Korea Winter Itinerary 2016 / 2017 Day 5

(source: google map)

Took All-Stop Train from Seoul Station to Gimpo Airport because we will be in JEJU for the next 2 days!!

I was excited to be back in Jeju while it was Mic's first trip there. Can't wait to show him how beautiful Jeju is.

FLIGHT TO JEJU

Air Busan | Departure 11:10 | Fare 43,050 won | Duration 1 hr 10 mins
Max hand carry 10kg
Free checked in baggage 15kg

Mic and I had a hard time repacking our luggages that morning because each luggage had already exceeded 15kg when we arrived in Korea (we brought 1 med + 1 large). After repacked and transferred some stuffs to hand carry bags, both luggages were only half full but already almost 15kg each. We ended up travelling to Gimpo Airport with 2 luggages + 1 hand carry + 1 backpack.

Best part is, the staff did not even bother to weigh my luggages when I checked in 😓. If only I knew earlier...

It was still very early so we bought some drinks from 7-11 at departure hall to eat with the stuffs we bought from the mini market last night. MarketO & yogurt jelly were nice! The famous Doraemon churro was not to our likings because it tends to stick to our teeth.

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SELF DRIVE IN JEJU
This is the easiest and most convenient way to navigate around Jeju. Not only you can go to wherever you want, you can also change your plans anytime anywhere or just drop by any interesting places you see along the way (just like we did!).

In case you are not keen to drive, like my cousin who just went 2 weeks ago, you can hail a cab off the street. However she mentioned that most cab drivers are unable to converse in English/Mandarin, so it's advisable to provide the Korean address of the place you want to go and reconfirm (and reconfirm again) that they know how to get to your destination.

International Driving Permit (IDP)

Cost $20 | Validity 1 year

IDP allows foreigners with a foreign valid driving licence to drive in Korea. Solely international driving licence is not accepted. In SIN, IDP can be applied at Automobile Association of Singapore (AAS) via online or over the counter. I did mine via walk-in at AMK branch and it took less than 15mins to get all done. Fuss free & easy! Just prepare your NRIC, driving licence and 1 passport photo for them to scan it to your IDP, the photo will be returned to you on the spot.

Jeju Car Rental

Online car rental reservation can only be done once you obtained your IDP because IDP number is required upon booking. There are a few rental companies in Jeju, I booked mine from lotte rent-a-car which most people did. Online reservation is easy, no payment is required until the day you take the car.

Things to note when online booking:
1. Apply as their member for ample discount, it's free
2. Remember to select ZERO EXCESS CDW (collision damage waiver) which allowed full coverage in case of accident. If I'm not mistaken, this option is only applicable for local cars
3. Select Navigation (KOR). ENG is not selectable, don't know why. But fret not, even though the GPS language is in Korean, the navigator can be set to speak in English
4. Must bring along passport, IDP, valid driving licence and printout of car reservation email

When you arrived at Jeju Airport, confirmed your reservation at Lotte rent-a-car kiosk near Gate 2. The staff will verify your passport, driving licence, IDP and reservation, then hand you a piece of instruction paper to take the shuttle bus. It's better to double check with the bus driver if they go to Jeju Auto House. The shuttle arrives frequently and it's a short 10 mins drive from the airport.

At the airport Lotte rent-a-car kiosk
You will be given this after the staff had verified your documents

One of the bus

At Jeju Auto House
Both are Lotte rent-a-car shuttle buses

I booked Chevrolet Spark thinking our 2 luggages can fit into the boot but I was wrong. Luckily there were only 2 of us. The backseat was fully occupied by 1 luggage and 2 bags (plus our down jackets and all the stuffs we bought later on). It's small size makes it easy to manoeuvre and park though.

Things to note when you get your car:
1. Remember to check the car for any defect and informed the staff to jot it down
2. Make sure fuel is full tank. You will need to return the car in full tank too
3. Must ask the staff to show you how to set the GPS spoken language to English. It tends to reset to Korean once you restart your car.
4. Korea is left hand drive (opposite from SIN or Msia)
5. GPS locates location by phone numbers. Rest assured to follow the phone numbers stated in this itinerary as we'd tried and confirmed it's correct.

The staff will pass you a note with important info & contact numbers, do keep it until the day you returned the car.

Car rental 72,000 won
Fuel 28,000 won (we only used half tank for that 2 days round the island)
Total cost 100,000 won

We started our journey anti clockwise from Jeju City to the west, overnight at the south and then to the east and ended at the north. We skipped some of the places in my itinerary like Hallasan National Park, Manjanggul Cave and the beaches because we want to avoid rushing on our holidays.

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NEULBOM HEUK DWAE JI (늘봄 흑돼지) BLACK PORK BBQ

GPS 744 9001
Address: 2343-3 Nohyeong-dong, Jeju City
Operating Hours: 09:30 - 22:00
Carpark: Free
Travel time: 20 mins from Jeju Airport
Website: http://www.jejuneulbom.co.kr (in Korean only)

Total cost 40,000 won

Our first meal in Jeju is the famous black pork! Since this restaurant is a short drive from airport/Jeju Auto House, we decided to have our lunch here. It is a large 2 storeys building with ample parking lots. There was no queue when we reached so we were seated promptly on the upper floor.

Interior of Neulbom. They have extraction chute here

Banchan

SAMGYOPSAL Grilled side cut of pork 17,000 won
YANGNYEOM GALBI Grilled pork rib marinated with soy sauce 17,000 won

DOLSOTBAP 3,000 (min 2 orders)

Left - complimentary soup
Right - sauce for dolsotbap

We ordered dolsotbap because Mic thought that it is a bowl of steamed rice. It turned out to be a set of 2 bowls of hot stone rice (dolsot = hot stone) plus vege and a bowl of sauce. Initially we were complaining that the rice was so expensive (3,000 won) and yet we need to order minimum 2 sets. But looking at the portion, 6,000 won for 2 pax is actually quite reasonable. It was surprisingly nice too! No wonder most tables had this set. We were looking at other people because we do not know how to eat this dish 😂.

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O'SULLOC MUSEUM & INNISFREE

GPS 794 5312
Address: 15 Sinhwayeoksa-ro Andeok-myeon, Seogwipo city, Jeju-do
Operating Hours: 09:00 - 18:00 daily
Admission: Free
Carpark: Free
Travel time: 40 mins from Neulbom
Website: https://www.osulloc.com/kr/en

We did not expect to spend 2.5 hours here. There were so many things to learn, see, eat and enjoy here. Mic and I skipped the museum part and went straight to the café 😄. In my itinerary, I stated to skip O'Sulloc café and go to the Innisfree Organic Green café instead. Since the main entrance is located at O'Sulloc building, most people tend to crowd at this café whereas Innisfree Jeju House is located at another building at the back which is usually less crowded because most people already ate at O'Sulloc. But when we saw the queue at O'Sulloc, I totally forgot about my itinerary and joined in the queue. So the sayings that "people just like to join the queue" is absolutely correct, especially when it comes to food. The queue somehow signifies that the food must be super good (it's totally wrong, based on our experience on Day 11). But don't get me wrong, the food at O'Sulloc is good. Just that I prefer a less crowded place so my plan is to have our tea break at Innisfree Organic Green Café which is said to serve very good Homemade Sausage Hotdog & Jeju Hallabong Blender.

The crowd at O'Sulloc Café. Plenty of seats but all occupied.
Some people just tapao and had their food outdoor while enjoying the scenery.

Green tea O Fredo 7,000 won
Iced green tea latte 6,500 won
Green tea ice cream 6,000 won
Green tea roll cake 5,000 won

If I had known that O Fredo is topped with green tea ice cream, I would not have ordered additional green tea ice cream. Mic who does not like green tea was amazed that their green tea products were good.

Next to O'Sulloc stands Innisfree flagship store which pride themselves using all natural ingredients from Jeju Island in their products. I like the 'zen' feelings of this store and enjoyed that I could slowly browse their items here. Their natural ingredients were presented using laboratories instruments and glasswares, reminisced me of my high school days where my classmates and I spent most of our times in the lab than classroom.

This flagship store has an area for DIY soap making. The DIY kit can be purchased at 15,000 won. Am glad that Mic is interested to "play" soap making as well so we bought 1 set to share. The kit can actually be shared by 3 persons because the ingredients were packed in 3 sets per kit.

This is the first store that informed me that I can do immediate tax refund with purchase above 30,000 won and less than 200,000 won. The Innisfree staff was attentive and polite enough to explain to me about the procedure and how to check my receipt for the balance. I did not search any info on tax refund in Korea because I did not expect to buy a lot of things. Furthermore, I wasn't aware that the minimum amount to do tax refund is only 30,000 won ($37.50) which can easily exceeds with any purchase. I will make a separate post on Korea tax refund as it is a little bit complicated and confusing.

Tools provided for soap making with steps-by-steps guidance on IPAD. It's really easy to follow.

The ingredients for DIY soap

Final products! Hehe.. I told Mic, his soap (the top one) looks like cookie

We went to wash our hands after we'd done making the soaps and guess what?! Our hands feel so soft and smooth after washing. OMG! The nutrients from the dough must have absorbed into our hands while we were kneading the dough. Haha..

The plantation! I like this place. The air was so fresh and the cool weather made the whole feelings even better.
Looks like I'm the one there but actually a lot of people were walking towards the plantation.
Just that we got there first and quickly snapped a few photos before the crowd reached.

Bye Innisfree Jeju! I will definitely come back here again

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ABALONE PORRIDGE 착한전복

GPS 738 8455

Add: 119, Cheonjeyeon-ro, Seogwipo city, Jeju-do

Operating Hours: 11:00 - 22:00
Carpark: Free
Travel time: 40 mins from O'Sulloc Museum

Website: http://goodjb.kr

Today's itinerary is basically packed with food rather than sight seeing. When I was planning Jeju itinerary, I had so many must-eat places to go rather than places of attraction 😅. But due to our limited stomach's capacity, I had to cancel some and choose those restaurants that is along our driving route. Maybe for the next visit to Jeju, we will try some other restaurants instead.

Besides black pork, Jeju is also famous for it's abalone. Not only it is fresh, it is also quite affordable in Korea. Most abalones are used to cook porridge here which is called jeonbokjuk. So our next stop is 착한전복 (could not find the English name for it) which serves fresh abalones from clean sea of Wando (I only realised abalones from Wando are very famous after watching Korean drama Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo). We were still full from our tea break at O'Sulloc earlier so we ordered individual bowl of abalone porridge each. It is more worth to order their course meal which comes in a variety of their dishes. For example, course A costs 65,000 won per pax with min order of 2 pax. It consists of abalone rice porridge, raw abalone, grilled abalone, all kinds of raw fish, soy sauce abalone, raw salmon (oyster salad seasoned with vinegar), brailed short rib with abalone, salad, seaweed wrap, abalone sushi, grilled sea bream, meal (abalone seafood soup, egg rice) and glass wine.

Our simple meal already cost 45,000 won.

Abalone rice porridge 15,000 won

Seaweed Fulvescens Abalone rice porridge 16,000 won

Soy sauce abalones 14,000 won

Not the usual seaweed that we had

Example of Course A
(source: goodjb.kr website)

Mic didn't like the porridge which tasted a bit bland which I agreed. At that moment, we wished we had brought our fav light soy sauce with us.

However, the Koreans seem to prefer such taste for their porridge or maybe they are used to it because there were a lot of Koreans in the restaurant. This restaurant has many other chains around Korea. The soy sauce abalone is good though. If we were to come again, we will try their course meal but definitely not just the abalone porridge.

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SEOGWIPO MAEIL OLLE MARKET

GPS 762-2925

Add: 22, Jungjeong-ro73beon-gil, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do

Operating Hours: 07:00 - 21:00 (depending on stalls)
Carpark: roadside or carpark building
Travel time: 30 mins from abalone restaurant

It was only 8pm so we decided to drop by the famous local market at Seogwipo. The above GPS number will leads you to 1 of the entrance of maeil olle market. When the navigator said "you have arrived at your destination", you will see a paid carpark building on your left which was where we parked our car. We were worried because we do not have any parking ticket and do not know how their parking system works. So both of us walked towards the carpark exit to check out how other drivers pay their parking fee. Feeling relieved that they paid by cash upon exit, we walked towards the market and started to hunt for food again.

This is a traditional market selling a lot of traditional and agricultural products like seafood, seaweed, kimchi, tangerines and household products. It looks like a typical pasar in Malaysia.

Many stores selling hallabong

In between 2 rows of stores, benches are built in the centre which allow people to sit down to eat or rest

Never leave this place without trying their hallabong juice 3,000 won. It's refreshing!

Legend of the blue sea was showing at that time we were in Korea.
This curious Mic went and checked out the white NEPA jacket that Jun Ji-Hyun wore in the drama. It's super expensive!

NMD XR1 PK
The happiest purchase in this trip. Got this baby at Adidas store near Maeil Olle market. Not seen in Busan or Seoul

We left the market around 9.10pm when almost all stalls already closed. I would luv to come here again when all the stalls are opened.

I drove towards the carpark exit and winded down the window to ask the 2 ahjummas sitting inside the booth how much to pay.

Me: Hi, how much? (trying to speak in simple English)
Ahjumma 1: jilo
Me: har? How much??
Ahjumma 1: jilo
The 2 ahjummas laughed, looking at my blur face and both said, "no pay, no pay, jilo (zero)", waving their hands asking me to go.
Me: oh, okok. Thank you thank you (and drove off)

So... I'm not sure if this is a paid carpark or not. Was is because I parked late so they did not charged me? But we do not need to take any parking ticket upon entry, so how did they track the time I parked my car? And we certainly saw people paid upon exiting. Or was it because after certain timing there is no more parking charges? But why did these 2 ahjummas sitting inside the exits booth then? Maybe you guys can let me know after your experience.

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JEJU R HOTEL SEOGWIPO

GPS 733 5477

Address: 14. Jungjeong-ro, Seogwipo-Si, Jeju-do, South Korea

Carpark: limited or by the roadside beside the hostel

Travel time: 10 mins from Seogwipo Maeil Olle market

Cost: 32,240 won / night ($42)

I booked this hostel via Agoda website after reading a lot of positive reviews on this place. As we will be checking in late and checkout early the next day, I do not want to spend too much on the hotel and decided to try this place instead.

This place had seriously exceeded my expectations.
1. Upon booking, I stated that I will reached about 9.30pm. When I walked to the reception desk and told the receptionist lady I'm there to check in, she greeted me by my NAME. I was amazed that she wasn't even looking at any paper to confirm how to pronounce my chinese name.
2. Our room is located on the 2nd floor. The lady helped Mic carried our luggages and bags into the room via the staircase (there's no lift in this building) while I parked the car
3. The room is clean, organized and spacious enough for our luggages and loots from shoppings earlier
4. The shower/toilet is big and clean
5. It's within residential area which makes me feel safe, secure and feel at home

I seldom feel so at ease and comfortable while staying outside from home but this place is definitely different even though it is not a luxurious hotel. I did not manage to take any photos of the room because Mic already placed all our things on the floor and himself on the bed when I entered. I will definitely stay here again for its price, location and comfort.