Korea Trip (Part I); Guide to Jeju - {Day 1: Miniature Land x Mysterious Road x Love Land x Sungeup Land - Horse riding} & {Day 2: Maze Land x Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak x Manjanggul Cave x Seongeup Folk Village}

Hi guys, I'm quite free nowadays bumming around (after quitting my PT job), since my school is going to start in Jan, so all I want for christmas is to pass my driving licence before 2015. (New year's goal) Have been having driving lessons almost EVERYDAY for the past two weeks. Life feels so boring in my home country ._.

Btw, I am having so much difficulty trying to motivate myself to blog about the two weeks of my korea trip and finally I am going to start writing... (SO LETHARGIC i am going to try my best to keep my posts short and sweet & yet like a useful guide for future references for the people interested in travelling to the country!! ambitious much *.* hehe) 

I am going to split them up into 5 posts so this is 

Part I!

For this trip, we only went to Jeju Island for 4-5 days then stayed in Seoul for 8-9 days throughout cause Jeju is more of like a relaxing place, then Seoul is just like city area and crazy shopping which I love! Didn't go to other parts of Korea like Busan (beachy area) /Daegu etc cause I think I will have enough of sight-seeing of Korea in Jeju for now and leave the rest for next trips!

Late night supper at changi airport's TCC before departure. Last of my western food before all da kimchis in kimchi land. Love my iced mango yogurt latte hehehe :)

Travelling bud of 2014's major korea trip: Tessa Chan hehe. Missed this girl so much after spending nights with her in korea for like half a month! This trip made me kinda reminisce my k-pop crazed secondary school days. I wanna migrate to korea so much and date all my korean oppas HAHAHAHA

Traveled via Korean Air, and caught many movies throughout both flights. Its just me and flights with new releases - I CAN'T SLEEP ONBOARD. Unless taking those budget kind, i'll just sleep all the way and wake up with a neck-back-ache.

One of the must watch korean movie in-flight was called "Miss Granny" which rly caught me and ms chan's attention. Go watch it online or something! Its super touching and hilarious ok! like those 200 pounds beauty kind (if you know the super famous korean movie last time)

fav plane or what? Port to charge my phone HAHA

Start of the battle of who got each other's uglier unglams. Tessa is the ultimate pig this whole trip, just keep concussing in rides only.

ordered korean air's specialty korean menu - bibimbap! I love it.

I love korean food hehehe

tessa's lame seafood spag LOL

and chicken chop fried rice

Reached incheon airport! You know koreans love snapping their airport celeb's fashion. So this is tessa's airport fashion hahahah

and mine hohoho showing off abit of my tummy at the start of the trip cause at the end tummy will be round as a ball cannot wear this kind of clothes alr.

The plan was to travel to Gimpo Airport from Incheon Airport so that we could take our domestic flight from Gimpo to Jeju Island.

Incheon International Airport offers domestic flights to the other parts of Korea like Busan, Daegu and Jeju too but Gimpo Airport is usually the better option. Cause that airport have more domestic flight timings to the other parts of korea! Btw Gimpo airport is nearer to Seoul as well, compared to Incheon.

How to get to Gimpo Airport from Incheon?

You can get to the Gimpo Airport via Taxi, Seoul Metro or by Bus and I personally opted for bus. Travelling in korea is not as hard as you think despite the language barrier cause at least there are english words round and about!

The buses from Incheon airport to Gimpo airport operate at 10-15 min intervals & the ticket cost around 5,000 won per head. Travelling time approximately an hour. So do gauge your flight timings before booking! If unclear - information counter!!!

Bus ticketing counter with grumpy korean girls (koreans are grumpy in customer service line by nature I swear lol) looks something like this!

bus ticket

was around dawn of day 1 & my mouth was itchy so I wanted to raid their convenient stalls and there - I was greeted with a huge array of cute packaging coffees and milks. So korean!

Famous brand of korean milk, available in these four flavors which I tried the whole trip and I think their banana flavored one is still the best, which is why everybody drinks this brand of banana milk traveling there. Must try!

Had white chocolate mocha latte from starbucks as well as some coffee from Angel in-us Coffee (another one of the korean branded coffee outlet houses - same concept as starbucks) and some onigiri ~

their lattes and milks trashes their yogurt drinks in their marts fyi

jinja daebak (meaning very good)

and tessa loves her Macaron Caramel Macchiato - which was pretty good too!!!!

bus limousine number!!

sleepfie in da bus. (pardon our unglam faces in Part I cause mostly I was just lazy to apply makeup in the cold weather)

And we reached Gimpo!

There are many korean airlines that fly to Jeju for example: Eastar Jet, Jeju Air, Air Busan, Korean Airline etc and we took Eastar! 

Prices start from SGD $100 (I think ours was around SGD $140 to and fro; Gimpo > Jeju > Gimpo)

There are other options like bus, train and ferry rides to Jeju island too, but the flight journey is just one hour. The rest takes half a day so unless you are travelling to jeju from busan (I think nearer) I would recommend taking flight!

feeling the hype of the whole trip thus the heart shape LOL gay much 

my chio pink flight ticket to jeju!

hahahah fcken orangey ootd outside gimpo airport.

one hour flight to jeju and the battle continues... this time I am the one sleeping LOL

How to travel around Jeju?

1. Rent a car with local GPS (all in korean LOL) and drive around

2. Bike? 

3. Rent a cab with a english speaking driver for reasonable prices - will drive you around the jeju attractions and bring you to popular food restaurants like a mini tour bus!

4. Private tour do-it-yourself itinerary guide, similar to option 3 ^  which I did!

5. No other options cause I don't think there's like public transport in jeju? More laidback country area here!

Technically my guide's name is called Andy Choi (you can google andy choi jeju and his site will actually pop out - he and his wife brings many english speaking tourists round and about!)

Not an advert: http://www.jejudotourguide.com/

Why I chose him?

 Was obviously cause he was highly recommended by my twin who previously went to jeju. 

You guys can opt for other guides as well, but engaging andy its really easy, just choose the places navigating his website, with clear instructions/information of east, west, seogwipo and city area of jeju - very standard places tourists often go and fill in this simple form on his website and tah-da he will email you soon, with an itinerary and confirmation of the whole trip! 

Honestly this saved me loads of time. And of course travelling with more heads equals cheaper guide fee so on and fourth!

Yup and this pic below was briefly our first day's itinerary printed out by Andy. One day you can tour up to 4-5 attractions in Jeju and its organised and planned really neatly by him already cause he will simply bring us to the attractions nearer to each other around the same area.

How many days I would recommend to stay in Jeju?

3-4 days would be enough, even tho jeju is 3 times larger than Seoul. Our trip was around 4 days and I found it a littleeee tedious cause I am a very city person, I needed the nightlife and to be honest jeju was lacking of that, I slept super early and woke up super early everyday (super healthy lifestyle LOL) when I was there compared to in Seoul. So it got kind of cranky but 3 days would be abit too rushed. And I might just rot at 5 LOL.

With that summarized, here's our ride for jeju and Andy driving in front hahaha!

Day 1 (Jeju)

JM Hotel (Stay) > Lunch > Miniature Land > Mysterious Road > Love Land > Sungeup Land (Horse riding/cart/ATV) > Dinner

Where to stay in Jeju?

(andy's site had some recommendations)

1. Homestay

2. Pensions - very popular type of accommodation for tourists in jeju. Located near the ocean so scenery and sea view checked!!

3. Family Guesthouse

4. Hotels - opted for this cause I wanted to stay near the city area of Jeju!!

imagine staying at a ulu pension so far from everything... Even though their area view and the popular ones are really pretty, I think its more expensive compared to this kind of normal boutique hotels. And I already found it quite quiet during the night here alr, cannot imagine staying near the sea!!! Unless you going with a huge group of friends maybe can have those bbq parties there.

Where to shop in Jeju?

NOT much, i rather you save the money to spend in Seoul... there are really more to buy over there, unless you are a little desperate for korean brand products, cause if buying from the outlets eg; innisfree, nature republic etc will be still the same priced as Seoul. Just that other things might be more expensive since its imported from Seoul to Jeju. 

Can buy jeju made food/products though! I forgot whats the shopping street the driver brought us to on our last night there, I know its walkable from our hotel - City area okay - so just ask your driver to bring you to the places if you all wanna buy stuff! They will know the better prices for purchase and all. But rly not much, do not keep your hopes up hahaha.

3G?

The rest of the nights I was kinda rotting around using my free hotel wifi hehe WIFI IS EVERYWHERE IN KOREA, jeju lesser but still.. there has to be a reason why koreans are so efficient on their celeb news 24/7..

Hotel JM 

260-40 Yeon-dong (10-7 Sammu-ro 1-gil), Jeju-si, Jeju City, Jeju-do, South Korea 

Our humble stay for 4 nights~ Took the traditional ondol room, can fit up to 5 pax!

Pros

- other than location wise, near jeju city area

- free wifi

- lastly, even a desktop with internet in the room!!!

setting up our traditional beddings which btw I have no idea how to do so

so hello to backache for 5 days HAHAHAHAHA and tessa kept kicking the whole pathetic floor mattress to her side then I kept sleeping on the floor. *plays Jennifer lopez song*

off to lunchie!

황금손가락 HwangGeumSonGaRak 

(Golden Fingers Jap Restaurant)

제주시 노형동 88-4

88-4, No Hyung Dong, Jeju city

11:30-22:00

Famous jap food eatery among the locals~

LOL tess loves her sashimis and she gave me that virus too hehehe

BTW, If you order sushi their sushi sets, it will come with Soba, Roe Rice (Al-Bab), Udon, and Fried foods (tempura kind)

Soba!!! Yummy

Udon, another one of tessa's fav, with korean fishcakes inside

and some Roe Rice which was so good too

We ordered two different set of sushis, looks pretty but I have yet learn how to appreciate all kinds of sashimis, especially the white ones, super jelly-like and hard to chew hahaha, me and tess was just snatching for their salmon the whole time hehehe so good

this set has some raw beef sushis or smth

best jap meal in korea!!

ordered another pork cutlet set. So-so only

First ootd in Jeju!

Jeju Mini Land

Worth to go: 6/10

606, Bijarim-ro, Jocheon-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do 

Admission Fees: Adults 9,000won/ Teenagers 7,000won

Basically, the place is famous for famous artefacts/places/artpiece in a miniature version! Not a must-go if you ask me. I rather go and see the real thing despite the interesting concept. Or maybe I was just too freezing cold and sleepy after flight hahahaha

hahahah there are LOADS of architecture inside that I do not recognise, so much for historical/geography lessons.

some palace huh

 I feel lika giant *.* same size as the house. hahahaha sneaked in for these shots.

oh yeah the leaning tower of pisa. 

king kong attacking Italy?

Eiffel tower am I in paris?

chilling at The Trevi Fountain~

I recalled that we were freezing our butts off hahaha and Jeju's temperature is said to be higher than seoul's.

Indoors at some illusion house in Mini Land LOL! If only I could remove my stomach like that

a photo which Picasso-ed us   

and guess who i met in Mini land?! MY ONE PIECE OPPAS AHHAHAHAA

flaming kick by black foot sanji HAHAHAHAHAHA and pinkyniakoh LOL

Me with oppa luffy HAHAHAHAHAHAH faints LOL

After Mini Land, we stopped by some mountainous roadside to take picture from afar cause we aint gonna climb that hell in this weather/temperature (HAH first day so more enthu with this kinda shit LOL) with Mount Hallasan - The biggest mountain in the whole of Jeju-do!

whoa actress sibo LOL

FUCKING COLD but I look so chill

shit was supposed to take photo with the mountain but end up taking ourselves. Where's the mountain in the pic? HAHHAA

tessa cannot already

Stopped at Mysterious Road after that. And why is the place called Mysterious Road? Apparently, when you stop your car on this uphill road, even when your engine is offed, the car will move uphill by itself!!!!

try putting your water-bottles on the floor guys hahaha 

yup and there are also a rest area here where you can purchase street food in case you are hungry!

selfie with the Mysterious road

Jeju Love Land

Worth to go: 7/10

2894-72, Cheonbaengi-ro, Jeju-si, Jeju-do 

Admission Fees: Adults 9,000won/ Teenagers 7,000won

Warning * Images after this may consist of explicit content * HAHA Fyi you must be 20 years old abv in Korean age to enter this facility (meaning 19; koreans add one year to their age) I found this place slightly more interesting than mini land cause it can get quite hilarious inside. I saw alot of couples entering this and laughing so much hahaha

three girls and a dick

oh that cowboy

HAHAHAAAA

super punny

hey where are you grabbing

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA no caption needed

lesbianism

some house indoors with all the sex toys and artifacts LOL

koreans are so imaginative

love chair

A indoors rest stop and this icecream was so dope i swear

had some red bean pastries

hahahaha tessa crazy like that

I am damn greedy, wanna step on two boats.

I guess I will choose the melona flavored awesome swirling icecream over Ds anyday

I thought those legs were my arms hahaha

sick superheros

Sungeup Land

Worth to go: 7.5/10

Jeju-si, Jeju-do 

Horse Riding/Go Kart/ATV Rides Fees @ Per Head 25,000won

You have a few options and Big Bang actually came here to Go-kart before in one of the variety shows! Wanted to ride an ATV initially but decided to horse ride!

Virgin ride on a horse hahahah I swear the horse were super well trained but I still felt quite nervous, and my horse was quite naughty and fidgety so the whole ride was bumpy and I felt like peeing so badly HAHAHA 

tessa chan cowboy style

some candids tess tried to take of me on the horse, super tough to use your devices on board a horse btw!!

barefaced

the ppung ppung kart club BB were at

& finally its dinner time!! Long awaited korean style bbq - The NO. 1 Black Pork BBQ in Jeju (Must try!!) which was prolly one of the BEST MEALS i had in my whole korea trip!

Neulbom Black Pork Korean BBQ

2343-3 Nohyeong-dong Jeju-si, Jeju-do, South Korea

Number: (064)744-9001

Website: http://www.jejuneulbom.co.kr/index.php

They have a few outlets around Jeju and even our prime minister Mr Lee paid a visit to them before, his photo was at the lobby of the restaurant hahaha.

super huge dining place even with private rooms!

First Makgeolli (rice wine) I had in korea! not that nice in my opinion :/

love the fact that koreans serves unlimited amount of side dishes all the time I always get full before the main courses even arrives on them.. 

super good!!

Their top two most recommended meat! (ask the servers for recommendation)

Marinated Black Pork 

which most typical singaporeans like me will prefer cause we have heavier tastebuds hahaha

and their Original Black Pork

super craving for this now...

satisfied~

sooo good and quite affordable. I'll be back.

Day 2 (Jeju)

Maze Land > Lunch > Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak > Manjanggul Cave > Seongeup Folk Village > Dinner

Wokeup super early with growling stomachs to roam the morning streets and had food at a nearby convenient mart. Bought like two yogurt drinks which was kinda disappointing compared to the usual ones I'll have abroad, so stick to lattes in korea!

off we go~

There are 2 maze parks in Jeju island. Gimnyeong Maze Park & Maze Land. The one I went is the more famous one which the Running Man cast went for filming in one of their episodes!!! 

Maze Land

Worth to go: 7/10
2134-47, Bijarim-ro, Gujwa-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do

Admission Fees: 8,000won

map of their two mazes! One made of stones and rocks and the other plants!

still hungry and cold so stopped at another rest room in maze land for more breakkie hehe

I have a bad habit of consuming cold (icecream) stuffs for breakfast.. love my icecream miniballs *.*

so pretty heh

start of the first plant maze which we managed to complete cause I was the one looking attentively at the map *claps*

the plants surrounding us made us soo cold nonetheless

finally reached the central area so photo!

trying to mimic maze runner but I just don't look as cool

at the stone maze and were were already exhausted so..

was skinny enough to sneak and squeeze through into one of the metal bars locked towers to take a nicer selfie with the whole maze HAHA despite wearing like an fatass in winter wear

spot me!!!

my cute parents HAHA

selfie with my selfie stick wenmin got for me from bangkok. hehe kept using it at the start of the trip. Can find it everywhere in korea anw, all the koreans have it!!!

off to lunch after! stopped at another highway to appreciate the awesome sea view

and trying to spot a women diver diving (they are famous in jeju for going diving at sea to catch all the fresh seafood eg: abalone etc even in the cold weather!!)

and spot the Sungsan Sunrise Peak which we would be climbing later. Its a peak formed by volcanic eruption 100,000 years ago. One of the 7 wonders of nature and one of the best attractions and must gos in Jejudo!!!

another one of the must-try foods in Jeju - Abalone porridge and their freshly caught seafood!!! So Andy brought us here for lunch and it was really great!!

한성식당 

Han Seong Restaurant

202-1 Seongsan-ri, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, South Korea

Tel: +82 64-782-4646

the restaurant's specialities portioned in a set!!

one of the best korean seafood pancakes I had the entire trip!! Or maybe cause it was the first I had so it was so good when I placed it into my mouth!!

and the best best best (no words can describe, picture does no justice) abalone porridge I have ever eaten in my entire life. 

basically all their dishes was superb and this saba fish was not an exception!

decided to upload a nicer photo of tessa here instead of one which can totally see how great the food was through her expression HAHA

Lastly, spicy seafood stew with a generous amount of seafood servings~

so sweet

another one of the better meals I had in korea *thumbs up*

Seongsan ilchulbong Peak

Worth to go: 8/10

284-12, Ilchul-ro, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do 

Admission Fees: Adult 2,000won/ Youth 1,000won

First and foremost, its pretty tiring to get up there for a PEAK I have to say, not even a mountain, but this is one of the more interesting destinations in Jeju. Once you reach the top, you will understand what I am trying to say even though me and tessa wanted to give up halfway cause our stamina sucks for young teenagers HAHAHA but great exercise, god knows how much weight we put on the whole trip just stuffing ourselves with jeju delicacies and sleeping in the car to the next destinations due to long ride journeys LOL

Another name for Seongsan is Sunrise Peak as it is said to be the most ideal spot to catch the sunrise thus they actually open an hour before sunrise FYI, but the view up there is quite breathtaking so you won't even need to go and catch a sunrise at unearthly hours in the morning to appreciate all of that 

famous street food in korea their tornado twister cheese potato!!!

yummy! I would need all the carbs for the obstacle ahead HAHAHA

BARELY THERE BUT INSERTS SAD FACE ALREADY

You leave us breathless

and we arrived at the peak!!! its rly quite steep, much more than it looks so do thank me for risking dropping my cameras and phone down 100,000 feet to get these shots

we feel like we are at the top of the world *breaks out in cold sweat* our first sweat in the cold, can feel my sweat evaporating almost instantly once its out hahah pros of being in a cold country. I'll sweat buffalos climbing this in SG's weather..

I LOVE MY BEANIE, no judging.

half the time taken to walk back down..

women diver performance nearby at the base~

Caffe Bene nearby (many coffee houses) since were were so de-hydrated after the climb

Superb red-bean strawberry iced bingsu!!! quite a huge bowl in real! Our very first bingsu in korea~

and the raging battle of who sleeps more like a pig continues

Manjanggul cave

Worth to go: 6.5/10

182, Manjanggul-gil, Gujwa-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do

Admission Fees: Adult 2,000won Youth/Child 1,000won

you wouldn't expect it to be so chilly underground in the cave. but it was overall quite a cool experience i guess..... hahah but we didn't walk finsh la, i seriously have no idea how my twin get all her energy from, me and tessa were just SO LAZY the whole trip like hibernating bears HHAHAHAA

lava tube cave!

kajaaaaa

not rly interested in facts about this cave but more interested in taking ootds #twofuckersinKR me and tessa's style HAHA

oppagangnam style

ended the evening with a really short trip to

Jeju Folk Village Museum

Worth to go: 6/10

40-1 Pyoseon-ri, Pyoseon-myeon, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do

Admission Fees: Adults 8,000won/ Students (13-18) 4,500won

Biggest folk village in jeju, but everything looks the same to us. huts after huts after huts my eyes might just roll out LOL i was more interested in locating the roadside gimbap (korean style sushi) and kimchi baus they were serving in the area my twin highly recommended hahahahahahaha

two sister's white winterwear ootd. 

One totally not scared of the cold w one layer + another windbreaker + one pair of jeans

vs 

Tessa's three layer shirts + long sleeves windbreaker + two pants and jeans LOL

Was bugging andy to bring us to eat some nice jajangmyeon noodles for dinz so he brought us to ..

비바리짬뽕 

Vivari Jjambbong

(I can't find the location sorry cause its in korean!!!)

sweet and sour pork which you actually have to dip in in their sweet and sour sauce instead at the side

Cream Jjambbong which was surprisingly good and perhaps the best dish in my opinion (cause I miss my western style noodles alr hahaha) and its the first time in my life I have actually ate a cream based jajangmyeon !!!

Their two other chef recommendation there was their Fried Seafood Jjambbong

and the Vivari Black Bean Sauce Seafood Jjambbong!!

last but not least, original Spicy seafood jjambbong stew

I love jajangmyeon hehe

and I shall end this post with another romantic picture of me and tessa. Check our korea instagram hashtags at #twofuckersinKR btw

day 3 and part II to be continued!!