09 Dec Korea: Snippets of Jeju-do (Day 1 & 2)

[one_half]For the longest time, I’ve been wanting to visit Korea. Wy & myself were supposed to join the girls back in 2013 for a winter trip to Korea but due to circumstances, we had to forgo. The irony that we almost had to forgo this September trip too because of the outbreak of ‘Mers’ made me appreciate the trip more. Thank god the case simmered during our visitation.

When Scoot goes all reggae and emits rainbow with Bob Marley’s music playing in the background, I was probably the only person getting all hyped up. Stood up, took a picture and chat with the friendly flight attendants about it. As you can see, the rest of the passengers didn’t give a hoot. 참![/one_half]

[one_half_last]The one regret, I booked the flight that has an hour stopover at Taipei and reach Seoul Incheon late at night like near 10pm. I had to book a night stay near Gimpo airport. Our flight to Jeju-do is the next morning.

So just imagine the transit at Taipei → Incheon airport (had to take a limousine bus) → Gimpo airport, stayed 1 night. The next morning took a train back to Gimpo airport → fly to Jeju. Hectic shit.

참 = really / involves people spitting on you in their overwhelming desire to emphasize a point.[/one_half_last]

[one_half]So we arrived Jeju and the bus ride to Seogwipo city area where most of the accommodations are, was an hour bus ride away. Our budget hotel was quite a walk with our luggage, but it was bearable. Just in case you’re wondering. Our stay, the Feliz Telcon hotel was rather decent with really helpful receptionists. It has the basic facilities except breakfast.

Food stalls were all around the corner anyways.[/one_half]

[one_half_last]After reading some blogs about sea urchin seaweed soup & grilled mackerel in Jeju island, I couldn’t wait to try it myself. And I CANNOT! It was so freaking “fishy” it wasn’t funny. I had to prevent my facial  expression from showing because it would be deemed rude. Wy didn’t help at all. She gagged like in my face. It was the worst when the soup turned lukewarm. It’s just weird how I love eating sea urchin sushi in Japanese restaurants or food like oysters and lobster bisque. BUT this supposedly fresh sea urchins! U mad!?[/one_half_last]

South Korea’s highest mountain, Mt Hallasan can be seen near our accommodation.

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Beautiful dramatic sky before the sun sets.

Knowing that Cheonjiyeon waterfall was near our accomodation, we took a slow stroll. The stroll was much longer than I expected with slopes and all. Then we realized we took a damn long route down. We could have reached much earlier. But exploring the places along the way was quite nice. While back home, friends were complaining about the haze, we managed to escape it for nearly 2 weeks so I was appreciative of the breeze and fresh air in Jeju.

Is it worth going to this waterfall? No big deal. It’s a really small waterfall.. meh. I would suggest go if you’ve got nothing else on your itinerary.

[one_third]

We chance upon a restaurant where there were many locals having their dinner so we decided to try it out. Our dinner pot was crazy! It was huge with all the seafood in it. I was really worried the abalone was going to taste like the sea urchins we had in the afternoon but to our pleasant surprise, it was absolutely delicious! Abalones are really vulgar looking squirming like that.. #justsaying.

We had an elderly couple sitting next to us and I think they were as shocked as we were at our pot. Yet they were too friendly, they gave us some of their food to try which we declined, but they insisted. In return, we gave them some abalones. [/one_third]

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Indoor baseball.

To be continued…