Footprint Records: Highlights of Korea Trip May 2015 (Part 3 of 3)

This is a continuation of the Korea trip post series.
Itinerary from Hong Thai Travel Agency [pdf]

Part 1: Nami Island, Gyeongbokgong, Deoksugung
Part 2: N Seoul Tower, Painters Performance
Part 3: Jeju

Shopping in Korea

We spent 2 days in Jeju. These are some of the interesting places we went to in Jeju:

Ecoland Theme Park
Teseum Teddy Bear Safari
Seongsan Sunrise Park
Mt. Seopjikoji

Ecoland Theme Park

It is a beautiful little place, allowing you to be a bit closer to nature. You can take the Forest Train to go around the theme park.

Taking a ride on the Forest Train

Parts of the walking trail remind me of the boardwalk at MacRitchie.

Boardwalk trail

Occasional scenic points around the park.

Beautiful scenary, mini waterfall

There are many photo spots around the park too, for you to pose and take cool photos.

Cute stamp photo frame

Seopjikoji

Located on the east coast of Jeju Island, Seopjikoji is one of the most scenic places to admire the Jeju coastal view. Instead of sandy beaches, the coast is filled with black volcanic rocks.

The iconic rocks at Seopjikoji, the lighthouse on the left

Black volcanic rocks on the coast, view from the lighthouse

Seongsan Sunrise Park

There is a trekking route to go to the summit (~182m high). According to the tour guide, it takes about 20 minutes to go up and 20 minutes to come down for a fast walk. Out of 29 people in our tour group, only 10 people ENTERED the park! The rest went to cafes, my bf included. I was so surprised that they did not even want to come in!

We're just given 50 minutes to explore this place, so I did not attempt to go to the summit, because I'll just be rushing up and rushing down, as most people go back to the tour bus early. Instead, i climbed halfway and enjoyed the scenery.

Seongsan Ilchulbong Tuff Cone

I paid 500 won to use the binoculars. And I saw haenyeo swimming in the sea! Haenyeo are women who dive into the sea to harvest seafood for a living. It is a fast disappearing occupation and they are of high cultural value in Jeju Island. I later realized there is a diving performance by the haenyeo at certain times. I missed the performance, and only got to see the end through the binoculars.


Diving Performance Notice	Haenyeo selling their catch

I went down to take a look, and saw that the haenyeo are back to the shore and selling what they have caught. Some Chinese tourists were haggling with them. These are live seafood, you eat them raw like this!

Teseum Teddy Bear Safari

The Teddy Bear Museum is loaded with very cute soft toys where you can hug and take pictures with! It's really like a mini zoo and the animals look quite real on photo! You can do funny actions with the animals too.