Korea Trip November 2010 – Day 0 and 1

Scott, Anne and Josiah went to South Korea from Tuesday 2 November to Sunday 7 November 2010! We booked cheap flight tickets via AirAsia and Anne planned our own itinerary and did all the bookings.

As there are many photos, this recap is broken into 4 days.

One thing we quickly found was that it wasn’t as cold as we were told. We usually wore only one sweater max, as it wasn’t unbearably cold except at night, early early morning, and where the wind blows. Seoul especially seemed quite mild – must be all the vehicles, people and urban jungle creating an urban heat island effect. What’s more, most places are heated – even many public vehicles, which have heaters, heated chairs, or windows closed with no air-con!

Lots of people were charmed by Josiah… Old, young, men, women, little girls and boys in the airplanes, trains and street would stop to stare at him, wave to him, smile at him, talk to him, pat his head as he toddled past their seats, and on three different occasions gave him a gift.

It’s a combination of his smile, cheerful and outgoing attitude, and big round eyes (most of the people there have narrower eyes). His Hakka pohpoh says he has a beautiful spirit that attracts people.

Here’s a pictorial account of our fun (and very tiring!) journey. Captions follow photos/videos:

DAY 0: Tuesday

We drove from Ipoh to KL and Chu Phing dropped us at the LCCT for our first 1pm flight.

Daddy and son taking a short break.

Break’s over! Now it’s play time.

Way to keep Josiah sitting quietly for a while – one.

Way to keep Josiah sitting quietly for a while – two. Eating Tiger biscuit. Note the serious studying look on his face.

Toddling around, he made his way to the back of the aisles and peeked into the flight crew area where he charmed them. The young Indian guy picked him up and one of the girls wiped his drool. Later he paid another visit and the Indian guy gave him a plastic wrapped sandwich (that daddy ended up eating after landing).

Welcome to South Korea! It’s now around 9pm. This is the moving walkway at Incheon International Airport, 70km from Seoul. We had to take a subway rail, multiple walkways , lifts, escalators and plain old walking within the airport complex itself just to get from the passenger arrival to the baggage claim and checkout!

These emergency biochemical hazard masks were at all the mass public transport stops. Probably more for the threat of a North Korean attack than terrorism.

Metro railway. Most reminiscent of Singapore’s MRT.

We met this Malaysian family for the first time at a metro stop. They also had just arrived in Korea. We would meet them several times more.

We headed to the Hotel Amigos (contact details: +82-2-2663-1311, price: 40,000 Won) where we spent a short night before the next leg of our journey. If you want to spend a night here, or anywhere else, be sure to ask for non-smoking if you want to avoid your clothes and hair smelling.

By the way, a quick way to estimate prices in Ringgit is to cut the three zeroes, then times 3. So 40,000 won is around RM120.

Day 1 in Korea: Wednesday

Traveled to Gimpo Airport for our flight to Jeju Island! On an aside, Dunkin Donuts seems to be everywhere in South Korea. Also a different branded coffee on every corner.

Some cultural displays at the airport. This is the carry-chair for a peasant bride.

Dragon drum.

We booked the taxi/guide services of Mr Won (contact details: maarooii@yahoo.co.kr +82-10-3697-2303, fee: W120,000 for 8 hours ) who took us around Jeju Island. Our first stop was the Mysterious Road, where the road seems to take a low dip downwards. But stopping on the slope and putting the car in neutral finds you rolling backwards, apparently uphill!

If you want to know how it actually works, click here for spoiler.

The photo above is of us at a landmark erected at the bottom of Mysterious Road. Josiah was still asleep, but woke up soon after.

Next we headed to Jusangjeollidae, a park where an entrance fee lets you into a Cliffside view.

One of the Haenyo, women divers who delve the bottom of the (very cold!) seas around Jeju to collect seafood by hand. Every one we saw was old – some around 70 plus! This lady is selling her harvest at Jusangjeollidae.

Some of the columnar basalt cliffs of Jusangjeollidae.

A spider at Jusangjeollidae.

Part of the menu at the restaurant our guide recommended to us for the famous black pork and abalone porridge. Yes, this menu item is for raw horse flesh. No, we didn’t try it.

Josiah had fun with the tables all at his level. He toddled around and took utensils out from the boxes, which eventually annoyed the lady staff there.

Cooking the raw black pork on the hot pot.

Remember we said it wasn’t as cold as we heard it would be? Well in open spaces with the wind blowing, it DOES get quite cold! Josiah was not happy to be woken from his nap and brought from the taxi to the cold, windy outside. After a while he started crying and wouldn’t be comforted.

Finally we found shelter in a heated little snack store, where he calmed down a bit. He was still fussing until we let him down and he toddled to the door (in his oversized, thick clothes) and went out to wander around. He was content to play with the sit-in Doraemon with a steering wheel, but we wanted to move on. Then he wanted to go into the water, and climb onto the miniature buildings… But in the end, we managed to get him to move along and then be carried, all the way to the house of mirrors and then back to the taxi.

Anyway, this first pic is of Gulliver’s Travels.

One Piece manga and anime characters.

Josiah seemed to try and sway this like the swing at home.

The aforementioned water Josiah wanted to just step into.

And the invasion of the city-destroying giant.

Mere string kept him out though.

By around this time Josiah we had to hurry. Daddy went ahead with Josiah while Mummy took photos.

But we did stop by the House of Mirrors, where there was this interesting maze among other things like optical illusions.

Also, the young lady manning the counter tried to make friends with Josiah and was rewarded with a ta-ta wave when we left.

Windmills for power.

The stones left over from volcanic activity are numerous, so locals use them to build walls. Those are tangerines in the background – they grow all over the island.

Here we are at Seong San peak, a volcanic crater island connected to Jeju by a bridge. It’s very high, and would take 30 minutes just to climb. Not so feasible when pressed for time and with a 12kg son to carry up.

\

Posing by a poster of the sky view.

A real life Haenyo! Anne spotted them as the taxi went past and we turned off to the small harbour for a look. They basically didn’t give a care about us, probably because they’re cold and tired from the diving.

Josiah loved the cold wind!

The catch/harvest is kept in the floating orange plastic.

The hedgerow maze at Kimnyoung/Gimnyoung. Pay close attention to the map and try to make it to the centre – the path is green, not white. We took a while because we thought the white lines were the path.

We had an advantage as Josiah’s stroller left wheel lines, so we knew where we had already gone before.

Finally we reached the end point and rang the bell, once Scott realized that white = not the path.

On to Manjanggul, a lava tube cave.

It was cool in a slightly damp way, and dark, and tired Josiah finally fell asleep while being carried here. We didn’t go deep in anyway.

Neulsong Parktel hotel (contact details: pnh9909@hanmail.net +82-64-749-3303, price: 50,000 Won). They provide a lot of stuff.

Including a UV-ray drinking glass sterilizer.

Advertisement