It's our final day at Jeju island and it is also a free and easy one. After two days of guided tour around the east and west of the island, we decided to explore the area around our hostel in Jeju-shi or old Jeju city. According to the girls who managed the hostel, there are more shops in Sinjeju or new Jeju city and we have to catch a bus or taxi to get there. Not possible to walk though due to traffic.
Jeju-do Day 4 Itinerary (15/10/2014) - Free & Easy
1. Jungang underground store
2. Dongmun Market
3. Hwaro Hyang, Black Pork Alley
4. Yongduam Rock
It was a gorgeous day to begin with after gloomy starts for the past two days. It was not that cold, but it was as though I am in Cameron Highlands. It was indeed like summer in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK according to my senior who was in the island just two weeks before I did. So, if you are travelling around the same time as me (early to mid October), please don't pack a lot of thick clothes. Long sleeves with heat technology is good enough. Even so, I for one is afraid of the heat and hot temperature, cotton long sleeves T-shirts served me well already.
Weather around 10.30am, good day for walk.
It wasn't that far from our hostel. So, I would say around 15 minutes tops by walking?
A shopping paradise for ladies! Seriously, because the men in our group got bored. Haha..
Loads of beauty and skincare shops adjacent to one another, making you even more confused and tempted by their sale.
It is also pretty long for an underground shopping store. About 1km in length?
All I remembered was, this underground has almost 12 exits.
G-Dragon is the face of The Saem. Try the magic lipstick (KRW6,000).
Once the ladies have finished with their beauty shopping (didn't buy a lot because we still have Busan to shop in), we head out to Dongmun Market. I can't remember which exit we took but it is towards the end of the store. Once you take that exit, you will see Daiso! Next to Daiso, is the Dongmun Market!
The market is huge and it has many entrances/exits. Each leads to different sections of the market. The one next to Daiso, is all hallabong or tangerines.
As you walk further up and then turn left from the tangerine market, you will enter the dry food and meat/poultry section. We didn't take the right because it was seafood and noting seafood, the floor will be wet.
You will see lots of orange clothings/hats like these. It is dyed from a type of non-edible persimmon.
Finally, we get eat tteokbokki with odeng (KRW3,000)!
After a light snack and strolling in the market, we went back to our hostel for a short rest and deposit our shopping stuffs. Next stop, lunch at Black Pork Alley. Black Pork Alley is exactly opposite of Mcdonald's. So, when you find McDonald's at old Jeju city, you are on the right track.
Here, there were so many barbecue joints and we don't know which one to try. With Google, we found Hwaro Hyang being the popular recommendation.
Through our early experience having heuk dwaeji (black pork) barbecue at Seongeup, we ordered six portion of the black pork and with only 5 portions of rice (as opposed to 8). The men will have a bowl of rice each, and the remaining 3 will be divided equally amongst 5 women. That way, we wouldn't be overstuffing ourselves and have plenty of room for what is next after the barbecue.
The barbecue comes with plenty of side dishes including kimchi.
I couldn't differentiate between normal pork and black pork. All I remembered was the fatty bits of the black pork which could be more than normal pork.
The lady boss of the Hwaro Hyang who also served us. She is really nice by the way even though she tried her very best to 'speak' with us.
Other than side dishes, every barbecue meal at Hwaro Hyang comes with a small pot of steamed eggs.
And kimchi jigae (kimchi stew)! So, now you know why we had to reduce the meat and rice portions. Well, this is not just the only reason.
It was also because of this! Naengmyeon (cold noodles). Apparently, this served as a cleansing post barbecue meal so that we would not feel bloated.
Glad that there is no tax at Hwaro Hyang. You get to see how much is the bill for each opened table. So, our meal costed KRW98,000.00 for 6 persons even though there were 8 of us.
After a good meal, we went for a stroll along the 'beach'. I would them in inverted commas because there isn't technically a sandy beach but definitely there is sea. There is a divider between the sea and the pedestrian walkway. By the time we finished our late lunch, it was almost 4pm. To get an idea of where the coastal pedestrian walkway is, it is just in front of Ocean Suites hotel.
It was a nice stroll along by the sea. The pedestrian walkway is nicely decorated so that you will be kept entertained during your walk. You get to see the locals do some fishing and there is also a haenyeo (sea women diver)'s office nearby too. If you are really lucky, you get to see haenyeon in action too.
About half an hour later, we arrived at the end of the walk and we head towards Yongduam Rock.
It is a bit tricky to get to the rock location because from where we start, we had to navigate ourselves in residential area.
You will pass by this long stretch of seafood restaurants and it means you are in the wrong direction already! Well, we thought we were because we didn't finish the walk until the end to find a junction connected directly to the pedestrian bridge to Yongduam Rock.
When you see this, it means you are almost there. You have get across to the other side to get to the rock.
A little park just beside the pedestrian bridge
A water fountain for quick drink
The bridge to Yongduam Rock
Upon exiting the bridge, you will see this heart locks.
About 5-10 minutes walk (depending on which route) from the bridge, you will then arrive to Yongduam rock.
All that walk and navigating, for this Dragon head shaped rock!
And this crocodile one.
We didn't spend too long at the rock because it was crowded with tourists from China. We hang around for short while before dreading the long walk back to our hostel by passing the coastline.
It was nice to see sunset everywhere and conveniently
This is just 6.30pm!
Yet it is dark already. A photo of our hostel on our last night at Jeju island.
It also end my post for Jeju island. We are flying to Busan the next morning!
P/S: If you miss the introduction, do start with the post first
here!
