The Paperback Diary

We slacked the morning while we took a plane back to Seoul. I was definitely happy to see Seoul again we cos we can barely travel in Jeju island without Korean! It’s definitely a slight pain but the scenery was definitely the best there. I don’t think we have much pictures after that. haha.
Anyways, we found the guesthouse quite easily with the help of an uncle. I think he could tell that we are tourist. A lot of people thinks I’m Korean lar!! So irritating when they started passing me pamphet and gave none to Elaine. Ah geez.

We walked along Cheonggyrcheon Stream at night. Good thing we had a companion along which was a guy so it felt safer somehow. It’s good to have a guy on travel trip sometimes. It helps alot too specially that he’s an ang mo too. hahaha! Ang mo is a Singaporean way of calling a Caucasian. Nothing bad, just in case he’s reading this too. haha. which I’m sure he would.
It was super cold specially at nights and that all for Day 3.

Yep, with tour, I felt like I covered more… So please go with tour when you’re in Jeju. Either that or you drive.

We woke up on time but kinda under estimated it and had to rush our breakfast (I cooked eggs in 10 mins, scrabbles ones) and ate them on the bus. It wasn’t allow but the uncle was awesome cos he knew it was our breakfast and we will be climbing a cliff on the first sightseeing. If we faint, it will be his fault, in a way. haha!
My personal favourites?
Actually, all of them are equally nice! As long as it’s not in Singapore, anywhere is awesome. For the Lava cave, we thought there was an exit on the other side but there wasn’t but we saw something amazing which was the Lava tube. You know where lava was spilling out of the mouth, we saw the mouth. It was an awesome sight. I hope I can get some pictures with a new friend that I’ve made there.
I had friends with a Malaysian couple, a mother and son Hongkong-ers and another guy from America. I thought it was fun to be able to talk to them as they have much different cultures from us and it was definitely an experience.
The tour ended at 6plus-ish and we were always the last ones to get up the bus. haha! So paiseh and I have muscle aches from walk so much and climbing so much stairs! The kitchen smells awesome now with fried eggs and I’m waiting for Elaine to wake up!! I’m so hungry!

After the tour, the tour guide told us that they can drop us off anywhere we like. So yeah! We headed to the underground night market for shopping! It was like a Bugis street but under the basement level and the price of the clothes like almost the same priced as Singapore’s. What is cheap? Cosemtics! Lip sticks starting at SGD8 onwards! All their stuff cost nearly less than SGD12! I spent like 44,600 won in just one store, Tony Moly. I’m amazed at what they have. Definitely not in Singapore! Will post my buys soon!

I smartly left my Jeju map at the guesthouse and we had to find our way home without the map. We did. I prayed that the first bus stop we find will have our bus number and it was it! We found our first bus stop and it had our number. Then we had to confirm that it was the correct direction as well, I show the lady my handy Korea paper that the staff in Jeju airport wrote for us. She said Yes and I was glad! We missed our main bus stop but it was okay cos we still knew how to go back from the later one.

The weather was so much better today as there was lesser wind to kill you and I love blowing out the smoke. It’s fun! We’re going to Seoul tomorrow! Ta~!

Korea has a rather long immigration (took us about 30 mins)! We wanted to take a train to Gimpo but decided not to when we saw the limousine bus. We even have help to load our luggage helped unto the bus.

It was a 20 mins ride from Incheon to Gimpo airport and we were there too early. There was nothing in Gimpo and time past by so slowly. We took a budget plane and it’s scary as it moves to the slightest movement of the wind. The seats were tiny and thank God it was only an hour ride.
Jeju? It’s bigger than Singapore and modes of transport are by bus, car and motorcycles. Jeju does not have trains or subway. It is not a good idea to travel by bus when you do not know Korean and most of the tourist attractions are only accessible by car or taxi. We stayed at Yeha guesthouse and it’s like a huge house with many rooms. We didn’t know anybody on the first day as most of them were like speaking in Korean.
Herb Dongsan was definitely fun and the flowers were really beautiful. With colours of bright red, yellow, purple etc… I had to resist the urge to roll around the place. I always imagine myself being able to roll in a flower field!

We had a fun evening at a store that we just randomly popped in. The ajumma (aunty) had no idea how to speak English . Her menu was in Korean and I was wondering what to do? She had some pictures outside and we liked the one in the middle. As our form of communication was through pictures, I had to call her out to show her what we wanted. She went "Oooo" with a string of Korean language after. Prior to that, I tried to use my phone to show her the Korean words but I think she doesn’t read and somehow I was too embarrassed have it read it out. Oh well.

Our next worries was that we ordered something super expensive. Looking at her price board, the highest cost was 20,000 won... Fortunately, our dinner was only 5,000 won per pax. If you are planning to stay out late, do note that there are little to no lights on the streets. As told by my tour guide that it’s safe as they know each other on the same area and treat each other as family. I would imagine it to be like the old days kampong days in Singapore. I love it when he mentioned it and thus there are no thieves or beggars along the streets of Jeju.

Our whole bus journey took about 2 plus hours (to and fro) and we had an awesome first day in Jeju! Oh, it was terribly cold as well. The cold wind not only cuts in you, it was so strong that I get pushed along as well. My hair was in a mess after!