LouisaChen: Day 6 in Korea (I): Jeju - Hallim Park, Suweolbong, Spirited Garden and Mt. Sanbang

After 5 wonderful days in Seoul, Day 6 was time for us to go over to the much raved-about Jeju Island. Above's a shot of Gimpo International Airport, I must say it was really clean and organised. Gates were generally easy to find, and the signs were foolproof.

Got to Gimpo Airport bright and early at about 6am for our 7am flight, so we popped by Lotteria to grab breakfast. We tried the Lotz Burger, which is basically an equivalent of McDonalds' quarter pounder burger. Not sure if I'm biased, but every thing in Korea seemed to taste better - simply because we were IN Korea and really liked Korea so far? ;)

Our bloated faces from sleeping too late and waking up way too early.

Domestic flight out operated by Air Busan.

Decked out in long-sleeved shirts, jeans and parkas because mornings in Korea are just way too chilly for our used-to-365-days-of-summer bodies.

Okay, three-door-buses are just too captivating to look at. We do not have such long buses in one piece in Singapore! (Well, we have long buses which are made up of 2 connected pieces.)

Realised I didn't get a picture of the stewardesses! Korean girls just put on way more effort in general to look good - and they really do look good and very put together. Even though every stewardess looked almost the same (I'm really not assuming that they all had the same kind of surgery done, rather, that they all generally subscribed to the same kind of beauty standard - fair skin, clean make-up characterised by very fair skin, clean straight brows, thin eyeliner and pink lips - which really worked out for them). I had a very distinct memory that all of them had immaculate make-up and the neatest coiffed hair-dos that didn't look overdone. #sochio

And we're here in Jeju Island. Here's a picture of me while we awaited for our tour guide to pick us up.

Hallim Park

There's our trusty and talented tour guide, who can speak 5 languages fluently. One minute he's rambling in his native Jeju Korean, the next he's bargaining with a Japanese customer on the phone, and another minute he's talking to an old lady from Hong Kong in our tour group in Cantonese... He also speaks English and Mandarin Chinese. So well, we're damn impressed.

Hallim Park is a beautiful park divided into 9 different themes on 80 acres of land. In Singapore, we are more used to the measure of square-metre. So let me break it down for you: 1 acre is equivalent to 4046.86 square metres. 80 acres is basically 323,749 square metres. The average size of a 5-room HDB flat (a kind of Singapore public housing) is around 113 square metres...

Basically, what I'm saying is... this park is huge!

Hyeopjae & Ssangyong Caves 쌍용굴

For the inner geographer in you, you'll be captivated by these natural formations by the eruption of Mt. Halla. It is said to be the longest cave in the world, spanning over 17,000 metres!

If you're interested in geography, you'll be pretty captivated by what you get to see in here. Everything you see is just like your geography textbook come alive.

"No garden is without weeds."

Temperature in the caves are about 17-18 degrees Celsius throughout the year and it can get pretty chilly. The caves also have extremely drippy 'ceilings' (it's almost like a very light drizzle of rain) so if you're not comfortable having dripping lime on you - please bring a hoodie. For us, we did try to read all the boards and take as many pictures and try to get out as soon as possible. Haha I was particularly concerned about protecting my camera...

This was particularly amusing for me - Write "Do not enter" in the native language... So tourists won't understand it and go in anyway...

Jae-Am Folk Village

The Stone Grandfather ('Dol hareubang' in Korean 돌 하르방) in modern times have become a symbol of Jeju Island. Our tour guide said that they were fashioned from the base idea of a penis, but I'm not sure about that since I don't find much comment online whether it really originated from the idea of a penis.

No argument on how phallic it looks though. Haha.

These dol hareubangs are seen as gods which offer protection from demons and also represent fertility. It is said that if a lady wants a child, she just has to touch the nose of these statues!

Now watch me as I quickly step away... Lol.

Little nuggets of wisdom along the pathways.

The Bird Garden

The above's one of my favourite pictures...

You can get up close and personal with many different types of birds. I forgot what breed these birds are, but a few of my friends keep them as pets... Look at how many there are right here!

So pretty and vibrant-coloured!

So le ordinary white bird appears...

Not so ordinary after all.

Here's a picture that I waited so patiently for after some retarded cooing... Getting the white peacock to spread its feathers was quite a hilarious experience since it was just me and him in that section of the bird garden at that point of time... and we clearly don't speak bird.

Oh these were aggressive and squawky. I didn't even want to go near their enclosure to snap a picture with them because.... well, look at that neck - it's OVER the fence. Hahaha.

The Water Garden

Mandatory couple shot at tourist spot, checked!

Chagwido Nature Reserve
I'll leave the photos to do the talking. This place is exceptional: Incredibly fresh air, pretty blue skies and greenery...

Here's Palm Tree Avenue - it almost looks like I'm in America!

Quiet roads and the bluest skies!

Lunch at the Spirited Garden

Had traditional Korean and Jeju fare, featuring the celebrated Jeju Black Pork. I'm a big fan of pork and beef and rice, so yes, I enjoyed this meal after all that tiring park exploration!

Spirited Garden 생각하는정원

A great place to take a slow walk and relax. The sun got especially hot here, but unlike Singapore, you don't start perspiring unglamorously. It was slightly windy and the environment really inspires you to break out in song and start jumping from lamp posts like in "Singing in the Rain".

I'm not even kidding.

These palm trees dot the edge of the garden - they were planted in 1971 and have grown tall and sturdy over the last few decades!

This whole garden features countless types of bonsai. These plants take years to be shaped and nurtured to a conditioned shape and design. I have the utmost respect for people who take part in this craft, for it really takes patience (numbering in years) and daily care.

Bonsai lovers, you really have to come here to experience it for yourself.

I have a huge collection of bonsai photos just from this garden alone, but I just featured a few shots in this post.

Get some bread from the store to feed the kois. I assure you that they'll thank you for it!

We actually saw a big-ass koi leap out of the water (I'll say it was at least 8cm above the water surface) and dive back in. Of which I have a very deep memory of us squealing - because no one wants to die from a koi bite.

Haha I'm joking about the latter sentence. We did squeal though. Jumping kois just invoke a strong sense of "NOPE" which makes you want to get away from the pond as soon as possible. Haha.

Drive time to our next attraction.

Mt. Sanbang / Sanbangsan 산방산

Two words: Picturesque landscape.

The mountains and the sights were breathtaking here. Sanbangsan translates to Mountain Room Mountain - and 'mountain room' refers to the famous cave that the mountain houses.

The famous temple atop Mt. Sanbang located in the cave. A quiet and peaceful area; this shrine is also the only cave-shrine in Jeju. Previously this cave was called Sanbang Cave, but accordingly is now recognised as a temple as it has a Buddhist statue.

A fascinating fact we heard is that fresh water also continuously falls at the top of the mountain. The water collects in pools at the top of the stairs, and visitors can drink it and make prayers for blessing. It is said that if you drink three sips of it, you can enjoy good health and a long life. Buddhist worshippers heading there, don't say I didn't give you a heads-up! ;)

The sun was scorching and pretty humid here, we were pretty much sweating in our parkas because of the trek up (I think 400 steps up the mountain. This is seriously no joke. Old ajummas and ahjussis were totally leaving us in the dust).

I even made myself do a vlog to completely sum up how incredibly tired (and pissed) I was about three-quarters up the mountain (The American older man in the video is 67 years old. We started up the mountain together, and he totally beat me up the peak).

I mean, listen to my panting.

I'd have to say that I was all psyched to conquer this tourist attraction (mostly for the awesome photography I admit)... But you know when you're 75% up the mountain, all of that begins to change. Haha the boy had to listen to my meaningless ranting while I started questioning the meaning of life and why was I paying money to climb up a mountain to see more grass and trees yet again. LOL.

Well, on to more delightful photos...