Falling for South Korea - Jeju Island (Part 1)

Day 1 : Getting all the way up from KL to Seoul, and straight to Jeju. 

It has been a long waited trip and finally, here I am, treating my eyes and rejuvenating my my mind with the various wonders in this country. Thanks again to AirAsia X for offering us affordable flight seats to Seoul. It took us 6 hours 15 minutes to reach Seoul Incheon International Airport. Immediately after arrival, we bought the T-money which is a transportation card (or I would say convenience card) which is usable almost everywhere in Seoul. With the T-money,we hopped on AREX train (KRW 3450) and after less than an hour, we jumped off at Gimpo International Airport to catch the 1930 hrs domestic flight to Jeju. This domestic flight booking was made earlier in August from the Eastar Jet website. It was quite a cheap return flight offered by this carrier,around RM240 per pax. It took 1 hour to reach Jeju. From Jeju International Airport,we flashed our T-money card when boarding the Airport Limousine (it's a bus anyway) #600 at the 5th exit. Since we were heading to Seogwipo,the one-way fare was KRW 5000. It took 80 minutes and we got off the bus at New Gyeongnam Hotel bus stop. It was a couple of minutes away walking to Jeju Hiking Inn. We arrived our accommodation one hour later than the time we have stated in the online booking form. It was a tiring traveling day but at least,we managed to arrive Jeju safely n conveniently.

Day 2 : Jeju sightseeing 

Renting scooters
This day was started pretty late and slow. There was difficulty in finding the scooter rental shop though the staff of the hostel had showed me the direction in his tab (or maybe an iPad). It was a little confusing to get to the shop from the hostel. I confidently took the wrong way but thanks to the on-and-off internet service that I finally able to navigate my way to the scooter rental shop. One problem solved. Surprisingly, there was no one waiting in the shop and it turned out to be a little shock when the scooters were displayed with KEYS on the scooters slots. I thought that the owner must have trusted people so much they he is too confident that his scooters will not be stolen. Whatever!! So now, how do we get to rent these scooters? Well, the owner left several phone numbers; no answer for the first number, and luckily there was a lady answering the call. She asked us to wait for 15 minutes and....we waited of course. She turned up and finally we rented 2 scooters (125 cc, don't rent the 50 cc as it makes the traveling really slow). So, there we started the day.

SEOGWIPO SHELLFISH FOSSIL MOUND 

This place was not in my itinerary but we just drop-by this place because there is a nice view spot. There is also a bridge with the 'Burj al-Dubai' structure in the middle, which is not my cup of tea. And the nicest thing was, we saw Haenyeo (women divers) were doing what they are expert in doing at that area. We were trying to wait if they would return to the land but it seemed that they were going to spend the whole day in the sea.

 

Stacks of stones can be found almost everywhere near the beaches. 

We walked further following the trail and the view of Beomseom ( a small island across the mainland) was pretty good on sunny, clear day. And when we wanted to return to our scooter, my buddy just spotted a submarine tour service. And since we did not make any plan to dive in temperate water of Jeju island, we felt that it is prudent to at least experience the underwater scenery of Jeju without having to freeze ourselves.

Beomseom island

JEJU SUBMARINE TOUR 

To be honest, SCUBA divers may not care about this tour and I still think diving is the best way to appreciate underwater scenery around Jeju. And I think this tour is pretty expensive and does not worth spending KRW56500 for this tour. Perhaps, this tour is meant for locals who do not have the opportunity to dive in Jeju. However, for SCUBA divers who have not experienced diving in temperate water (that's me!!), taking this tour may at least give some idea on the underwater environment in temperate waters. In one aspect, it is good to expose people to the amazing underwater landscape, but the eye-soaring part is that the soft coral colonies are starting to decline as the impact from the physical damage from the submarine itself> I hope the submarine tour operator is aware of this and do something to restore the coral colonies. After an hour or so, we disembarked from the submarine and headed to Cheonjiyion waterfall.

Interior of the submarine, not so comfortable though.

Soft corals and damsels

Madelaine and the submarine crew. Behind is the submarine that brought us underwater.

CHEONJIYION WATERFALL 

The entrance fee was KRW2000 and all I can say, waterfalls in Malaysia are much lovelier and stunning. Too many tourists visiting this place making it almost impossible to get our own space for nice pictures. Before getting to the main waterfall, we bought 2 packs of delicious local snack, Peanut-butter Octopus, really delicious and you might thought of having this snack every hour, every day. It was at this waterfall where we had our packed lunch, bread and biscuits with tuna spread. I did not think that we would feel full by just having tuna spread, biscuits and breads, but they were perfect for our lunch. So the next spot, which we should have been much earlier was Seongsan Ilchulbong, 50+ kms away from where we started.

Clean and clear stream before reaching the main waterfall

I love ducks, and other beautiful birds too.

Cheonjiyion waterfall. Nice and clean place but too touristy.

SEONGSAN ILCHULBONG - THE SUNRISE PEAK : UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

We had a long ride on our scooter to Seongsan Ilchulbong and to add a cherry on a top of the cake, I
wrongly navigated our way though with a map. It was a little confusing to get to Seongsan Ilchulbong but with a little confidence, we finally reached Seongsan Ilchulbong around 3.15 pm. It was pretty late and my actual plan was to get to Seongsan Ilchulbong before 11 am but as I have expected, things did not work according to the plan. Perhaps this is because we were so excited to start the day that made me ignore the plan a little. We took the coastal road when approaching Seongsan Ilchulbong. It was a pleasant ride and we could see freshly caught octopus in the aquariums at the stalls by the road side, as well as squids being dried by the roadside. The sun was shining brightly and the wind was gushing through our faces. We parked our scooters near the information centre. It stunned me for awhile the moment my pair of eyes caught the view of the peak from the foothill. Without wasting time, I let my camera to do its job, capturing the best colors of the peak as it can. Before passing the gate, I had a quick peek at the shops selling souvenirs, snacks and other touristic items. None of them attracted me, so I decided to see more of the peak. The entrance fee to the peak is KRW2000. Many tourists hiked-up to the peak but I did not make any attempt to ascend because we knew it was a bit late for such activity.

The Sunrise Peak seen from the visitors centre

We were late for the Haenyeo performance. In less than an hour, we decided to leave Seongsan Ilchulbong. At first, I thought we would have time to drop-by Seopjikoji, a stunning cape with a small light-house and gorgeous landscape. There is also a small chapel (or church) and as I understand, this is the location where scenes of the All-In House (something like that)drama series were filmed. However, as the sun was about to set and it was getting darker, and the temperature was dropping pretty fast, we thought it might be a better idea to head back to Seogwipo.