191201 to 02 Trip to Korea 1/3
We took an 8-day holiday from 1 to 8 Dec 2019 to tour the Southern area of South Korea (Jeju Island and Busan). Here is a map with the places in Korea that we have visited.
And here is a map of this trip in 2019. Click to enlarge.
For this trip, we had 2 SLR cameras (S5pro and D5000), a pocket camera (F850 handled by Joseph) and mobile phones for everyone (including Samuel), for taking photos.
Day 1: 1 Dec 2019
Our flight to Busan from Singapore is via JejuAir, a Korean low-cost airline. We reached Changi Terminal 4 at about 9:30pm, checked-in and had a pre-flight dinner/supper at 10:15pm. The flight took off on time at 12:30am on Sunday, 1 Dec 2019.
Nearing arrival, Esther helped fill the arrival forms.
At 7:40am, we reached Busan.
We had to walk down to the bus to reach the gate, and the air was cold (about 10°C) and wet (drizzling).
After a smooth check-out, we went to a cafe for a warm drink, some breakfast and to break our Korean Won (₩) into smaller denominations as we had only 50,000₩ notes (about SGD59).
The Busan international terminal.
And the Busan domestic terminal.
After checking into the local flight from Busan to Jeju, also JejuAir which we have pre-booked, we had lunch at the Foodhall.
We flew at 12:30pm and reached Jeju on time at 1:30pm.
Here is a map of Jeju Island with our tour locations. Click to enlarge.
Our first view of Jeju city.
Jeju airport is rather small.
Our driver, Mr Ahn, picked us up at 2:10pm and sent up the the hotel.
We reached the hotel J2 (very near the airport) and checked-in at about 2:30pm. Nice suite of 2 rooms, with 2 toilets. One of the toilets had heated seat!
After stretching out a bit, we left for Manjanggul Lava Tube at 2:40pm. It was a rather long drive, as Jeju is actually about 4x the size of Singapore. We reached the entrance at 3:35pm after a short detour to the beach to see the sea and some power-generating windmills.
Still drizzling and cold, we walked into the long tunnel. It is huge.
At 4:20pm, we reached the end of the tourist access, which is the largest lava column in the world.
After taking some photos, we walked out again and drove back to Jeju city. We reached Dungmun Market at 5:45pm for snacking dinner. Nice food. Lots of tourist stuff, too, like Jeju orange chocolates, jellies and sweets.
The driver picked us up at 7:00pm and we returned to the hotel. We bought makgeolli, black pig pork jerky and horse meat jerky. In Jeju, horse meat is common.
Day 2: 2 Dec 2019
We woke early and went to a convenient store (CU) for breakfast, then roamed nearby the hotel and played at a small playground for a while.
At 9:10am, the driver picked us and brought us to Sangumburi, arriving at 10:00am.
This is a volcanic park and very scenic. Unfortunately, it was drizzling and raining, with strong winds in biting cold air.
The crater looks great even in winter, must be really beautiful in summer. We took many photos at the park.
It was cold, so we bought ourselves some warm snacks at the restaurant at the entrance.
Next visit, the Gasiri Canolla Flower Plaza, but in winter there are no yellow flowers, only the power-generating huge windmills.
Samuel took this photo from his ‘camera’, which is Grace’s previous phone (Samsung S7).
After a while at Gasiri, we headed to Seongeup Folk Village, but stopped at a random orange orchard along the way.
We reached Seongeup Folk Village at 12:30pm, and we were introduced to Jeju culture by a local tour guide. After a short tour of the village, we had lunch at a restaurant across the road.
Samuel had fun with his camera.
After lunch, we drove East to Seongsan Ilchulbong. A rainbow greeted us as we arrived.
However, it was still wet weather, and we started hiking only at about 2:40pm.
Sadly, the trail up to the crater is closed every first Monday of the month, and it is today!
Joseph took this nice photo:
We managed to catch the haenyeo (sea ladies) diving for abalone and oysters at their performance time of 3:00pm. They started with a prayer dance before going into the sea (water is probably about 5°C).
Some abalones and oysters harvested by the haenyeo.
Last stop of the day, we reached Bijarim Forest at 4:20pm, and hiked to see the big nutmeg tree aged 800 year! This is the largest nutmeg tree forest in the world.
As we walked in, hail fell. The children were most delighted with the ice dropping from the sky, each piece about the size of course salt.
We reached the oldest tree in Jeju island and hiked out again. The park is very scenic, even in winter.
We left at about 5:15pm and reached J2 hotel at about 6:30pm. After a short rest, we went out window shopping and had dinner.
After dinner, we walked around again and had some snacks.
Before we slept, we had some fruits, did homework, and repaired Joseph’s broken boots.
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