxi stand (best to ask around) as we need to cross the road to the opposite (even the Koreans in front of us also having problem locating the taxi stand).
After a short ride, we reached Yeha Guesthouse;
The 'roof garden' of the guesthouse without the garden;
The temperature was around 6 to 7 deg C in Jeju when we arrived but was drizzling throughout our stay.
We booked a room with 1 double bed and 1 single bed that cost us 80,000 won per night. We stayed 2 nights in Jeju at this guesthouse. It was a basic room with no wardrobe (you hand your clothings on the wall) and so you cannot unpack your luggage;
Cheongjeyeong Fall
Without wasting much time, we quickly proceeded for our first location in our itinerary, Cheonjeyeon Fall. Even though we showed the taxi driver the location in Korean words and gave him the telephone number as some said they can key into their GPS which most taxi have, he still took a long time to locate the place. Ended up we paid 35,000 won for the trip. As our guesthouse was in the Jeju city (North part) and Cheonjeyeon Fall was in the Southern part (Seogwipo), usually the taxi fare will be around 30,000 over won. We should have taken the Inter City Bus to Seogwipo Bus Terminal, then took a taxi from there will be much cheaper. The bus fare was about 3,300 won per person.
As it was Winter time, so the taxi will not turn on the aircon but the heater. All taxis that we had taken all went by meter, so there was no bargaining on the fares.
After a long journey, we finally arrived;
We were surprised that why we were not charged any entrance fees when they supposed to. We only find out the reason the next day.
Some of the scenic views;
And this is the beginning of my 'nightmare' in Korea with walking up and down the stairs;
The Cheonjeyeon Bridge;
Walking up the Cheonjeyeon Bridge;
And now I know why admission was free;
My wife touching the nose of the Dolharbubang (stone grandfather guardian of Jeju Island), hoping that her wish will come true;
Found these unique trees on our out;
And an interesting building;
Inside the Chocolate Land;
Since we decided not to visit the Botanic Garden and visit the Lotte Hotel and hoping to see the popular windmill, we walked past the Believe It Or Not museum;
We also walked past the Teddy Bear Museum, which probably also free, but we didn't have the time to go in;
Seogwipo Daily Market and Arcade
Oh no, we were not having roasted chestnut for dinner;
Surprised to find that the stalls were still opened at night;
We decided to go out of the market and looked around the side lane. Finally we found a restaurant that sell 'black pig meat' which is famous in Jeju;
I also ordered a bottle of Makeoli (막걸리, Korean rice wine) which one must really try to appreciate it. Well not too strong but went well with our food;
This is how the 'black pig meat' looked like before cooked;
A very interesting enclosure of teddy bears for sale;
As there wasn't much to shop or see around that area, we took a taxi back to Yeha. That was a long 1 hour journey and cost us 30,000 won. Moreover, it took some time before the taxi driver found Yeha Guesthouse.
