Anyeonghaseyo! Time to update the blog with my 9 days trip in Korea - mainly Jeju and Seoul. My itinerary in Korea was:
Jeju
1. Cheonjiyeon falls
2. Jeongbang falls
3. Jusangjeolli cliff
4. Alive museum
5. Seongsan Ilchubung peak (Sunrise peak)
6. Seopjikoji
7. Mazeland
8. Alive museum
9. Manjanggul cave
10. Kimnyeong mazepark
11. Hyeop-jae beach
12. Jeju glass castle
Seoul
1. Hongdae street market
2. Gyeongbokgung palace
3. Bukchon Hanok village
4. Insadong
5. Cheonggyecheon stream
6. Dongdaemun midnight market
7. Everland
8. Namiseom island
9. City tour on bus
10. Seoul Global culture and tourism centre
11. N Seoul Tower
12. Myeongdong
13. Samsung D'Light
Climate
My trip can be considered mid-autumn (October-November) and the temperature is cool in Jeju about 13-15 degrees. Very nice temperature, not too cold and not hot. It gets warm in the afternoon and cool at night. I didnt need any jacket in the afternoon and at night a light jacket is sufficient. The leaves are still green except if you go up to Hallasan then the leaves have turned red, yellow and orange. Whereas in Seoul, the temperature is quite cold. Even in the afternoon, I need to put on a jacket and in the night a thick sweater is necessary. I brought my winter jacket there but took off the inner layer which made it very thin and feels more like a rain coat. However I bought a sweater over in Myeongdong and the quality is very good. I only need to wear the sweater and I can stand the night without any extra layers. Generally the leaves in Seoul have started to turn red and yellow on the streets.
Incheon airport
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| Incheon airport: Walkway to subway and airport railway (AREX) |
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| Incheon airport: Main stage of airport |
Although not an attraction in Korea, the airport is worth mentioning. The facilities are good and the airport is well decorated. As we were on a midnight flight, we planned to use the free shower facility in the airport but missed it. The free shower facility is located before immigration as with most of the facilities and activities. So make sure not to check out from immigration too soon! Inside the boarding area, they also have free cultural activities for travellers to spend their time. We made a bowl using Korea paper and took it back as a souvenir from Korea.
Food
The food in Korea is not very good to my taste and it is very difficult to find them because I dont speak Korean. I rely mainly on pictures and english menu which most of the time is not accurate. Eating in Korea is an experience by itself as you will always be suprised by what they serve you. Every meal is a new experience even eating in KFC is an experience! What you can expect from every meal is Kimcheeeee..... even when we tried Japanese food due to getting sick of the bland Korean food they also serve Kimcheeeee....
The food that we have tried are (if that is what they serve me):
1. Bbq - Black pork and samgyeopsal
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| Korean BBQ. Meat is not there yet. The bbq is one of the best among all the food but also the most expensive. Cost about 20k+ won and the shop told us that we have to order a meat for each person. Each meat costs about 10k won. The only reason it rate one of the best is because other food is not good. Honestly it just taste like any bbq meat you can get in Penang. |
2. Junbokjuk (Abalone porridge)
3. Spicy korean stew
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| Not sure if this is the korean stew. The first meal we had in Seoul somewhere in the airport where we head for the subway. One of the normal meals that we had in Korea. |
4. Samyetang (Ginseng chicken)
5. Oritang (Some kind of duck stew)
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| Top: Samyetang. Bottom: Oritang. Both taste quite nice. Samyetang is a chicken stuffed with broth with milder taste while oritang is duck stew and served with rice. |
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| This shop that sells Samyetang and Oritang. They also have dog stew as seen in the menu. The old lady which serves us is very friendly and one of the most friendly Korean I met in my trip. Although she cant speak english and we dont speak Korean, she taught us how to eat the Samyetang and Oritang by body language. She also keep giving us different Korean food to try out. The shop is located nearby the Goodstay Feliz Hotel that we stayed in. Very recommended! |
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| Hallabong. The Jeju orange. You can find this everywhere in Jeju. They have so much of it that the hotel we stayed in had a big box for you to take as much as you want. Even the shops outside just put boxes of orange in front of their shop at night after they closed. This was given to us by the kind Samyetang aunty. We also bought a packet which consists of about 5 for 1000 won. That is considered quite cheap. The orange is seedless and sweet. |
6. Bibimbap
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| Left: Bibimbap. Right: Pork cutlet something. This is the worst. Make me almost vomit trying to finish it and I think I didnt finish the last spoon. Had it in a restaurant in Manjanggul cave. Not sure if it is only this restaurant but I never tried any bibimbap after that. Maybe it just doesnt suit my taste as it had a weird smell like "tao si yu" without the saltiness. |
7. Mac Donald's
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| This is crap compared to Mac Donalds in Malaysia. We thought of trying to escape Kimchi but the burgers were more crap than some of the Korean foods. I was told that they are famous for the Bulgogi burger and Shanghai spicy chicken burger but it doesnt really taste up to expectation. |
8. Lotteria (Korean burger fast food)
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| Lotteria. Very famous Korean fast food as we can find it almost everywhere. The one I ordered was Tender grill chicken burger or something like that. Taste much better than Mac Donalds. |
9. KFC
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| Again the KFC does not taste as good as the one in Malaysia. It's more like a normal fried chicken and doesnt have much of the secret herbs and spices taste. I also tried the burger where there are no buns and all meat. It seems like you can refill the coke for free in KFC as I saw one of the girls passing the cup to the staff. |
10. Street food (Foot long ice cream, some kind of sausage, funny U-shape ice cream, dodo chicken and potato chip on stick)
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| Grilled cutlefish in Seopjikoji. The Hanyo (Grandmother diver) dived into the sea and the cuttlefish was grilled fresh. Very juicy. 7000 won for one cuttlefish. The amount is able to share for about 2-3 people as I feel is too much for 1 person. |
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| Dodo chicken along the main road of Seogwipo where we stayed. Its some kind of fried chicken with the usual Korean sweet and spicy sauce. |
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| The funny U-shape ice cream. This one cost 3000 won. Its just a normal ice cream but the attractive part is that the waffle where they fill the ice cream is some kind of cracker and it has a long funny U-shape to it. We saw many people walking around with that in Insadong so we also tried. I think it is the shape that attracts many people to try it. The shop has quite a lot of ppl queing to buy. |
11. Some other Korean food which I just ordered based on the picture...
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| I dont know what is this called but doesnt have any taste. Its located near the parking space in Cheonjeyeon falls. There are two waterfalls with almost similar names so dont get confused. The one I visited was Cheonjiyeon falls and this is Cheonjeyeon. I only stop by here because we were hungry. |
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| This one was special. After visiting Jeju Glass Castle we were hungry and wanted to look for something to eat which is edible. After 1 or 2 mins drive we saw a house with a picture of a burger and thought it couldnt be worst than going into any unknown Korean restaurant and ordering another food suprise. The burger was very well presented and taste quite good. The homemade spicy sauce was very special. Another recommended. And the lady was one of the more polite Koreans we met in our trip. |
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| The home made Korean burger shop. The picture is the one that attracts us to the shop because it has a burger picture. The interior was also well decorated. |
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| Some kind of noodle+porridge+korean spicy soup stuff. Found in a restaurant in Hongdae. The price is quite cheap around 4000 won. |
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| Korean gyouza. Ordered this togehter with the weird Korean soup stuff. |
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| One of the restaurant near Anguk station in Seoul or something like that. This one actually taste quite good. Its rice with pork fried with some spicy Korean mix. The korean sambal was quite nice. |
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| Mangpo something we had in Nami island. Quite expensive and taste was just ok. Its just a bowl of soup and they throw vegetables in it together with some gyouza. Because we were hungry we thought this is the only thing that is available in Nami. But after we finished our meal and walk down the island, there's so much more food available! Regret... |
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| This is a japanese restaurant but I have never seen this kind of dish when I stayed in Japan. Anyway it tastes quite good. As usual they serve Kimchi everywhere even in Japanese restaurant. Located somewhere in Ehwa. Price is also reasonable about 4-5000 won. |
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| Some kind of Japanese style bibimbap from that Japanese restaurant. |
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| I had this dish in a Korean restaurant in Myeong Dong. It's some sort of "tang hun", some vegetables and a big lump of chili on top. Then you mix everything together and add a bit of the soup that is in the kettle. It doesnt taste bad but just SUPER spicy. If you like spicy hot stuff or up for challenge then this is definitely for you. Then it comes together with a charcoal grilled meat. Lucky the restaurants in Korea usually provide free water. |
12. Food from convenience store
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| From left to right: Banana milk, cup noodle and cup noodle. No photos for other stuff from convenience store. I had few meals that is bought from convenience store including different cup noodle flavors. All cup noodles taste very similar no matter what flavor you buy. The coffee in Korea tastes more like milk with very light coffee taste. There are very little choices of food that you can get in the convenience store compared to Japan. |
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| Seriously, DONT BUY THIS! We bought as our breakfast for morning walk up to Sunrise peak. It is supposed to be bread with half chocolate and half strawberry spread. |
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| Suprise!! Thats how much cream that is hidden inside the bread. |
13. Coffee house. Theres so many of it around Korea that we just had to try!
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| Angel-in-us. We see this coffee house almost everywhere in Korea. I guess it must be one of those famous coffee house. This one is our breakfast after we hike down from Sunrise peak. The bread above just cannot be considered as breakfast. We ordered one plain bun and one cheese bun but the cheese doesnt seem to have any cheese in it. The coffee as in Korea just tastes like milk. |
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| Paris baguette. This was in the airport before flying back home. We had some spare change. This coffee house is also one of those popular ones where you see everywhere. Coffee..same as everywhere. The bread is OK. The yellow and black box are popcorn. The pop corn actually tastes good. Its coated with caramel and the pop corns are really big in size as compared to the tiny ones we always get in cinemas. |
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| The containers are also very cute. |
14. Korean pancake
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| Dont know what it's called in Korean but we didnt know what to eat for dinner and just stroll nearby where we stayed in Seogwipo and arrived at the Seogwipo market. It's quite cheap around 5000 won. It looks like some kind of event because we were sitting in the middle of the market. Taste good. |
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| The place we had the cheap pancake. Not sure what the Korean word means but it seems like old people charity event. 90% of the people there were like more than 60 years old. There's like a group of green colour uniform old people inviting people to sit down and eat. And there's also a band performing Korean songs in the middle of the market. |
There are still some other foods that I didnt take picture of. Coming to think of it, the food in Korea is not as bad as I felt when I was there. There were also some nice foods as long as you avoid those crappy ones. However it is difficult to know what you are eating until the food arrives so it is an experience eating in Korea when you cant read Korean.
One tip on finding food and an important tip: If hungry on streets of Korea especially big shopping streets like Myeong Dong and others, try look at the small alley or "lorong". Your chances of finding food are higher in the "lorong". Many times we wanted to hunt for food for dinner after shopping but all we see are socks, cosmetics and clothing stalls. Then we found out that most of the food are hidden inside alley.
Toilets
This is something worthy of mention especially when you come from Malaysia where it is full of lousy public toilets. The toilets in Korea are really top class and all of them are FREE!! You dont need to pay for stinking public toilets like in Malaysia. Especially in Jeju island, nearly all the toilets in the tourist attractions have a very unique style to each places and they are FREE and 90% of them are CLEAN! They are located before the entrance so you can even enter the toilets even if you dont pay for the entrance ticket. I have taken some pictures of the toilets in Jeju. Toilets in Seoul are more normal but still they are clean and free even in subway stations.
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| Toilet in Cheojeyeon fall. Notice its Cheonjeyeon and not Cheojiyeon. They are different waterfalls. We only went there for the sucky food and the toilet. Didnt enter the waterfall. |
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| Seongsan Ilchubong (Sunrise peak). |
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| Seopjikoji. Looks like Im not the only weirdo taking pictures of toilet. |
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| Manjanggul cave. Clean toilet but it smells like someone "lao sai" all over the toilet. At first I thought it is only in the male toilet but seems the shit smell is also in female toilet. I think it is the smell of Korea, which will be explained later. |
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| Jeju Glass Castle. This toilet very cute but is located inside the Glass Castle and not outside. |
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| Hyeop-jae beach. This is the only one which is not so clean as compared to others but is definitely cleaner than most public toilets in Malaysia. |
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| Toilet inside Gyeongbokgung Palace. The urinal is along the walls of the window so at the same time while I pee, I was looking at the beautiful scenary of the palace :p |
Koreans
Koreans are not very friendly so don't go there expecting them to be like the Japanese. Except for some, most of them do not smile much. Maybe it is because we do not speak Korean and they feel difficult but in many shops they do not smile and looks frustrated. Many will also try to cheat you like the taxi driver near Nami island, shopping malls where they promise free gift but did not pack them inside and give false information such as discounts. The friendly ones are the Samyetang aunty, burger lady, Seoul guest house boss and one woman who helped us carry our heavy baggage up the stairs from the subway. Seems like the females are more friendly than males especially if you meet old granfather type, they act as if they are more superior. They also like to litter and spit on the roadside especially in Seoul. They are more similar to Chinese and opposite of Japanese.
Transport
Jeju - We rented a car in Jeju to move around. I booked online about 1 month before my trip in KT Kumho website and it is quite cheap. If you book in the airport the rate will be much more expensive. About 70% discount if book online. It is easy to collect the car at the airport. After checking out, there is a counter for car rental. Just show them your booking ticket and then they will show you the way to board a bus a take you to the car rental area which a few minutes drive away. At the counter they proceed with all the rules and regulations, payments and documentations. They also asked if you need an egg unit which is a portable wifi and GPS. We took both and the english version of GPS. Insurance is optional which cost about 30000 won but I didnt take it. However it is advisable to take it as it is much more dangerous than I expected especially when it's my first time driving on the right side. Got into dangerous situations a few times but luckily nothing happened. The cars presented is very clean and well maintained with full tank of petrol. You have to return the car with the same amount of petrol or there will be charges. They only accept credit card for the payment. No credit card no rent car.
The way from the airport which is in Jeju city to Seogwipo city is through a hill road. The road is very dark with no lights at all with many curves some which are like half circle. They stretch to about 30-40 km for the hill road. Because I arrived at night, I was practically driving in darkness. Luckily I have the GPS which is VERY VERY useful and remember to get the address of the place you are going to. It helps a lot with the GPS. Almost got into accident the first night when turning on the round about. As I was used to left side driving, I turned clockwise on the round about when it should be anti clock wise and ended up on the wrong lane with the cars driving towards me.
The petrol was expensive in Korea which cost about RM6-7 per liter. Depending on the car you are driving, you have to go to a gasoline station or LPG station. LPG is cheaper compared to gas. The car I drove used gasoline. For gasoline you have to look for oil station such as SK oil and LPG you look for LPG station. I got confused with the word gas and oil at first but they mean the same thing. Lucky the burger lady taught me this. How ever the car was very fuel efficient and I only need to refill once in my 3-4 days trip. In the gas station, you only need to stop beside the tank and the staff will refill for you. Im not sure about this but I have a feeling that they always fill the tank full not like in Malaysia where we can fill according to our liking.
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| I drove for about 650 km with 32 liters. |
In total I spent about RM257 for the 3 or 4 days car rental and RM 200 for gasoline.
Seoul - In Seoul, we took the subway. We bought the T-money card which costs 2500 won for the card alone with no credit inside. Then top up about 20000 won per person for the whole trip. The card was bought in a convenience store and then reloaded at the subway ticket vending machine. The advantage of using the card is that we dont have to buy separate tickets for every journey. And I also think that there is no charge when transfer between subway lines. Im not sure how much it costs when buying separate tickets but using the T-money the journey usually costs about 1050 won except for super long journey where they charge extra 100 or 200 won. Before going back we can sell back the card to convenience store to get the balance remaining in the card minus 500 won. The 2500 won for the card is not refundable. Total spend for subway transport is about RM 135 for 2 people. Besides subway there are also long distance train where the charge is different. We did not know about this and board the train on the way to Everland and got charged 11000 won for 2 people. Will elaborate more in the Everland trip experience.
Some observations
1. The Korean uncles seem to like to teach you how to take pictures. Many times when we take pictures using tripod, the Korean uncles will look into our camera and tell how we should do this and that. Although is a friendly gesture, sometimes it is very irritating. There even one young uncle when we visited Jusangjeolli cliff who insisted that he help use take the pictures instead of using tripod. Clearly, he cannot speak english and we cannot speak Korean but still insist in getting the message across and keep trying to explain to us in Korean. Most of the pictures he took were not captured in the camera because he did not fully press the camera shutter and only able to take 2 pictures for us. Funniest part is that at the end he asked us to take a picture of him with the camera. He tried explaining something in Korean but we did not understand. I think he wanted us to show our friends that the pictures were taken by him as he keep saying "Korean gentleman".
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Korean gentleman that help me take picture.
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2. Back to the toilet topic where there is a shit smell in the toilet in Manjanggul cave. It seems like the shit smell is not only in the Manjanggul cave toilet but random places in Korea. When driving along some parts in Jeju island I could smell the shit smell. At first I thought it is only in Jeju but when I landed in Seoul, I also smelled the same shit smell in some places of Seoul. I guess its a special Korea smell.
3. Koreans do not have subway courtesy. I was trying to get out from the subway with a shitload of Koreans inside. They never give way for someone going out and just stand there like a rock cemented to the floor. When I finally reached the doorway, the people coming in started pushing me back into the subway!!WTF?!
