KOREA 2014: DAY 4 ~ JEJU: Jeongbang Falls, Cheonjiyeon Falls, Jusangjeolli Cliff, Teddy Bear Museum, Hello Kitty Island, Dongmun Market

20 OCT 2014

After a good night's sleep we woke up at 8am for our breakfast; Kitty prepared a slice of toast, a hard-boiled egg, a fried egg, strawberry jam, cereal and home-made yoghurt.


How I ate: the hard-boiled egg by itself, put the jam and fried sunny side up on my toast and drank my tea. =) The egg really made me super full. We then got ready for our day of sight-seeing; yes I made an effort for my make-up because photo-taking opportunities are plenty today. Also, check out my Hello Kitty outfit of the day because our last stop was the Hello Kitty Museum =) Hello Kitty T-shirt from Osaka, Hello Kitty shorts from Sanrio Tokyo and Hello Kitty leggings. (Yes I wore my 3-inch heels and I actually walked on rocks with them)



Kitty also lent us a selfie stick so today's adventures consists of the three ahjummas' virgin attempt at maneuvering the long stick =P



We went down to the carpark about 10minutes before 9 and our taxi driver was already there waiting. Cheers to him for being early. Taxi guides are a common thing in Jeju due to the long driving distance from place to place and not being very accessible via pubic transport with the bus being the main mode. We searched for these guides online and was glad to have found Mr Lee via this group of drivers contactable via: nytaxi5445@hanmail.net . The first Mr Lee who replied our email was not available on the days we requested for and so recommended Mr Lee Tae Young instead. Rates are 130,000KRW per car per day from 9am to 5pm. (Reviews can be found here: http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/korea-283/jeju-taxi-driver-tour-mr-lee-tae-young-4772461-2.html) Mr Lee (snr) despite being unable to fetch us was able to advice us on our itinerary and convey it to Mr Lee TY successfully. Upon getting into the car, Mr Lee had a map with him which he was able to mark out the places to visit, provide a good estimate for the time it takes driving place to place and time spent at each location. They will fit in the given time frame if you follow his plans and for the two days, time allocated was sufficient and perfect even with our very aggressive phototaking regime.



First stop was Jeongbang Falls, on the southern side of the island and hence it took about 45minutes for us to get there. I give credits to Mr Lee for being a well-paced and safe driver getting us to our destination comfortably. Time here: an hour was given but we were done within 45minutes or so with multiple photos including our half success and half fail selfies. It's just a flight of stairs down and up



**Note: All these places require an admission fee of between 2000KRW~3000KRW so it might be good if you gather your money for the group unless you want to keep pulling out small change



Jeongbang Falls:

The old lady divers who sell fresh seafood; you can eat a live abalone or maybe octopus or squid?

I braved the scary rocks (ok fine I half crawled) for the sake of this photo:


Another thing to note as your visit these typical tourist spots; there will be stalls selling souvenirs in the form of mostly chocolates (tangerine/hallabong/cactus) and I can say that price difference between each either varies very little or none at all and is almost exactly the same as that of the Jeju City market place as well of if you have time/space to buy it then go ahead. (We Singaporeans are always trying to compare different places and then seeking out the cheapest, I can safely tell you that the efforts arent worth it. If you see something that catches your eye and you think the price is right; go ahead =))


Next stop: Cheonjiyeon Falls (note; this is different from Cheonjeyeon) Between the two, the latter is the one that is near the Jusangjeolli Cliff however on the day we visited, there was a lack of rain and hence was advised by Mr Lee that it was dry; no water therefore we decided to give it a miss.


Dropping off at the carpark, it is a small walk towards the main waterfall (take the right path; it is shorter) Total time is close to an hour.


First, say hi to the duckies:



The mascots of Jeju (we only realized it 2 days later, was wondering why so many of these statues are seen all over Jeju)




Small waterfall
And then BIG waterfall! haha


And then on the way back I gave a dance performance on the stage


After a slightly longer drive of about 40mins to the southwest side; we arrived at Daepo Jusangjeolli Cliff


I personally found the waterfalls a lot prettier but I guess the nice formation makes for some good pictures too.


Sun too hot therefore squinty eyes

This place also takes up relatively little time. Moving on, Mr Lee was driving us to lunch, making a pit-stop at this lovely viewing point to take a photo against this rather famous bridge (I'm sorry I don't have the name)

Upon closer inspection, we realized it has these lovely deco on it



You can cross the bridge to a temple I think but it was drizzling anyway and we didn't put time for it. Mr Lee was just kind and smart enough to point it out to us =)


Finally; LUNCH! Jeju is indeed famous for their black pork so HM and KH ordered it. I had...seafood instead and I can tell you...no freaking regrets at all (I will skip the part where HM gets judges for chomping on the chili)




The seafood was so damn fresh there was no hint of fishy taste at all. The soup was extremely delicious with a strong seafood taste and the generous serving of seafood included muscles, prawns, chipped octopus and the star; abalone. Mr Lee had to teach me how to pluck the abalone out though haha and after he left the table because he finished first, the shop owner came to help with with my remainder two abalones cause I kept them for last hahaha....


My bowl of seafood noodle soup cost a mere 15000KRW and I think the black pork cost about 10000KRW.


After lunch was museum visiting time and first stop: Teddy Bear Museum. Mr Lee purchasing the ticket on our behalf entitled us for a tour guide discount so yaye (I think it is about 13000KRW)


I am only going to post selective pictures because the rest are up on my facebook:



In total, it was a whopping three-story of teddy bears dressed in different celebrity costumes, historical events, movies, dramas, iconic figures etc....and the bottom level is a souvenir shop we did not buy anything from because of the ridiculous price tag. It also leads to a garden where more bear statues are found. We unfortunately did not catch the Elvin Presley show despite being there at the right time (we thought it'd be lame) BUT Mr Lee told us it was when a huge 3-metre/story bear will appear so we are sad. So, if you are there, please attend and tell me what I missed and make sure you allow me to cry on your shoulder.


Final stop; the highlight of my Jeju trip; HELLO KITTY ISLAND !!! =)


Once again, here are some selective photos:


Happy girl who made away with a big loot


Huge thank you to my two kind friends who accompanied me on this visit. I LOVE YOU GUYS. Mr Lee then sent us back; hitting our 5pm mark =) These taxi drivers are paid after the end of each note so make sure you prepare enough cash.


After consulting Kitty who welcomed us warmly, we got directions to the "city center" where the markets were located:


This is also where you can buy Jeju chocolates etc if you haven't; prices are quite standardized with variety differing slightly from shop to shop so just decide which shopkeeper you like =)


Many live seafood to check out there as well if you are to cook =) Me and KH also bought ahjumma pants (fashion inspired by Timon and Pumba aka Shindong and Eunhyuk of Super Junior) at a mere 5000KRW. They were so comfortable to wear to sleep =) Soft

Hungry and slightly lost, we decided to settle for the first random restaurant and guess what; it turned out to be good! Although most people were ordering grilled meat, we settled for spicy seafood (KH) and beef noodles (me and HM) I must say the broth was extremely yummy so heads up:



After this, we painfully navigated ourselves towards e-mart located at the top of the city. It is basically a huge supermarket but we were not allowed to bring our plastic bags in so we had to place it in the lockers outside (I think it was about 2000KRW)


We bought water, fruits, energy bars and raincoats to prepare for tomorrow's hike up the mountain. Funny encounter: these two tourists came up to me and asked me about the pricing on the tag; for one bottle of water versus a carton. I obviously don't read Korean but I could see the numbers and assumed the meaning so I advised her as such and she thanked me profusely before running to her friend screaming "Oh my god! We are enlightened!! This girl speaks English!! And she told me that ...." Amused. Terribly amused. Second time I'm apparently a Korean who speaks English. =S (I guess to them all Asians look the same =S)


We decided we were tired and it was late and we had quite abit to carry (all the litres of water) and hence took a cab back. It wasn't much; about 5000KRW for the trip so it was all good.


An early night's rest for an early morning set off after Kitty helped us plan our route =)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Super Junior's 6th Anniversary

KOREA 2014: DAY 8 ~ SEOUL: DMZ, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun

KOREA 2014: DAY 6 ~ JEJU: Manjang Cave, Gimnyeong Maze Park, Seopjikoji Coast, Jeju Folk Village Museum, Sangumburi Crater, Yongduam Rock