Jeju Island: Day 2

Our plan for Day 2 was to go to the East side of the Island.

The first destination was Manjanggul, one of the finest lava tube in the world. This UNESCO World Heritage only opened 1km to its tourists and its condition of preservation is excellent despite its age of formation (about 300,000 to 200,000 years ago).

Here, we met an interesting 언니 from Daegu who tagged along with us the entire walk in the cave. With our broken Korean and her broken English, we were somehow able to hold a conversation. I hope I didn't say anything ridiculous... 

This is the Stone Turtle, which is especially eye-catching as it resembles the shape of Jeju Island itself.

I believe they called this lava toes since it looked like toes...

It was hard to walk since the ground was constantly wet and and uneven, but we eventually made it through.

Our second destination was Udo, where the literal translation is Cow Island. The reason for this is because apparently it looked like a lying cow. Contrary to our plan of busing there, we were able to hitchhike our way there with the help of the 언니 we met before. Also contrary to our plans, that 언니 and the 아저씨 that drove us there also tagged along with our little adventure. And so somehow we went from a group of 2 into a "family" of 4 (no seriously, someone actually thought we were a family).

To get on the island, you would have to purchase a ticket which includes the ferry fee and entrance fee.

Before we got on the ferry we also had to write down our name and age, though I'm not sure why. This is also where we find out that 언니 isn't exactly 언니 (she could almost be our mom...) The ferries were the ones where even the cars can get on. 

Some kind of pumpkin candy that the 아저씨 bought for us to try (though he finished nearly half of it)

On top of the hitchhike and the candy, the 아저씨 also paid for our lunch and it wasn't cheap... Koreans are so nice :)

The whole island was full of lava stone, which were stacked on top of each other to block out wind.

Haenyeo ("sea women") statue- female divers in Jeju, these women can stay in water for approximately 1 minute. In 2014, South Korea has applied to UNESCO to add them to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Tangerine and Peanut ice cream - I personally think the peanut one tastes really good. 

Actual Haenyeo at work - these divers are increasing in age as time passes but they are still so hard at work.

After parting from our "parents" of the day, we walked to the final place we visited: Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak), which is also declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a little help from our handy phones and the mighty internet. This site is famous for having a bowl-like crater on the top of the peak. With 99 sharp rocks surrounding the crater, it looks like a gigantic crown or ancient castle.

And so we begin the climb, which took us around an hour to get to the top. As we continue to climb higher and higher, my legs start to get really shaky and my heart start to beat faster - IT WAS SO HIGH UP IT WAS SO SCARY.

But the view down is amazing.

After resting for a while when we got to the top, we met a Canadian couple that were so nice to tell us that sun was going to set soon. So we decided to wait a bit to admire the beauty. Boy, was it worth the climb. Thank goodness the weather was nice as well. 

I almost didn't want to walk back down. 

We finally got to try the abalone porridge that Jeju is known for. The color is dark because they cooked the porridge with the intestines, but if the abalone was cleared of its intestines then the color would have been white. Maybe it was depends on the restaurant, but we really didn't think it was anything special...

After a whole day of adventures, we finally got back to our hostel for rest. While we were planning our schedule for the next day, the 언니 (a different one) we were sharing a room with overheard our conversation and asked about one of the restaurants we mentioned. She immediately went online to search the internet about the restaurant and even called them. It turned out it was nearby and opened 24 hours! And so we did the most impulsive thing ever: we went to eat. At 12am midnight. And it was good. To be honest, if it wasn't this 언니, we wouldn't have time in our schedule and would've missed this place. 

One of the best things that could happen when you travel is meeting friends even with broken language skills. These are the memories that really stays forever; not the food, not the sceneries (depending on what it is), but the people you meet on the way. Although we weren't able to exchange contact information, I will remember these people forever. This feeling of being so touched can never be replicated. 

Jeju Island: Day 1

Going to Jeju Island has always been on the first priority on my bucket list, and so on a freeish weekend, me and my friend decided to hop on a plane for a weekend getaway. And a couple hours later (with delay added in), we finally arrived at Jeju Island!! 

To be honest, it wasn't the best weekend to have traveled as it was very windy with chances of showers. But even with the not-so-ideal weather, we were determined to make the best out of our trip.

The first thing we did after dropping our things off at the hostel was to find a place to eat. Because of the flight delay, we were forced to have late lunch, which we decided to try jjajjangmyeon for the first time. After that, we just walked around the area as we were only left with half of a day.

We walked along the shoreline of the North part of Jeju Island and the first sight we visited was called Yongduam. It was filled with Chinese tourists but personally we didn't find it very interesting. I guess it wasn't really my type of thing.

Yongyeon Cloud Bridge

Dol hareubang (Stone Grandfather) - a symbol of Jeju, they are considered as gods offering both protection and fertility

On our way back to the hostel, we discovered Jejumok Gwana, which is the place where major public office buildings were located until the Joseon Dynasty. This is also the place where we realized that a lot of paid sites on Jeju Island have discounted entry fees for youth/students. The discount ranges from 100-1,000 won, which was a delight to have.

The first time I've ever been on the second floor of any historical building in Korea!!

For someone who is scared of heights, the stairs were quite steep. I had to hold onto the rails the whole time.

Jungang Underground shopping mall - the only underground one in the whole of Jeju

Our hostel was right across from the Dongmun Market, where boxes and boxes of their specialty, tangerines, were placed. They also had stores that sell tangerine chocolates lined up next to each other. It was the perfect place to get souvenirs as a tourist but also your daily groceries as a local.

When it was finally time for dinner, we decided to go taste the famous black pork BBQ that Jeju is known for. To be honest, even though it was sold at a higher price, we didn't taste much difference from the normal pork that's usually served. But maybe we're just really insensitive to tastes and too hungry to care.

After our meal, we were too tired from all the plane riding and walking, so we just went back to our hostel. Since we hadn't figured out a plan of where we wanted to go before we came, we did the planning when we got back to the hostel. The person who was working there, who happened to also be a Canadian, was nice enough to help us figure out a couple of places to go the next day and even wrote out all the instructions out for us!!

And that's it for day 1! Day 2, which is much more interesting, coming soon!!!