Korea Day 2 18/8/2012

Day 2 of Korea and Jeju, We took the whole day going many many places.

The first place we went was the Soingook Miniature Theme Park (소인국테마파크). It makes much more sense in its Chinese name - 小人国. For this day, instead of taxi, we decided to take the public transport - the bus!!!! Thank goodness for helpful people we managed to find our way around everywhere.

Seoingook miniature theme park

Before entering, we went to a small canteen like place beside the park for lunch. It is buffet style, charging at 8000KRW. Abit pricey though because the variety of dishes were not very wide, but it is an experience. :)

There is another similar attraction somewhere else in Jeju called MiniMiniLand but we decided to come here instead since we were going to be in this area. So, as the name suggests, inside the theme park are miniature models of global landmarks.

After Soingook, we headed to Jungmun area. First up, we went to the CheonJeYeon Falls. It is beautiful beyond words.... Cheonjeyeon means The Pond of the Emperor of Heaven.

This is the first part of the waterfalls, the pond. You can see how clear the water is. So clear you can see the bottom. Of course the part in the foreground isn't that deep but still it is crystal clear. Regina went down into the water, and she said the water is refreshingly cold. I decided not to go down since I was wearing shoes.

Second part of the waterfalls. Another pretty sight. This is one of the two waterfalls at Cheonjeyeon. Standing at the wooden platform, I can feel the water droplets actually. Although walking to this place is extremely scorching hot, once you reach here it is relatively cooler. 

We did not go to the third part of the waterfalls because it would be along walk, so we went up to the Seonimgyo Bridge. 

This bridge has seven nymphs carved on both sides of the bridge. The nymphs symbolize the legend descent of seven nymphs from heaven at night. This bridge links Cheonjeyeon to Jungmun tourist complex which we will head to next.

After crossing the bridge, there is a fountain~

There are 5 different animal heads, each representing 5 different blessings - longevity (turtle), wealth (boar), honor (dragon), love (mandarin duck), sons(carp). Supposedly, if you stand in front of the animal symbol and manage to throw coins into the money bag in the centre, you will receive that certain blessing. Of course I did give it a try, since the coins collected would be donated to charity ^^

After Cheonjeyeon, we finally arrived at Jungmun Tourist Complex. Our next destination would be.....

This is a famous place because the KDrama Goong filmed here before. So, inside the museum displayed Teddy bears of all kinds, from those manufactured in 1901 till now, to exhibits that commemorate significant events and people, to the most expensive teddy bears ever and of course, those that appeared in the drama Goong.

LV Bear

The Goong Bears!

After the Teddy Bear Museum, we started on our journey to Jungmun beach. The weather was so hot, and we were perspiring like mad. However, the beach made it worthwhile when we saw...

Aren't the waves beautiful! It just wow-ed me totally and I started snapping photos. 

And that marks the end of our day. Went to grab a quick dinner before heading to take the airport limousine back to our accomodation. 

And I had my first taste of coffee from a Korean cafe! Korea has many many cafes, unlike Singapore, where the cafes you can find are mainly Starbucks and Coffee Bean. But in Korea, different cafes are everywhere. There is one near our accomodation in Jeju, so I decided to buy a drink to try. The coffee is so nice. The balance between the coffee taste and the sweetness is just nice. After getting our drinks, Regina and I then headed back up to our room to catch our first ever broadcast of Shinhwa Broadcast :D Previously we had been watching subbed versions. This is the first time we get to catch it on TV! 

한국! Day 1 17/8/2012

Finally got down to getting started on recording down my trip here in Korea and maybe subsequently Taiwan. :) After many months of waiting and document settling and what not, I'm finally in Korea.

So it all started on the night of 16th August 2012, when I arrived at the airport. When Regina and I checked in at the counter, we found out that our luggages both exceeded the 23kg limit. Hence, we had to move some of the things to our hand carry. Then after that because of certain situations we ended up having to rush to board the plane. We were like one of the last.

 My family! minus my second brother -.-

V.Swag.Xy! minus wanlee :(

I couldn't really sleep on the plane, but I caught this when I was looking out of the window.

It was around 4+ am at that time.

We arrived at Incheon at about 8+ am Korean Time. From now on, the time will be of the Korean Time. Collected our baggage and had to rush to Singil Station to pass it to our first guesthouse owner, Younghyeon Unnie. She was so nice to help us bring our baggage over to the guesthouse first so that we don't have to bring such a big luggage over to Jeju. The weight limit would not allow us to anyway. First time taking the subway/metro in Korea, when we reached Singil Station, we could not find the correct exit. >< We dragged our luggage here and there, called unnie, asked strangers, took a long long time before we found the correct exit. By that time we were running late to catch our plane to Jeju. So after leaving the luggage, we headed off to Gimpo Airport.

At Gimpo Airport, when we were checking in, by right, we had missed our flight. But the staff was very nice to give us seats on another flight that still had space. And so here we go, to board the plane to Jeju.

The plane that we will be taking.

And so after a hectic rush, we arrived at Jeju. Went to take a taxi to the place we would be staying at, which is Neulsong Parktel.

After resting for awhile, off we went to the first attraction of the Jeju trip ~ Trick art museum! We took a taxi there and because it was so far away the taxi fare was so expensive! But we met a good and friendly taxi driver who offered to come back and pick us up after dropping us at the museum.

ANYWAY~~~

Inside this museum are all drawings that plays a trick on your eyes when they are just drawings. Something like....

Very interesting pieces of artwork. would totally recommend this place :)

So after this, we met up with the nice taxi driver again. This time he brought us to a folk village and even brought us around, explaining to us the uses of the things in the folk village.

The three wooden poles in front is like a gate or a door. When it is being put like that it meant that the owner is in and you can enter. Otherwise it will be set up like a fence.

This is to collect rainwater that flows down the trunk of the tree and into the vat.

So after visiting the folk village, we headed back to our accomodation. While deciding on dinner, we originally wanted to just buy ramyun to eat then we saw a family restaurant nearby so we decided to try that out. Turns out to be a good decision!!

Our food! we shared 똑복기, Regina got her 김치찌개 and I got my 순두부찌개. The food was so nice! The taste is so different from in Singapore. Had such a good dinner ^^.

So after dinner, we headed back to our accomodation and ended the day.