I Miss Korea Day 2: Pt 2 Peek Into Seoul & Jeju-do

We were actually waiting to board our flight to Jeju Island sometime later in the evening -- which was why our tour guide suggested that we go for some Seoul sightseeing to bridge the gap. Hoye!

view from the bridge connecting to Incheon Airport to Seoul

Incheon Bridge, a seriously long bridge

First stop in Seoul:
1. Cheongwadae or the Blue House (literal translation: House of the Blue-Tiled Roof)
---> perhaps equivalent to White House in its purpose, this is the executive office and official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea

Around this area there are plenty of cops around, guarding the area.

natni trying to pick out the Blue House rooftop tiles for you

Mount Bugaksan stands as the background of Blue House (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Symbolic monuments at the park opposite Blue House, the highest being the Phoenix

-McD posing in front of a nearby police station close to the park/Blue House-
(it kinda reminds me of HK police stations, for some reason. . the colour and logo, I think?)

Next: Lunch pit-stop!

Koreans take to heart the importance of having a healthy and balanced meal.

In their meals, you'd probably, more often than not, see a steamboat/soup/sauce dish, accompanied by various side dishes which incorporates several kinds of veggies as well as a bit protein choice (like sweet anchovies), served alongside a bowl of rice.

Their dishes are generally far less oily than the average Malaysian dish (although you may not be able to make that out from the pics). And another thing we noted, though at the time of consumption, the food may taste darn spicy to the tongue, that's as far as it goes a.k.a. the burning spice-sensation stops at the throat and doesn't linger/reside in your stomach. Awesome~

yummy steamboat
(taste-wise, rasa ala2 "asam pedas" - a combo of sourness & (the most dominant flavour) spiciness)

side dishes (water jug will come in handy for what's to come. . )

that's the spicy squid in the middle, apparently best friends with the water jug

personal highlight of the meal (aside from the steamboat): sweet omelet rolls

miss this per-person style of serving

Third Stop: KimChi School, where:
---> all of us learned how to make kimchi

• Kimchi ~ traditional fermented Korean dish, made of vegetables with a mix of seasonings (most common veg used: cabbage; popular veg choices: cubed radish; seasonings: salt, red chili pepper paste)

as displayed

briefing on the many varieties and variations of kimchi

Ingredients to make kimchi

making our very own kimchi

kimchi, the finished product (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

---> we got a chance to don the traditional korean attire = hanbok (for the girls).

hanbok (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

After enrolling in the semi-cooking & photo-op session at KimChi school, it was already time to depart to Jeju Island from Gimpo Airport (domestic airport).

Inside Gimpo Airport

inside the plane otw to Jeju-do

official arrival at Jeju Island

We arrived at Jeju, a beautiful island (also known for the infamous tangerines so closely associated with "My Girl" scenes), from Gimpo, in approximately an hour.

We were told that the climate is Jeju is a lot more temperate than Seoul. But coming from a hot and humid weathered country, what is considered "temperate" here may not be so temperate. .

Anyhow, from the airport we were ushered to go to the restaurant where we will be having our dinner for the day. Within that journey Mr Park told us that our team was in luck, because he's been told that the cherry blossoms have started showing in Jeju.

Cherry blossoms, you're a huge part of the reason why I've always wanted to go to Korea! \(^o^)/

And I can safely say that I wasn't the only one beaming with glee at that moment in time ;p

However, cherry blossoms will have to wait until tomorrow ~ Mr Park has already arranged with the bus driver to bring us to a place which is (hopefully) overflowing with those sakuras.

Back to dinner, this was what we had:

dinner: seafood steamboat (not in the pic: kimchi, side dishes, noodle)

Looks pretty simple doesn't it?
Truth be told, I was actually expecting it to taste bland, since it really did look simple.
But, however simple it looked, it was definitely a whole lot of flavour in your mouth ~ superb!
Perhaps the fresh seafood was the trick ya?

So after dinner we headed to our hotel to check in and stuff. At night we were free to explore the area on our, which we did. Jeju's a pretty intimate land, quiet & cosy -- it has a relaxing feel to it. With the night breeze flowing, we took the chance to stroll along the beach (which was pitch-black-looking), where there were a few of the locals who were fishing.

We didn't stay outside for long though, because ultimately we agreed that it was freezing.

this shot was taken opposite our hotel, if I'm not mistaken -- look at the pretty moon =)

So after a couple of pics here and there, we went back to the hotel and chilled (watched 2D1N without subtitle and amazingly enough, still able to understand and laugh along), but not before stopping by their local mini marts (ala 7 Eleven) to grab some stuff to munch on.

snacks, biscuit & to-die-for milk (flavour: blue vanilla, green banana, pink strawberry)

If you want to know whether we got to see those cherry blossoms (or not), it's in the next entry~