VANNYSKY: Dates with Love in Korea- Day 2

21 May 2014-

Our lovely trip in Jeju just started on day 2.

Woke up to prepare ourselves before we went out looking for breakfast :p.

Since we only had 30 minutes before Mr Won's arrival, we settled on Paris Baguette. Lovely designer bread and a nice cup of iced mocha.

Mr Won arrived earlier than 10am at our hotel. His taxi has this furry seat cover which is quite comfortable in the cool temperature of the vehicle. The taxi is also the bigger kind.

Anyway, people usually hire a private taxi in Jeju because it is more convenient and time efficient that way. You can create your own itinerary and they will try to fit in the places (Credit goes to my bf whom divided the places of interest into regions for better travel). Mr Won seems to be the number 1 sought for driver according to information on forums. He charges 130 000 won for 8 hours. We were pretty lucky to have him as initially he assigned us with another person. He can speak good English, fairly good Mandarin, perfect Japanese (he say one lol) and of course, awesome Korean. We were engaged in conversations throughout the journey before arriving at our first destination. He asked about our relationship (谈恋爱的关系吗？), what we were doing, things in Singapore and etc. But the main conversation starter was still on us. He commented that I was a natural beauty and my bf must be so happy! (Since Korea is so famous for their plastic surgery industry) He also said my bf looks strong lol! And he was quite amazed when we said we have been together for 5 years plus. His advice: Can get married after two years (of starting work) already la. Haha. The best happiness is to be with each other :) True.

Our first destination: Manjanggul Cave [2000 Won]

Mr Won also offered to be the photographer.

Our second destination was nearby: Kimyeong Maze Park

I think Running Man went there before. Not sure which maze they went lol.

The maze is quite confusing from the inside. Bf let me lead and I solved it myself with the map! Whee. Although I kept saying "Ah dear, where are we ar? Why like so weird one? Am I going the wrong way?" (he did'nt answer me), I eventually solved it without his help haha. And there I am with the bell after walking out of the maze. If you turn back, you will be the failure. So the moral of the story is: "Never give up. Keep trying till you get there. The answer is in your hands."

The third destination: Seongsan Ilchulbong aka Sunrise Peak [2000 Won]

We entered to climb many flights of stairs up to the top. It was windy so I wrapped my mao mao over my butt to prevent my dress from flying up. As it was about 1 plus in the afternoon, the sun was shining down us. Although the heat was not as scorching as in Singapore, we nevertheless got sunburnt the next day. Took about 15 minutes to climb up to the top to enjoy the scenery. Lovely. Then, we had to walk back down. Tiring sia.

Lunch time now!

Apparently, the food places that Mr Won wanted to recommend us were closed that day so we settled on simple ramyeon and kimbap. The standard kimbap taste less delicious as compared to sushi. Not a fan of kimbap. Ya right, wait and see haha. And the ramyeon is obviously daebak!

Our forth destination: Ilchul Land

Mr Won asked us how we know about Ilchul Land. I guess maybe very few visitors go there. Answer? RUNNING MAN! This Ilchul Land so clever, now use Running Man as 活招牌.

Spot the rainbow!

Ilchul Land is like just a park for you to take pictures. It has a guiding blue line for you to follow to explore the entire park in sequence. Micheon Cave is located here (fyi: the cave that Kwang Soo summoned his handsome angmoh genie). The cave is similar to Manjang Cave but got more "raindrops falling on my head". The wearing of helmets was useful to shield us from the water droplets! Was a little rushed in Ilchul Land due to constraints of time.

Last destination: Jeju Folk Village [free!]

I won't recommend this place unless you are a very cultural person. It was interesting to know about the place though. The man helping my bf with the bag thingy is the tour guide for our tour in the village. He can speak Mandarin so communication with him was easy. Plus he and bf are like 同乡so no barriers HAHA. He told us that the stone Jeju icon we see everywhere is the guardian angel of Jeju. By touching his stomach, we will have wealth. By touching his nose, we will have sons and by touching the ears, we will have daughters. So of course, both of us don't want to have children yet so we naturally touched the stomach. And he replied "怎么你们只喜欢钱啊？孩子也很重要的哦。" Maybe next time I will go back to Korea to touch the ears and nose. Please bless me with both a daughter and a son. This way, I can "decorate" my daughter with all the girly stuff while bf can pass on his gaming skills to our son. Haha. My son will also need to take up the responsibility of accompanying his father to thrilling roller coaster rides since the mother don't dare to take the rides.

After our tour guide told us the story of the village, he treated us to some 五味子drink and also you know, market some of their local products. In the end, I bought a bottle of horse oil at 50 000 won from him. The horse oil is not like the oil we use to cook. It is actually packaged as a cosmetic product cream used for burns, cuts, wrinkles, dry skin and etc. Both of us can't bear to not buy anything because he really put in a lot of effort in explaining to us. After that, he offered to take photo for us too. Since he was an outsider there, we kept taking photos like a wood with the standard pose until he "scolded" us for having the same pose every time. HAHA that explains the heart shape pose above. Before we left the village, he also told us to treasure our relationship, must be happy and 不要吵架 :) .

Mr Won drove us back to hotel after that. And although we overshot the time and reached the hotel later, he did'nt charge us extra. He could'nt come the next day and Mr Kang would be the replacement. He assured us that Mr Kang is a kind man and we can complain to him if Mr Kang's service is unsatisfactory lol.

Dinner on our own. We walked around and had some street food style food at a cafe. Mixed ddeokbokki (spicy & beef) and fishcake in soup! The staff were nice and they saranghae Singapore haha.