Saturday, April 20, 2013

Jeju Island, Korea

One of our main mission visiting Jeju Island was to hike Mount Hallasan, well apart from visiting the obligatory tourist destinations in Jeju Island itself. Afterall, it is known as the "Hawaii" of Korea. We stayed in Yeha Guesthouse, a clean and nicely decorated backpackers. 

Guests were given one complimentary beer each night!
We chilled at the common room, enjoyed how homely backpackers can be. No hotels can ever give you that awesome experience of staying in a backpackers. 

The walls stairs were lined with happy pictures of tourists from around the world. 

The next morning, we hired a cab driver to bring us around Jeju Island. Manjanggul cave was our first tourist destination, known as the longest lava tube in the world. We thread through the icy cold cave, avoiding puddles of water and uneven rock formations.

This was what we were rewarded at the end of the cave, a unique formation nicely lit. Given that neither of us were really interested in structures and formation, we were not very impressed, and were eager to turn our backs and head back to the cab. 

Our cab driver also became our photographer of the day! He was nice enough to stop at a few scenic locations along our journey to take a few pictures for us. There were two cute little kiddie chair placed there, so we took a few shots, and I personally like the one above a whole lot. 

Made a short climb up Seongsan Ilchubong Peak, supposedly a famous place to observe the rising of the sun. The view of the top was quite magnificent, you could get a bird's eye view of most part of Jeju Island. Very scenic. 

 (: 

Lunch! at some restaurant where the cab driver brought us to. We had seafood pancake, abalone porridge and some seafood soup alongside the condiments. The meal was truly worthy. We loved how fresh the seafood were, and how the soup warmed our cold bodies up.

That's Seongsan Ilchubong behind us! 

Seopjikoji, filming location of many a Korean drama. Would have looked more picturesque in spring, when the grass is green and flowers bloom. 

 Steep narrow stairs down the lighthouse.

Oh we also visited Jeongbang waterfall, the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean before calling it a day.

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