Wandering Fel

As usual, side dishes have been served neatly on our table. Ooohhh, I see lettuces. These lettuces will be eated together with the barbequed meat. Other than the usual kimchi, beancurd, vermicelli and spinach, every diner is served seaweed soup. 

Pretty much only our tour group is dining at 5PM that day. I suppose 5PM is kinda early for dinner but since we are facing three hours journey ahead, we should really eat at this hour I guess. Oh right, I don't think I have told you yet but water is usually served on every table for free. 

Since this is a buffet, you are allowed to take as much meat as you'd like from the fridge. The selection of the meat is ranging from pork, beef, and squid. Jenny further explains that in South Korea, the males are usually the ones tasked with the job of cooking the meat. I suppose cooking meat is somewhat manly thing to do. Let's see if Bro managed to handle the job properly. Uhm, Mom seems rather unconvinced and she's ready with the tongs in her hand. LOL. 

There's nothing we can do at the moment apart from waiting for the meat to cook nicely. Tick tock tick tock, time to upload some picture into Instagram. Oh shoot, I have no internet connection because Jenny and Nico (tour guides) sit further apart and the wifi routers are with them. Oh well. Let's just stare at the meat then, hoping they will cook faster. Hmm...*exercising mind control*. 

Uh oh, Bro is struggling while cutting the meat. But thankfully Mom is ever around to handle the job properly. Mom is the best. Jjang omma! The meat needs to be cut because otherwise it will be difficult to wrap the meat in the lettuce leaf. Yup, the way the Korean eat the barbecued meat is by (1) taking the lettuce leaf, (2) put the rice on it, (3) add the meat (don't forget to dip them in sauce/ salt, if need to), (4) add kimchi on top of the meat and then wrap them all together inside the leaf and pop them in your mouth. Munch munch munch. It tastes so yum although I think it will taste even better if the restaurant serves us higher quality meat. 

Squid and beef are next on our list. But I do feel that pork is the best meat to eat with the combination of lettuce, rice and kimchi. Mom commented about eating lettuce actually makes you kinda full. But if you don't eat lettuce, you basically omit the vegetable from all this meat fest. Hmm, tough decision to make indeed because there's no way we letting go of the rice. #indonesianneedrice

I don't think I can move so much after dinner. At least, the only activity that I need to do from here onward to Mt Sorak is to sit (and most likely dose off) on the bus. LOL. #lazytraveller

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

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. 

After patiently waiting for Nico to settle with the check-in procedure and get our room key, we immediately checked our triple room (I was travelling with both my Mom and Bro). The idea of not having to share one bed with Mom perked me up greatly. The size of the bedroom may not be that big but it is big enough for us to move around and to open our luggages on the floor. The beds are quite comfortable as well. And most important, the room is clean (and quite new). 

In the bus, Jenny suggested us to try out the fried chicken at the hotel's rooftop bar. Figures that it is time for us to try out one of the favourite Korean dishes called Chimaek, which is a compound word of Chicken and Maekju (re: beer). The selection of the beer is quite extensive and hence, it took us quite a while to decide on which beer to pair with our fried chicken. Hmm decision decision. 

Bro decided to try out Korean beer since after all, we were drinking beer in Jeju. He did not really like hot Cass tastes though unfortunately (although he still finished the whole bottle). 

I was initially going to go for either Japanese beer or German Beer but Mom nudged me to order Chinese beer, Tsingtao, instead because she wanted to take a sip. Tsingtao is pretty nice to drink as it is quite sweet. More like the beer suitable for girls. Hahaha. 

The fried chicken took quite a while to fry (we waited for around 30 minutes) but when it finally arrived on our table, we were practically gobsmacked. The size of the fried chicken is HUGE. We struggled to finish this whole chicken despite having 3 mouths to feed. I have to admit that the fried chicken taste pretty good despite the non-apparent number of seasoning used. It is not the kind of fried chicken which is heavily seasoned and yet, we could still taste the crunchy and savoury flavour of the fried chicken. I have decided to give up on counting calories during the trip because having Chimaek at 10PM is definitely a no-go for any diet. Hahaha. 

Woken up the next morning still feeling guilty from the Chimaek feast but there's no way we could start the day without proper breakfast. Upon check-in, the receptionist will give you meal coupon which serves as breakfast voucher. You can bring the voucher to the restaurant to access the breakfast buffet. 

The selection of the food provided at the restaurant for breakfast is quite good so I suggest you not to miss breakfast at Days Hotel Jeju Seogwipo Ocean. I took picture of some of the dishes provided like cereal station. 

Condiment station which I think can only be found in South Korea because it is basically full of those fermented veggies which are usually served as side dishes in South Korean restaurants. 

There are three plates of dessert station. They look pretty good really. 

Mom commented on whether I have repented because my breakfast plate looks so healthy. Some of the salad is dressed in heavy sauce though so I kinda doubt the healthiness level of my breakfast plate. Oh well, we are on holiday anyway, rightttt?

Eating proper breakfast is very important especially when you are touring (sounds like a rock band now) since we have a lot of places to cover today. So yeah, eat properly okay!