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Sunday 11 November 2012

korea Free and easy (Jeju) : Itinenary

Summary for people who are not interested in details.


2010: First trip to Jeju with friend and sister
Arrived at Yeha Guesthouse by Taxi.
Took a taxi to nearby shopping area and just walked into a shop for barbecue black pig
Breakfast by Yeha.
Dragon Head Rock
Iho beach
Jeju Dongmun Traditional Market.
Jeju Jungang Underground Shopping Center
Abalone Porridge
Tae Gong Gak
Teddy museum by cab
Barbecue black pork
Breakfast at Tae Gong Gak
Jeongbang Falls 
Yongyeon Pond
ALL IN HOUSE
Sunrise peak
Sea women
Gimnyeong Maze Park
Manjanggul Lava Tube
Dinner at authentic Korean restuarant
Cheonjiyeon Waterfall
Supermarket shopping
Tea and desserts at cafe

Recommended. Good walking shoes. All in house, sunrise peak, maze park and lava tubes required a lot of walking. I almost resort to crawling my way out of the lava tubes.


2011: Second trip to Jeju. Family trip
Flight to Jeju
Tae Gong Gak
Lunch at Korean restaurant
Jungmum Daepo coast
Jungmun Beach
songak mountain
Yongmeori Coast and reconstructed Hamel
Jeju glass castle
Jeju green tea museum O'sulloc Museum
Yakcheon Temple
BBq black pork
supermarketting
fresh food market
Jeongbang Falls 
Yongyeon Pond
ALL IN HOUSE
Sunrise peak
Lunch
Jeju Folk Village Museum
Sangumburi Crater 
Jeju Stone Park
Chinese food
tangerine harvesting at hotel

more information
Yakcheon Temple, Cheonjiyeon Waterfall
Jeju Folk Village Museum, Jeju Stone Park
Sangumburi Crater , All in house
Jeju glass castle and Jeju green tea museum
songak mountain, Yongmeori Coast and reconstructed Hamel
Jungmum Daepo coast and sunrise peak
Jeongbang Falls and Yongyeon Pond
gimnyeong maze park and lava tube
Haeyon Sea woman
jeju shopping
Jeju wet market
Jeju food
teddy bear museum
Jeju accomodation
Seoul to Jeju
Dongmum traditional market, Jungang underground shopping, Iho beach, dragon head rock

Be prepared to walk a lot. Good walking shoes are very important
Jeju is a beautiful place, lots of places with beautiful scenery.
I love the wet market and good.
I think the jeju glass castle is quite an interesting place.
Breakfast is provided at accommodations I stayed.
As I booked a taxi tour, itinerary is to my preferences. My taxi tour is cheap but the english of the driver is not good.







korea Free and easy (Jeju) :Jeongbang Falls and Yongyeon Pond

My taxi for taxi tour.


Jeongbang Falls (정방폭포) is only water fall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean

To see the rainbow.





 Anyone want to go boating?



Yongyeon Pond

Yongyeon is where the sea meets fresh water. The legend goes that an envoy was sent to the pond frequently by the Dragon King. The narrow pond is flanked by eight rock walls like folding screens. Called also Yongyeon Yabeom, the pond is one of the twelve best views in Yeongju. Yongyeon Yabeom refers to the fact that a full moon illuminated on the pond creates a breathtaking night atmosphere.

Tips on Accomodation

Free and easy involve a lot of planning, airfares, accomodations, transports, sights and airport transfer.

Booking of accommodations is now much easier due to information available on the web. Google map and also tripadvisor and blogs and forums.
Google map will show the exact location of the hotel. On hotel website or some travel agency tell you is a 5 mins walk from the train station but in actual fact, it is like 15mins walk. Use the google map to estimate the actual distance.
Google map will not only show the actual location, the exact route to take when walking to the hotel, what to look out for and the turns to make and the surrounding shops. Just drag the little man over to the point and most of the time, is a photo of the surrounndings.
Hotel website can be misleading at times as the photos can be taken donkey years ago and by a professional photographer. I will advise people to check out photos that are taken by tourists on tripadvisor and visit blogs for reviews of the hotel.
For better prices, we have to do comparison of accommodation by websites as some hotels do have special promotion going on and sometimes is easier to book directly via the hotel website. Always book from trustworthy websites, is better to play safe.

We usually have to decide on the area to stay before looking around for accommodations around the area.
Best area to stay is usually not a shopping district unless you have intention to shop at the same place everyday. Best location to stay is actually at an interchange or just near the train station. As in countries, the train system is very complicated and taxis are very expensive.

As we spend more than half the day travelling and exploring. However, most important is the cleanliness and the location and also the price factor. I don't stay in 5 stars hotel much. I have stayed in hotels that just after we put in our luggages, there is not much space for us to walk around but I love the location and also the quality of the room and definitely the price.

We do like to try out different hotels, it is also an adventure to us. We have stayed in hostel, bed and breakfast, hotels and even rented apartment.
For hostel or bed and breakfast, I usually booked the ensuite as I think I look quite scary after I bathe. However, is good for people who want to make friends and they have a lot of informations available in english.
Hotels as you know, room services available and sometimes buffet breakfast.
Rented apartment is bigger and there is a kitchen. Lots of privacy but we do have to do the cleaning up.

As a Singaporean, I am used to rooms with temperature of more than 20 degree Celsius.
Therefore, it is very important to make sure there are heater in rooms for colder countries. Because in other countries, any above 10 degree is considered normal temperature.






Tips on booking airfares

I usually travel with my sister and my good girl pal.
We decide the location a few months beforehand and we will be on the lookout for airfares promotion. Sometimes it can be a few hundred dollars difference, so keep a look out. Subscribe to airlines newsletter and scan through advertisements in newsapaper.
Websites I usually visit.
Individual airlines website.
Skycanner.com.sg
airfares.com.sg
zuji.com.sg
We always do a thorough comparison we make any booking.

Some of the budget airlines promotion are not suitable for me as I can only travel during school holiday period as I worked as a tuition teacher.

I have no preference over budget or normal airlines as I have my own personal entertainment unit, my cowon video player which can last me for a few movies and my handphone. The leg space can be a bit restricting, as I slightly above Singapore women average height. I just try not to fidget that much. I don't mind not having any food, because when I reach my destination, I want to indulge in food.

Personally, I am not suitable for overnight flight as I am not able to sleep. I will be very tired and grumpy the whole day. On the other hand, my sister and friend sleep like a log on plane, think is economical as we can start the day once we land in whichever foreign land. Good for people who can sleep on plane.

We are also quite easy going over the choice of airlines, whichever is cheaper and to us trying out a new airline is some sort of an adventure. Is fun. Some airlines we try once and we will never go back. Some airlines are worth going back to like KLM.

Stopover. Some airfares are cheaper because there is a stopover. We will do a comparison on the extra time and the money saved. For example, if stopover will extend the travelling by an hour or two and the savings is in hundreds. We will do it

Take note that budget airlines may not always be cheaper, normal airlines can be cheaper or only a bit more expensive. Budget airlines do charge for luggage and it can get quite expensive so enter all details for a clearer price comparison.
Some budget airlines, for example, tiger airways offer and discount for check in luggage if you are an ntuc fairprice member.

We are quite money sensitive as we love travelling and saving money will allow us to make more trips and longer trips and shop more.




Friday 9 November 2012

korea Free and easy (Jeju) : Gimnyeong Maze park and lave tube Manjanggul cave


Gimnyeong Maze Park
We decided to challenge ourselves to the Maze Park.
It was definitely not as easy as we expected.
Haha.. but we had fun going round and round.
Everyone was going round and round too, looking confused.
In the end, we found our way up to the bell which is the destination, rang it.. Victory!!!!!



Manjanggul Lava Tube
world's longest lava tube. It was a bit dark and eerie inside and the inside is uneven and a bit wet. something interesting but be prepared to walk.
After sunrise peak and the maze, my legs were giving way... 

korea Free and easy (Jeju) : Haeyon, Sea woman

Performance



Cute little boy while we watching performance

getting ready and setting off




haenyo, literally meaning "sea women", are female divers in the Korean province of Jeju.

We managed to catch them in action after conquering sunrise peak. 
This was just at the foot of sunrise peak.
Is quite sad to see eldery dive into the water in this cold weather, around 12 degree.
They did a performance including some singing and dancing. 
Then they went into water and one of them managed to catch an octopus.
She offered it the audience but all of us were too scared to hold it.


korea Free and easy (Jeju) : Jeju shopping



There is shopping available in Jeju.
However, these photos are taken at the shopping area near Tae Gong Gak.
There is also the undershopping mall.