Backdate: Korea Jeju Jun 2019 Day 2

18/6/19 Tues: We arrived at섭지코지 (Seopjikoji) at about 9am after a 10 minutes' or so drive from our Airbnb. It was raining slightly, and there weren't many people around, unlike the last time I came here with my university friends. *Parking is 1000 KRW.*

Didn't know that Seopjikoji is a "mountain" to begin with. The name is in Jeju dialect, which translates to a narrow piece of land and a promontory. As you can see, there are volcanic black rocks and pebbles all around this area. *Saw two horses strapped to a lorry and moving very slowly in the fields...* The church I saw last time was under renovation now, and no one was selling ice-cream nearby, so nope I did not get to try peanut-flavoured ice-cream. From afar, one could see Seondolbawi that looked like a candlestick sticking out of the ocean. According to local folklore, it was created when the son of the god of the sea turned to stone when his love for a fairy was not returned. That's a sad story.

We climbed up to the Bangdupo lighthouse to have a bird's eye view of the surrounding. It was rather quiet, pretty much only filled with the sound of seawaves crashing the shore...

We considered having breakfast at the pretty Mint Restaurant here, but it was not opened yet at 10am, and the price was similar to that of a Michelin-restaurant, so we gave up haha. We walked back slowly to our car, passing fields of flowers on the way, and also saw a white horse on its own... who knows if he was the same horse I saw years ago here? Haha~ 

We drove westwards towards천지연폭포 (Cheonjiyeon Falls) and got there in less than an hour. Had brunch at a Korean restaurant nearby the carpark (free parking) first. *A travel documentary on Singapore was showing on TV at the time too.*

We shared squid pancake (10K KRW) and Potato had the sea urchin bibimbap (13K KRW)... can't remember how good or bad it was, but a hungry person is always a happy person after eating haha! 
Bought the entrance tickets from a machine (2000 KRW per person) and we were ready to go see Cheonjiyeon Falls in the drizzle~

My phone camera did it no justice, but the gradient of random water we saw while walking past were pretty hues of green and blue. The 22m-high Cheonjiyeon Falls (basin is 20m deep wow~)  is“天地渊”in Chinese, supposedly a pond where heaven and earth meets. According to legend, there lives a dragon in the basin, and in times of famine, the locals would pray for rain and their prayers were always answered.
It is a natural habitat for giant mottled eels, Elaeocarpus and temperate zone plants. The source of it is Sombancheon River, and on the other side of the falls was where soldiers practiced archery. 

We walked past the Bridge of Prayer and 3 Fortune Statues. One could be blessed by praying to the turtle (longevity), the carp (success) and the mandarin duck (marital happiness) but the duck statue was missing. You can throw coins too, and that would go to some welfare organisation nearby. We tried our luck and threw our coins... mine不偏不倚落在了海龟头上lol~ 

What a beautiful backdrop right! Anyway, Potato was somewhat tired, so he slept in the car for half an hour before we went to천제연 폭포 (Cheonjeyeon Falls), a three-tiered waterfall area. The entrance ticket was 2500 KRW per person. 

I did not walk over to get closer to the first waterfall as I was wearing sandals. It was very pretty. For the second waterfall, we had to climb up further.

Cheonjeyeon means "Pond of the Emperor of Heaven", and in Korean legend, seven fairies would descend from the heaven at night to bathe in the pond. We walked onto Seonimgyo bridge, the slopes were quite steep, and I had to be exceptionally careful as it was a rainy day. *Look down no joke ah~*

We came to the Fountain of 5 Blessings and threw coins, but I don't remember any of ours went in. Climbed up some flight of stairs to a sheltered area, and then ate melon ice-cream for 3000 KRW! It's thicker and creamier than normal ice-cream, and I've never seen Potato enjoyed ice-cream as much due to his sensitive teeth haha. 

The third waterfall was nothing impressive though it was the furthest in. 

The third natural attraction we visited on the day was주상절리대(Jusangjeolli Cliff), which was also where we spent the shortest time at. *Entry costed 2000 KRW each and parking was 500 KRW.* Yes, one cannot help but be amazed by the pillar rock formation (columnar-joint lava) which was created when lava from Hallasan erupted into the sea of Jungmun, it was indeed spectacular to see, but  there were too many people at the deck, and also, some rude Singaporean tourists hoarded the scenic viewpoints and told people to "go away" so they can get photos. *Whatever, I could still get decent photos of the wonders of nature from eslewhere...*

We were hungry for dinner and it was time to visit서귀포매일 올레시장 (Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market), a traditional market set up since the early 1960s!

We drove right into the entrance, and there's an opening on the left that drivers used to go up to their MSCP. The place opens from 7am to 9pm, and there were fresh sashimi, eateries, dried food, fruits etc selling all around.

This kimchi crab croquette was 2500 KRW and it was not bad! Jeju was known for tangerines so we tried one too, but too bad we can't really keep them long enough to bring back to Singapore.

As I mentioned earlier, there were more and more staff that can speak mandarin in Jeju, this stall that we bought fish cake and teokpokki (3000 KRW) from was one example. I didn't know at first and tried to ask them in Korean, but was surprised when they replied me in mandarin lol. It was sweet and spicy at the same time, which got hotter as we ate more oops. 
Saw a shop selling Jeju beer in a can, but we found 6000 KRW a can too expensive, and hence skipped it. 

Bought one bottle of hallabong juice (3500 KRW) nearby to try instead, and it proved that I made the "right choice" hehe! It was sweet, sour and slightly bitter towards the end, but it was so good I bought another bottle before we left the place. *Thank god, it kind of gave me some sweet adrenaline rush at least on the next day we climbed Hallasan~ on to my next post!* 

We walked out into the open stretch downhill, and it was "memory lane" for me as the girls and I did came here when we visited Jeju. I could recognise one or two streets and a few shops. "Good exercise" strolling down and up back to the market for some black pork in sticks (5000 KRW)~ I told the person to put sweet and spicy sauce but the latter was very hot. Despite that, we still enjoyed the succulent meat! 

Also bought Hallabong Makgoli (3500 KRW) back. *Cheers to it in our room at night!* We parked for 2hours and 26 minutes, so it costed us 2250 KRW. Oh and while driving in Jeju, as the average speed limit was 60km/hour, our "irritating GPS" would always signal when we're above the limit or near a speed cam... and there's like 1001 of them spread throughout Jeju.

I guess small bites for dinner ain't enough for Potato, so after parking our car nearby our neighbourhood, we decided on a small Korean eatery with a cosy interior for another round at 9pm.

Simple menu, but the lady boss doesn't speak English, but luckily there was another Korean customer who was there and she lived in Malaysia for a while previously, so she helped us ordered squid bibimbap (6000 KRW). I tried a bit and well to sum it up, bibimbap rarely goes wrong in Korea!