Wandering Fel

Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak rose from under the sea due to a volcanic eruption over 100,000 years ago. The peak is actually quite interesting when viewed from the sky because it is a tuff cone. You can google the image of the peak online and you will see that the top of the peak is filled with greeneries. The crater looks like a gigantic cone from below. Hiking trail is available here if you want to try to get closer to the top but since the southeast and north side of the crater are basically cliffs, you can only follow the assigned paths toward the top. 

Since Mom has just recovered from her broken knee, she straight away showed us her resistance to pursue the longer way to the top. Okay, stratch it, she was not even interested to reach the top at all. Using Mom as an excused, Bro and I were also somewhat hesitant to exert strength to climb to the top. Omaigat, turns out we are one heck of a non-adventurous/ lazy family. But if you are also too lazy/ have legs injury, you can follow the direction to the left since this path is easier to follow. You can still get amazing view of the Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak (also known as sunrise peak) from this path. 

Oh right, do you know that Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak is also one of UNESCO World Heritage sites? I kinda feel like checking all those sites which are listed under UNESCO World Heritage but up to now, haven't really started ticking those sites that I have visited before. Procrastination is really tough to handle. Hmm, it seems that visitors can go for speedboat rides down there. Or are those speedboats owned by private owners who are chaebol (re: rich Korean heirs)? Kinda hard to predict from up here. 

Telescope is available for use (for certain coins price) to see the sea horizon. Mom and Bro had a bit of a small debate on whether you really have to insert coins to use the telescope because Mom claimed that she could still see the horizon without paying a single cents. I was kinda too meh to check out the validity of each person's point because at this stage of the tour, we were all pretty much tired (and in need of cold drinks because of the heat). 

The view of the sea and the sea breeze were rather nice to enjoy though. Since we were allocated another 45 minutes to spend at Seongsan Ilchulbong, we figured we should just chill here for a while and keep each other company in silence. After all, one needs to connect with nature after working our asses everyday to earn a living. #oceantherapy

Since we still have around 15 minutes left before our assigned time to come back to the bus, I decided to buy drink from the cafe located near to the entrance of Seongsan Ilchulbong, Caffe Bene. There is an outlet of Caffe Bene in Singapore (at Vivo City) but I admit I've never tried their coffee before. Well, it's better to try out the original Caffe Bene after all, right? Bro wanted to drink something different and hence, here comes Misugaru Latte. What is Misugaru? It is basically a mixture of different Korean grains roasted and grounded together into Misugaru powder which is then made into a latte. The drink is rich in protein and low in calories (oh wow!) and it does not taste so sweet and light. Which is nice for non-coffee drinker like me. Jjang!

Before going back to the hotel, Golden Rama provided us with dinner on our last night in Jeju. Jenny has told us that we were going to have seafood kimchi jjigae (re: Korean soup). The salad with purplish color sauce is rather interesting. The restaurant apparently uses yoghurt to make the sauce. Yumz. 

The white rice is served inside hotstone bowl instead of normal bowl. Beans are added and mixed together with the rice but you need to dig into the rice to see them. I do think the Koreans have 1001 ways to eat their rice, really. 

Oh anyeong again, fried fish. You are one of the compulsory item to eat together with the soup, I see. 

The seafood kimchi jjigae is finally ready for consumption. Since kimchi is used, the broth of the soup is reddish as what the color of kimchi looks like. The ingredients used for the soup are ranging from clams, mussels, tofu, crayfish and crabs. I quite like the taste of kimchi jjigae and it's really comforting to have the broth together with piping white rice. Yumz. 

 Admission fees: 

Individual: Adults 2,000 KRW/ Teenagers & Children 1,000 KRW

Groups (10 pax or more): Adults 1,600 KRW/ Teenagers & Children 800 KRW

Adults: 25 - 64 y.o.

Teenagers: 13 - 24 y.o.

Children: 7 - 12 y.o.

Operating hours: 

1 hour before sunrise till sunset

There are meaning beyong those three bars of wood to indicate whether the owner of the house is currently in the house or away for short/ long time. In a way, this is how the residents informing their neighbours their away status back then. So for instance, if all the three logs of wood are in their current place like the picture above, that means the owner of the house is currently away and won't be back for a few hours. Interesting, right?

At the next house that we passed by, we saw a very weird stuff which we initially thought were used for another hunting trip. But turns out, these gadgets are games for people living in those days. Gone are the days where people playing with non-electronic gadgets in the modern society. You barely even see people flying kites nowadays. Aigoo. 

Another house is open for us to take a peek inside. Hmm, this house looks kinda different from the houses that we saw initially. It seems that the owner of this house is richer than the rug house that we saw earlier in the previous post. 

The house has its own kitchen. A lot of pots are used for cooking back in the days. Maybe the Koreans have started eating broth since ages. 

More pots and stoves. We started hearing some traditional songs coming up from the houses nearby. Half-spooked, half-curious, we asked Jenny if there are some cultural performances nearby but she just shrug it off and said cooly that recordings of various folk songs are placed in some of the houses to give the traditional atmosphere of the folk village. 

The next set showed us what seems to be a dining room of a noble house. Hmm looking at the number of bowls placed on the table, I suppose the tradition of having many side dishes when eating has started for a way back. 

Huh? How come there is a prison cell here? I thought thieves did not exist in Jeju (since life was hard and everyone supposedly worked together to survive). Oh well, maybe there is always an anomaly even in those days. So for those anomaly thieves, the wooden prison cell is where they are going to spend their punishment for not sure how long. 

We have gone in circle and came back to the entrance where the beautiful flowers bloom. At this stage of the tour, I kinda imagining myself working as tour guide. I wonder if I can endure visiting the same place and explaining the same thing again and again (it's just to different crowd) at least once a week. Hmm...I bet Jenny has memorised all the information for those places that she often visits in South Korea. Hahaha. 

Admission fees:

FREE

Opening hours:

Open all year round

Visitors to Eco Land Theme Park can take the train ride to explore the whole theme park. The train looks like a classic steam-powered train from European country though. When our tour group was waiting at the side to wait for our turn to board the train, we saw a line of elderly people on wheelchairs lining up to board the train. We were wondering who is assisting them to ride the train and that's when we realised these elders are on a group tour on its own with a number of helpful volunteers. One guy volunteer even helped to lift an elderly lady to board the train. Omo omo, it's really mind-blowing to see such affection toward other person especially in the busy modern society. Aww. 

Jenny asked us to alight at the last station, Station Lakeside, to wander around a beautiful lake in Eco Land Theme Park. The weather was so hot that day but it's quite refreshing to see greeneries surrounding the tranquil lake. 

On the other side of lake, visitors can rent the float and play around on the lake. The float ride seems to be quite popular with younger crowds (and their parents). The only float that I am interested to get right now is the ice cream float on my ice cold root beer really. It's so damn hot. #melt

After passing through the bridge which crossing the lake, we have reached the garden area which is designed similar to a garden in Netherland/ Switzerland, completed with the patch of lavender and windmill. 

White windmill, which also serves as cafe which sells iced coffee and tea. Not sure why but suddenly a song from Jay Chou which is titled "White Windmill" in English was playing on my mind when I saw this. Sometimes I wonder why my mind is so random. But in a way, that kinda helps me when I have to spend time on my own. The skill to communicate with own mind has proven to be rather useful sometimes. Hahaha. 

Cute decoration of flower pots on the wall of the cafe. 

Right opposite the windmill, we saw some photo prop. Since we had nothing else to do, my brother and I were busy playing around with this spot. Mom was kinda amused to see both of us posing and taking picture and managed to take this picture in the midst of her amusement. Nice pic, Mom! 

Overall, there are not many things that you can do at Eco Land Theme Park apart from riding the train while checking out the surrounding forest. You probably only need 1.5 hours maximum here unless you want to play some ride like the float earlier. 

Admission fees:

Individual: Adult 12,000 KRW/ Youths 10,000 KRW/ Children 8,000 KRW

Group (30pax or more): Adult 10,000 KRW/ Youths 9,000 KRW/ Children 7,000 KRW

Adult - over 19 y.o.

Youths - 13 to 18 y.o.

Children - 25 months to 12 y.o.

Opening hours:

Summer season: 8.30AM - 6PM

Winter season: 8.40AM - 5PM

Hmm, okay, without the sign board, I would really have no idea that there is something special (or mysterious, hmm, maybe I should use this word instead since that's what the road is name as) about this road. In a glance, it really looks like a normal road out there in any city in any country. 

This is where the tour guide's responsibility of showing off the mystery of his/her own country is tested. Jenny gathered us shorly after all of us have alighted from the bus and she showed us certain experiment which require a bottle of water. She poured some water on the road and asked us to see if the water will flow to certain direction. By right, the water should flow downhill because I think that's how gravity works (I nearly failed my physics final exam back in high school though). The water did flow to a certain direction but it flows toward...uphill?

Unconvinced, we asked Jenny to do more experiment and she gladly obliged (or more like no choice). She rolled the water bottle on the road and the water bottle also rolled uphill. Huh? Turns out there is an optical illusion rendered by seemingly high surroundings on this particularly road. The road earned its name (Mysterious Road/ Dokkaebi Road in Korean) because objects and liquid appears to roll and flow up the hill instead of down. Ah "gravity defiance" arraseooo. 

Once we have understood the mystery behind the not-so-mysterious road, we were lured by even deeper mystery. What are these food sold by the street food vendor right beside the road? Hahaha after all, the greatest mystery on earth can't be solved on empty stomach, no? I did not buy any snack because we were having lunch soon but fellow tour members did say that the rice cakes were good. So if you are visiting this road, don't forget to also indulge in the mystery of the street food right beside the Mysterious Road, okay? 

5 minutes later, the bus driver has dropped us at our lunch venue for Day 2 on Jeju Island, Samgyetang Restaurant. 

Before the main item, Samgyetang, appeared, we were served side dishes which seems to be all vegetables and white noodle. Hmm I wonder if Golden Rama is trying to make us healthy or turn us into vegetarian. Oh well, eat kimchi everyday while you are staying in Korea, I suppose? After all kimchi is supposedly good for health. Maybe that's how the Korean get their perfect complexion.

Here comes the Samgyetang. Oh gosh, Samgyetang turns out to be a hot pot of steamed chicken filled with white rice and served in boiling chicken ginseng broth. Okay to make it shorter, Samgyetang is ginseng chicken soup. The size of one serving of Samgyetang is huge because it is practically one whole chicken (albeit smaller size) stuffed with garlic, rice, jujube and ginger. I was kinda questioning the selection of the menu because this does not seem like what people supposed to eat on a hot summer day since the weather outside practically can fry raw egg on the road. However, Jenny explained to us that Koreans traditionally eat this dish during the hottest day of summer as a way to keep up their energy and balance their body heat with the heat outside. Fight fire with fire they say. Ahh okay. Although I think I would not mind a glass of iced water right now. 

The restaurant seems to have a huge collection of ginseng on a display. At this point in time, Jenny has continued explaining about the good quality of ginseng in South Korea and there are many other countries (China, ahem) who try to produce lower quality ginseng and claim that their ginseng is as good South Korean's. Hmm I don't think I am willing to afford so much for ginseng in a bottle no matter how many years the ginseng has been preserved but other people may really believe in the awesome benefit of this ginseng. We'll see how many people will buy ginseng when we visit the official ginseng store in Seoul. 

Hmm, I wonder if the most expensive teddy bear is amongst these many international representatives of teddy bears from all around the world. Oh wait, is that Santa Teddy Claus? Well, since Santa Claus is known for its generousity to give out gifts for good kids all around the world, he must be quite rich and hence, expensive? Aniyo?

Ahh, I think I have found what I'm looking for, Teddy Hera. Hera, if I am not mistaken, is one of the Greek gods and there is no way someone referred to as god (albeit mythical) wears something so cheap. That crown must be the most expensive stuff that Jenny is referring to in Teseum. Hmm, let's just take this picture of Hera first and see if my guess is correct. 

Uhh wait, what if the most expensive thing in Teseum turns out to be a replica of famous painting in teddy bears form? Hahah this is really creative, I mean, who on earth thinking of replacing characters depicted in a painting with well, teddy bears?

 

If you are coming with your family/ friends, you may want to take a group picture with the teddy bears band and singer. Mom and I make a pretty good band, it seems. Maybe we can pull of some Maroon 5's songs. This love is taking its toll on me, she said good bye too many times before~~~ Oh gosh, I miss their classic hits. #feelsold #evenadamlevineismarried

As usual, once you are done taking picture and stuff, you have to visit the souvenir store in order to make an exit out of Teseum. Hahaha. This seems to be the default layout of many tourist attractions all around the world including Disneyland and Universal Studio. The teddy bears sold here are pretty cute but I don't really see the point of buying because I am not really a collector of any forms of toys. With the exception of those plush toys that I got from eating super value meal at McDonald's (damn fast food). So yeah, I did not buy any. Sorry Teddy! 

There are some life-sized teddy bear plushie too. This teddy bear couple has just gotten married and they are all full of smile. Aigoo, even the teddy bears are married. What am I gonna do with my life? #feelsdoomz

Oh right, I nearly forgot to update you on whether my guess on the most expensive teddy bear in Teseum is correct. Turns out Hera's tiara was really the most expensive thing in Teseum. Woots! Jenny has kindly given us a teddy bear keychain for the correct answer. Kamsahamida eonni! <3

Teseum's admission fees:

Individual: Adults 10,500 KRW/ Teenagers 9,000 KRW/ Children 8,000 KRW

Group (20 pax or more): Adults 8,000 KRW/ Teenagers 7,000 KRW/ Children 6,000 KRW

Free admission for babies (aged 2 or younger)

Operating hours:

Daily 8.30AM - 7PM