31st December 2009
Morning start early, morning call at 6am, lobby by 7am. I was too sleepy, wind was too strong, i fell on my knee on the way to the 7-11 beside hotel. Added two big patch of blue black on both side on my knee on the last day of year -.-
Breakfast is at a restaurant beside Yongduan (dragon head) rock, we are having 전복죽 abalone porridge. Just that abalone porridge tour group bring you isnt really abalone porridge... they are abalone internal organ porridge. Need not be too surprise, Korean use abalone internal organ to enhance the taste of the porridge.. But don't expect they serve you premium food on tour package, nevertheless, the porridge still taste pretty good...
Pan chan for porridge
Only had a bowl... too early for more... 
The husband is fully geared to stand against Jejudo wind.. he wore don't know 4-5 layer inside! 
Yongduam (dragon head) rock, an unusual lava formation that looks like a roaring dragon rising from the sea into the sky. 
Saw judo's tol-harubang (large stone phallic statues) 
Korean believe by touching the nose will bring you baby boy and by touching the ear will bring you baby girl. So that was the reason all harubang look like they are having running nose.. 
Roaring dragon head, may our journey in 2010 be as good as flying dragon
Didn't spend much time up there, am too worried about my going to be flat soon camera battery, the pabo me left my spare battery in the hotel room, lucky our tour guide and bus driver are so nice to stop by our hotel on the way to our next destination ... heng! 
Next stop: Seongsan sunrise peak 
There are alot of tentage around preparing for tonight's event... The locals like to tent overnight for the count down and to catch the first sunrise of the new year. 
It's freezing, windy, snowing... and we forgot to bring out ginseng wine.. Damn it! See the husband face!!! 
Snow is getting heavier and heavier...
It's too cold, we didnt have a choice but to purchase a bottle of overpriced soju (Korean wine) to heat ourselves up!
Still struggling to the peak
When i saw alot of our team member coming down and i was about to give up too, we overheard some Korean ajushi saying this is not a mountain is only some neighborhood hill .. -.-
Resting pit...almost peak...
I stopped here.. didn't have any stamina to go on anymore... Inho went up with another of our tour member Don, while i stay here drinking soju with his mum~
The husband return with his glory shot from the Seongsan peak. Seongsan is actually a dead volcano, suppose this is the mouth of the volcano~ woah
The husband feeling accomplished. Guide says it's not easily climbing up with these of climax condition, alot of our members didn't make it through...
We realized going down is worst than climbing up hill! The ground has a over layered a layer of ice .. making every step very slippery! We saw people falling on their ass (ouch!), so we are taking every steps cautiously.
Next stop: Jeju tangerine picking experience farm 
Each family got a pair of scissors to pick up some tangerine!
I have to self shot as the husband is already busy cutting, pealing and eating the fruits
Didnt know orange can grow in winter
Farm owner request us not to peal the fruit within his hacienda, leaving the tangerine skin on the ground to rot but the husband cant wait... he is always rebellious... 
The smaller tangerine actually taste sweeter 
We pluck about 8pcs from the farm.. squeezing them into any pocket we can find on ourselves :p
The husband and the tangerine picking lady? :) 
Guide is very nice, she bought us a box of tangerine to share... sweeter than those we pluck... 
Good news from the guide, we are having kurobuta (black pig) bbq buffet! Best part is they have free flow seaweed as their panchan (side dish)~ We (Inho, me and our meal buddy) took like 3 big stack!!
Everything black pig is love! Meat is so tender and juicy!! We had 3 round of BBQ~
Sizzling spicy black pig
One of the most enjoyable meal from the trip
See how fatty the black pigs are... Shiok! 
Started snowing outside again.. 
Next stop: ATV ride. Susppose to be very exciting.. but due to the heavy snow and the old folks in our group, they closed the bumpy exciting track.
Guide showing us how to ride ATV! 
The traditional heater the husband says they are using in his primary school classroom... We are abit bored by the slow ATV ride, but impressed by how much appreciation the young lady boss show when she send us off.. she did the Korean 90 degree down bow... 韩国人从小就熏陶于儒家思想的信奉，个个都好有礼貌！ hm... ok not everyone.. but most of them :)
Next stop: Jeju folk village, a folk and history museum with miniature displays of traditional villages. It is also the filming site of the Korean drama, “Dae Jang Geum” for the scenes where Jang Geum spends her exile in Jeju learning medicine.
The ah peh and ah ma (old folks in their mid or late 60s) are always very gan cheong, everything also want to cheong and be the first one.. look.. while we are getting off the coach, both of them are already waiting for us at the gate! We used to hear things like, it's not easy to catch up with the youngsters, but i would say, it's not easy to catch up with these two old folks!
Plant name after north pole.. can stay green even covered under snow~ 
Traditional mud and stone hut. Notice there are no doors and chimney in these hut of Jeju, very kampong style.. 
Black pig! Muhaha i just ate u!!! :p 
The dae jang geum hut
The mud hut from the drama
With single pole supporting
All of a sudden before we are leaving there comes a blizzard pouring upon us
Look! It's snowing~ :)
The husband having fun with snow
The husband with our friendly tour leader Jasmine, she is the super kind lady who save us all the trouble of writing immigration, declaration cards and the one who ensure we make a fast check in everyday at the hotel lobby and airport~ I goggled about chan brothers online and saw alot of complains about lousy tour leader didn't do their job well, tours members spending long waiting time to check in every time they move and we even witness on air flight coming back to Singapore how a family came in shouting due to mis-arrangement by the tour leader.. Didnt know Singaporean auntie can be so fierce and unreasonable. Shock! well, lets just say they are sueh~
Next stop: Jeju teddy bear museum
Live size wedding bear
Some very old antique bears catches my attention 
This old fellow here is 80 years old 
Overpriced teddy bear showcase
Bears i find quite disturbing no.1... Not cute at all lor!
Disturbing bear no.2 ... makes you goes WTF?! 
The evolution of my ah pooh 
Baby bear at the overpriced showcase that i was quite tempted to get... glad i didn't~ 
Cuppa from Lotteria. Coffee in Korea taste horrible unless you are getting it at foreign concept outlet like Starbucks and coffee house. The rest are too dilute, seriously 10 time worst than TMAP coffee! It's coffee with the color of oolong tea!
Outdoor park of teddy bear land
Goong drama teddy
LV teddy
Another expensive display, Swarovski crystal teddy 
Next stop: Mysterious road, experience the strange phenomenon of going uphill when your vehicle’s engine is turned off. Reason behind: it's a downhill that look like uphill, so when the vehicle is on free wheel, it will roll down~ 
Odeng hot soup at only 400 won a stick, soup is refillable
Our first odeng after landing 
The old folk in our tour group thought this is intestine and didnt dare to eat it.. Hahaha odeng are fish cake! 
Bread stick hot dog the husband loved when he was young 
On mysterious road
As for dinner on jejudo, we are having ginseng baby chicken 
Baby chicken with 1.5 yr of ginseng soup. We are told to pour in the small cup full of ginseng wine into the soup to enhance the flavor.. i did.. pour in 2 cuppa full :) I am not a alcoholic but i am crazy about food made with alcohol. The husband is complaining about the missing ingredient they left out from the soup, but even without those ingredient his face is turning red!! Too heaty for him!!
Advise from the guide to get a flat walking boots from E-Mart (Carrefour like shopping mall) in front of our Jeju hotel. SGD $30, very comfortable and not slippery walking on ice, with wool fur inside to keep your leg real warm... must have when you travel to winter wonderland~
We bought 4 heat pack from Singapore but we finish using it after 2 days!! More heat pack!! Our survivor kit!! 1000won each
My body fail on me, so we didnt went out to explore the nightlife of jeju... btw there are not much night life in jeju also, is a island for the local to come for honeymoon and make babies. So we listen to what guide recommended, to stay in hotel room watch the bell ceremony in one of their temple by Korean highly monk and Seoul minister live on TV. The monk have to "kionk" the bell 13 times as in Buddhism believe there are 13 kind of suffering or sin in life, so by "knionk-ing" on the bell, the monk is bringing us blessing, washing off our sin on new year day. Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment