Jeju: truly island of man-made wonders

spring in Jeju

South Korea is indeed one of the most connected country in the world. Internet is so common, that wifi is widely available in all the budget accommodation we stayed. The most wonderful surprise is that in our Busan leg, we even had a personal PC and wifi in our room, something that we do not even get in our 5 star hotel back in Malaysia (and we stayed in budget love hotel in Busan). And to begin, we start our journey with our Jeju leg.

stay:
there are only few towns which are popular:
Jeju-si: nearest to airport, more happening, more food choice, lots of budget accommodation but far from most tourist attractions
Seogwipo: down south, smaller, although favorite with lots of people, we found that there are limited choice of food here. However, logistically, basing here makes travel much easier.
Jungmun: logistic convenient, but appears to be more expensive.

Food:
black pork, which is local delicacy to Jeju, usually by BBQ
raw seafood (okdom/ sea urchin/ hairtail fish)
omaegi tteok (black glutinous rice cake): "kuih" with red bean
abalone rice porridge
any products with tangerine (gamgyul) and hallabong (with protruding stem)


transport:
for bus, there are intercity and inner-city bus. Be careful though, the bus route to and fro may be different. In worse case scenario, which happened to us a few times, we had to go back to airport (easiest to spot in any bus schedule) to change to another bus. Bus do accept Cashbee card so there are no logistics problems in travelling with bus.
The usual question people asked: why book a car, not taxi (as recommended by lots of people) or just bus? Follow my argument:
bus: the most budget way to travel in Jeju, but given the erratic schedule, and lots of attraction is not near the bus-stop, you may need to waste lots of time going from one place to another. Viable option if budget is limited, have lots of time or not planning to cover lots of attraction.
taxi: save time as the driver would know most of the place, but with online search, the range for a taxi would cost easily 120K-150K for 8 hours, and some of the driver may not be so accommodating especially in choosing place to eat. Just compare our budget above which we use the same expenditures for 2 half days of car plus petrol instead of one day of taxi. Taxi is still a good option if you have 4 persons in a group and have very limited time in Jeju.
Driving around in Jeju may need some time to adjust to, such as they drive on the right (Malaysian drive on the left), red/ green light in the traffic light usually refers to going straight and turning right while turning left/U turn have another green light (the usual traffic light have 4 lights), and they have lots, lots of traffic camera. Fear not, as the GPS is so efficient that it also serves as a warning beacon for speed camera. Just key in the phone number in the GPS, and it will do the rest of the navigating. I had even listed down the phone number for GPS in this blog.

view from Seongsan Ichilbong

Budget:
For 4 nights in Jeju, total expenditures for 2
accommodation: RM 527
Food:                  140K won
transport:            158K won (including car rent)
admission:          106K won
grand total for Jeju leg: RM1955 (with exchange of 1K won to RM 3.53)
For total expenditures of the trip, refer to Busan post.

The actual journey:
For those who manage to get hold of my detailed itinerary, you may find that our actual journey varies much from the intended steps. I made some last minute changes and cancel lots of the destination; sometimes we spent more time in places that we like so we had to make some sacrifice in the other places. Take note also that Jeju always have at least 2 of the same attraction type, so usually we just choose one.

D1: travel day
our travelling day, with AirAsia arriving in Busan, and check in with Air Busan to fly to Jeju island. We reached at night 9 pm, but still find enough time to buy Cashbee JejuPass from 7-11 at the airport. (hindnote: forget the Jejupass and just go for any Cashbee in any convenient mart, we hardly use the Jejupass discount, luckily it is not much difference from the normal Cashbee card (3000 KRW). With accurate instruction from Hostel Lyndon, we manage to jump into bus 100 to reach our hotel. Hostel Lyndon is one of the recommended place to stay in Jeju-si, near to airport and to our Muslim country-mates as they even provide halal cooking utensil. This is a youth hostel but a very comfortable one, with free breakfast and lots of other convenience. Most of their room even have attached toilet, which is the main reason why we booked our room with them. The staff can speak English well, which proves helpful in lots of situation.

Seopikoji

D2: Jeju north to east
after a good night rest, we went to Lotte car rent (used to be KT Kumho) to take our booked Kia Morning. Of course, we booked our car online before we reach, as there are a big online discount (even more if it is your birthday month). Kia morning is a small 1L compact car, but comfortable to handle with lots of Korean technology in the dashboard (very similar to my own Elantra).
Yongdam Rock (7283918) : Rock that shapes like a dragon. Nice to look at, but do not need to spend too long here.
Manjanggul Caves (7834818): caves made from lava tubes. Wonderful nature walk in the caves, expect to spend at least 1 hour here. It may be dark and wet so be prepare. We were hungry so we ate lunch here.
Gimnyeong Maze (7829266): decent size maze just outside Manjanggul. We were told fastest to complete is 10 min, but we took a decent 15 min, and our fast exit is attributed to  a smart "ajusan" whom we tailed.
Seongsan Ichilbung sunrise peak: quite a easy climb, but still expect at least 1-2 hours here. The peak is worth the climb, and there is haenyo demo down at the bottom (not guaranteed everyday, due to weather reasons) at 1pm, 3pm.
Seopikoji (7820080): seaside park, relaxing way to spend the evening, but only if there is enough time.
Seongeup Cultural Village: this is NOT a park, but rather a modern kampung with traditional houses which can be visited for free. There are lots of restaurant here, which are favourite among lots of bloggers.
We try visit the trick art museum near Seongeup but we were too late so we were forced to visit Alive Museum in Jungmun the next day.

Glass Castle

We end our day with our check in at Minjonggak Hostel in Seogwipo. We moved our base to Seogwipo for the next 2 days as it is logistically much easier to move around in the south rather than doing day trip from Jeju-si (expect to drive approximately 60km one way from the north). Minjonggak is a nice comfortable hostel with attached toilet and futon instead of beds. Although the staff may not be able to speak English well, but he is very helpful. Parking is an issue in Seogwipo but luckily, the city car park open for free from 6am -9pm.

D3: southern Jeju: seogwipo and Jungmun
Jeongbang waterfall (7331530): the only waterfall that fall directly into the sea. Not a bad way to start the morning, average compare to the other 2 famous waterfall.
Oedolgae Rock (7328027): solitary basalt rock. go if it is on the way or a small detour, otherwise, not worth the trip.
Play Kpop (7387600): heaven for kpop fan, otherwise, may be tad expensive although there are lots of chroma blue/ green screen technology for fun inside.
Alive Museum: also within the Jungmun complex, trick art museum, good for few hours of fun.
Cheonjeyeon waterfall (7381529): the waterfall is rather disappointing, but the park is impressively big, with a nicely decorated bridge connecting the parks.
O Sulloc Museum (7945312): tea farm with comfortable cafe. Read that the green teacake is nice, but it was sold out when we were there. We manage only to try the green tea ice cream which is good. However, the farm still pale compare to Boh tea farm in Cameron Highlands.
Jeju Glass Castle (772777): lots of glass display but not focus on glass making. The enchanted forest with lots of glass is nice for a walk though.

D4: way back to Jeju-si
Mysterious road: due to optical error, cars and other objects appears to roll uphill.
Jeju Loveland (7126988): instead of art, this is more of a collection of explicit sexual sculptures. More of mature adult fun than appreciating art. Not even educational.
Return car to Lotte, with complimentary bus ride to airport.
Seogwipo Olleh Market (7621949): typical market for souvenir shopping

O Sulloc tea farm

D5: travel back to Busan.

These are some places I skipped, so I would not be able to tell whether it is worth the time or visit. Note that I totally omitted western and north west Jeju in the list as I expected there would not be adequate time:
Haenyo museum/ Jeju folk village/ Udo island/ World Eros Museum/ World Cup Stadium/ Chocolate Museum/ Hello Kitty Island/ Seogwipo Five Days Market (only open on sepcific dates)/Jusangjeolli (purely not enough time, would want to visit if there is chance)/Teddy Bear Museum (been to Seoul version, doubt there are much surprise here)/ Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum/ Yeomiji Botanical Garden/ Chocolate Land/ Mount Sanbang/ Mt Halla (initially we planned for Yeongsil path but it would take at least half a day allocation)

For the rest of the trip and our Busan leg, click for the next post.

Captain America: Civil War: blend of fun action "rojak"

Yup, it had been a quiet 2 months. DIY travel to Korea (itinerary online soon) and other familial responsibilities given me infrequent chance to blog. Nonetheless, lets make a comeback the way Marvel did the recent Captain America movie: with a loud bang.

Captain America: Civil War should be named Avengers: Civil War instead, given that so many Marvel characters that were featured, and it just continued from where Avengers: Age of Ultron ended. To cut the story short, with more and more casualties resulting from the Avengers missions, it will be soon enough when the nations decide they should not operate above the law. UN had come out with the Sokovia Accord, a motion to control the Avengers, basically rendering them to a team of pawn operating under a special UN committee. Stark/ Iron Man, with his own guilt from Sokovia, tried to persuade the whole team to sign, but Captain America head the side to oppose, with the simple reasoning that Avengers needed to be independent, free from political influence in order to battle the great evil which threaten mankind. Kind of egoistic to me, though. To muddle the matter more, Bucky Barnes appeared to bomb a UN gathering (may or may not be under influence of HYDRA, with no spoiler there), and surprisingly, a lesser powered villain Zemo (Colonel Zemo here, not Baron Zemo) was manipulating events with his own agenda.


The similar formula is followed. Many characters, both from the original (minus Thor and Hulk) Avengers, to the individual movie Ant-Man, and even preview of future projects such as Spiderman (reboot) and Black Panther. All of the actors, actress (Black Widow, of course) easily ease into their character and most of them were given ample focus (as long as do not compare to Capt/ Iron Man/ Winter Soldier). The action is fast paced, and everyone took part in the fight. However, I felt at times, there were overused of hand held camera sequence; after all, I used to have motion sickness. There is a dose of humour in the form of Ant Man and Spiderman; and also some nice one liner here and there. But, this is still far from a perfect hero movie. It was fun, but not filling enough. The movie tried to deal with a deeper layer of seriousness with the argument of freedom vs accountability, but it barely scratches the issue, choosing to focus on the action instead. While I did not actually read the true Civil War story arch, I believe that the actual story is probably better. I cant help it, after Dark Knight trilogy, it set the bar for realistic superhero movie.


Still, for the fun action sequence, the chemistry of all the characters, and watching so many superheroes on screen, this definitely is worth the ticket price. Just do not expect a main dish, its more like a fun side dish rojak.

ratings: 3 half poink~!
comments: I realize why I do not like the movie. I am in camp Iron Man, and I agree that great powers should not go unchecked. Now, back to waiting for Apocalypse vs X-Men

Hungry Joe's: no longer hungry after this

It really surprised me that the town area of Ipoh is filled with new shops and restaurants. And to be frank, they look more affordable than the ones sprouting in old town area. With Ong's recommendation, me and Lyn decided to go for burger last dinner. Located in new town, we found Hungry Joe's in one of the side roads along the main road after police station. For those who are familiar, it is parallel with the tauge chicken shops, and in the same row as the old FooShan (or Purple Cane). It may need some time to locate as the red hexagon sign may be tad small to notice.

mash potato & Sloppy Joe

The shop is simple, much to my liking. The seats are arranged spaciously, and coupled with the attentive, but not too intimidating staff, dining here is really enjoyable. The menu is a simple, with limited versions of burger, croissant and sandwiches. Funny that beside the dessert which are localized, the rest of the main dishes and side dishes are typically western. Do not expect the burger list to be long, but it still offer more than burger ayam, special and cheese.

Cheesy Melt

Big Joe's cheesy melt (RM11.90 set) is simple burger with their own patty. Surprisingly, as simple as it is, every ingredient work together for a satisfying experience. The lettuce is fresh, and the cheese is simply delicious. Add in the patty, and you have a near perfect simple burger. I choose Sloppy Joe's (RM11.90 set), which appears like mince chicken in between 2 pieces of bun. Eating it (quoting Ong) like a barbarian as things could get really messy, but it was worth it. As sloppy as it get, the mince meat patty is seasoned perfectly with a balance taste of herbs and pepper. Well, this is my first sloppy Joe anyway, so I may exaggerated there. The portion may appeared small, but it does filled our tummy nicely without going hungry. The ala carte burgers would cost less than RM10, but the set comes with nachos and drink. However, with high expectation, the mash potato is a bit of letdown. It felt bland compare to the main dish. Not to say that it is not good, but after palate is tuned to the flavorful burger, the mash potato simply could not catch up. It is rather good; in fact, I loved the blandness which highlighted the creamy and mushroom taste. However, to fully appreciate it, I would savor it in the beginning before the burgers as appetizer rather than after dinner as dessert.

Finishing our last bite, we were very happy still, and no more hungry. It was a nice dinner, and I would come back again to try the rest.

ratings: 4 poink~!
comments: bias to my sloppy joe and rather affordable price~! And when compare to other burger joints around (not the burger ramli or burger bakar though), Hungry Joe shines.

Hungry Joe's
70 Jalan Mustapha Al-Bakri
Ipoh
10am-10pm

Deadpool: a good angmo CNY movie

Deadpool, despite not being the mainstream famous Marvel superhero, will have a cult following after the movie. I did come across Deadpool earlier in the X-Men comics, but the first Wolverine movie painted a totally different picture of  Deadpool and it aint pretty. Instead of being a super hero, he may be the perfect example of anti-hero (that's different from villain though).



The story centers around a mercenary, while trying to save himself from cancer, enrolled in a top secret project which attempted to jump start his mutant genes. He did achieve healing ability, but in the process, his face was scarred. The rest of the movie follows his journey of revenge to avenge his beautiful skin. Mind you, this is a action movie, NOT a super hero movie. The lines are funny, albeit being vulgar. Some of the joke will only appeals to American, but most could be understood here. The action is non stop, and Deadpool do look cool while holding guns or wielding katana. Did I mention that he is funny too? He poke fun at everything, including himself (Ryan Reynolds to be exact) and break the fourth wall to speak to the audience as well. Although Colossus was featured here (I cant seems to recall the other X Men though who partnered Colossus, he served more like a comic relief than action hero. Yup, even Colossus is not spared from being a joke in this movie.


At the end, this is a perfect orang putih version of Chinese New Year movie, so much so that the Chinese movies should follow its example. Nonsensical plot which served as an excuse for jokes (instead of shooting people dead, he could have just went to Korea for plastic), vulgar jokes which are ACTUALLY funny (most jokes in CNY movie just insult your intelligence), a movie which never take itself seriously (all CNY follow this rules) and if you wanted action, please do it right (instead of using cheap looking CGI). Yup, Deadpool is taking the CNY movie recipe and made it right.


ratings: 4 poink~!
comments: do not bring kids to watch this.