Korea/Jeju trip @ May 2011 - Day 1 & 2

Day 1 - 17 May 2011

Let me take you through the travelogue of my 8 days Korea & Jeju trip. The first night was spend on board Asiana Airlines as it was a late night flight (10.40pm). One meal was served on board, around midnight. We still managed to stomach it as most of us took very light dinner.

Meals on board

2 choices - Chicken and rice & Bibimbap. Oh the bibimbap was good! Give me an idea on how to prepare one at home!

Day 2 - 18 May 2011

Annyeonghaseyo!

After 6 hours of fight, we finally arrived at Incheon International Airport! Clearance of baggages were very fast and smooth. Met up with our Korean tour guide for a briefing and was given 1 hour breakfast break before we started our tour in "The Land Of Kimchi".

Breakfast at Food On Air @ Incheon

A food court located in B1 that serve simple Korean fares. Our breakfast may look a bit too heavy but that's what most Koreans love to eat for breakfast. Soup with rice. There are 3 types of free flow side dishes available. All were so fresh, appetising and nice.  We had a kimchi and a tofu seafood soup to share. This was definitely one of my favourite breakfast in the 8 days trip. This meal was on own expense not included in the package.

Ice Gallery

First stop - hands on experience on ice craving. We learnt to carve own mug and drink from it. From the picture top left was my ugly creation and the right was my cousin. The gallery selected 3 best creations and awarded them with medals. My cousin diamond shape mug got the 3rd placing!   

Indoor Ice Sculpture Gallery

There is a small indoor gallery that showcase the school's various ice sculpture projects.

Myeongdong Shopping Streets

Next we stopped by Myeongdong for a short shopping spree before heading for lunch. Myeongdong has one of the best shopping streets in Seoul. You can find lots of fashionable apparels and cosmetics shops here. Right opposite Myeongdong is the Namdaemmun market which we did not go over.

Street food in Myeongdong

Street food is everywhere in Korea. We tried the green tea and vanilla ice cream! Creamy and not too sweet! Yum!

Korea Ginseng Chicken Soup

@ Seosomun-ro 11-gil (752 9376)

Lunch was one of the famous Korea cuisine - Ginseng Chicken Soup with Ginseng Wine. The wine was served separately, to be added into the soup. The right way of savouring this nutritious soup is to start from the stuffing which is the best part of the dish. Following by the soup and the chicken. There are salt and pepper to add to taste on personal preference. Of course there's kimchi and noodle to complete the meal.

Seem like this is also one of the famous restaurant in Seoul for the locals too.

Gimpo Airport

After lunch, we made our way to Gimpo Airport for an hour flight to Jeju Island! Also known as the "Honeymoon Island" for it's romantic tropical settings. I looked forward to visiting this island as my last 2 trips to Korea, Jeju was not covered.

Teseum Safari

Upon arrival at Jeju, we proceed to Teseum, a teddy bear museum that showcase all sorts of teddy bears and stitched dolls with a safari theme. This teddy museum is different from the one that show in the Korean drama "Goong" as at Teseum we get to touch and even hug some of them.

Jeju Mysterious Road

Next was to The Mysterious Road or Ghost (Dokebi) Road in Jeju. When approaching the road, our tour guide started telling us he can see lots of Dokebi along the road... of course he was joking with us. At the starting point of Mysterious Road, the coach driver turned off the engine. Most of us agreed that the road ahead of us look uphill, so logically when the engine was off the bus should go backward instead of going up the slope. Amazingly the bus went uphill! The truth is the road is actually down slope but we were mislead by the optical illusion. The stretch of trees along both side of the road gave a false illusion that the road is uphill. This was discovered by a Korean taxi driver many years ago and it was since then marketed into a tourist spot.

Shops around Mysterious Road

We tried some road side snack, the boiled fish cake. Great snack to warm the soul on cool weather. 

Seafood Casserole with Abalone

@ Jeombosikdang (712 8778)

Jeju is an island surrounded by sea with plenty of seafood especially famous for it's abalone. Our first dinner in Jeju of course was seafood in a seaview restaurant. We were served a delicious looking hotpot filled with seafood and abalone with rice and side dishes. Ramen was given too. The Koreans really love to eat ramen and like to add it into their hotpot.

Beautiful sunset scenery outside the restaurant.

Nanta show at Jeju Media Centre

The night did not just end there after dinner... seriously was such a long day packed with activities! After dinner, our last itinerary was to Jeju Media Centre for 'Nanta' show. 'Nanta' is a non-verbal performance integrates Korea's traditional rhythms, a comedy drama in the kitchen. Rated Korea's Best No 1 performance and also designates by the Korea Tourism Organisation as one of the 'Ten Things to see in Korea'! We enjoyed the show tremendously, if they are coming back to Singapore again, I love to watch it another time.   

Phoenix Island Resort - Bella Terrace

Finally we came to the end of the day to retire for the night. By then we got to check into the hotel was already 10 plus at night. The resort was nice and impressive. The condominium style room was so spacious that can accommodate a family of 4 as there are 2 bathrooms, 1 double and twin beds with  a pantry.   

These were some of the biscuits, tibits and drinks we got it from the resort mini mart. The banana milk is a must try! A very popular flavoured fresh milk the Koreans love! I heart it too!

Good Night... Annyonghi jumushipsiyo!

Stay tune for more updates of the trip!