Day 5 - Jeju Island Wild Wild "West"

After the amazing exploration of East Jeju a day before, our planned destination for today would be a tour on West of Jeju.

Our day started off with a breakfast in Hotel. We had a birdeye's view of the sea while enjoying our breakfast.

As usual, we headed over to the Tourism Booth opposite our hotel to wait for the tour bus. The first destination we will be visiting is the Hallim Park. Basically Hallim Park is a "zoo" for flora and faunas to live in. It had a different mix of gardens that could be enjoyed and visited in any season of the year!

However, the most famous of Hallim Park would be the undoubtable Hyeopjaegul and Ssangyonggul Caves. So what is so famous about these caves? Think about it, I will review the answer later. :P

Our first stop in Hallim Park is the Hyeopjaegul cave. At 200m long, it is one of the world heritage lava cave apart from Manjanggul Caves which we visited on the East Tour of Jeju. Inside the cave we saw the stalactites and stalagmites, which hang from the ceiling and sproud at the bottom.

It is still alive! Water is still dripping from the stalactites. Mother nature is so awesome!

The stone sculpture depicts legend of Dr.Jin swallow the bead at Hallim.

Next up, we visited the Jeju Stone Garden where miniatures are created with the stones.

For Bonsai lovers, Hallim Park would be the ideal destination. It offer varieties of Bonsai. Some Bonsai are older than us! :P

There is also a folk village inside.

Well, this is the lover's waterfall. Manmade. It look like we were in the heaven with all those artificial warps. :P

Not forgetting, there is also a bird park inside Hallim Park, and we were lucky to see a peacock showing it's distinctive feathers. The myth is, the peacock must be thinking I am very attractive or else, why it show it's feathers? ;p

We ended our Hallim Park visit at about an hour with some beautiful flower shoots, and headed for the second program of the day - Horse Riding.

It was a clear blue day, and we were given a cowboy vast to wear and a boots to wear if you are interested! Do I look like a sheriff? ;p

For us, that was the very first time of riding on a horse! Real horse!

To be specific, all the horses for ride are female horses. The reason be, they are more soft in nature and hence they can be nurtured slowly :P I were given a black foal(female baby horse) while Connie's got a brown one. I guess the foal must have been huffing and puffy when I rode on her back. :P

Look how big the horse head is. 

Is near lunch time, we were brought to a Japanese Restaurant for some Japanese food. Is good to have something different after day and days of kimchis!

I got a seafood tomyam soup whereas Connie opted for the Beef Soup.

There is some free time after lunch and I did few photo shooting. Look at my Korean model. She is so cute!

Our next visit was the Jusangjeolli Rocks which is a 2km stretch of coastline with hexagonal rocks pillar stood gigantically around the shore!

Basically, the rocks are made up of the lava from the eruption of Mt Hallasan into the sea of Jungmun. It was really a god's work, the rocks were evently shaped and carved.

We marked our mark at Jusangjeolli Rocks. Nice knowing you guys!

We then headed to the second last destination of the day, Yakcheon Temple or also known as Yakcheon Sa.

The second largest temple in Jeju, it looks massive from outside.

The interior was even jaw-dropping!

A four storey building, you would have different view at each level.

It was believed that the water in this temple will heal illnesses and bring us luck when you drink it. We did tried some "drop" of water. Hehe.

Spending about 45minutes there, we left for our last destination of the day, Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls.

Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls (天地渊瀑布) is one of the most famous waterfall in Jeju. We have to walk for some distance from the entrance to reach the waterfall. 

Thanks to the guy who helped us to capture a pic together.

We ended our Tour of West at Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls. We requested Yeha's personnel to drop us at the New City of Jeju, for some shopping. We saw this shop and the aromas brought us into the shop.

So what is all about the aromas, a walnut filling cake, and it was molded into nuts shape. Pretty good and worth trying.

We just hung around the streets and then decided our dinner for the day will be instant noodles+beer+chips. Went back to the hotel early to get some rest as we will be heading back to Seoul on the next day!

Stay tuned for the funs and trills of Seoul!  

Day 4 - Jeju Island "East" Island of God

Today we have followed a tour around Jeju (East Tour) by participating the Yeha Tour. Getting ourselves filled up with a western like breakfast in our hotel, excitingly we went outside to wait for our Yeha Tour Bus outside the Tourism Booth near our Hotel.

 

Our first destination of the itinerary is Seongsan Ilchulbong (UNESCO World Heritage) or also known as Sunrise Peak. It is actually formed by volcanic eruptions ages ago.

At about 30 minutes journey by bus, we finally reached Sunrise Peak which is located at Seongsanri Town. We were only given 1 hour for this place as we have much more destination to visit later on. This is how it looked at the entrance.

  

Sunrise peak is a must visit place for tourist especially if you would like to catch the beautiful sunrise with the whole Jeju town at your feet. Amazing isn't it! However, it also depends on your luck to catch this remarkable view.

Without wasting any time, we hiked up to the sunrise peak. There are stairs and pavement welly constructed to aid the hiking process. You will have different surprise at different levels when you hike up. Of course the best view is always at the top of the peak!

It took me 30 minutes to run up the stairs while stopping at various defined scenic location to capture the magnificent view!

I finally made my mark at the top of the mountain, in 30min! Normally it get 20 min for the fittest to reach the top. I took 30min and also some stop to capture some picture. I think I am at the fit category though, thanks to my jogging hobby daily. :P Just to mention, Connie was huffing and puffing while climbing up. She stop at somewhere while I continue to go up. 

At the peak, I had a bird-eye view of the whole Seongsanri Town in front of me as what I had mentioned earlier! Extremely beautiful! The down-point was, it was a cloudy day and hence I cant see the clear blue sky with the amazing sunny rays. Anyway, it was already magnificent!

If you see clearly, there are a lot of houses with roofs with only 3 colors. Namely, blue, red and green. In fact, it is a tradition for residents in Jeju island to build their houses with designated color based on their surname/family name. Each surname will resembles or reflect their family name. Very classic!

The Seongsanri town is actually the west side of Sunrise Peak. On the East side, you will see the cratering of a green patch of grass where you will always see from the flyers which they capture from the bird-eye's view on the helicopter.

 

Not forgetting to mention, there is a haneyo house at the foot of the mountain, you can go down to take pictures with the women divers or watch them doing their dives. Too bad we don't have time to go down. We could only have the splendid view from here.Truly a sight to behold.

Again, is time for me to rush down the peak. This time it is much easier but you have to be careful as the steps is wide and uneven.

 

 

Generally it was a perfect experience for us.

We headed to our second destination of today which is Seongeup Folk Village. Along the road leading to Seongeup Folk Village we saw lots of windmills. It is a good way to generate reusable energy as the wind in Jeju Island is very strong. Brilliant idea by the Koreans!

 

Finally we reached Seongeup Folk Village which is located at the foot of the famous Halla Mountain. Admission is free for this village.

 

This village has a history of about 100 years and it has all the monuments on Jeju Island. It resembles the classical residential culture of the Jeju people.

A black pig was hiding when we found it resting in the bunt.

 

 

There are also tangerine farms in the village.

 

 

There are 3 "Yes" and 3 "No" in Jeju Island. The 3 "Yes" are:

1. There are lots of women in Jeju Island. Basically men are treated like king here. How I wish I am here :P

2. There are lots of lava rocks in Jeju Island. All the fences of the houses are built from lava rocks. They are indeed very strong and can withstand the strong winds of Jeju Island

3. There are lots of dol hareubang. Every houses or almost every corner of Jeju Island, you can see this sculpture. It is believed that, if you touch the nose of the sculpture, it will grant you a baby boy!

For the 3 "No" are:

1. There aren't any thieves in the Island.

2. There are no gates in the houses of Jeju which is why point (1) existed above. The gates are only made from 3 long sticks. Each position of the sticks resembles something. For eg: if 3 sticks are up, meaning the owner is not at home, whereas if one stick is up, the rest is down, meaning that the owner will be back in a minute.

3. Let you guys to discover yourself. Visit Jeju to know more. :P

It was about lunch time, we will have BBQ black pork! Pork is believed to be very nutritious.

This was how the restaurant look like.

 

 

Prior to our arrival, the pork is already prepared on the hot plate with all the mixture of vegetables and seasoning.

The hot plate is heated up and the aroma is brilliant! Time to fill our hungry stomachs especially people like me whom have run up to the peak of Seongsan Ilchulbong.

It was an enjoyable lunch and our next destination is to visit Haenyeo Musuem. 

Basically Haeyeon refers to Female Divers in Jeju. The history is such, most of the females in Jeju Island are divers. In this museum, you could see what are the history of these females divers. We got our chance to watch a video which describe the Haenyeos'.

 

I hold very high regards for them as after I visited this museum, I noticed that they are great divers and they dive into the deep sea even WITHOUT proper diving equipments! You can see the goggles they use, the fishing equipments and so on.

 

Guess who took this? Actually I took it from a wall poster.

 

After the museum visit, we went to our next destination which is  the Manjanggul Cave, one of the finest lava tubes around the world. This is another UNESCO World Heritage. Only 1km of the 13,422m Manjanggul Cave is open to the tourist.

 

The temperature inside the cave is much more colder than outside and, it is very dark  also. It took us again 30 minutes to reach to the very end of the lava tubes. Just imagine, you got the chance to be inside of a volcano! Trilling and exiting and truly an eye opener!

We saw various "God works" on the wall of the caves. The hot lavas formed some special kind of texture along the whole Manjanggul.

 

This is what we saw at the end of the cave. It was a tough journey inside the cave, but it is worth visiting. 

The sky turn blue now, and a great scenery outside Manjanggul Cave.

 

Is time for our last visit of the day - Dongmun Traditional Market. We got some fruits and souvenirs here. I would recommend this place if you intend to get something cheap and value for money. Do try to compare shop to shop. We got a good deal here.

 

 

 

During our visit, it was the persimmon season and hence we could try various type of persimmon.

After that, we got a wash up in our hotel and we went to hunt for food again. This time is dinner time! We went to the restaurant called “三好亭”, whom offers great BBQ pork. Why BBQ pork again, you guys must be wandering? Haha.

The atmosphere is good and this is the first time we got so many Kimchi.

 

The onions were added to enhance the taste of the BBQ pork.

 

The waiter helped us to BBQ the pork. It is from the meat of a black pig. Very nice!

 

This is how it looked like when it is cooked.

 

Another way to eat the pork, our very own Popiah style. :P

We also got ourselves a Bibimbap. Traditional korean rice mixed with vegetables. I don't quite like this. :P

A grill makarel fish. Having seafood is a must when you visit Jeju. Both of us like the fish.

 

With all of the dishes, this dinner only cost us 29,000 won. It really worth every penny.

After the dinner, we will be going for the Nanta Show. Nanta show is another must to watch show when you visit Korea, as it promised great entertainment throughout. It is a musical performance created by the presenters using the cooking utensils, and it is funny and interesting. 

 

We asked Yeha personnel to help us to prebook the tickets for this show at a discounted price,. Each  is 35,000 won. We didn't opt for the VIP seats as we do not want to be hit by a flying pizza nor pan! :P. Advise to you, the back seats are good enough. :)

Too bad photographs are not allowed for Nanta Show, but I still manage to shoot something prior to the start of the show.

The performers for the show are really great!

We have bought the Nanta T-shirt each as the memory for such a nice show. The T-shirt is priced at 15,000 won each.

Not forgetting to mentioned, Mounir and Carolyn also join us for this great show! What a great couple they are. Nice to know them

That is how we end our day 4!