Jun 8, 2012

Korea - Jeju, Day 1 - 8 June 12

A post that must enter no matter how lazy i am ...haha...1st: it was one of my longest/furthest flight journey and 2nd: it was partial sponsored trip :) Thanks to Linda gugu and Eileen mama once again for the sponsorship to the trip for hubby and Dan.

It was an impromptu decision, Linda gugu, Eileen mama wholeheartedly wanted us to join in the trip, grateful and blissful to have them that we thankful for the great memory we had now and able to proudly declared -- we had been to -- KOREA-- :) It was a 8D6N Touch of Korea+Jeju Trip, it cost about S$1.6k an average per pax under Asia Global Vacation (one of the subsidiary by Chan Brothers Travel).

We flew with Asiana Airlines and it was a night flight, Departed at 10.40pm. Delightedly met up at T2 and it was one the biggest tour group that I had so far with family members boarded the boeing together..

Group Photo taken before departure, one of the dejecting feeling was we did not have Uncle Cheong comes with us this time round due to his work commitment  :( 

After approximately 6 hours 20 minutes journey, we arrived Incheon at 6:13am.We fought hard time during the flight, we did not catch any sleep throughout the journey except Dan, that's the biggest relieved to me, at least he managed to sleep for 4-5 hours before we touched down. Tooth brush, tooth paste provided in the cabin, we brushed & dolled up a little upon arrival but still the swollen faces and lethagy looks of us shown clearly in the pic below....hahah..
Out from custom, toilet-break, while waiting to be led to the coach by our beautiful tour-guide (with her age, she kept her utmost polish complexion) btw, the journey started without breakfast included. Therefore we bought some quick snack at 7-11 (we even had a great shopping spree at 7-11, everythings looks so interesting and captivating) after the 1st destination: Cheonggyecheon Stream at downtown Seoul ()


Here's our 1st destination : Cheonggyecheon Stream 淸溪川 , 5.8km long, public recreation area in downtown Seoul and has become 1 of the main attraction for locals and tourists. The night scene is even more captivating with the lights effect and etc (i watched it from TV :)







We had our snacks and drinks purchased and settled our simple breakfast in the bus for the day. Next, we visited to majestic Gyeongbok Palace, 景福宮, it is a royal palace built in 1934, during Joseon Dynasty and Presidential Blue House, the traditional Korean architecture president's residence. It was an eye openner, of course apart from tv, we saw this real unique architecture live in front of our eyes.








 The following show the main throne hall of Gyeongbok Palace.
After the 2 destinations, we were finally led for our lunch, I heard a lot about Samgyetang - Ginseng Chicken and never in my mind that it will be the first meal of our entire trip.
haha...all the not so fresh appearance...we hope something real nice can be served right in front of us to cheer us up abit..
Finally, the long awaited Ginseng Chicken + noodle and rice, what's a unusual dish that go together with 2 main carbo elements with the chicken..Dan was starving too then he actually ate the plain noodle before the chicken was served, it was very nice of the tour guide assistant to request a fry egg from the kitchen to Danzel in case the food was not his cup of tea but not too bad , at least he managed to chew some chicken meat. The soup had added some insamju (ginseng wine). Personally I felt i was not quite use to it taste, it tastes different from the one that we have in Singapore but still it worth a try!

After lunch, time for us to board another plane at Gimpo for dosmetic flight to Jeju island at 2.05pm, the flight took about 1 hour 05 minutes,  due to the lack of zz in the earlier flight, i was drowsy at the point of time, i can dozz-off any moment and look into the picture below, i was barely open my eyes wide...
Yea - Reaching Jeju International Airport @ 3.10pm
The moment we stepped out from the airport, the weather was so impeccable to us..Although we were sleepy but the nice cooling weather calm us down because we felt even more sleepy hahaha.... The next destination is Teseum (Teddy Bear Safari)-It is one of the first museums in the world to exhibit all sorts of teddy bears and stitched dolls including ones shaped like wildlife animals, marine animals, flowers, birds, and more. The museum is spread over two large floors and features teddy bears arranged in adorable poses.














look at  all the big snuggly & cuddlesome giant teddy bears, how's great we can just take a nap before proceed to the next destination... :)
After Teseum, we were transferred to Yongduam Rock or "Dragon Head Rock" Situated to the north of Jeju City, Yongduam was created by strong winds and waves over thousands of years that it actually created a shape dragon head rock like we saw below...




After some up the hill and down the rock of back to back itineraries, it was finally dinner...yeah.... the sky still bright and shine which was a good news for us, at least we can settle our dinner earlier and check into our hotel earlier and sleepp earlier too!!! yeah!! :)
Here's our spread of dinner, we enjoyed the dinner very much!! Every little dish suprised us with it uniqueness...The star dish of the night at Jeju Black Pig.The Jeju Black Pig is said to have a unique taste quite distinct from other breeds of pig and forms the basis of some well-known local dishes.
After dinner, we were finally back to Hotel. Our first hotel was - Jeju Tameus Golf & Village Resort. too tired for room introduction therefore no picture was taken...perhaps next day after a fresh wake up :)