Thursday,
25 December 2014
We
were given a morning call at 6 am and were at the lobby before 7. We drove to a
restaurant for a simple Korean breakfast (porridge for me) before continuing on
to a small shop selling orange produce (sweets and bottled vitamin capsules in
orange flavour). Jeju has a very fertile land and a balmy weather and the
islanders take advantage of this by planting a lot of citrus fruits. Then we
continued on to Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak (Sunrise Peak). After Mr Piao had paid
for admission, we walked up, wait, struggled up the trail but the strong sea
wind made it very challenging. The peak was once an island before it was
connected to Jeju-do from the washed sand and gravel.
We
didn’t go all the way to the top and turned back half-way. We followed the
trail and went down to where the women sea divers were (I’m not sure if there’s
any diving in winter! Surely not!) and spent about fifteen minutes before
climbing up again and admiring the view from another area. Then we returned to
the bus.
We
drove on to Seongeup Folk Village for a close-up of the traditional Jeju life
back then. Among the few that I recall is that Jeju is abundant with three
things: rocks, wind and women. Back then, womenfolk did all the work while the
menfolk did absolutely nothing. Outrageous huh. We also looked at the
traditional gate (three bars and each bar can be removed to indicate if there
was anyone at home, who were at home etc), traditional dwelling, the millstones
pulled by horses... We were then given a brief info on the local produce: horse
bone grains and honey. I didn’t care to be ripped off so left empty-handed.
We
then had lunch at a restaurant and the four of us were given two plates of vegetarian
rice and two bowls of seafood ramen. The rest had meat I suppose.
After
lunch, we drove off to Seopjikoji, the filming location for the mini series All
In (I believe I missed this drama). Anyway, the church in the drama had been
destroyed by a typhoon and in its place is now a newly constructed colourful
gingerbread house (admission applicable). We walked to the gingerbread house
but didn’t enter. Then we turned back and hurried back to the bus. It was a
blustery afternoon alright.
After
that we drove to Jeju Glass Castle, a large art glass park with glass arts
produced by professional glass artists/sculptors from the Czech Republic and
Italy. We were first greeted with a large beanstalk of the Jack and the
Beanstalk tale before walking along the outdoor glass corridor. We also entered
the Magic Mirror Room where you can see images of yourself from the various
mirrors. Then we continued our tour of the outdoor park with its glass
Cinderella pumpkin coach, giant teddy bear, flower beds, bridge... it’s amazing
how ingenious they are at attracting tourists. On my previous trip with Mummy,
we visited more natural outdoor attractions.
We
left after about 40 minutes and drove to The Teddy Bear Museum, passing
Dokkaebi Road (mysterious road) en route. Vehicles passing this road can
seemingly roll uphill when the engines are switched off when in reality this
phenomenon is due to an optical illusion. We reached The Teddy Bear Museum
barely half an hour later and as its name suggests, is home to hundreds of
teddy bears and friends. There’s a safari area with tigers and rhinos, an
overhead aquarium with floating teddy bears and friends (even a mer-teddy!),
framed teddies, teddy bears in portraits... At the end of it, we emerged into
the gift shop and yup, you guess it, the prices are eye-watering. Anyway, Mr
Piao had already told us that seeing it was Christmas Day, we would be getting
a complimentary gift from the museum. We left after almost an hour there.
The
Jeju Ice Gallery, an indoor ice sculpture gallery with various ice sculptures,
was our next stop. The most popular attraction there is the Ice Slide – even I
took two turns there! After the tour, we also tried our hands at ice sculpting.
The instructor showed us how to make a drinking glass with stem. He must have
taken all of three minutes to knock the ice off the edges and smoothing the
surface and moulding the ice to the shape. Ha, it always looked so much easier
than doing it! After that, we washed our finished products and drank some
orange juice from our self-made products. We left after an hour there.
The
packed day continued with a stop at the Trick Art Museum with its optical
illusion art. It reminds me of Penang 3D Trick Art Museum. We spent half an
hour there before proceeding up to the 5D theatre at the next level for the
Poseidon show. Well, it was Korean so I couldn’t understand head or tail of it.
We
finished off the day with dinner before we returned to the hotel. Some in our
group ventured out later with Yen to do some window shopping. The kids went; I
stayed in.
To
be continued
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